It’s officially time to close out the first Birds of Wisconsin series. Following previous series endings I thought I would throw up some miscellaneous birds captured over the course of our stay in the Dells area. I tend to highlight the unusual or more flamboyant birds on the blog, but I try not to discriminate against the more common aviary when out on a shoot. Hell, sometimes that is all that comes back in the tin based on what we were able to find out in the wild on any given day. There are definitely times when the more common bird shot ends up being my favorite of the shoot but I know my readers are not generally here to read about birds they can experience in the backyard any day of the week. Regardless, I still like to end with random shots that caught my attention in post processing.

For starters, here is …. a bird

It’s brown dominant with vertical striping with a white breast which basically translates to a near impossible bird to identify with any confidence.  Primarily I liked the composition and of course the glint in the eye.  I could take the normal stab and say it might be from a sparrow family say maybe a Song Sparrow but I usually rely on what I call the eye triangle to really classify a sparrow – it is hard to explain in text, but if you happen to see a picture of a sparrow, look at the side of the eye and you will see a about a 30 degree triangle (per eye side) that is pretty solid in coloring.  This specimen does not really have that which pushed me to the finch options but this one was too large for that class.  Next up was a juvenile Common Redpoll but they tend to have more stripping in the breast area.  20 minutes later of thumbing through the guides brought on the conclusion it was “a bird”  Feel free to take a guess if you would like.

In stark contrast, the following bird is easily identifiable and one we are fortunate to have in abundance where we live.  I have always liked the Cardinal but it does tend to bring a small feeling of remorse thanks to an errant shot with a BB gun when I was growing up.  As you can tell that event has never faded but I’m ahead of the game having saved a number of them since then (example here).

Again, I really liked the composition of this one (and another successful glint capture), but the other aspect you cannot tell from this shot is how far away it was.  We had just returned from to the car after walking a trail when I heard that all too familiar song.  Eventually it was spotted sitting in mass of branches in a far away tree.  I had the Beast out and somehow managed to keep it still enough to get a decent shot.

Hit the jump to see the rest of the set

Here is a shot more pulled out so you can see the limbs I was fighting through.

and there it sat singing away oblivious to our presence.. well, not oblivious, just uncaring.  I thought it was an interesting contrast in stature from when it was just sitting there (wider) and when it was in full song mode – apparently sucking in the gut  for the ladies

The next bird is even more abundant than the Cardinal in our woods, but we really did not see a lot of these while we were up in Wisconsin.  I’m sure they are all over the place, but overlooked while scanning the higher branches.  Note, the markings below indicate a male but it almost looks like it is carrying eggs – I was unable to confidently verify their breeding patterns so not sure this is even possible in April.  Either case I still like the shot since the Beast threw the background out of focus quite nicely.

Here’s another shot of a Robin which is has more of the markings of the female.  Once again, the Beast did a good job of throwing that background out of focus leaving a nice crisp outline of the bird (you can even see the tiny hairs under the chinny chin chin).

Next up is the somewhat menacing looking Common Grackle. This one was in full sunlight displaying the birds iridescent coloring.  The composition of this one took a hit with the back limb annoyingly cutting right through the body, but the eye came out really nice on this one.  I almost cropped it down to just the head but ended up keeping the whole shot.  If it was a rare bird I’d take the time to shop that out but since it wasn’t gallery material I’ll let it stand.

Lastly I bring you the little Chickadee.  Labeling this as the standard Black-Capped variety and regularly competes with the Titmouse to be the first one to my feeders in the morning.    It would have been better if the background had phased out a little more but think it still gives a nice image.

If you didn’t notice, the last four shots pretty much fit my “style” – which involves bringing the viewer into the setting based on the subject of the image being “aware” – if you will –  of the viewer.   Everyone has their own approach.

Well, that wraps up our feathered friends to the North.  There is another set on their way, but there needs to be some more post processing done on those before I release those to the public – only the best for my peeps (even though some of them apparently prefer to support my better half when it comes to important competitions – not that I hold grudges or anything hehehe)