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Snowshoeing after the blizzard

We had a snow-day at the University today due to last night's El Nino-driven blizzard so I took the opportunity to head out into the woods on my snowshoes. Here in west Flag we got about two feet of powder with pretty extensive drifting in places. Unless the snow is drier than I think it is our run at the driest year on record is a no-go; I guess we'll have to settle for second or third driest.

As I said, there was at least a couple of feet of powder and the snowshoeing, while fun, kicked my butt. I think my snowshoes are a little too small for my weight as I kept post-holing down into the drifts, making for real tough going. It would've been far worse without the snowshoes but still, it was painfully slow progress for the amount of effort I was putting into it. I doubt if I made it more than a couple miles or so. Would cross-country skis work better in the powder snow?

There were quite a few birds out and about. The snow would've kept them hunkered down yesterday so they were probably hungry. I saw several Steller's Jays, a mixed flock of Mountain Chickadees and Pygmy Nuthatches, Common Ravens, House Finches, and even a Northern Flicker. The chickadees were having a ball flitting from tree to tree with the nuthatches in tow.

Up close with a Great Horned Owl

Here are a couple more pictures of the Great Horned Owl I photographed at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. After the free-flight show one of the handlers brought the owl over so we could see him close-up and ask questions. The light was excellent and I was able to get some really good shots using my camera's zoom lens. I love the first picture because of the clarity with which you can see the feather patterns and golden color of the eyes.

 

Here's another shot, this time from the side:

 

It's interesting to note from the side profile pic that owls don't actually have flat faces as the big round disc as most often seen from the front would indicate. Also, the "horns" are really just feathers and have nothing to do with the owl's ears. The bird's ears are actually covered by feathers and are just behind the eyes like any other bird.

Great Horned Owl at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

I was down in Tucson visiting the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) this weekend and had the pleasure of photographing a Great Horned Owl. Because he was a captive bird he won't count towards my "life-list" of birds but he was still pretty darned cool:

Being so close to such a beautiful bird was an amazing experience. The only thing better would be to see one in the wild, but alas, I haven't had that opportunity yet. I've heard these guys hooting in the forest north of the San Francisco Peaks so I know they're around but I wasn't able to spot the source because it was too dark.

The Desert Museum's raptor show was very exciting. They had a couple of Chihuahuan Ravens, the Great Horned Owl, and four magnificent Harris's Hawks. The birds were trained to fly from the handlers to various perches positioned around the viewing area. They would pass so close over the crowd's heads that you could hear the air flowing over their feathers when they'd zoom over you. More than once I felt the urge to duck as a hawk or raven flew seemingly right at me!

Here's another shot of the owl (this one's my favorite):

 

If you're ever in the Tucson area I'd highly recommend visiting the museum if only for the raptor show, although the other exhibits are also very cool.

I'll post some more pictures of the birds later.

Weatherford Canyon Aspens

I was up on the Weatherford Trail again on Sunday, this time looking to photograph some aspen trees in Fall colors and to break my previous hiking distance record. I got a little of both, although Weatherford Canyon is still a few days away from peak color. The aspen groves at the lower elevations were just beginning to turn so there was still a lot of green in the foliage. At the Weatherford and Kachina Trail intersection there were a few trees that had gone full yellow but most were lagging those higher up the canyon. My guess is that this coming weekend and maybe the following one too will be spectacular.

 

Farther up the canyon and looking back towards town you can see that the trees are still stubbornly holding on to the last few days of the summer's light and warmth:

That's the dry lake hills in the middle left with Flagstaff beyond and Oak Creek Canyon way back there in the haze. If you squint hard you can see the diagonal line of the Flagstaff airport just over the right shoulder of dry lake hills.

In the afternoon when the sun had shifted to the west I was able to get some shots of a few trees that had mostly turned (click for larger 800x600 versions):

 

 

I'm especially fond of those photos where the trees are silhouetted against the sun and the leaves take on that bright gold glow. Even though I know that these gorgouse color displays mean that winter's darkness, cold, and lean times for the forest animals are right around the corner I still love Fall. Maybe I'm just projecting my own emotions on to them, but the happy chattering and buzzing of the chickadees and nuthatches seems to say that they do, too.

