Saying Hello To The Nikon D7200

The D7000 and I have been together for a long time. Here is a Green-winged Teal back from our early days together, when everything was fresh and exciting and we were still exploring each other's bodies...er, when I was exploring the D7000 camera body. Cropped and color corrected, 1/800, F6.3, ISO 900. Photographed at Radio Road, San Mateo County.

I've said it in this space over and over and over again...I am not a photographer. Have never claimed to be. I do, however, take photos. Get it?

Some of you do, and that is all I can ask for. With that major disclaimer on the table, I have to mention that I do actually put in some occasional effort to take good photos...BB&B has hosted a large number of photos over the years, and hopefully they are only cringe-worthy every now and then (vagues). I rarely go birding with photography as my primary goal, but let's be real, having good photo ops adds to the quality of any birding experience if you are the sort who likes to carry a camera around.

I do get asked about camera gear, techniques, etc. from time to time, and now that I have a new camera, I thought it was time for the rare (first ever?) BB&B gear post. This isn't going to be super in depth, but it will hopefully be informative for a few readers who are thinking about upgrading their camera, or getting their very first.

For a number of years I have been using the Nikon D7000 (first released in 2010), which has been fine, though not amazing. The vast majority of content you have seen on BB&B for the last four years or so has been shot with that. It has been solid, performing well in low light compared to what I was using previously (the Nikon D90), though I have had some noticeable focus point issues the last couple of years that I'm sure are more the camera's fault than the lens I use. These problems were encountered both with birds in flight and birds out in the wide open, i.e. on the water or mudflats. Now it's no mystery to me why a camera can struggle with knowing where exactly it should be focusing for a sandpiper strolling through the muck 300 feet away, but a big Buteo soaring 300 feet away in good light should not be a challenge for a camera to figure out, you feel me? It won't be a crush, at least with a 400mm lens, but I expect sharp images at least.

The D7000 has never had difficulty figuring out what to do with anything in true crushing distance though, like this California Ground Squirrel surveying its domain. Unedited. 1/1000, F7.1, ISO 800. By the way I rarely post full size images to the blog, but this time they all are; double click on any photo to see it full size/high resoultion if interested. Photographed at Rancho de Bastardos.

Good chance a dirty AF sensor or contact is to blame for my D7000 problems, but now figuring it out is not a top priority. I'm happy to say that this summer I have upgraded to the Nikon D7200, which was first released in 2015 (hey, I didn't say this was a cutting edge post), which is two generations newer than the D7000; the Nikon D7100 came out between the two, but it was so similar to the D7000 that I had no interest in it.

So now to the meat of this post...what is there to like about the D7200? How is the D7200 different from the D7000?

*First and foremost, it is said that the sensor is just better, plain and simple. That is my impression as well. Better sensor, better photos.

*The highest ISO the D7200 allows you to use is really, really high. No one actually wants to be shooting at a six-figure ISO...but now they can!

California Quail, cropped but otherwise unedited. 1/640, F6.3, ISO 900. This is the most confident/acclimated California Quail I have ever seen. Photographed at New Brighton State Beach, Santa Cruz County.

Tricolored and Bicolored Blackbirds. 1/5000, F5.6 ISO 400. Very slightly cropped. Kind of surprised this came out considering the low light, but I just let the camera do what it thought was best (while shooting aperature priority) and it worked. Photographed at Alviso Marina County Park, Santa Clara County; I thought the Tricoloreds were a nice find, it's not something I expect to find along the bay in July.

*With the higher ISOs come higher quality performance at higher-than-ideal ISOs. I would love to shoot at 250 all the time but that is a far cry from the reality of bird photography. Photos at high ISO with the D7200 are noticeably not as grainy as with the D7000. With the D7000, I was always hesitant to shoot above ISO 800 due to the grain factor (up to 1600 was sometimes ok if only minimal cropping was needed), but I think I will have a higher ISO ceiling (comfort zone) with the D7200.

*You have much more flexibility with your ISO sensitivity range, and I LOVE having an ISO range to shoot at instead of just shooting at a fixed ISO - this makes a huge difference in how I shoot. With the D7000, the sensitivity range went 200-400-800-1600-3200-Hi1 (whatever that is). Certainly useful but I felt like there was a lot of ground between 800-1600-3200 that was unavailable to use as a maximum ISO. And to be clear, this is just your options for setting up your sensitivity range, not what all your options are when just setting a fixed ISO. With the D7200, you instead get to set a range between 200-250-320-400-500-640-800-1000-1250-1600-2000-2500-3200-4000-5000 etc. etc. all the way up to 25600. Exactly the kind of improvement I was looking for.

