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Great images everybody!

When I hike up in alpine terrain I like to have a long lens along just in case I come across interesting wildlife. One of my favorite small critters up there is the American Pika, a very small member of the rabbit family, about the size of a baked potato, that spends its summers collecting and drying out grass in hay piles up against the rocks and then instead of hibernating it lives off the dried grasses all winter even though there can be many feet of snow covering up the rocks.

They're pretty easy to find once you hear their sharp alarm squeaks while standing tall on top of rocks and then you just have to find the biggest hay stacks to know where they live.

Here's one I captured up in a high canyon showing off his hay pile

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We stopped at Hat Rock to walk our doggy a couple days ago. I decided to carry the D850/200-500mm
and managed to get one semi-clear shot on a Downy woodpecker that was playing peek-a-boo on the trail.
Edit- I just printed this on our new printer with Canon Premium matte paper and I am so happy....lol

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DRwyoming said:
Love the Quail shots.
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Since you mentioned quail....lol
For awhile there it was my life's mission to get a few decent California Quail photos. Fortunately we have a perfect area for such a mission.Here is a couple that probably belong in the backyard thread.

This California Quail was soaking in the morning rays overlooking Alex' garden.
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California Quail calling out Chi-ca-go, Chicago!! in Central Washington.
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Hut said:
Since you mentioned quail....lol
For awhile there it was my life's mission to get a few decent California Quail photos. Fortunately we have a perfect area for such a mission.Here is a couple that probably belong in the backyard thread.

This California Quail was soaking in the morning rays overlooking Alex' garden.
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California Quail calling out Chi-ca-go, Chicago!! in Central Washington.
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Fabulous shots Hut...Love the colours.
 
Thanks for the kind words. I hope no one minds if l share just one more for now.
The California Quails topknot or plume looks like a single feather but it is actually 6 individual feathers in a group.

This is one of my favorites. At the Columbia NWR in Grant County, not Sparta.
Nikon D500, Tamron 150-600mm
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Was out scouting a location where I hope to shoot tomorrow morning before work and just carried my D500 and 500mm PF to get a sense of the setting, perches, backgrounds etc. as it was mid afternoon and the light was pretty harsh. But by the time I headed back to the car the shadows were getting a bit longer and I stopped to watch this Pine Warbler as he hunted insects in the tall grass. No opportunity for any shots until he jumped up on this old snag and posed for me for a couple of minutes.

Nikon D500, 500mm PF @ f/5.6, 1/2500", ISO 560
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O.K., I realize there's nothing wild about this 'bird' and don't want to derail the thread but after capturing the image above and a few more I continued back to my car, saw a bunch of birds up high catching bugs but watched more than shot. Then as I headed across a big open field I heard this guy approaching carrying a big load on a long line and then turning to land pretty near where I was parked. I just really liked that evening light on the ship with the shaded canyon in the distance. I've shot from helicopters a few times and even photographed a few as part of story packages (heli served backcountry skiing) but I'm no aviation photographer, still it was fun seeing this guy in the viewfinder:

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As my old gal Gooberdoo and I were out hiking the desert unit early one morning we saw this curious coyote watching us in the shrub steppe.
In 2018 D3400, Tamron 150-600mm

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DRwyoming said:
O.K., I realize there's nothing wild about this 'bird' and don't want to derail the thread but after capturing the image above and a few more I continued back to my car, saw a bunch of birds up high catching bugs but watched more than shot. Then as I headed across a big open field I heard this guy approaching carrying a big load on a long line and then turning to land pretty near where I was parked. I just really liked that evening light on the ship with the shaded canyon in the distance. I've shot from helicopters a few times and even photographed a few as part of story packages (heli served backcountry skiing) but I'm no aviation photographer, still it was fun seeing this guy in the viewfinder:

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Very cool, again with a great background :cool:
 
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The quality of these images is not great but they serve a memory for me. A few years ago, I was walking my dog in the local park when all of sudden we were surrounded by a flock of about 40 birds circling us. Shocked by the situation, I pulled camera up to eyeball and started shooting not even thinking about settings. They were flying as close as 1 metre from me. When I got home and looked at the images on the PC, I just put them aside because they were so blurry and promptly forgot about them apart from establishing they were swallows and that they would have been on a feeding frenzy snaffling up insects. Well, tonight when I came across them again, I decided to run some of them very quickly through Topaz Denoise/Sharpen and these are the best results. Just goes to show, even keeping what you should discard can sometimes pay off.
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Oztours said:
The quality of these images is not great but they serve a memory for me. A few years ago, I was walking my dog in the local park when all of sudden we were surrounded by a flock of about 40 birds circling us.....
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Nice. I like the shots of three and four birds lined up on the rope.
 
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Since I'm working from home this year, most days I take an after-lunch walk down a trail near my house.
The light usually is mid-day harsh, however I've gotten practice and had fun.

Here are two from today:
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Nikon D500, 70-300mm DX f/4.8 1/250 ISO250 @135mm cropped
(why didn't I zoom in more? :)

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Nikon D500, 70-300mm DX f/6.3 1/1600 ISO1100 @300mm cropped
(why didn't I reduce the shutter speed and ISO? :)
 
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Here's a follow up to the Pine Warbler image above. I wouldn't really call this a 'walking around photo' as this was the result of yesterday's scouting and finding a nice quiet back channel hemmed in by bushes with a good variety of perches. I went back this morning before sunrise, set up a pop up blind and brought my big glass and tripod then sat down to see what came by. It didn't take long for the Wrens, Warblers and Flycatchers to start hunting bugs around the stream and though many of them just darted in and out of the bushes a few perched in the open before flying off in search of more bugs.

I guess the point is that the walking around can also be good location scouting and can help identify places worth returning to for some more focused time behind the camera.

Here's an image I liked of a Western Peewee stopping by for a quick portrait session.

Nikon D850, 600mm f/4 with TC-14-iii, 850mm @ f/5.6, 1/1000", ISO 250.

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