Cops Came. Opossum Foot Snack!

What’s Up?

Despite a slow start, my Sunday morning photo session turned out to be fantastic. Read the whole story below in the A Dreary But Amazingly Wonderful Sunday feature.

A front was supposed to go through last night, but that has been postponed one day. It is supposed to be 15 degrees colder on Tuesday morning than it was today …

IAC, today is Monday 22 November 2021. It rained torrentially for several hours last night. There is a small lake in the North Field that was dry as a bone yesterday. It looked as if the sun would come out early this morning so I headed down to the lake. Things were not looking good with a strong northwest wind. Then within minute, all of ILE and Lake Weohyakapka were enveloped in thick fog. So I headed home.

Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took more than ninety minutes to prepare. Don’t look now, but this blog post makes 15 consecutive days with a new blog post.

Please remember that you can find some great photo accessories (and necessities, like surf booties!) on Amazon by clicking on the Stuff tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above. On a related note, it would be extremely helpful if blog-folks who, like me, spend too much money on Amazon, would get in the habit of clicking on the Amazon logo link on the right side of each blog post when they shop online. As you might expect, doing so will not cost you a single penny, but would be appreciated tremendously by yours truly. And doing so works seamlessly with your Amazon Prime account.

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Brand New and As-Good-As-Ever Bedfords BAA Discount Policy

Folks who have fallen in love with Bedfords can now use the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout to enjoy a post-purchase, 3% off-statement credit (excluding taxes and shipping charges) on orders paid with a credit card. Be sure, also, to check the box for free shipping to enjoy free Second Day Air Fed-Ex. This offer does not apply to purchases of Classes, Gift Cards, and any prior purchases.

Money Saving Reminder

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Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

This image was created on 21 November 2021 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. ISO 1600. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/640 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 1:15pm. Tracking: Upper Center Zone with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly by tracking and nailing the bird’s left eye. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #1: Crested Caracara with opossum foot

A Dreary But Amazingly Wonderful Sunday

As it was cloudy with a wind from the north, I set up the tripod low outside of my vehicle that was angled to the southwest so that I could see the vultures coming while working on yesterday’s blog post. I got one nice series of an incoming Turkey Vulture, but when I moved the bait, the four birds took off and did not return. There was no action at all for two and one half hours … I gave up at eleven, and headed home for brunch. I drove back down at noon and there was a pile of black Vultures on the bait. It was darker and drearier but I sat outside the car again and had a very few chances on incoming birds. After 45 minutes, I was about to give up again so I put the tripod in the back of the SUV and the lens on the front passenger seat. As I started the car, I saw that the local pair of caracaras had flown in to the rotting opossum.

I grabbed the BLUBB, put it on the driver’s side window frame, and went to work. It was almost comical to watch the far smaller caracaras bully the much larger vultures. At the least, they held there own. At times, they frightened the vultures with their shrill display call and threatened them with the aggressive head throw display. Then it began to rain hard but with the wind behind me, I was fine and dry. The high point of this wonderful morning occurred when the two smaller raptors played tug of war with the remaining opossum foot. Remember that the eagle grabbed the other foot (still attached to the leg) on Friday.

The Crested Caracara posed proudly with its prize for more than a minute before swallowing it whole. I was so excited that I did not get back home until a half hour after the early NFL games had begun.

Cops Came!

So what’s with the cops came!” reference?

When I was still at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (1969 or so …), my good friend Barry Cohen (the Brahma Bull from our beach football days), helped me get a job at the General Post Office in downtown Brooklyn. Most nights we would be “picked up” for one of the cushiest jobs ever — sweeping. We might have to work five minutes out of every hour going around to collect the sorted mail from a single box, say Indiana/Illinois. The rest of the time was spent playing gin rummy. If your opponent threw a card or you picked one that led to your completing the winning hand, the recipient would call out, Cops came!. There was extra emphasis if that card was the only possible winning card — perhaps filling an inside run or the last of its kind in the deck, say the case ace. I did an online search for the phrase, cops came, but could not find anything, even in the urban dictionary …

So when the caracaras showed up after five hours of nothingness, I thought, Cops came!.

This image was created on 21 November 2021 down by the lake near my hone at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. ISO 1600. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/640 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 1:15pm. Tracking: Upper Center Zone with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly by tracking and nailing the bird’s left eye. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #1A: Crested Caracara with opossum foot with increased Vibrance

Vibrance Increased

When I compared the optimized image with the raw file, I thought that I might have might have dulled the color a bit too much. So I created a second version, Image #1A above, with the Vibrance increased to +50. Vibrance only increases the saturation of colors that are not fully saturated. This prevents over-saturating an image.

Your Fave?

Do you prefer the Kodachrome 64 version, Image #1, or the Fuji Velvia pushed on stop version, Image #1A?

Image #1C: Sony A1 Bird-Eye/Face Detection accuracy!

Sony A1 Bird-Eye/Face Detection Accuracy!

When I said “Tracking: Upper Center Zone with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly by tracking and nailing the bird’s left eye,” I was not kidding. Can you camera do this?

SONY Alpha 1 Bodies in Stock at Bedfords!

While working on this blog post, I got a text from Steve Elkins letting me know that Bedfords has a good number of SONY Alpha 1 bodies in stock right now. Order yours, save 3% by using the BIRDS AS ART discount code at checkout, enjoy free second day air Fed-Ex, and earn free entry into the BIRDS AS ART Sony Alpha a1 Set-up and Info Notes Group. As part of the attraction, the first e-mail that you will receive includes a .DAT file with my a1 settings and explicit directions on how to load my settings onto your a1; talk about convenience! Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took more than two hours to prepare.

SONY Alpha a1 Set-up and Info Group

The SONY Alpha a1 Set-up and Info Group is going great guns as more and more folks chime in with thoughtful questions and experience-based answers. As the a1 is becoming more readily available, more and more folks are getting their hands on this amazing body. With two folks joining yesterday, we are now up to an astounding 93 lucky and blessed photographers! Early on, we discussed the myriad AF options. I gave my opinion as to the best one for flight and general bird photography. More recently, we have been in contact with folks at SONY sharing our thoughts, experiences, and frustrations with the EVF blackout problem.

All who purchased their Alpha a1 bodies via a BAA affiliate link will receive a free subscription to the Sony Alpha a1 Set-Up and Info Updates after shooting me their receipts via e-mail. (Note: it may take me several days to confirm B&H orders.) This same service may be purchased by anyone with an a1 body via a $150.00 PayPal sent to birdsasart@verizon.net indicating payment for Alpha a1 Info Updates. Alternatively, folks can call Jim weekdays at 1-863-692-0906 to pay via credit card. New members will receive composite e-mails that summarize all previous discussions.

Typos

In all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.