Mourning Dove. Tight crop but no other edits. 1/640, F5.6, ISO 1600. The grain is there but it's really minimal compared to what I would expect from the Nikons I have previously used. Awesome. Photographed at Rancho de Bastardos.

And here is the original photo for comparison. It's not going to win any aesthetic awards, but the colors look really nice both in the background and on the bird (and since I am constantly looking at them at extremely close range, I should remind everyone Mourning Doves are actually attractive birds). I'm impressed with the photo quality considering the ISO. Significantly, the grain visible in the crop above hardly looks different from the original photo, and practically no sharpness was lost. 

*The D7200 allows you to wirelessly download images straight from your camera into your mobile device. Pretty sick if you are into social media or getting an image out of a rarity to other birders ASAP, instead of the classic back-of-camera photo that is enjoyed by nobody.

*The D7000 has a small buffer. I have not been able to field test it yet, but the buffer on the D7200 is supposed to be twice as big when shooting JPEG. That means the camera is able to handle shooting a large number of pictures in a short period of time without becoming a temporarily useless hunk of plastic while it processes the photos you just took. The small D7000 buffer was absolutely killing me one day in Texas this spring while warblers were flopping around on the ground mere feet in front of me...there was some serious crushing going on, but how many crushes were missed? I don't think I even want to know.

*Another upgrade with the D7200 I have not gotten to experience much yet is that it supposedly has a more capable autofocus in low light conditions, which would obviously be extremely useful for bird photography, since birding in low light is often par for the course.

Caspian Tern. Mildly cropped with no other edits. The tern's head is partially in shadow but I really dig how much the bird pops, so to speak. 1/3200,F6.3, ISO 500. Photographed at Rancho de Bastardos.

So there you have it. The D7000 will now be the designated macro lens/landscape/people camera, and the D7200 will be doing the heavy bird lifting. So far I'm quite happy with it, and I look forward to all the memories we will make and the souls we will steal together. If any of you use the D7200 and have any tips or preferred settings for shooting birds, by all means leave a comment!

The Rancho, Rarities, Radii and Rebo

Christ on a cross! Should I just quit while I'm ahead? Put BB&B to sleep forever? The 5MR post has quickly shot up to the third most popular post we've ever had...and in case you've forgotten, that is ten years of blogging, close to 1,000 posts! What have I been doing with my life?! The only more popular posts are LIFE IS PAIN (thanks to Reddit) and RISE OF THE STORM WIGEON (thanks to birders and hunters).

Well, I'm not sure how to follow that up, so I suppose I can just cover some recent birding, which I've practically stopped doing somehow...blogging about it, that is.

March vagues. Well, somehow suddenly spring is here. It's been a real slow winter for yours truly as far as vague runts go, but the previous winter featured a Ross's Gull, so I can live with that. While great for wildflowers and so-so for spring migrants, this month is a mediocre (and I'm being generous with that adjective) time in the state for seeing chronic rarities. There have been a handful of notable exceptions in the state recently though...but I'm sure as shit not going to chase the goddamn Gyrfalcon again, which was well photographed this month and is quite possibly still here. As usual, Humboldt/Del Norte sucked in another winter MEGA in the form of a Black-tailed Gull, which (this year) is too far for me to see. A more-or-less-confirmed Steller's Eider has been seen by several observers in Humboldt County, which would fulfill a prophecy made by a certain visionary birder back in November. I would be exceptionally gripped off if other birders were having much luck refinding it, but high surf, bad weather and a lack of an elevated viewpoint is preventing that from happening...but I could really use seeing a megaeider right about now.

Closer to home instead of Nome, I dipped on a Slaty-backed Gull over the weekend here in Santa Clara County, which is very typical for me and that species - in general, February and March seems like a great time to find them in the state though. It's only the second in the county, but with all the gulls that winter here and the relatively few observers around who could identify one, I suspect they are here with some regularity. The bizarre, long-staying Garganey may have finally left its duck pond (mostly a Mallard pond) down south, as it has not been seen for a week.

Inexplicably, this year has been heavy on Bald Eagles for me so far, despite putting in no effort to see them (very nice, I like) - I've seen three from my yard alone! This one was next to my house at the Los Capitancillos Ponds.

