Maybe a quiz, maybe just a gallery

(Click to see larger image in new window.)

Treat this as you like, of course, but I started to put up a gallery of the best birds shots of the past week and it metamorphed into something of a high-bred quiz. That is, you can look at the images and read the captions - or you can look at the images, test your bird identification skills, check the captions and decide if you have it right - or for that matter, if I have it right.

See, I'm no hot-shot birder. I like to be outside and I like to take pictures and that goes together with my casual birding. As to my ID skills, don't make the mistake Bren did and assume I have it right. We both saw the last bird in this series (one of the five pictures of him is at the top of this entry) and I thought it was one thing and she another - but she kept quiet, assuming I knew what i was talking about, especially when it comes to hawks. Well I don't. She was right. I was wrong.

Which was something I didn't discover until I got home, studied the picture, put away my prejudices, and declared it was a ------. Well, I'm not saying because you may want to make your own evaluation. But then I learned that was what she thought it was all along! Ah well. So you can read my IDs and in some cases the reasoning behind them and I think I'm right, but I know all too well, I can be wrong and would be delighted to be corrected by someone who knows better.

See this whole digital photography trip I've been on has turned into a most wonderful learning experience and one of the things I'm learning about is birds. I find that with my new telephoto lenses on the Canon Digital Rebel - you can read all about them in Dancing with Light - are giving me such wonderful closeups that with a lot of luck and a little skill I can bring the bird home with me, commune with it on the computer, and make a much surer ID then I do in the field. It's not fool proof, though, and it's easy to be a fool and see what you expect to see instead of what is there.

Beyond that, the frozen motions, the rapid fire (2-3 frames per second in a 4-frame burst) and close-ups are giving me insights into the birds both as individuals and as specific types. So I find the whole thing is enriching my experience in many ways.

But take a look! If you want to test yourself, when you load the first image arrange your screen so you have to scroll to read the caption at the bottom. That way I won't give away my answer too soon.

I put galleries up in three sizes for different screen resolutions. If your screen is 1000 pixels wide - or larger - I'd advise the largest size. If it is 800-pixels wide, then go with the medium or the small. (Smaller sizes download faster which may be important if you are on a modem.)

Don't know how big your screen is? Well, the image at the top of this column is 500-pixels wide so perhaps you can judge by that. Click on it and you will get an image in a new window that is 720 pixels wide - the same width as the images in the largest gallery linked below.

And please feel free to comment, correct me, or whatever. My email address is at the top of each image or better yet, post a comment by using the form at the bottom of this entry.

Know them on sight!? Large Version of Gallery

Know them on sight!? Medium Version of Gallery

Know them on sight!? Small Version of Gallery

Posted by Greg Stone at March 22, 2004 01:10 PM