Endangered Species - Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra)

The Corn bunting (Emberiza calandra ) is a heavily built bird and somehow resembles a Skylark. It’s also larger than other buntings.  Male and female have similar brownish plumage but the male is larger.

The song of the male is very special, kind of metallic sound as if someone would shake a bunch of keys. He usually sings from low bushes, vineyard poles and telephone wires.

The Corn bunting is a bird of open country with trees, here in Slovenia you can find it in vineyards. Due to intensive agricultural practices its population has declined greatly in many parts of Europe and as well in Slovenia. In Slovenia it breeds only in western and southwestern parts.

It usually forages on seeds and when it comes to feeding young, it adds spiders, caterpillars, snails, slugs and earthworms to its diet.

When in breeding time, males defend their territories and can be polygynus which means more than one female per breeding male. Consequently, some of the males remain unmated during the season.

The Corn buntings built nests on the ground. The nesting material is normally grass, lined with hair or finer grass. Female bunting lays three to five eggs.

Images you can see below were captured recently and show the male Corn bunting singing full-throated to attract females.

Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra) singing full-throated

Corn bunting (Emberiza calandra) perching on an old wooden pole and singing

All images © 2017-2018 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.

Expanding Possibilities With The Olympus EE-1 RDS

Olympus EE-1 RDS

For those of us photographers who would like to photograph birds in flight or some other speedy animal, Olympus has prepared a small accessory called the EE-1. It’s a RDS (red dot sight) that you can attach to any standard camera hotshoe. 

By looking at the scene in front of you through this RDS instead of your viewfinder, you can place the illuminated red dot on your moving and/or distant subject/s in order to track it/them. This accessory is especially useful for applications such as wildlife photography, where keeping a far-off animal let alone some swift flying creature in the viewfinder can be tricky. 

The dustproof and splashproof RDS is the Sony CR2032 lithium battery powered and features a center aiming red dot that has adjustable brightness and position, allowing you to calibrate the sight inline with your AF center focusing point. As long as you calibrate the RDS correctly, you’ll be able to keep your subject more or less in the frame and capture some cool images.

First impressions from the field
By using the tripod I calibrated the RDS in minutes without any fuss at all. As I was using the 25-400 mm zoom lens I calibrated the sight to the max. optical value. Due to the sunny weather I needed to put the red dot illumination value setting to the max. (5) in order to see the dot clearly. 

While »targeting« the birds in my first shooting with EE-1 RDS I put my camera strap around my neck and stretched my hands in the way I put some tension both on my neck and the camera. This way I achieved at least the minimum stability while shooting.

I was shooting towards the blue sky used as background and the FZ1000 49-point DFD AF proved quite accurate so I was able to get a couple of decent results. I wonder how would the Panasonic's DFD AF respond if the background was more cluttered (?).

Of course, to elevate the keepers' rate some more practice from my part will be needed. ;)

City Pigeon In-Flight

City Pigeon Soaring Above The Sea

All images © 2017-2018 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.

Adding 4K Photography

4K Photography - Preparation is essential

The better you prepare for the photo session, the better the results you may get, so it's best to premeditate the whole activity. Photographing my little-feathered friend, NuttyBoy (Common Nuthatch, Sitta europaea) surely presented a challenge for me as he is extremely agile and swift creature.

With some planning, prearranged scenery, proper settings on my Lumix FZ1000 and a good dose of 3Ps (patience, perseverance, persistence), I was able to make several successful shots of him. Like this one:

Supreme importance of having a proper light

As with all photography – and particularly with 4K photography – the importance of light is of paramount importance. Simply told, the better light conditions, the faster the shutter speed I can have. Consequently,  this will allow you me to ‘freeze’ the action more effectively in particular when capturing scenes where there is a lot of swift, sudden and unpredictable moves of the main star in my 4K session, NuttyBoy.

Checking closely the shutter speed

The Panasonic LUMIX FZ1000 shoots at a rate of 25 frames per second when in 4K mode. Shooting at over 1/1000th of a second is a must when using the 4K photography. Thanks to the FZ1000 bright Leica f2.8-4 lens I was able to reach the most suitable shutter speed that is possible. I easily reached 1/2500 while photographing my NuttyBoy.

Aspect ratio

For the NuttyBoy session, I chose the 3:2 aspect ratio as this is the native FZ1000 sensor ratio. All other ratios are crops.

Update/Modify my gear

4K photography may make me look at photography in some new, different way, and this might lead me to update my camera gear. One thing I will have to consider is a tripod. Although I'm used to hand-held photography via my previous workhorse Fuji HS50EXR, update in the form of the tripod has to be foreseen.

I should think also of a high-speed U3 SD cards, with a minimum 90 Mb/s read and 60 Mb/s write specs, as they represent a key element for the 4K photography.

Trial and error learning

Since 4K Photography is new to me, lots of practice will be needed, However, even these first tries confirmed the possibility to achieve very good results. Someone might say:« C'mon this isn't photography anymore.« I'd answer:« Maybe it's not, but it's the new way of achieving some splendid shots that would otherwise be missed.«

All images © 2017 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.

Autumn Is Here

We are coming to Autumn, season of harvest. When we enjoy events like grape picking and/or visiting wine cellars.

Check out those images that follow and you will be able to almost smell the grapes’ wonderful sweet aroma! :D

(All images above were captured while testing the Lumix FZ1000 camera.)

All images © 2017 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.

