Chickadee and Ant

Gallery: AvianPosted May 15, 2010230 views5 comments

Reposted with large version added

This chickadee parent is perched on a birdhouse made by Rolf Holmquist of Burnsville, North Carolina (www.rolfholmquist.com). She has a large ant in her mouth and is getting ready to enter the house to feed her babies. The birdhouse is made from materials left over from constructing our house in the North Carolina mountains.

Canon 7D with 400/5.6 lens
1/400s @f/8.0 in manual mode
Shot in RAW using tripod

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Michael Twaddell on May 15, 2010 at 8:15 PM

I like the headturn and the eye contact, and the ant is a bonus! There is some noise in the shaded white part of the bird, down by the legs. I have found that "despeckle" takes this type of noise away nicely, if you are using PS. One of my other hobbies is drinking beer, so I don't mind the beer caps, but I don't think that others will share my thought on that one!

Registered on August 16, 2007, 199 Posts, 2132 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on May 16, 2010 at 1:24 AM

Cute capture and cute bird house.

The birdhouse is made from materials left over from constructing our house in the North Carolina mountains.

It looks like Corona Beer was one of the building materials?

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Michele Williams on May 16, 2010 at 6:52 AM

Thanks Mike and Jim.

Mike - I had not noticed the noise before, but when I magnified I could see it too. I'll try the despeckle.

Mike and Jim - It occurred to me that others on NPN might not like the beer caps, but this artist uses salvaged materials for all his work and used beer caps certainly qualify -- it's just another way to recycle. The chickadees obviously don't mind them, and that's what really matters! :)

Registered on April 3, 2010, 28 Posts, 146 Comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on May 16, 2010 at 11:03 AM

Certainly a one-of-a-kind shot! Neat.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on May 16, 2010 at 11:30 AM

Nice shot, Michele. Excellent detail and an interesting pose.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments