Turkey Vulture over Kitt Peak

While observing on Kitt Peak, I get to watch a number of different types of birds flying overhead.  Big ones love to make use of the updrafts and some play around with the domes, flying close by them while playing with their friends.  This time of year, the Turkey Vultures are quite common and often fly pretty close.  Here is one that I caught a few days ago with my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II on my Canon 70D with an exposure of 1/8000 seconds at f/8, ISO 1600 at 200mm focal length.  I normally wouldn't shoot in broad daylight with ISO 1600, but I had used the camera that morning in twilight for some shots of domes and didn't have much time to think about my cameras ISO setting when I saw the birds flying relatively close by.  On the other hand, 1/8000 seconds sure does stop the bird and the cameras motion.  I love how sharp the images are with this lens - you can see details in the birds eye despite his being at least 100 feet away when I captured this shot.  I cropped this from the original frame.

Birds of the Grand Canyon - Western Scrub Jay

Hey look, it's a blue bird of some sort!  A Blue Jay? Ok, this is a Western Scrub Jay.  He reminded me a little of the Mexican Jay's that we see on Kitt Peak, though not quite as blue and not quite as agressive looking for handouts.... 130mm 1/500 f/5.7 400

This little guy moved around a lot, giving me some variety in shots. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/750 seconds at f/5.7 and ISO 400.

This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/9.5, ISO 400.

Birds of the Grand Canyon - White Breasted Nuthatch and Grey Headed Junco

This White Breasted Nuthatch watched us walk past on the rim trail and even waited while I stopped to take his picture. This image was taken at 170mm focal length with an exposure of 1/350 seconds at f/9.5 and ISO 400.

This Grey headed Junco wouldn't sit still for long and was hard to get a picture that really allowed me to figure out what kind of bird he was.... This image was taken at 300mm focal length and an exposure of 1/250 seconds at  f/9.5 at ISO 400.

Birds of the Grand Canyon - Mountain Chickadee

This Mountain Chickadee visited us as we finished our lunch at a picnic ground next to the main visitors center at the South Rim.  He was probably looking for handouts.  This image was taken at 240mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/6.7, ISO 200.

Another view as the "model" turned slightly.  This image was taken at 240mm focal length with an expsoure of 1/250 seconds at f/6.7, ISO 200.

The little guy also jumped on the ground looking for any food he could find under our table. This image wsa taken at 300mm focal length and an exposure of 1/180 seconds at f/6.7, ISO 200.

Northern Shoveler at Sweetwater

I went over to the Sweetwater Wetlands off of Prince road west of I-10 - there were plenty of birds, though not as many as I've seen there before.  My old buddy Dave always claimed to hate pictures of ducks, so I have to take some pictures of some ducks just for him.  This Northern Shoveler was swimming around one of the ponds.  This image was taken with the 75-300mm lens on my 70D at 300mm focal length.  The exposure was 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Meep, meep!

This roadrunner was loitering along the Santa Cruz river path.  He was quite leery of the photographer with a camera and long lens approaching him.  I got pretty close though and with my 75-300 zoom set at 300mm focal length on my 70D, I managed to get a good closeup.  This image was taken at 1/1000 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.  I'm still learning how to use my new camera and it did a great job of focusing on this subject.

The Early Bird gets the worm

After passing through the Northeast Entrance to Yellowstone National Park on Friday July 27, we stopped along the Soda Butte Creek and I found this bird actually pulling a worm from the ground (don't remember ever actually seeing that before in real life...).  As the saying goes, "The Early Bird gets the Worm, but the Early Worm gets eaten by the Bird."  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.