The spotter

Birds require a spotter, and someone to help hold things for changing lenses. This was a dark and overcast day, and I had the third string (least telephoto) lens to try to compensate. The dense foliage, while not hampering vision too much, makes it hard to focus and see the bird through the trees.

Heron at dusk

Look and feel of the map

I grew up hiking in the Great Basin with the old 1:62K topo sheets, and when the 1:24K sheets came out, they had a much different look. Now the newer 1:24K sheets have an even different look. Our Verteran's Day "tradition" is to go hiking at Shenandoah. Last year it snowed as we came back, but this year it only rained. The USGS topo maps are free to download, and I got both the 2019 editions and the 1994 version. They look different (the new pictogram symbols just don't seem like a topo map, more the NPS brochure), and I had both on my phone for our hike around Big Meadows to see Lewis Spring Falls and then the disappointing Tanners Ridge Cemetery, which is not historic but very much a typical cemetery. The big omission on the current map are the buildings, which are some of the key landmarks for navigating, and picking the right trail.

The hiking was the day before the rain, but it was cloudy and the photography disappointing.

Herons with the fall colors

I've been taking the B team bird lens lately, since it's much lighter and easier to carry. It does not get as close to the birds, but sometimes the wider view catchs more of the fall colors.

Digging in for the winter

Our crafty goundhog is gathering leaves, and taking them under the shed. His actions are in the shade, behind a stick piles and the raspberry bushes. Banging on the shed does not seem to bother him.

Heron at dusk

Fall colors on College Creek

Great egrets at Jug Bay

Where's Waldo?

 

View along College Creek.  Three birds are hiding in the view.

Cormorants.

Heron

Eagle

Locations of the birds

Fall colors, heron, and reflections

Early morning light (which this time of the year comes later and later each day), and no wind, so the creek is alive with reflections.

As always, click on the photos to see more detail.

 

Zoom in on the Fox

 I had three cameras the other day when we went out to see the foxes.  The focal lengths noted below are all the 35 mm camera equivalent.

• Pixel 3A, fits in a pocket, but no zoom, fixed at 27 mm.
• Olympus TG-870, with an optical zoom from 21-105 mm.
• Nikon D200 with a zoom from 300-750 mm.  While I have other lenses for this camera, changing the monster is not easy.

These pictures were all taken from the same spot, showing one fox.

Pixel 3A

Olympus, max wide angle

Olympus, max telephoto

Nikon, max wide angle for this lens

Nikon, max telephoto with this lens

Nikon, second view at max telephoto

Foxes on the creek banks

 

Not much sign of foxes in the neighborhood, either sightings or nightime sounds, but there were two today along College Creek, which gives us something else to look for if the birds are not active.   The opening up of the woods as the trees shut down will make it easier to see the foxes.