Mount Elden aspens in full color - better hurry!

The eastern slopes of Mount Elden are in full Fall colors right now and the aspens are just gorgeous. I was up there this afternoon and snapped a few pictures. The angled sunlight coming in from the west really made the leaves glow like they were on fire. Here's a panorama I made from the Sunset Trail:

Photoshop's photomerge goofed up a little but the panorama still came out pretty good; unless you look closely you can't even tell. One of these days I'll plan ahead and bring a tripod with me.

Here's another one, this time a vertical shot of some young aspens intermingled with some old, dead snags from the Elden fire back in the 70's. I like this shot as it illustrates the full cycle of life in the forest: the old (dead) trees giving way to the young.

The aspen groves up on the Peaks haven't started to turn yet but you can bet when they do I'll have some shots to post for ya'll.

Horned Lizard - Up Close!

I'm still getting the hang of using my Canon SX10 IS super-zoom camera and it seems like every time I go out I find some new use for it. Usually I'm using it to get closer to something far away. But sometimes having a powerful zoom comes in handy for photographing subjects that are small but not very distant. A good example is this baby horned lizard sunning itself on a rock.

From the other side (a little washed out but still a neat shot):

You could use macro mode to get even closer but then you'd have to stick the lens right in the little guy's face - a most uncool and scummy paparazzi-like thing to do. If it's not already then the first rule of nature photography should be to not disturb or otherwise traumatize your subjects. I think that goes equally for all animals weather they be birds perched in a distant tree or tiny lizards only a couple of inches long.

Horned lizards (horny toads as we used to call 'em) are a dime a dozen up on Elden. However, in other states like California and Texas where invasive species and the overuse of pesticides have taken a toll on their diet of choice - harvester ants - they're in decline and under state protection.

Sunset Trail Hairy Woodpecker

The other day while I was hiking along the Sunset Trail (up on Mt. Elden) I heard a staccato series of loud knocks coming from a nearby dead fir tree. It didn't take long to find the source: a female Hairy Woodpecker! As I snapped pictures she circled the tree's trunk, sometimes stopping to hammer at the bark or pry into interesting nooks and crannies. After a few minutes she'd worked her way all the way to the top and flown to another tree.

Behind Flickers, Hairy Woodpeckers are probably the most common type of woodpecker you'll see in the forests around Flagstaff. I've seen these guys everywhere from the ponderosa stands around NAU to the top of Elden and just below the treeline high up on the peaks. In fact, I've even spotted them foraging in my apartment complex, which is amazing as that place is not exactly bird friendly.

Hairy's are pretty large birds at over nine inches long and, except for the Downy, can be easily distinguished from other kinds of woodpeckers by the solid white back patch (not completely visible in the above picture) and belly. Males of this species have a red patch on the back of the head; the lack of the red patch shows that the above individual is a female.

The almost identical plumage of the Downy Woodpecker can be a serious problem when trying to positively identify a Hairy. However, Downys are smaller, generally hang out on smaller trees and branches than the Hairy, and have shorter bills. There are also differences in the voice and the outer tail feathers, but unless you're really paying attention it can be easy to confuse the two.

The first episode of Inside Birding over at All About Birds has a really cool technique for telling the difference between the Hairy and Downy woodpeckers: Compare the birds against themselves! Unless you're lucky enough to have both species of woodpeckers in your frame you're unlikely to be able to tell which is which. With Downy's the bill length will generally be shorter than about half the head length (minus the bill of course). With the Hairy the bill will be longer than half the length of the head (again minus the bill). In the above picture the bill is quite long - almost the same length as the head - so that's a solid indicator that we're looking at a Hairy Woodpecker and not a Downy.

Pretty cool, huh?

