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Text of the page (random words):
initely one of my all time favorites and i ve already put it on my website homepage i got a bit lucky with the shutter since i didn t have time to cut it in the moment 1 2000 is pretty slow for fast flying birds but it was enough here canon 600mm f 4 is ii 1 4x iii on eos r5 1 2000 at f 5 6 iso 1600 as you can see it was a memorable morning there weren t many females hens on the lek on this time around so i m hoping for photos of them next year if you re thinking about joining us on next year s tour have a look at this year s trip report for a detailed description of what we saw and did my tour was birding focused but we offer a separate photo tour as well that s it for now cheers posted by dorian anderson at 9 57 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday may 4 2022 post 214 my extended absence explained for those that don t know my wife sonia and i are pet sitting our way around the us this year https atailoftwositters blogspot com her employer airbnb lets her work remotely and my employer tropical birding doesn t care where i m based because they need to fly me in and out to lead tours regardless the map below attempts to illustrate our movements the blue dots represent our house pets sits the yellow dots represent personal stops in between those responsibilities and the green trace is our simplified driving trajectory so what the heck are the black lines well those are the various flights i ve taken to lead the indicated tours the lines from kansas city to denver to houston and onto nw arkansas might be confusing so i ll lay that bit out verbally we finished our sit in kansas city on april 5 and i immediately flew to denver to lead a tour april 5 16 when that tour ended i flew to houston to lead a texas migration tour april 16 21 when that tour ended i flew to bentonville fayetteville in nw arkansas and joined sonia at a sit which she started on april 12 while i was in co think that s confusing our current sit in asheville runs may 3 14 but i will be leaving on saturday the 7th to fly to detroit to lead another tour through michigan ohio and kentucky which runs through may 19th sonia will finish the asheville sit spend may 14 18 with her sister outside knoxville then drive to meet me in nashville on the 19th where we have another sit which runs until may 28 our subsequent sit is in chicago runs june 4 to 14 then we fly to philly to see my family for a week then back to chicago then we have 3 days farm sitting outside milwaukee then back to chicago then i go to newfoundland and nova scotia for another tour june 27 july 8 sonia sits in omaha on those days and we rendezvous in denver on july 9 we then sit in denver july 10 15 and then it s off to africa for six weeks on july 16 more on that later hell planning six weeks through south africa and namibia is its own challenge but do it on top of everything else we re doing and it s beyond hectic and that s why haven t written a thing since february i am doing a lot of birding in the areas we re visiting but the blog has really taken a backseat to logistics pet sitting and pet blogging https atailoftwositters blogspot com i ve also done very little photography this year it takes time to learn new areas and we re moving around so fast that i don t learn anywhere well enough to shoot it efficiently i d rather just go birding since it s easier i did take some really nice photos on my colorado grouse tour so i ll try to get those up in the next few weeks so that s what s happening with me at the moment i hope to have more time to write later in the year but please know that communication will continue to be sporadic for the next few months ok planning and dogs call later posted by dorian anderson at 6 48 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday february 12 2022 post 213 waterfowl photos from arizona our nomadic year of pet sitting continues last time i recapped my bike birding exploits in henderson nevada and this time i ll share a few photos i captured while we were in prescott arizona although we were there for ten days jan 16 26 i didn t discover fain park pictured below until our second to last morning it s nothing remarkable just a man made pond surrounded by hillsides and rudimentary trails but the small sample of wintering waterfowl which it held were remarkably approachable accustomed to being fed the ducks swam towards me as soon as i lay prone on the frozen earth the scaup in particular spent a lot of time inside the minimum focusing distance of my 600mm f 4 is ii lens 14 75 feet so i had to shoo them back at several points i shot from the blue shoreline with the morning sun rising behind me to the southeast that big wall in the foreground is the dam which creates the lake let s start with this male lesser scaup he was very confident in his approach this image being nearly full frame and the golden water results from the