Nest Building
Nikon D7000 w/Nikkor 300mm f/4 + 1.4X tc (420mm), tripod mounted
ISO 400; f/7.1, 1/1000 sec, MM +0.33
PP: PS CS5 crop, levels, curves and sharpen
Our Purple Martins have returned from South America and have selected apartments in our martin houses. Now they are busy "furnishing" their apartments, with coarse grasses, mud and leaves. Here, a male with a leaf is shown perched on one of the houses, ready to add the leaf to his nest.
Norm
real fine composition. Might just tone down the white perch a bit.
Ni Norm, The perch needs to be tone down and maybe a bit more contrast how big of a crop is this if you dont mind me asking
Don Lacy
You don't take a photograph, you make it - Ansel Adams
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams
http://www.witnessnature.net/
https://500px.com/lacy
Thanks, Don, for your comments and suggestions.Originally Posted by Don Lacy
This crop represents about 1/3 of the entire image, which encompassed not only my bird, but part of the house and an onlooking female martin, that seemed to be encouraging the male to deliver the leaf to the nest. I could have done much better with our Sigma 300-800mm lens. But unfortunately, while I was playing with the martins using my relatively little lens, my wife Linda was using the Sigmonster to nail great images of a Kingbird and a first year male Orchard Oriole in one of our weeping cherry trees. C'est la vie!
Norm
Last edited by Norm Dulak; 05-12-2012 at 06:00 PM.
Great pose!
If this is your Purple Martin house, you might consider changing the perches to something more natural for a really killer image.
Well done even with the existing dowel perch.
Thanks Don, and everyone else who looked and offered their thoughts. I too don't like the spartan perch, and it should be toned down. But I thought that the bird was special enough to share with you.
Norm
Just a few comments on purple martins. I personally like this image as a true behavioral image of a purple martin. For those that may not know, purple martins are considered semi-domesticated. The eastern population only nests in man-made houses and they only will nest if these houses are in an area that are commonly visited by people. So, you will see these houses near people's houses, gardens and boat docks as well as parking lots and near businesses and visitor centers in wildlife areas. They will not nest in houses in wilderness areas infrequently visited by people. These houses are on the 4 corners of our vegetable garden and while we are working there they will chatter to us and hope that we scare up a few bugs for them to fetch. Even though the house and their nest may be only a few feet above our heads, they do not fly. So, any behavioral image of this species should, in my humble opinion, include elements of their man-made environment. Yes, the white is bright, but it is what it is. Maybe we should paint the perches brown and they would look more natural. But, it's a behavioral image showing the male bringing fresh green leaves to line the nest, an important part of their nest building process. Just as many eastern bluebird behavioral photos include their man-made houses and osprey nesting pictures include man-made nest structures, purple martins rely on these structures and their behavior is intimately involved with these structures. These three species are very dependent on human structures and the inclusion of these structures is something that is important in behavioral images of these three species. Just my opinion.
This is one of my favorite images we have of this species.
Linda
You forgot Tree Swallows -- which also love manmade nest boxes.
Yet all three (plus Tree Swallows) don't nest EXCLUSIVELY in manmade structures, but rather take advantage of what's available.
Further, Purple Martins don't exclusively perch on white dowels. Painting a dowel brown does not make it a more natural perch.
This is indeed a very nice behavioral image.
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