Winter Feeder Crew

After wanting closer shots of Short-Eared owls last week, I ordered the Canon RF 2X extender to use with my 100-400 lens. Yesterday I decided to capture my backyard feeder crew as well as a few of the birds in the trees behind my back yard. I shot without my monopod, which with the additional focal length meant that my photos were blurrier than they needed to be if I’d stabilized the camera. Still, I got several shots that I was happy with! February is National Bird Feeding month. We’re just doing our part to observe!

Mourning Doves beneath the feeders

Tufted Titmouse getting ready to take off

Red-winged Blackbird balancing on a dead sunflower

Every now and again a mixed blackbird flock comes through. These groups include Grackles, European Starlings, and often Red-winged Blackbirds. They eat a lot! But also they’ve been pecking off of the ground. Fun fact – a group of Grackles is called a Plague!

A Downy Woodpecker in the trees. These guys have also been coming over to that dead sunflower recently.

A Bluejay in the trees

Two Song Sparrows in the trees.

A goldfinch hanging onto the feeder strap.

In the past when I’ve tried to shoot birds in the trees the birds were hard to spot because I was shooting at a 400mm focal length. Extending to 800mm got me a good amount of detail. I did have to reduce my shutter speeds in order to get enough light with the reduced aperture that comes with the extender. It was still bright enough to get good shots even with a reduced shutter speed.

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