227/365 - Jim - Rejected Egg

( f/13 105mm 1/13 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I found this robin egg in my front yard landscaping. It must have been rejected from the nest, but I didn't see any nests around it. I moved it into the grass and got really low by laying on the grass and letting bugs crawl all over me to take this photo. Then I used Lightroom to give the grass more of a wheat field look. I also applied a softening effect with Picasa.

215/365 - Jim - Cohabitant

( f/7.1 400mm 1/200 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This robin made itself a nest under my deck. Every year there is a nest there. I don't know if it is the same bird or just a great place for a nest. I'm sure there is probably eggs in it already. Every year we don't catch it in time, so I would feel bad knocking it out of there with eggs already in it. What the bird doesn't know, is that we plan on building an addition, so she better raise those little ones before demolition begins.

165/365 - Jim - Robin

( f/5.6 200mm 1/800 sec ISO 800 Nikon D300 )

I saw a bunch of birds outside after work, so I decided to put my sneakers on and see how stealthy I could be. I went into the front yard and hid behind a tree until they flew into it. Seeing the Robins makes me feel like Spring is almost here, which... it is. So birding was kind of fun. I'd like to get the Nikon 2x Teleconverter though so I could get double the reach and not have to be as stealthy. I didn't realize I was at ISO 800 and wondered why I was getting some incredible shutter speeds at f/8. Then I realized, but it was a little too late. Thankfully the D300 does alright with slightly higher ISO, so the noise isn't that bad.