Fancy Flyers Bird Blog

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Bird Watching in South Carolina - A Surprise Gator Family!

If you're walking alone in gator country, wherever that may be, and you hear a sweet soft "glunk", "glunk", "glunk" sound, well its time to keep your eyes peeled for Gators. I heard this glunking noise and slowly began to scout around. There were babies nearby.

So nearby, I almost stepped on mom!

You can barely see her and neither could I as I peered over these weeds. WOW! There she was and less than 3 feet away. The last baby went scurrying through the weeds and into the water. I watched for a while, the babies calmed down, and mom paid me no heed. That began to change. Since I was surrounded by water on three sides and the only way out by the gator, when she turned, looked at me, and then slid into the dark water - I high tailed it out of there!

Remember - Click on a picture for a larger view

Say Hello to Mom.

I would guess she was maybe 8 feet or so long. She is a fully grown gator. You can tell by the way she has filled out. She is wide and the legs are fully developed. She was also totally unconcerned I was there for maybe twenty minutes

They're hard to see, but there are four babies swimming around Mom in these pictures. One is clearly swimming over her tail and there are two heads peeping from the water on the right and one on the left.

Fancy Flyers.com

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Best Digital Camera for Birding

Quite often, my friends and customers ask what is the best camera for birding. That question is similar to asking what car is best for traveling. Some like big comfortable smooth riding cars while others like small, fast, road feeling sports cars. Either fits the purpose, the difference is in your ow likes and dislikes.

So which camera is best? Again, this depends on what you want and what you want to spend. However, there are certain things to look for. The best overall will probably be a single lens reflex model with interchangeable lenses and filters for utmost control. If you are familiar with 35 mm single reflex cameras, you know that what you see is what you get. The SLR digital cameras are

the closest you can get to always getting "the shot". These cameras cost more and then as you add lenses, the investment gets ever higher.

For this discussion, lets consider point and shoot digital cameras that are available in low to high price ranges. These are the digital cameras most of us use everyday - then find exasperating when using them to take pictures of birds. I have a few tips and camera types to recommend.

First to consider is the camera. Do you know that a 12X digital

zoom and a 12X optical zoom are vastly different? They are and make a huge difference in picture quality. The difference is in the pixel count of the final picture. Consider the difference. Suppose we take the same picture with both cameras. The digital zoom enlarges a portion of the original picture, say 10%. You lose 90% of the p

ixels which drastically affects quality when you later try to print or manipulate the picture in a software program. The optical zoom keeps the original number of pixels throughout and results in a higher quality picture.

If you manipulate your pictures in the camera - zooming and cropping an already taken picture - you will lose pixels in relation to the zooming or cropping and thus lose quality. Two companies - Sony and Canon - have developed a "smart zoom". Say you have a 5 megapixel camera, take a picture, then crop or zoom 20% of the picture in the camera. Normally you end up with a 1 megapixel final picture wi

th tremendous quality loss. The smart zooms do this differently. They still crop and zoom in camera - but with the option of keeping the end picture at the original 5 megapixel resolution by eliminating the outer portions of the picture. Believe me, the results are great.

So for a camera - look for two things - 1) optical zoom and 2) a Smart Zoom feature. This limits your choice of brands to two - Sony & Canon to my knowledge. Then consider price range. I have the Sony with a 12 X optical Zoom and Smart Zoom for most o

f the pictures in this blog. For birding, get the highest optical zoom power you can afford that also has smart zoom and you will have a great point and shoot digital birding camera.

Now for tips. If you are familiar with film cameras, think the same way.

For birding, the camera needs to needs to react fast. Turn off unneeded features. Face recognition, multi point focusing, and especially - picture review. The first outing with my Sony was frustrating. The lag time between the push of the button and the actual taking of the picture usually meant I missed the shot. Then picture review would result in another miss. After turning off all unnecessary functions, my lag time is now .08 seconds - per the manual. I also use the ISO shooting mode for most shots. I find it faster and usually more sensitive that the automatic mode.

The bottom line for the best digital birding camera of the point and shoot variety is 1) OPTICAL ZOOM - the highest you can afford - do not buy digital zoom even if a higher zoom number, 2) SMART ZOOM over digital zoom - greater quality when using in camera editing, 3) if you still want digital zoom (these are less expensive for a reason) then at least look for the smart zoom feature.

Clicking on a picture will enlarge

Now get one and - Happy Birding!

Visit us at Fancy Flyers for your birding needs

Monday, December 15, 2008

A Birdwatchers Paradise

Thanksgiving is a time for going home, seeing family, and just being thankful in general - well at least for me. I visited my sisters and their families and finally got to do some exploring and birding with Lauren. Lauren is my niece and had been inviting me since she started her birding list last year.

First we explored behind her house and walked along the old wagon train route between Hartselle and Decatur, Alabama. The old trail is still clear and nearby appears what was once a stop-over station.