reflection of the backing hillsides with zero wind at this moment the surface was as flat as a trump electroencephalogram aka eeg lesser scaup male aythya affinis canon 600mm f 4 is ii on eos r5 1 2500 at f 5 6 iso 640 since the female wasn t as contrasty as the male i raised my lens a few inches so that i could capture a bit of texture on the water i really like how the browns tans golds and yellow blend together in this frame lesser scaup female aythya affinis canon 600mm f 4 is ii on eos r5 1 2500 at f 5 6 iso 640 this male canvasback wasn t present on my first visit but i nearly crapped my pants when the stunning bird dropped into the park pond on my return the next morning i ve only had one other opportunity at this species at alondra park near los angeles but a concrete lip on the urban pond prevented me from getting my lens as low as i would have liked without similar impediment this time around i was able to isolate this guy in super smooth surrounds canvasback male aythya valisineria canon 600mm f 4 is ii on eos r5 1 3200 at f 7 1 iso 800 he kept his distance at the outset but he eventually swam a bit closer i m a huge fan of close cropped headshots so i was stoked with this result craned neck a definite plus canvasback aythya valisineria canon 600mm f 4 is ii on eos r5 1 2500 at f 7 1 iso 800 and lastly i present this male common goldeneye he wouldn t come as close as the others so i had to slap the 1 4x teleconverter tc onto my lens tcs can degrades the images when they re used on crappy lenses but i don t have to worry about that with my 600 prime common goldeneye bucephala clangula canon 600mm f 4 is ii 1 4x iii on eos r5 1 2000 at f 7 1 iso 800 i also did a fair bit of bike birding around prescott our pet sitting gig red pin on below map was close to willow and watson lakes and i enjoyed a trio of long staying tundra swans on the former and several wood ducks on the latter exploring farther afield i caught up with williamson s sapsucker and pacific wren pictured below poor digibinoc at granite basin lake all four of those were state birds for me so it felt great to grow my arizona list under my own power since prescott is at 5 400 of elevation i was really sucking wind on the 1 000 climb up to granite baasin it felt like 2014 all over again i visited the highlighted sites on different days but i ve shown them as one ride to streamline the imagery and give you a global view of where i explored the bottom image is a view of the northern part of watson lake things have been really hectic since we left prescott i spent a week in albuquerque flew to minnesota to guide a six day owl finch tour and returned to abq yesterday i have three additional days around abq then sonia and i drive to denver in super bowl sunday hopefully in time for the game we re there for 3 weeks while we execute back to back pet sits but i ll disappear for five days in the middle of those to guide another winter tour in massachusetts i m not sure how i got suckered into leading all the cold weather tours for tropical birding but i m sure i ll survive i really don t mind the cold plus if the 2014 polar vortex didn t break me while i was on the bike nothing will that s it for now later posted by dorian anderson at 7 12 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday january 31 2022 post 212 biking for birds in nevada regular readers know that sonia and i are traveling the us for at least the first half of 2022 but i haven t revealed our exact motivation purpose until now our plan to exchange pet sitting for lodging while home owners travel might sound insane but www trustedhousesitters com allows people to do exactly that i kept this news on the down low until now because sonia and i wanted to get a second blog a tail of two sitters up and running before we let the cat dog whatever out of the bag while we have a loose itinerary of places states we d like to visit in upcoming months we re generally going to allow the pet sitting winds take us where they will and that s how we landed in henderson nv from january 13 16 i did a bit of birding while we were in the area most of it by bike and i ll use this post to highlight some of the places i visited here s how we re carting the bike around among three henderson sites which i visited on my bike the henderson bird preserve on the east side of town was the best the impoundments hosted a great number and variety of waterfowl and desert birds like costa s hummingbird crissal thrasher vermillion flycatcher black tailed gnatcatcher and abert s towhee lurked in the surrounding bushes over 300 species have been recorded at the reserve and i tallied 60 across two morning visits a breeding plumage hooded warbler an unlikely highlight beware the hbp has very strict hours please consult this webpage for info if i had only one morning to bird in the las vegas area the i d use it at hbp images of reserve below neighboring clark county wetlands hosts similar species but not in