Finchfest
About a week back, I was driving through a new neighborhood built on what used to be a large open field behind my neighborhood. I used to go out there to photograph the moon, thunderstorms and sometimes sunsets, as it had a great view of the sky. I thought the entire field had been developed (original plans indicated that was going to be the case), however once I got into the new neighborhood, I learned it was a very small, single road with a cul-de-sac at the end. There were maybe a dozen homes in it. Just past the end of the cul-de-sac was the rest of the field...and it was PACKED with birds. They were all flying up and down between this large thicket of thistles and the outer eves of the roofs of the last two houses (the center two spot on the -sac was unused, with a large cinder block wall dropping strait down into the field).
Well, naturally, upon seeing so many birds, I headed home, grabbed my gear, and photographed the Finchfest. Almost all the birds out there were finches, three species namely: American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, and the ubiquitous House Finch. They put on quite a show, ripping and shredding the old dried and dead, and now thorny thistle blossoms to get at the Nyjer seed inside. These were probably the most cooporative group of birds I've encountered, as it usually takes a special bird setup and a lot of careful waiting in a hide to get perfectly posed photos like these.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro II
(Have to say, ABSOLUTELY LOVE the creamy boke the larger frame of the 5D III allows! Exquisite!)
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