"Morning Dew" - Common Yellowthroat

[Daniel Cadieux]

Image taken yesterday morning (Sunday). I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of grass blades had a dew drop at their tip...hadn't noticed that in the field. Audio and blind used on this normally skittish species (in my experience anyways). I do wish for separation between rear foot and front leg.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/7.1, ISO 640, -0.3 EC, natural light, handheld, slight crop for comp.

[Steve Canuel]

Dew drops are a nice touch. Like the pose (foot noted), the perch is large but I don't find it distracting and I like the little piece of peeling bark mimicing the tail. Nice detail in the eye and beak. BG noise seems a little noticeable compared to your usual postings.

[Aidan Briggs]

Nice BG and it has and early morning feel to it. I like the dew drops, but agree with Steve on the noise being more noticeable than usual.

[Alfred Forns]

Maybe my eyes but don't see much bg noise? For these I do like to selectively apply a Gaussian blur to the bg and does seem to make it smoother !!!

I like the pose and perch The little blades with dew are the icing on the cake !!!

[Stu Bowie]

Daniel, lovely pose, and like the different colours on the yellowthroat. The large perch is fine, as you have shown the peeling of the bark. As Steve has already stated, the parallel piece of bark with the tail adds, and the dew drops takes this over the top. Well captured Daniel.

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent photo and excellent self-critique. Did you set the perch up? Do you use a remote for the I-pod? Or a wire? Did you play only for this species? Do you tun the tape off when the bird responds by coming close?

[Krijn Trimbos]

Lovely shot, colours BG, perch, HT and pose are terrific. Agree about the feet seperation issue. Thanks for sharing

[Graham Smith.]

Nice capture Dan! BG noise has been mentioned. As always, great detail and exposure. Dew droplets are a nice touch indeed.
Well done!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great composition, details and soft light. Another vote for NR and I might raise the color temperature a little bit.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent photo and excellent self-critique.

Thanks Artie:).

Did you set the perch up?

This is a naturally fallen tree. I did scout the area before and found this perch and BG quite suitable and knew I was going to set up the blind there. I originally picked this fallen tree for the beautiful lichen-covered branches that shoot up as I was trying for orioles with some oranges (the orioles did not perform).

Do you use a remote for the I-pod? Or a wire?

I use a 20 ft wire. This way I don't need to get up everytime I want to switch calls...which leads us to...

Did you play only for this species?

No. I also played Baltimore Oriole, Swamp Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo...none of which responded adequately.

Do you tun the tape off when the bird responds by coming close?

Once the bird in question has done a couple of passes the mp3 gets turned off. Even faster if it only nervously flitters from tree to tree without coming close. If it is in obvious distress (instead of merely being curious) the mp3 gets turned off. Also turned off pretty fast if it doesn't respond at all. One cannot stress enough the importance of being careful when using such tactics.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Nice image, well critqued above. For my taste the bird is just right on the edge of having too much sharpening, getting that cookie cutter look. I think it is fine, but wouldn't want anymore. Which I guess is where you wanted it to be in the 1st place!

I appreciate the details of how you use the calls to attract them.

Randy

[Ramon M. Casares]

Amazing image! Terrific perch, terrific light, terrific comp, detail, colors and species! Congratulaitons!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Dan for your detailed response. I am learning to use the tapes and find that few birds respond. What sort of behaviors indicate that a songbird is distressed?

I applaud the fact that you are not afraid to mention the fact that you use audio. Many of the top bird photographers, those with extensive songbird collections, use tapes routinely but rarely if ever mention it as if they were some sort of criminal. Do you have any birder friends?????

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks Dan for your detailed response. I am learning to use the tapes and find that few birds respond. What sort of behaviors indicate that a songbird is distressed?

My pleasure :-) Distress behaviours include: fluttering or low drooping wings when perched (usually too far for photos); bill remaining open even when not singing; bird continuously flying from tree to tree back-and-forth; distress call being used instead of "regular song". These are worst case scenarios and are usually immediately visible as soon as the audio is turned on...a bird that does this will not come close and not worth it even if it does.

A subject that will come close is usually looking relaxed and more "curious" in behaviour. It will gradually come closer, turning its head trying to figure out where the "song" comes from. It may fly from tree to tree but in a much more relaxed and calculated manner, and usually closer each time until it is right next to the speakers. Often the subject will provide minutes of excellent opportunities and behaving calmly, but then all of a sudden display one of the distressed signs above. TIME TO STOP!! Even better to stop before it starts behaving differently.

Not all individuals from the same species behave the same way towards audio either. You can encouter one behaving quite "normally" in one area and then try it on another of the same species elsewhere and get an obviously distressed individual. Try the audio and judge the reaction...you will find out very soon if you have a cooperative subject or not.

P.S. You may get lucky just staying close to a perch (as with the Clay-colored Sparrow and Warbling Vireo I posted the last couple of weeks), but the success rate goes up incredibly when using a blind. Some birds won't approach adequately without the use of a blind, but will readily come in when sitting in one.


I applaud the fact that you are not afraid to mention the fact that you use audio. Many of the top bird photographers, those with extensive songbird collections, use tapes routinely but rarely if ever mention it as if they were some sort of criminal. Do you have any birder friends?????

For the longest time I couldn't figure out why I had zero photos of songbirds actually singing (and on clean perches!) and some people only had those in their portfolios. I read about this technique somewhere and the first time I seriously tried it I easily came back with three different species of warblers in full song. I then knew!!



P.S. Yes, I have some birder friends:)

[Arthur Morris]

So what do you birder friends think of your tape jobs?

[Daniel Cadieux]

So what do you birder friends think of your tape jobs?

To be honest, the use of audio has never come up in conversation with them. Many birders are VERY vocal in their anti-baiting stand, but many of them do use audio - especially on bird counts or on birding tours for their participants to see or hear tougher species. I suspect that they do not have a problem when done respectfully and judiscioulsly but I do not know for sure. The birders I do speak with are well-mannered and civil...I'm sure this topic would be an interesting one to discuss with them.

[Arthur Morris]

Many birders that I have come across are adamantly against the use of recordings (except of course by biologists...). I have been running more and more into birders who reprimand photographers for spishing or for making other sounds. Man, you gotta love it.

Would love to hear their reactions.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Lovely image Daniel. Your self critique is right. I also find the BG with more noise that one can stand but that is not hard to fix.
Thanks for sharing all that info. about the bird calls.