The morning may not have been the best, but I got back out after a late lunch.  It was one of those mid-winter afternoons that you dream about; almost 50 degrees, no wind, bright sun in a clear blue sky.  The snow is soft and melting, the critters are out and about, and the whole world smells like it’s coming back to life.  (Of course you know that it’s just a teaser, that winter will settle in and dump three feet of snow on you a week later.  But you revel in the illusion for a little while.)

So after giving some snowshoe lessons to friends, I headed over to Bullhead Bay at Lackawanna State Park, where I know that somebody has been leaving chunks of bread out for the birds all winter.  The birds know it too, and they congregate there at feeding time.  Late afternoon, heading towards sunset, is a good time to catch them eating, one of those times when they’re most active.  And I wasn’t disappointed!

This was the chance I had been waiting for to capture good photos of several species that had been eluding me thus far.  Started out with the Downy Woodpecker, who in contrast to his previous behavior – which was mainly to be on the opposite side of a tree from me – was just about strutting the runway today.  I was able to shoot him on several trees, in a whole range of poses, and you’d have almost sworn that the little bugger was hamming it up!

Downy Woodpecker

Got some great time with the Black-capped Chickadees as well.  They’re a brave little puff-ball, largely unafraid of people.  They’ll fly up to a branch when you approach too near, but so long as you’re not moving about or acting threatening, they’ll quickly return to feeding.  I was able to get very close to a couple of them, so that the final shots required hardly any cropping-in at all.

Black-capped Chickadee

The one who gave me the most trouble was the White-breasted Nuthatch.  Seemed that every time I got the lens on him while he was in view and doing something interesting, he ducked behind a branch, or scooted around to the backside of a tree, or managed to put some brush between him and I.  It was frustrating, and for about 20 minutes getting a good photo of him became my primary goal.  The result was a lot of lousy shots, but a couple of victories as well.

White-breasted Nuthatch

This was also the first real field test of my DIY flash extender where I was able to evaluate the results and see that it was working.  If you’re not sure what a flash extender is, much less a DIY version, stay tuned – there’ll be a post on that coming up soon.  Suffice to say, it extends the range of the flash (duh), which adds some fill light to the critters and, more importantly, puts a catch light in their eye.  It takes some practice to work the effects down to a subtle level, and while it tends to violate my Strobist preferences, there’s no doubt that it works.

So there you have it – one hell of an afternoon, which ended all too quickly.  Good photos of three more species for my collection, and a lot of fun in the great outdoors.  It can’t be beat.

American Robin

Photos taken with Canon 7D + Sigma 120-400mm OS + 580EX w/ DIY flash extender.  ISO 400, f/7.1