The Right Tool for the Job

One thing that I've learned since I started getting serious about birding is that photographing them is really hard. In addition to all the usual technical challenges to taking a good photograph (exposure, focus, field of view, background, etc) birds are by nature uncooperative subjects. They refuse to sit still while you try to frame your shot, they like to hide in thick brush or tree branches so your autofocus gets confused, and above all, they just plain don't like people getting close to them!

The first two problems you can overcome by selecting your location and by being fast with your focusing and shutter release. But the third, that birds are skittish and tend to not let you get close, is a much harder issue to work around. If your camera doesn't have a powerful enough optical zoom then your only recourse is to use a high megapixel capture with good image stabilization or tripod and hope you have enough pixels to crop down from. This is the technique I've been using for many of the birding posts on this blog and, to be honest, it leaves a lot to be desired.

So, after some serious online research and borrowing a DSLR from a friend for a two week hands-on test drive (thanks bud - you rock!) I broke down and bought a new camera for birding: a Canon PowerShot SX10 IS. It's no DSLR - although it sort of looks like one - but it's got the long optical zoom that I need to get good close-up shots. And at $360 on Amazon it didn't break the bank, which is what the DSLR + telephoto lens would've done.

The pictures, while obviously not DSLR quality, are bright and clear and at the long end of the zoom (an astounding 560mm 35mm-equivalent) you can reach out and fill the frame with a small bird a hundred feet way. The zoom is unbelievably powerful for such a relatively small package. Some of the shots I've taken I would've previously thought required a full-on digiscoping rig to accomplish. It just has to be seen to be believed.

I've had the camera out in the field three times now and am so far very happy with the results. You've already seen a few birding photos taken with it in the previous couple of posts. The bright yellow male Lesser Goldfinch shot was taken at 150+ feet and cropped a bit and the results were pretty good, way better than my Canon SD790IS could have ever done. And the juvenile Robin was about 40 feet away and the bird almost filled the frame. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I'm very impressed with the performance of this camera, although it does have a few drawbacks. But I guess that's to be expected as it's not a professional, or even a prosumer level camera. Here's my list of pros and cons with an eye towards the birder:

Pros:

• Incredibly long 20x zoom lens allows you to get close to the birds without having to physically approach them. The IS (image stabilization) is very good and allows you to take full zoom photos without a tripod as long as the light is halfway decent.
• Uses AA batteries, so if you're on a trip and your batteries get low you can buy more at any convenience store. This adds weight to the camera but even with the 4 AAs the camera isn't all that heavy.
• The 28mm wide-end of the lens allows you to get more scenery into your pictures. I can't wait to get this camera up to the top of Humphreys and put it through its paces.
• Fast power-on and fast zooming so you can be up and zoomed in in only a second or so. This is good if you're hiking along and you suddenly see a life-bird fly over.
• Autofocus and autoexposure are pretty fast and accurate. I've only had a couple instances where the autofocus "hunted" and that was in a relatively dark scene.
• Full auto for us beginning photographers as well as all the usual manual settings for the more advanced ones.
• The LCD is bright and can be used in full daylight even while wearing dark sunglasses.
• Relatively cheap at $360 on Amazon, especially when compared to a DSLR body + expensive telephoto lens.
• Relatively light, especially when compared to a DSLR + heavy telephoto lens.

Cons:

• The lens is pretty slow at the long end - f5.7 is about all you get. The image stabilization helps a lot with this, though. Still, you're going to need decent light to keep your shutter speed up enough to avoid camera shake. This is the trade-off you make for a lighter and cheaper lens.
• There's some noticeable purple fringing in high contrast areas near the periphery of the frames when zoomed. From my research I understand that this is an artifact of the lens not having as much glass in it as more expensive telephoto DSLR lenses.
• The higher ISO settings exhibit some digital noise.
• At the wide 28mm end the lens exhibits a little barrel distortion.
• The electronic viewfinder is kinda small and needs some getting used to. I've found that you can look across the top of the flash hot shoe like a gun sight, though.
• The lens cap included with the camera is super cheap and falls off easily. The first thin I did after I got the camera was buy a replacement cap with a lanyard at BestBuy. Get the 52mm one.
• The neck strap is also kind of cheap but it works well enough. I'll get around to replacing it some time but for now I'm living with it.