the same numbers as hbp a series of trails winds through scrub and impoundments and i think it s worth a quick pass even if it s a distant second to hbp same for sunset park though urban and heavily visited the park pond was loaded with waterfowl the ducks are fed constantly so super close views of ring necked ducks canvasbacks redheads lesser scaup and american wigeon were afforded i hit the place on a cloudy afternoon but it could be great for photography in the right conditions here is a map to show the relative locations of these hbp cc wetlands and sunset park it was easy to move between the three locations on the bike given our central location a bit farther afield red rock canyon on the west side of las vegas is totally worth a visit it doesn t hold diversity or numbers of birds but the landscape is amazing there are loads of trails and it would be easy to spend a full day exploring the area the two dogs which we were watching loved scrambling over the stratified geology birds were few and far between but i did find rock wren phainopepla and peregrine falcon the bottom line is that there s an unexpected amount of birding and hiking to be done in the greater las vegas area while most who visit the city do so for other reasons birders and outdoor enthusiasts will find plenty to occupy themselves over a three or four day stay we ve already completed our second sit in arizona but i ll save my prescott birding thoughts experiences until the next post cheers posted by dorian anderson at 11 05 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday january 11 2022 post 211 some southern california photography sonia and i are back in the us there was however some serious doubt as to our return from chile the abbott labs covid ag card tests which we took with us kits were defective so we had to cobble testing together the night before our flight from santiago to dallas and onto los angeles to compound the drama sky airlines a chilean carrier pushed our final domestic flight from punta arenas to santiago back three hours a circumstance which cut our connection time in santiago from five hours to two we landed in that capital scampered off the plane claimed our luggage sprinted to the international terminal checked into our american flight and fought our way through immigration and security by the time we hauled ass to the terminal s farthest gate we had only ten minutes to spare so yeah getting back was a total circus we made it barely i ll write more about chile in future posts but i m gonna keep it simple this time around and post some photos i captured in southern california just before we left recall that we ve rented our san mateo apartment and become digital guiding nomads through september without a place of our own we crashed with sonia s dad in riverside county for five days pre chile there is some excellent photography to be had in that area and i ll present a half dozen shots that i captured across two sun drenched mornings those who read this blog regularly might recall a post from early december where i described a choice run in with greater yellowlegs a common bird that managed to avoid my lens for the eight years since i departed massachusetts and wouldn t ya know it a month after that entry i had an even better crack at the species greater yellowlegs tringa melanoleuca canon 600mm f 4 is ii on eos r5 1 4000 at f 5 6 iso 1000 greater yellowlegs tringa melanoleuca canon 600mm f 4 is ii 1 4x iii on eos r5 1 4000 at f 5 6 iso 640 besides those i had mint opportunities at american avocet and black necked stilt the color in all these shots is provided by the early morning light reflecting off the rocky hillsides behind the impoundment the stilt shot was taken earlier than the others that s why it s the most color saturated and dramatic of the bunch the avocet waded hella close and the crouched pose was the only way i could get the whole bird and reflection in the frame stoked with the water drop bouncing off the surface black necked stilt himantopus mexicanus canon 600mm f 4 is ii on eos r5 1 4000 at f 4 iso 400 american avocet recurvirostra americana canon 600mm f 4 is ii on eos r5 1 4000 at f 4 iso 400 ok enough shorebirds let s finish with two raptors birds of prey are a weak point in my portfolio so it s always nice to fluff up those galleries while i had several nice merlin shots prior to this awesome encounter the red tailed shot represents my best frame of that species i m not sure what the merlin is eating but relative abundance and light colored legs suggest savannah sparrow merlin falco columbarius canon 600mm f 4 is ii 1 4x iii on eos r5 1 4000 at f 5 6 iso 800 red tailed hawk buteo jamaicensis canon 600mm f 4 is ii 1 4x iii on eos r5 1 2000 at f 7 1 iso 1600 opted for f 7 1 instead of f 5 6 to keep feet in focus when af point placed on eye and for those who made it this far let me point you towards a gallery of my favorite photos of 2021 several of the shots in this po...