Birding Session - Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) as "The Charming Singer"

If somebody asked me to tell a couple of words to describe a Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), I would say: Colorful, small bird with divine voice. :D

This small finch is vividly colorful with its mixture of red, white and black on the head, goldish brown body and flashy yellow wing bars. Its thin bill varies from pinkish hue to sort of pale grey, and its legs are flesh colored.

The sexes are very similar. One can recognize the male by its red face extending behind the eye. Juveniles are much duller colored and without red, black and white markings on the head.

The usual call of the Goldfinch is a rambling twitter or tinkling . A delight for the ears. Its song is a composition of its usual call and rattling tones. 

Goldfinches feed on various tree seeds, such as alder and birch. Their thin bill and light weight enables them to reach also for thistle, teasel and dandelion seeds. One can see them also feeding on sunflower hearts.

Goldfinches' nest is usually made of moss, grass and lichen. It is mostly placed in a tree towards the end of a branch. Their nests can be seen also in large gardens as well in open woodland and hedgerows. Female lays up to 7 eggs and incubation period lasts about 14 days. Youngsters are fed by both parents.

In Slovenia, Goldfinches successfully breed despite still dangerous ever-changing agricultural practices.

Bellow are some Goldfinch images taken this year in a vineyard habitat. Hope you'll fancy them.

Charming Singer - Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Colorful Sight - Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Poser - Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

All images © 2017 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.

Birding Session - Eurasian Hoopoe

Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) is a medium sized bird of generally rufous plumage. It has barred black and white wings and tail. Its presentation is characterized by a long, curved bill for searching and digging insects from the ground. Male and female are of very similar plumage, almost alike while their juveniles are much duller.

Another very special thing about this unique bird is its flight in which it half closes the wings after each stroke, almost like a big butterfly. In addition, there is that fantastic crest which is usually held flat. When excited, alerted or frightened, Hoopoe raises it to form a beautiful plume.

This bird likes bare or scarcely vegetated ground for foraging and various cavities in trees, haystacks and abandoned burrows for nesting.

It is a lone forager that feeds on the ground. You can see it in the low grass while intensively pounding its bill into the soil and digging insects. Its diet consists also of seeds, berries and even reptiles and frogs.

This butterfly among the birds isn't very »social«. It can bee seen alone, only rarely in pairs. A breeding pair may last only for one season. Female lays up to 8 eggs and incubate them for 18 days.

In Slovenia, Hoopoe is considered rare. So every encounter with this beautiful bird is a very valuable one. Below you can see some pictures that I took this year. I was very lucky to get quite close due to the bird's foraging frenzy. If only its movement weren't so twitching and erratic. ;)

Although this Hoopoe clearly saw me, it let me quite close due to its foraging frenzy.

Check out its long, curved bill. Insects beware.

For those interested in this avian beauty some links for further research:                                 

Courtesy of Secrets of Nature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G06qiyYtPyc                           

Courtesy of xeno-canto: http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Upupa-epops 

All images © 2017 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.

Birding Session - Common Redstart

The Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) is a small robin-sized Passerine, about 14 cm long. The male is gray, with a black face and throat, reddish breast, and red-brown tail. The female has brown back, light-brown belly with rust-red tail and rump.

In Slovenia, where its conservation status is still E2, it lives in woodlands, town parks and various gardens. One of its behavioural features is a vibrating tail similar to that of its nearest relative, the Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros).

Common Redstart demonstrates a characteristic harsh call, something like »huid-tucc-tucc«, especially when alarmed. He usually sings at dawn from a high perch.

Its diet mainly consists of insects, spiders and various berries. It nests in tree holes or in wall cracks (see image below). In normal year it brings up two broods.

Below are images of the Common Redstart pair during their nesting shift. I observed and photographed them several weeks ago. At first, both male and female were shy and reserved not knowing whether I was hostile or not. After a short time, the female stopped hesitating and continued to feed youngsters in the nest that was smartly placed in a wall crack. The male needed some more time to develop enough trust to approach. But when he saw his mate doing her feeding shift without any special fear, he joined her. Finally, I was approached by both of them at short distance.

The Common Redstart nest placed in the wall crack.

The Common Redstart female anxiously shaking her wings when she was in hesitation whether to approach her nest or not.

The Common Redstart female, this time calmed down and waiting her turn.

The Common Redstart male just after he landed behind my back and quietly watched me. Note a billful of "snacks" for youngsters.

The Common Redstart male relaxing a bit during his part of the shift by doing the "Scratch dance". :D

After some 45 min of observing and shooting, the female sat on the parked car's antenna some 4 m away. She looked at me as she wanted to say:« You're ok but it's time for you to leave.«.

I silently lowered my camera and left by walking backwards. Nice parents these Common Redstarts.

All images © 2017 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.

Visit To The Skocjanski zatok Wetland Area

Skocjanski zatok is a Mediterranean wetland situated at Koper, Slovenia. It comprises an area of more than 100 hectares. It's considered the largest brackish wetland in Slovenia. I've recently visited this nature reserve to experience the rich biodiversity of the place and especially the birds that Skocjanski zatok hosts. At DOPPS-BirdLife Slovenia they say there are more than 240 species of them present in the area.

You can see some of my images taken at the reserve below:

Skocjanski zatok Wetland by Koper, Slovenia

A relief presenting the Skocjanski zatok Wetland Area

A Camargue horse (Equus caballus) at the Skocjanski zatok Wetland Area

A Great White Heron (Ardea alba) on the prowl

A bird lookout tower commanding the Skocjanski zatok Wetland Area

A Grey heron (Ardea cinerea) hunting in the shallow waters of the area

All images © 2017 Sreco Tzar. All rights reserved.