Hoary Redpoll

Gallery: AvianPosted January 12, 2013103 views7 comments

One heck of a surprise this afternoon when I came upstairs and looked out the window at the feeders. I live in southern South Dakota. I've never even had a Common Redpoll in my yard before, until this winter, when Common Redpolls seem to be everywhere in the state. For me, I didn't see my first Common Redpoll in my yard until 10 days ago.

Today, I look out and see half a dozen or so Redpolls, and this one Redpoll that was obviously different. I ran pretty darn fast for the camera once I realized it was a Hoary Redpoll. A lifer, a damned rare one for this area, all from the comfort of my sunroom!

Canon 50D, 400 5.6L, ISO 640, 1/200, f7.1. I did clone out several twigs in the upper-right part of the frame, something I don't normally do! But I don't normally get Hoary Redpoll photos! I have a lot of photos of him at my thistle feeder, but only a few frames in this tree. Hence, going to the trouble of cloning twigs.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 12, 2013 at 11:12 PM

Congratulations on the life and a fine photograph thereof, Terry. Sweet pose and eye contact.

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

Comment posted by Verdon on January 12, 2013 at 11:27 PM

excellent detail and pose, love the background , would be nice to be without branch on right hand side, but still beauty, well done

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on January 12, 2013 at 11:38 PM

The flat light worked well giving this a nice winter feel. Congrats on the new bird! It looks about as tired of winter as I am! Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on January 12, 2013 at 11:39 PM

congrats on both the Lifer and a fine image.
i'd get rid of the right branch to clean up a little and focus on the bird alone.
sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on January 13, 2013 at 9:04 PM

A species I've never seen (just the Common Redpolls) and not likely to ever find here in AZ.

Here's another perspective on the significance of finding one.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on January 13, 2013 at 9:49 PM

Way to go Terry, nice job in reacting to get this lifer, I had to look this one up.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on January 13, 2013 at 11:23 PM

Congrats on the lifer, Terry. Excellent techs. Well worth all the cloning effort.

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments