Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Birding with Nikon D7100 and Tamron 150-600

Atlast I was able to upgrade my Camera and lens. I got Nikon D7100 and Tamron 150-600 after reading some good reviews of this combination and it was fitting right into my budget too :-)

But what I did not expect was the weight of this combination. Its quite heavy for me and really had tough time during long birding walks. Probably its time to get the Monopod too, added it to my shopping list.

This weekend I did birding with my new toy :-) Starting with this first photograph :-)



I did visit the Breckenridge park during last 2 weekends. Had good time down there. Had couple of interesting sightings. First was a Brown Thrasher which was first sighting for me. I saw this fellow in both of my walks and at the same place. Quite shy bird though.

Brown Thrasher
Another sighting was the American Wigeons. They probably are seen regularly here but for me it was a first sighting. I saw few of them in midst of Mallards. In the Lake I could also see Ring Billed Gulls and Canada Goose. I also saw 2 cormorants in the park this week. They looked like Neotropic Cormorants looking at the white tip on their base of their bill

Canada Goose

Neotropic Cormorants?

American Wigeon
And during this weekend I saw interesting behavior where in Red Tailed Hawk was being harassed by what looked like Coopers Hawk. I'm not sure if it was a Coopers or a Sharp Shinned Hawk. Anyways this guy was chased off from his perch and the Cooper/Sharp-Shinned Hawk came and sat on the same perch.

Red Tailed Hawk

Red Shouldered Hawk
And in the stream I saw some Mallards and last week I had seen 2 pairs of Wood Ducks. The most beautiful Ducks I have seen till now :-) Also saw a family of Red Eared Slider Turtles. It was good to see the entire family.

Red Eared Slider Turtles. Bottle included in the photo to show that these beautiful creatures are still trying to survive with all the garbage that is thrown into our streams and lakes.


Also saw 2 different sparrow species. I'm not sure if the second one is a Song sparrow or a Savannah Sparrow.

White Throated Sparrow

Savannah or Song Sparrow?
In woodpeckers and sapsuckers I saw Red Bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. I also saw few Brown Creepers and Northern flickers during both the walks. Woodpeckers can be seen throughout the park here.

Red Bellied Woodpecker


Yellow Bellied Sapsucker



Chickadees and Titmouses could be seen and heard throughout the park. Along with good number of American Robins, Yellow Rumped Warblers and Eastern Bluebirds. Also seen were Ruby Crowned Kinglets.

American Robin

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Eastern Bluebird


Yellow Rumped Warbler


Great Blue Heron

Tufted Titmouse


I also saw Coopers Hawk on my way to the park during last weeks visit. It looks again like a Coopers Hawk looking at its rounded tail. Again not sure.

Red Shouldered Hawk

All the photos in the blog are a mix from my old camera setup and the new one:-) Still lot of practice is needed to get good images from my new Camera setup.

Below are the ebird links for the bird sightings during 2 walks.

Feb 07 : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S21946490
Feb 14 : http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S21949643

Please correct me if I have got the ID's incorrectly.

Bird list from the walks.

1 Canada Goose 
2 American Wigeon 
3 Mallard 
4 Pied-billed Grebe 
5 Neotropic Cormorant 
6 Great Blue Heron 
7 Black Vulture 
8 Red Shouldered Hawk 
9 Red-tailed Hawk 
10 Ring-billed Gull 
11 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 
12 Mourning Dove 
13 Red-bellied Woodpecker 
14 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 
15 Downy Woodpecker 
16 Northern Flicker 
17 Eastern Phoebe 
18 Blue Jay 
19 American Crow 
20 Carolina Chickadee 
21 Tufted Titmouse 
22 White-breasted Nuthatch 
23 Brown Creeper 
24 Carolina Wren 
25 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 
26 Eastern Bluebird 
27 American Robin 
28 Brown Thrasher 
29 Northern Mockingbird 
30 European Starling 
31 Yellow-rumped Warbler 
32 White-throated Sparrow 
33 Dark-eyed Junco 
34 Northern Cardinal 
35 Red-winged Blackbird 
36 Great-tailed Grackle 
37 Black Vulture 

Corrected the ID's of the hawks.