From an amateur photographer and birders perspective I think the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS is a great camera for a decent price. Honestly, I've taken more good bird pictures in the past two weeks than I did in the entire first half of the year with my other camera. The zoom power of this camera makes all the difference. Without dropping a whole lot more money on a digiscoping rig or a DSLR+telephoto lens I don't think I could've done much better. If it can stand up to the rigors of the trail and riding in my day pack then I expect that I'll be spending a lot of quality time with this camera over the next couple of years.

EDIT 8/19/2009: It figures that two weeks after I buy the SX10 IS Canon would announce the PowerShot SX20 IS. Sheesh. I'd still buy the SX10 IS in an instant, though.

Lesser Goldfinches at Sawmill Park

One of the more interesting places to go birding in south flagstaff is Sawmill Park, or rather, the leg of Sinclair Wash that passes next to Sawmill Park. You can either park at Sawmill Park itself and take the path over the edge or leave your car at Brannon Circle and walk the FUTS trail southeast into the wash. Both are easily accessible and the FUTS offers easy access to several different types of habitat: brushy hillside, stream bed with rocks and boulders, and coniferous pine and aspen.

One of the birds that you might see hanging around down in Sinclair Wash is the Lesser Goldfinch, a colorful and fun little guy to photograph. On this visit to the wash I sighted a male and a couple of females in the trees just down the hillside from the Sawmill Park parking lot:

One way to narrow down an ID when you're watching these birds in the field is to look at the bill: it's small and conically shaped like a House Finch or Pine Siskin. Knowing this you could quickly thumb to the Finch section of your bird guide and you should only be a page or two away from the Lesser Goldfinch.

Of course, as with most birds, ID'ing Lesser Goldfinches isn't 100% clear-cut even though their plumage is generally very bright and distinctive: These guys are very similar to the American Goldfinch, another yellow finch. I'm going with the Lesser Goldfinch in this post because these birds were pretty small, not a super brilliant yellow, and this time of year the range of the American should be more north of Flagstaff while the Lesser has a year-round population here. Fortunately, Occam's razor can be applied to this situation and swings the argument over to the Lesser Goldfinch camp.

To slip the surly bonds of earth

During my Humphreys Peak hike last week I was slowly working my way along the rocky trail towards the summit, sweating and trying to remember if the next ridge was the top or just another false summit, when I was abruptly startled back to the moment by a loud POP! sound and a dark shape skimmed jet-like just over my head. For a second I thought it was a jet doing some kind of training maneuver over the mountain but the sonic boom never came. I instinctively ducked but the black shape had zoomed over me at a hundred miles an hour and was already far down the talus slope below me.

It was a raven! For a second I thought it had somehow collided with the ridge top just above me but then I figured out what had happened: The raven had been soaring towards the other side of the spine of the mountain at top speed and then zoomed over the edge into the wind shadow where I had been walking. The bird had folded its wings into a delta-wing and hurtled down the leeward side of the mountain in a 45-degree dive. The popping sound had been its feathers slapping together as it reconfigured its wings for the dive!

After I reached the summit I saw another raven come gliding up the spine of the mountain and then begin making the slow, lazy circles that ravens do when they're riding thermals. Gradually it soared higher and higher until it was just a tiny black speck against the clouds. Eventually I lost it in the glare of the sun. For a few shining minutes that particular raven was undoubtedly the highest bird in the state of Arizona.

Perhaps in raven society flying very high like this is a rite of passage, something young birds do when they become adults. They must challenge the sky, to risk losing themselves forever in the thin cold air, before they can be deemed worthy enough to choose a mate.

Or maybe, if ravens have religion, this bird was performing some kind of ceremony, riding the thermals into the high realm of the gods themselves:

In any case, for a brief moment my camera and I soared along with this bird, my feet suddenly feeling a little less rooted to the ground.