Willam Kramer Studio - Blog

Showing posts with label Nottingham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nottingham. Show all posts

Thursday, August 30, 2012

It was puking warblers today.

So, in the snow sports world, it is common for a snowboarder or skiier to say " it was puking all day brah" which refers to heavy snow, a good thing. I would like to apply this cool/hip term to birding. So I would like to announce that today it was in fact puking warblers.

All these photos were taken within a half hour or so and I missed many species that just moved to fast.

American Redstart Female


Northern Paula

Prarie Warbler?

Blackburian Warbler

Chestnut Sided Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Black Throated Green Warbler

Black Throated Green Warbler

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Old foxes want no tutors.


I always knew fox were smart. But last night when I witnessed this behavior of this Grey Fox on my way home from work, I was really impressed. Seems like this fox ( the first Grey version I have ever photographed!) learned that when the farmer mows the field the cutting equipment prepares all sort of tempting treats.


Although he was far off I saw the fox eat 3 times in 3 locations in a matter of minutes so I can only assume that he was picking up pieces of mice and other critters that met their fate a short time ago. In fact it had looked like the farmer had just shut off the tractor and walked in for dinner.

-Bill

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

It worked almost too good!

Last night I headed out to the Christmas tree farm to try out my new predator call. (below)
This call had been suggested to me by a buddy who had some great luck with it after only a few uses. The general idea of this call is that it makes sounds that attract predators, fox, coyote, bobcat who come in close looking for an easy meal. Because it is wireless you are able to place the speaker part up to 150 yards away UPWIND so that when the animal come in to see whats going on, you can be hidden out of sight. Unlike my old call I had to hold in my hand, this call has clear advantages. The other great part besides its very reasonable price ( about half the cost of other systems with the same set up) is the fact that you can change the sound cards for different uses, from turkey, deer, moose, elk, crows, you name it!


So back to last night. I walked quietly and slowly to the edge of the field, hung the speaker in someones future Christmas tree and backed away and hid along the edge of the field. I began a calling sequence that mimics and injured rabbit. Its a terrifying crying sound that is supposed to work amazing, sure enough in less than a minute I could hear something running through the woods headed straight for me...not the plan. I looked quickly at the spot where it seemed the animal would pop out, I crouched down and aimed my camera at the small opening. This locations was less than 20 feet away from me, in fact i did not even have to zoom in, i shot these images at 100mm.

Blurry due to his shock of seeing me.

Sure enough, withing seconds this beautiful coyote poked his head out, at the same time I hit my shutter release. I am blown away with the speed which he identified me and spun around and vanished. It was a fraction of a second, hence the blurry photo. I still feel like this was a success and look forward to trying to get more shots of one of my favorite subjects our local predators!

And that was that, keep in mind this second photo was taken 1/7th of a second after the first! That's fast reflexes!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Sharp Shinned Hawk, FINALLY!


Since moving to Nottingham, NH, I have had the pleasure of having a resident sharp-shinned hawk that calls my property home. I have tried at least 5 times to get a photo of him with no luck, that is until today.


I was headed out on a nice Sunday morning scouting  mission, as I pulled out of my driveway there he was, just relaxing on the wire digesting a recent meal of some sort of bird. You can see the down feathers still in his large talons ( Napoleon Dynamite reference)


From what I can tell it seems to be a sub adult, but I would be open to any other thoughts, I know they color and patterning can vary greatly depending on age and sex, then throw in the coopers hawk and you got yourself a true puzzle. My favorite resource for convincing myself what I am looking at is Allaboutbirds.org THIS link helps to identify the differences.

Enjoy!
Bill