December 26, 2007
Bold Chickadees, Towhees at Foreshore Park
While Yumi did some Boxing Day shopping (at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in keeping with our sustainable Christmas :-), I headed down to Foreshore Park in southeast Burnaby and found bushes quivering with friendly chickadees and some towhees that were quite bold for their usually shy species. One of the chickadees was so forward and used to being hand-fed that several times it nearly fluttered onto my head or my camera.
Chickadee on a blackberry.
Chickadee in a chain-link fence.
Towhee in the bush.
I'm still terrible at distinguishing sparrow-like birds...
Perhaps it's a wren, or a finch. Then again, if a wren and a finch had a good time, it could be a wrench! :-)
North arm of the Fraser River under looming winter clouds.
For those who are interested, all photos shot on this day were taken with a Canon S5 IS digital superzoom, usually at the Auto setting, but a few with exposure compensation. All these photos were shot with the camera on a light tripod used as a monopod to follow the birds, because even image stabilization cannot compensate enough for extreme telephoto shots on overcast days. I noticed that often the auto-focusing had trouble locking onto these small, fast-moving balls of feathers.
Posted by Paul at December 26, 2007 07:39 PM