This Anna's Hummingbird had the brilliant idea of building a nest right next to my hummingbird feeders...talk about convenience! She was able to incubate eggs while protecting her feeders at the same time. I suspect the chicks got eaten though :/

Rancho de Bastardos. The yard birding is pleasant as usual, but it has been a long time since a new bird has been added to the yard list. The most recent highlight was a California Towhee with a white head that bounded through the yard. The yard list sits at 120 species (newest addition was Red-breasted Merganser in January), with 87 recorded so far this year...that is tied for #1 in all of California, by the way. With spring migration in effect, I'm hoping it won't be long before we get something new...Orange-crowned Warbler, Bullock's Oriole, Allen's or Rufous Hummingbird would be nice.

March is a good time for scouring your 5MR. This White-tailed Kite was along the Los Alamitos Creek Trail, a part of my radius that I plan on giving more attention to this year.

The 5MR. What's funny (in a sad way) is that I've seen and heard about a ton of other 5MRs in the last week or so as this thing has blown up, and it turns out mine is one of the worst of them all in terms of potential for species diversity and rarities. No matter, I will keep on toiling! Incredibly, my last new 5MR bird (Rufous Hummingbird) was also a county bird....fuck yeah.

Winter rarities. As I said earlier, I've given up on catching the blog up on all the birding I've done...but it's not like it's been a completely dull winter, despite the lack of lifers and state birds. Here's some of the rarities I've met up with from the past few months.

I was hoping that this Barrow's Goldeneye (surrounded by Commons) would return to Shoreline Lake this winter, and the dude obliged. Nice county bird, and typically a species I only see a handful of times each year anyways.

After seeing the goldeneye, I bumped into this "Common" Teal in Charleston Slough, which I had totally forgotten was present. Sweet. We Nearcticans think of them as just another subspecies (or two, can't forget nimia), but the IOC treats them as a separate species. Will the AOS ever be persuaded to embrace this vision of distinct tealness?

Vesper Sparrows are really hard to come by in the bay area; they just don't venture to the coast very often. This obliging and confiding stub-tailed bastard at La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve (San Mateo County) was the first I've seen locally.

I went to San Luis National Wildlife Refuge for the first time this winter; it was mellow, not as birdy as Merced, but this Swamp Sparrow at a random part of the auto tour route was a nice find. It is only the 8th eBirded record for Merced County, though I'm sure with the amount of good habitat out there they occur on the reg.

This Vermilion Flycatcher wintering in Coyote Valley is the first Santa Clara County record, and was a great way to kick off local birding in 2017. This species has become considerably more regular in much of the state since when I started birding in the mid-90's, even factoring in the increase in observers.

And just like that, winter is singing its swan song and spring will be in full effect before you can say "five mile radius". I look forward to the year birds....and county birds! I didn't get out a ton in Santa Clara last spring, for reasons too boring to state here, but this year is different.

Of course, spring birding is really going to be kicked up a notch when I get out to Texas to lead a trip for MAX REBO BIRDING TOURS (no one finds Ortolans like Ortolans!), where every day will cough up all manner of avian rewards. I will be gagging on neotropical migrants. It will be truly gluttonous birding, even with slow days at the migrant traps. And while I mention it, a space just opened up on the trip...don't miss this opportunity!

Contact MAX REBO BIRDING TOURS for details.

The Bra Collector, A Touch of Turd, The H-Word

When you see a bra strung up on a fence, that can only mean one thing...

...a Loggerhead Shrike has been very busy. Clearly mice and sparrows are not enough for this insatiable fiend.

This fearless, woman-eating shrike (which is pooping out woman in this very photo) was in the Robinson Road area near Rio Vista in Solano County, which is a fantastic area for grassland birds. I dipped on the reliable Mountain Plovers, but it was a very successful day otherwise.

Sometimes a combo just needs to be shown, despite the rubbish photo. This Ferruginous-Swainson's Hawk combo was unexpected, and very much appreciated. Swainson's overwinter in the state in low numbers, primarily in the Delta region. I would go on to see double-digit numbers of Ferruginous Hawks here that morning, as well as several Rough-legged Hawks, one of 2016's big dips. I don't think I've had all three [lovable/amazing/inspiring/thirst-quenching] of these Buteo species in one place before, stoked.

A few Burrowing Owls were holding it down as well. Note the turd in the bottom right...much like myself, the Burrowing Owl loves decorating the entrance of its home with turds.

After giving up on the plovers, I went north for a staked out Glaucous Gull on the side of Yolo Bypass. It was pretty amazing to see the bypass being fully utilized...to the west of the dike I was on it was dry, to the east it was an inland sea out to the horizon! Yolo Bypass exists to keep Sacramento and other cities from flooding; when there is a lot of precipitation in the northern half of the state, a series of weirs upstream divert water from the Sacramento River into the bypass, which is mostly farmland. The farmland floods, the cities don't. Anyways...I was able to haynor the Glaucous Gull from an excruciating distance, and eventually it flew in a bit closer to feed on a dead coot. Not only did this end my stupid stupid 5-year drought of not seeing Glaucous Gulls, this was my lifer adult. Siiiiiiiiick.

