Yet Another Red-Winged Blackbird

I just find these birds to be a challenge, and I take a lot of shots of them I guess. Just about all black with a burst of bright yellow and bright red... It's not always easy to get a good picture of one. Sooner or later I may manage to take an astounding photo of one, then I'll probably never take another picture of a Red-Winged Blackbird.


Nah - if it flies, I'll shoot it.

That's really nice, especially with the blue sky for the background.

I kept seeing those things flying around me the other day, but they never landed anywhere near me. They seem a little skittish.

That's nice. From now on, you're going to be known (at least to me) as Mr. Red-winged Blackbird 'cuz you do them so nicely.

That is a nice pic. .. You may get better but you will work for it

JZ

PacAce wrote:
That's nice. From now on, you're going to be known (at least to me) as Mr. Red-winged Blackbird 'cuz you do them so nicely.

Thanks. It was about time to change my sig.

JZaun wrote:
That is a nice pic. .. You may get better but you will work for it

Thanks. And I am trying to work on it. My next goal is to get one in flight - the colors on the wings *really* show off then. Since they are a bit skittish, but let you get fairly close, this should have been easy. And you can be assured that they *will* fly off once you get within 20 feet of them. Alas, getting sufficient DoF at 1/750+ requires a bit of light, and the timing. So far I've had neither.

The NWR I frequent has lots of them and they're at least somewhat used to humans. Since I drive by the place on the way to work it would be easy to stop for 30 minutes every day and at least practice some more.

OK, that's my goal for the week - by next Saturday I want to get an RWB in flight. Now either I get one or hope all you guys forget that I said it.

Sweet RWB Bird Scottes. Really like to sky background.
PS Did the Scottes approved dead-branch-stuck-in-ground-behind-birdbath thing this morning. Going to put some treats on it tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

Funny you should mention that. I just loaded a bunch of dead fallen branches at work into my SUV the other day so that I could take it home and tie them to my bird feeder poles are per the Scottes approved dead-branch-tied-to-the-pole thing. Haven't tied them yet but will maybe tomorrow.

Great minds think alike
All packed for the GCPS?

Not yet but I'm counting the day!

Well, watch out what you do. I put the dead tree in a bucket of sand, about 2 months ago.

It has buds and leaves. It's growing quite well.

And I sawed this sucker off about 3" from the ground.

Did I mention that I did this 2 months ago?


My dead tree is haunted...

Oh yeah: treats.

Mix 2 parts warmed-up-to-the-point-of-gooey suet with 1 part peanut butter. Mix and warm it again if necessary to get gooey again. Mix that with 3 parts oatmeal (ie; 1:1 goo/oatmeal). Drill 3/16" or 1/4" holes into the backside of the branch and fill with goomix. Try to get the holes just-out-of-sight.

I'll have to post a picture of my dead tree branches-on-poles setup tomorrow.

Yikes! The dead branch came to life, huh? Maybe I should dip my dead branches in formaldehyde just to make sure. Don't want any hauntings going on in my backyard!

That is a fabulous photo... it almost looks like it was done in a studio. Congratulations on a great job!