Chickadee nest

I spent the afternoon photographing an American Redstart male. A bonus was that I had a Black-capped Chickadee nest nearby. Every few minutes one of the parents would return to feed the chicks or remove a faecal sac. Here is one of the parents leaving the nest cavity. The process of leaving literally occurred in the blink of an eye so I simply laid on the shutter release when I suspected a parent was leaving. The light was filtered through the forest canopy and I used fill-flash with a Beamer. I was careful to be still and it appeared that the parents took no notice of me (as did the redstart which continued to sing within a meter of my ear).

Nothing much done to the image except crop and usual processing.

40D, 500 mm f4
capture date: Saturday, June 7, 2008 3:06:02 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 800
shutter speed: 1/640
aperture: f4.0
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: ON - Compulsory flash mode
focal length: 500.0

Interesting find, I've never seen such a chickadee nest. I like the eye contact and hope they will successfully raise their chicks.

Hi John !!! I like the setting Would try blurring the bg more to isolate the tree, there is so much oof in the tree I think the transition will be fine !!!!

Very nice. That image really draws the eye (to the eye) so I don't find the bg to be a problem at all. Great comp.

Nice timing John. Sharp where it needs to be. I might take a bit more off the bottom to put more emphasis on your bird.
Steve

Thanks for comments as usual! You are right Steve, I should have noticed that the lower OOF portion adds little. I'll experiment with an alternative crop.