Other highlights that day were Surf and White-winged Scoters (the latter was another bird I somehow missed in 2016) from Sherman Island, and a huge Tricolored/Yellow-headed Blackbird flock in a feedlot on the way home. Good times in The Great Valley.

In between winter storms I went out to Richmond Marina to see if anything needed crushing. This Forster's Tern did.

As did this one. That's quite the glaucous upperwing.

This female Common Goldeneye threw its feet out to help brake for landing, which made for a quick tasty crush.

I think it is time to come clean...Aechmophorus make me uncomfortable sometimes, I will admit it. You know, they are totally entitled to do what they do, but when certain individuals are around me I just want to get the hell out of there...not that I'm a Aechmorphobe.

Take this bird for example. Bright yellow-orange bill, pale flanks...solid Clark's field marks. But the black cap is sitting right on top of the bird's eye, and the dark nape stripe has a lot of girth to it. I'm inclined to call this a Clark's x Western Grebe hybrid, and you know how I feel about dropping h-bombs. Both Aechmorphorus may look different in the winter than in summer, but I don't think Clark's broaden that nape stripe when temperatures drop.

Here is a typical winter Western, with paler lores and dusky cheeks.

Aesthetically this photo has nothing to offer, but it does give you a good comparison of the broad nape stripe of a Western Grebe (left) with the narrower stripe of a Clark's (right).

When I still lived in Albany, I tried a number of times to see the Burrowing Owl that lived next to the parking area for Albany Bulb. Who does not want to see a Burrowing Owl just down the road from their house? However, I failed repeatedly, and all I got was judgement from this Say's Phoebe.

Luckily, Say's Phoebe did not go home with the "bird of the day" award. Small numbers of crecca Green-winged Teal, presumably from Siberia, make their way to California every winter; they are easier to find than Tufted Ducks, but rarer than Eurasian Wigeon. This is no crecca though...this is crecca x carolinensis. Not something you see every day. Don't let your kids look at this image, as few photos have been taken of something so impure.

A nice, clear-cut intergrade. The white lines on the face are pretty weak (carolinensis), but the bird possesses both a strong white vertical breast bar (carolinensis) and horizontal scapular bar (crecca). Cool bird. Albany Mudflats, Albany, CA.

An Ancient Harlan's Hawk, Newt Problems, Shades of Merlin

As any California birder knows, Humboldt offers a lot more than just the (very) occasional Great Gray Owl. There is no shortage of good birding spots to scour during the winter, so of course I had to check some other shit out while I was up there. I birded Arcata Marsh, since it is conveniently located right in town and just about anything can show up there...the dependable Swamp Sparrows I was looking for were not very dependable on this day, but the much more range-restricted Golden-crowned Sparrows were there in predictable abundance.

Unlike most birding spots, the marsh continues to grow in size and simply gets better and better when it comes to shorebirds and waterfowl, possibly to the detriment of the local Short-eared Owl population. This Greater Yellowlegs was feeding right in the face of this Green-winged Teal, foraging on little inverts the teal was stirring up with its bill. When you have a height of only a few inches it must be strange to have a yellowlegs looming over you, but the teal did not seem to mind.

This was apparently a successful foraging technique, as the yellowlegs did grab something while I was watching.

Over on the V Street Loop, this Great Blue Heron had gotten a hold of a much more interesting prey item...a large newt.

The heron did not appear to have a good idea of how to go about eating the newt, repeatedly dipping it in water, bashing it against the grass and not giving attempting to swallow it at all while I was there. This is an awkward thing to prey on at best, extremely toxic and deadly at worst. Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest used newt juice as a poison...

On the far side of the loop a cooperative Merlin was posted up on...a post. This bird struck me as being fairly pale, with no mustachial stripe...in the field I thought it was a female, but looking at the photos now I don't feel so sure about that. Interesting bird, I'm not quite sure what to make of it as far as age/gender/subpecies.

Elsewhere in the bottoms, I came across another, especially confiding Merlin. This bird was noticeably darker with heavier markings on the breast and belly than the first Merlin of the morning, but I'm not enthusiast about pulling the trigger and calling it a "Pacific" Merlin (I would expect a darker face and even more streaking/barring on the breast and belly). The vast majority of Merlins I've seen over the years usually zip by, giving shitty looks...I'd like to have more time to watch these birds and get to know each subspecies more.

