We moved to the Reno area almost 3 years ago and after 4 rounds of landscaping and 100+ trees the birds are starting to show up including this Red-tailed Hawk. During the last snow storm I was able to capture this Hawk while feasting on a Rock Pigeon. I recently upgraded my cameras from a Nikon D800 to a D850 and my D7200 to the D500, which usually sits on the kitchen island with a Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 lens. I was able to step outside and I was about 10m away giving me full frame shots, which doen’t happen that often with capturing birds. Although it was overcast, I was able to use f/5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/2000s and still get a low ISO180.
Featured Photo: Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), WAS (NV)
EQ: D500, 300mm f/2.8 Taken: 2-21-2019 at 12:47
Settings: 450mm (35mm eqv), 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO180, 1/3EV Conditions: overcast
Last year was a great hummingbird summer with 5 species showing up at my feeders. The were a male Calliope, Anna’s, Black-chinned, Rufous, and this male Costa’s hummingbird that showed up in mid-July and stuck around for 8 weeks.
Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae)
Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) at sunrise
California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) in Burr Oak
EQ: D7200, 300mm f/2.8 Taken: 7-27-2018 at 7:02
Settings: 450mm (35mm eqv), 1/1250s, f/5.6, ISO250, 1/3EV Conditions: clear sunrise
When we first moved from our home in the Santa Cruz Mountains I thought that 97 species couldn’t be beat in the sagebrush habitat of our new home. Now I realize that we also have a conifer forest about 1km from our home and another nice feature of the are is the big skies I have logged 133 species so far in a 3km radius around my home including the Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) left. Big sky sunrise over the Virginia Range, below right.
Double Rainbow at Mount Rose
The first spring we had Tree Swallows nest in our bird box and last spring while the Tree Swallows were checking out the box a pair of Western Bluebirds showed up and started looking at the Tree Swallow’s box. So I went out and got another box and the Bluebirds used that one and had 3 young. The Tree Swallows didn’t nest last year and I think another male flew in and a pair flew off leaving a lone Swallow.
Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana)
Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) and Northern Flicker, Red-shafted (Colaptes auratus [cafer Group])
This winter we had a new yard bird show up during a snow storm: Townsend's Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi)
Moon setting over snowy Mt. Rose
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) feasting on one on the Cherry Trees.
Now for the other members of our home. Our newest member is Diesel D our Chocolate Lab. We were dog sitting Perrin, a champion Leonberger, and he fell in love with Diesel.
Perrin with Diesel D
Last spring we had a family of coyote behind our home and I was able to capture a young one playing with a Scrub Jay and if you look closely she also had a ball and a teddy bear. Kodi was part Leonberger (left), Diesel looking serious, Kaja pawing D, and our gang with our neighbors gang.
Kaja was the cover girl on the Leonberger Health Foundation 2018 calendar
Snow dog days
Old Man Hunkers was found Feb 2006 and was with us for 12 year.
Your comments are welcomed and if you have any questions about these photos or any other leave me a message.