Next, I was taken to Lauren's favorite birding area along with James & Debbie, her parents and Matt, my son. Her favorite area is the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge and today we would vist the Givens Interpretive Center.

She took me on backroads to get there and we crossed a wooden bridge from my youth, drove along a creek, and finally arrived. Oh yes, we were in my 59 MGA I had driven the 200 miles for the visit which made the old roads even better.

Our first bird of the day was this gorgeous fat cardinal. What a colorful show he was putting on for us. This center abounds with walking trails, boardwalks over the bogs, ponds, and open fields. Along these walkways you will find feeding stations for birds as well as sitting and watching areas.

The highlight here is the annual winter migration. Next to a large pond is the observation building. Inside this warm glass walled building you can sit and watch all types of winter waterfowl. Geese, ducks, and egrets abound.

One bird had disappeared from Alabama for almost 100 years. About 10 years ago they started coming back. Sandhill Cranes can now be seen by the thousands during the colder winter months. I was elated to see two on our visit.

This was a great day. I enjoyed the visit, the birds, and seeing the old roads and fields of home. Lauren showed me around the inside and outside, the trails and walkways. This is a really great area for birding. This center makes it easy and fun, but for those looking for more private birding areas, the refuge has miles of trails and riverside places to visit. For more information on the Wheeler Refuge visit http://www.fws.gov/wheeler/ for maps, bird lists, and much more information.

Now we must leave. That is Matt and I deciding what back roads we will take home. The rains caught us and I loved his remarks to a friend. "Yeah its raining pretty hard outside, but just a light sprinkle inside" I think he was hinting its time for a new top!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Battles of the Squirrel - Squirrel Proof Bird Feeding

Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders

It seems no matter where we live, one constant unwelcome visitor to our bird feeders is the squirrel. The grey, the red, the flying, the fox, and even the cousin - chipmunk sooner or later will find the bountiful supply of food at our bird feeders. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy squirrels too, we just don't enjoy them hogging the feeders and keeping our birds away.

What can you do? These guys find amazing ways to get to our seeds. Our bird watching area is enclosed by a wood fence with a pool in the middle. This means there is little chance to place our feeders where these guys cannot jump from the fence or drop from a tree and gorge themselves.

We have tried feeds squirrels don't eat - but found ours like them all. Cayenne pepper slowed them for a while. Baffles worked pretty well, but we soon found a few acrobatic jumpers evading even these deterrants. So we went the squirrel proof bird feeder route.

We feed the birds now and an occasional squirrel will find seeds thrown to the ground by our birds, but the days of seeing a squirrel lying in a circle on the feed tray of a tube feeder are gone.

From our experience, there are many very good squirrel proof bird feeders available. Be wary of thinly made screens or feeders with plastic tops and feed ports. If a squirrel gets to these, they will soon be feasting away.

Quality squirrel proof bird feeders come in a wide price range. At our website - Fancy Flyers.com - we provide squirrel proof bird feeders from $25 to $100. These include the Droll Yankees Flipper, Heritage Farms, Duncraft, and Brome brands - all known for their superior quality and effectiveness.

The newest addition is the Brome Squirrel Buster Mini. A smaller version with the same design and quality workmanship of the larger Brome squirrel proof bird feeders.

These make great Christmas gifts for the birder in your family.

Happy Holidays!

David

Squirrel Proof Bird Feeding with Baffles

Baffling the Squirrel

You've bought the bird feeders you like. You've hung them from trees or shepherd's hooks, even mounted them on top of bird feeder poles. Now it is time to sit back and watch your birds.

And you do. For a few days everything is great. Then you see the first flashing tail. Slowly and carefully this squirrel approaches and yes - he is sooo cute. A few days later he has invited his brothers, mom & dad, cousins from across the ditch, and you see no birds. The feeders empty as fast as you can fill them. These "guests" eat their fill and leave - every day!

There are things you can do with the feeders you already have. Some are simple, inexpensive, and easy, while others will require some expenditure of money or effort on your part.

First, take a look at your bird feeder placement. Can you move them? Do you want to? A simple rule of thumb when placing bird feeders is the 5, 7, 9 rule. Squirrels can jump up 4 feet, sideways 6 feet, and drop 8 feet. These are averages - some acrobats even outdo these distances. However, if you abide by these measurements, your squirrel problem will be lessened considerably.

I say lessened because the feeder still must hang or mount on something. A squirrel will find a way to climb this something - be it a wood or metal pole, they will climb it. Squirrels will also get very brave and if near a house or tree, squiirels have been known to leap farther than the "rule" above to land on a feeder, shepherd's hook, or whatever is used.

So in addition to placement, baffles can be used. These can be mounted above a feeder to prevent attacks from above as well as mounted to the post or pole to prevent climbing.

A motorized squirrel baffle - the Twirl A Squirrel can be used with any hanging feeder up to 10 pounds. The weight of the squirrel activates a motor which safely spins the squirrel to the ground.

Take a look at our squirrel proofing solutions at FancyFlyers.com