I feel like I am spamming you. Taking the pictures I aspire to require specific weather conditions. We had good picture taking weather and I am burdened with over four hundred pictures which is more than enough for another blog.
Our workhorse cameras are Nikon super zoom point and shoot cameras. We acquired our first, the Nikon P900 on July 16, 2016. It is 16 megapixels with a 83 times zoom, i.e. a superzoom camera. It has a small sensor that allows the overall package (camera) to be a manageable size. We acquired the Nikon P1000 on October 22, 2018. It is 125 times zoom. It also shoots raw and has a birding preset option. It has the same sensor as the P900. Both cameras have vibration reduction image stabilization. The cost of the high zoom is a high f stop at high zooms, which means it will perform better in bright light and its low light performance is lacking.
I take about 17,000 pictures a year. The counters on the Nikons only go to 10k, so they have been rolled multiple time. The gears on the P900 are grinding now. I am not sure if it is worth it to send it in or to try to fix it myself. The P900 has been discontinued and replaced by the P950. I don’t need to decide util it dies.
My typical camera cycle is three to five years. We have tended to recycle the cameras by passing them down to interested nephews. In preparation for next generation replacement, we rented an expensive camera for my birthday to evaluate its performance. We rented it for a week but we made a few mistakes. We tried a highly rated nonNikon camera. The menu system was completely different and even when you knew what you wanted to do, you had to go back to the manual to do it. Clearly a week was not enough. So we did the only rational thing we could do, we spent the camera money on new kayaks to push the envelop on the reach with the existing cameras. We got Hobie Mirage Lynx pedal kayaks. It should allow us to do a lot more exploring.
On with the blog:
BOIDS
We are routinely seeing the juvenile red tailed hawk. We have seen it successfully complete a hunt in our yard at least three times. Apparently it will continue to hunt our yard as long as it continues to be successful.
We tend to pick up breakfast Saturday morning and take it to Meg’s house. The weather Saturday was bright and clear, a good day to exercise out point and shoot cameras. Meg’s house faces South and her bird feeders are on the North facing deck. When the sun gets high enough, it shines directly on the feeders. Our deck faces South and when the sun is in the West we have good light for taking pictures at our house. So we took pictures at Meg’s in the morning and at our house in the afternoon.
The chickadees are challenging to take pictures of because they tend to grab and go. I have trouble getting the camera on them and focused. Occasionally they hang around. The light was good for this photo shoot.
Nuthatches tend to hand around a little longer so I tend to end up with more photos of them.
There seem to be a lot of titmice at Meg’s. They are also very flighty but there are so many they offer quite a few opportunities to snap a picture.
The cardinals tend to show up at dawn and dusk at Meg’s, so we didn’t see them at midday. At or house the male cardinals tend to lord it over the females.
The crows are interesting because we try to feed them. They come right around eight AM and announce their presence. They are shy and if I try to take their picture from the porch window, they will take off. There are up to six of them but they almost always leave a spotter in the trees.
Mammals
The deer that bedded down in Meg’s yard returned.
Fun with Food
Fun with Benji
We are expecting more cold weather. It is almost February and we seem to be turning a corner. We are looking forward to spring and trying out our new kayaks.
Mark, Wink and Meg