For all you robin-strokers out there, here is an American Robin. There are thousands in the Arcata Bottoms in the winter. It is known.

Much, much more interesting than the area robins was this Harlan's Hawk. This bird has been wintering along the Highway 101 corridor between Eureka and Arcata for over a decade (!), usually near the Jacoby Creek Cutoff. In the past, I had only seen it while on the freeway, getting a quick naked-eye glimpse of it perched on a billboard or something and thinking "Oh, that was probably the Harlan's", but I finally managed to get great looks at the bird on this trip.

The bird is extremely dark, lacking any "warm" tones whatsoever. Fitting for an Alaskan bird. The uppertail (not visible in any of my photos) appeared dark gray without a hint of red, with a prominent dark subterminal band.

Although I never saw it fly, this bird definitely provided the best looks I've had of any Harlan's. Hopefully it will make it back to Humboldt this fall once again.

It was a relatively quiet winter in Humboldt as far as rarities go, but with a Snowy Owl (that I gleefully did not chase) showing up shortly after I was up there, the winter Vague Runt season ended for local birders on an extremely high note. What will show up next winter? Steller's Eider? Gray Wagtail? Black-tailed Gull? Siberian Accentor? The possibilities boggle the mind.

WINTER IS COMING

I found this Black-and-white Warbler back in October at Lake Merced in San Francisco, CA. It stuck around for a while; the one time I saw this bird again after I reported it, people were completely losing their shit over it. That's cool and all, but the panicked mob that kept trying to stand as close to the bird as possible was more than I could handle.

Well birders. How is winter treating you so far? I wish I could have used this blog title sooner (which is a Game of Thrones cliche, obvi), but I am stuck in the glorious rut-glut of the Dry Tortugas. It's not like I haven't been birding locally though, don't worry about that.

Now that the awkwardness of Thanksgiving is behind us, we can just focus on birds for a few weeks. Multiple colleagues of mine were rumored to almost have been killed over the holiday...which is a typical Thanksgiving for most people I know. I did my part and threw bourbon in somebody's face (it was obvious he needed that), so at least I have stopped my streak of not mentioning bourbon on this blog. I get a lot of complaints about that. Anyways, Christmas will soon come crashing down on everyone, stopping birding plans in their tracks from coast to coast, so we have got to get our winter birds when we can.

Now is the time! So get out there. Find the White-winged Crossbill. Find the Northern Shrike. Find the Snowy Owl, the Iceland Gull, the Snow Bunting. You may fail in your quest to find these birds, for it has been said, "In this world, only winter is certain". But it is better to have toiled and struggled in the snows and icy wastes with scope and binoculars than to cower in a tepid fear of failure in your big, lonely apartment.

I have to admit, it was pretty confiding (I said it!), whether upside or right side up.

Black-and-white Warblers are legendary for being impervious to the forces of gravity.

This is now officially my best Yellow Warbler shot. Time to break out the champagne. It's sweet-sweet-sweet-oh-so-sweet. That's birder humor right there, in case you missed it. Photographed at Lake Merced.

This is one of two Tropical Kingbirds that spent at least a month at Lake Merced. Some people saw them at retina-bursting close range, but that usually happened early in the morning...which is something I don't see a lot of (you know, Perpetual Weekend and all...).

One of the now famous "Devil Birds" that will soon turn Lake Merced into a biological cesspool of evil and filth. If you are unfamiliar with this story, it's just a Great-tailed Grackle that needs to look at itself in a mirror.

People are naturally drawn to chubby birds with short tails, so I know you are getting your kicks in with this young White-crowned Sparrow regrowing its tail. It most likely lost its tail in a close call with a predator. Hayward Regional Shoreline, CA.

Golden-crowned Sparrow is a west coast specialty. The sight of an adult Golden-crown mellowly frolicking through the morning dew makes the heart soar (not "sore") and the eyes water. It's an emotional bird. Lake Merced, CA.

The gray. The black. The GOLD. What a bird.

Green-winged Teal. Look at this plump little bastard. Now that its December and winter has come, ducks are going to be looking real sharp compared to their crappy fall coats. Radio Road, Redwood Shores, CA.

Northern Pintail is widely recognized as America's best dabbling duck. I am not one to argue with this...evolution has made the pintail one of the best examples of what can be accomplished within subtle confines of The Economy of Style. Photographed at Radio Road.

Just when you thought a drake pintail only had about 4 colors to offer, it busts out a purple patch on its head. Damn, what a bird.

Even when you've seen a billion, and you have pictures of a million, American Avocets fail to get old...especially in winter when they aren't shrieking their shrill death-calls at you.  Photographed at Radio Road.