Bob Grier’s From the West: Something Wild in the Backyard.
Cooper's Hawk photo by Brad Grier
Our son Brad sent a few jpegs this past week of birds visiting his backyard in Omaha. The Cooper’s Hawk feeding near his patio window reminded me of several encounters with the hawks here at home in Alliance. In the last month, my wife Marlene and I were surprised to see a stream of feathers flying into our backyard from a tall pine tree near our patio door. The feathers, carried by a slight south-east breeze were covering the ground and falling like snow. Looking closer, we saw a Cooper’s Hawk purposefully cleaning his catch, one of the large, mostly white to buff-colored Eurasian Collared-Doves that have steadily increased their populations here in western Nebraska. An earlier encounter with another Cooper’s Hawk was even more dramatic, the hawk was twisting and turning in flight after a smaller bird when both passed within inches of Marlene standing on our deck. The hawk broke off its pursuit only to crash into the nearby garage roof at high speed. I don’t know how the bird chased by the hawk avoided the same fate.
Dark-eyed Junco photo by Brad Grier
Another of Brad’s jpegs was one of the Dark-eyed Juncos, even with a good bird book in hand, and time to look carefully at the bird or its photo magnified on the computer screen, I try to remain very in-exact on bird identification, especially the hawks, usually captioning my bird images going into the NEBRASKAland before my retirement with a note to “Let Jon Farrar” identify, p-l-e-a-s-e!”
But Brad’s jpegs are also a reminder that where-ever we live, sometimes the wild comes to us. Within several blocks of his Omaha residence, he and his wife Linda can hike riparian woodlands near a small pond, the hiking trail is open to the public. On their hikes with grandson Carter and granddaughter Gillian they have seen and photographed a variety of waterfowl, blue herons and numerous songbirds, even apartment dwellers without a backyard are able to visit the wild close to home.
When I replied by email that the small bird was a Dark-eyed Junco, Brad responded later that he hoped it wasn’t the Cooper’s Hawk’s meal. “They eat what they can catch” was my reply.
These are great picts by your son Brad. VERY good quality. Mind if I ask what type of camera he used for these picts? My wife is begging me for a new camera, I just showed her these pictures and her reply was, “I want that camera!” Thanks for sharing.
I believe he has one of the so-called “four-thirds”, the smaller format cameras that are really popular now. I will contact him and find out the specifics — like his dad he has traded lenses fairly regularly. The great thing about all of the equipment offered today, there are excellent products, and enough models out there that the competition is fierce. Unfortunately, finding the specific camera for your needs is tough. I’ll check and respond again, if possible.
Brad sent along his specific camera and lens — I’ve always been careful with camera recommendations, each camera has its own qualities and everyone is different. Brad said he is using a Panosonic GH2, and for the bird photos he used a 100-300 Lumix lens. The smaller format sensors apply a so-called “magnification factor”, the 100-300 zoom lens, for example, and I’m only guessing, may equal a 600mm or even greater “35mm lens” — magnification relates to the sensor or film size, a Canon D20 that I used was perhaps a “1.6″ X magnification factor, a 100mm lens used with the smaller sensor equalled a 160mm lens on the D20. Sorry for the confusion. With interchangeable lenses now, there are one or two zoom lenses of excellent quality that seemingly can “do it all”, from moderate wide angle out to very significant telephoto “reach”. One site to check if you want to compare cameras, prices and quality of the images would be http://www.dpreview.com — then go to the specific brand of camera and then the list of models. It is possible to put up two (possibly more) cameras on the screen to directly compare. I think local stores that have a helpful staff would also be an excellent place to start.
Same here… was wondering what kind of camera was used… thanks for the information below. I’m going to check out the Panosonic GH2 on Amazon… well after seeing the price, make that ebay!
Thanks! The camera is a Panasonic Lumix GH2 with the Lumix 100-300mm lens.
Indeed, Omaha does have a thriving bird community within the city. There is a Cooper’s Hawk perched on a lightpole at about 162nd and Center. I’ve seen him almost daily for 2 years. I’ve documented over 50 different species in my backyard in Omaha. Glad to see others snapping pics.
Butch, have you been taking any pictures of the birds in your backyard? We would love to have you share them.
I have pics of about 20-30 different species in my backyard. Some are good, others not.
I would be happy to share. How?
You can email them to scott.bonertz@nebraska.gov. We can post there here and on our social media spots.
I emailed a bunch of pics to the addy above but they got kicked back. Tried it with just 3 pics/email and that didnt work either. I send a link to my fb. Let me know what else you would like me to do.