Some Birds

[daacon]

A few Bird shots taken over the two weeks in Mexico. Other than the gulls not sure (that is a lie quite sure actually) I can't indentify the other species.

Click on image for larger view

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5



#6

[blackcloudbrew]

Dave - I know I was encouraging you to post images from your Mexican vacation but you clearly said that it wasn't a photo holiday. However, I'm beginning to think that you musta snuck out a bunch.

Anyway, these are fun. I like the colors of #3.

Tim

[daacon]

Dave - I know I was encouraging you to post images from your Mexican vacation but you clearly said that it wasn't a photo holiday. However, I'm beginning to think that you musta snuck out a bunch.

Anyway, these are fun. I like the colors of #3.

Tim

haha thanks Tim most eveywhere I go I take photo's - I am an early riser so most mornings I had some time to myslef and walked about - I took less than 1k photo's in two weeks , and less than 700 with the K20 (as opposed to UTAH where it was about 2.5k in 3 days) it's all relative. On these types of trips I try to take more people shots. The first year we went there I must of taken 3k shots in two weeks !

[blackcloudbrew]

Seriously! Less than 1,000 shots in 2 weeks. Actually to me, that's quite a lot. Last year in a week in Death Valley I only took around 500 images and I was actually working at it. Wow, I have to think about that some. To me a good day shooting is 100-150 images.

Tim

[scott-devon]

I really like the colours in number 3 Dave, nice series.

Reading the discussion of how many shots you guys take I feel like a slacker. On a full afternoon out I doubt I shoot 30, and my record for a 2 week vacation was 280 or so...

[Mike Pearson]

Dave,

That's a very nice series - I will try and give you the Id's later - I need to check one of the shorebirds first 

Mike

[daacon]

Different strokes for different folks ... Being digital I have no qualms about taking shots. When it is someplace other than here where I live I will try and capture as much as I can.  In this trip we stayed in a place I have never stayed (for a whole week), took a 48 hour road trip to Belize with many stops on the way to view the scenary. This is especially true for winter get aways as things are so BLAH here and then POP you are in the middle of the caribbean with all the rich colors - it really inpsires the desire to capture as much as you can for me anyway.

One thing I am still not very good at is removing the duds - I mean OOF and just plain bad shots are easy to eliminate it's the questionable ones that I tend to hang onto (I suppose only becuase Disk space is cheap) - but I really need to get much more critical of myslef and let them go (mangement along is a nightmare something else I need to improve on).

I am in the same ball park are you Scott at home - on a day's walksbout here I will shoot maybe between 20 - 60 shots.

[blackcloudbrew]

Dave - dealing with the duds is a problem I face as well. One tip I've learned which I share with others is to edit out the duds as you go in camera. I will typically review my shots during the day and toss out the real bad ones or ones that weren't the right composition. That helps winnow down the duds. The side effect is that you wind up off loading a bunch of good images - a testament to how good a photographer you are!

I've been trying to do that again when I off load from the camera to the computer and remove more of the duds that the LCD screen lied to me about. I don't know what percentage I reject but the combination of editing in cam and when I off load have helped reduce the work load on the duds.

Tim

[daacon]

Good idea .. I have tried that (looking in camera) but not consistently .... will give that a go.

[daacon]

Thanks Scott and Mike for the comments looking forward to your classification Mike ! Kinda got off topic there for a bit.

[JIMBO]

I am with you Dave. Shoot away. Love the last image bud. did you get my e mail on the hotel rooms for Jasper / Banff? JIM

[Mike Pearson]

Dave,

Here is my modest identification of some of the birds:

1. This appears to be a juvenile Ruddy Turnstone

2. Magnificant Frigatebird  - beautiful to watch in flight.

3. I believe these are Terns but unable to make positibe ID.  Terns, like Gulls can be difficult to identify.

4. Gulls can be very difficult to identify and go through several moults and appearances during their first three years. I can't definitvely  identify this one.

5. Sanderling

6. Plain (Eastern) Chachalaca

There are only a few books on Mexican Birds and mine are extremely dog-eared. Although many birds are endemic to the area luckily there are many that are also common to North America and covered in our volumes.

I hope this helps.

Mike

[daacon]

Wow Mike that is awesome ! Thanks so much !

[Mike Pearson]

Dave,

No problems - I'm going with my first thought on #4 being an adult Laughing Gull in winter plumage 

Having blown up #3 I believe these are also Laughing Gulls and not Terns. 

Mike