Subject: [Tweeters] Leucistic Pine Siskin
Date: Mar 10 12:15:46 2010
From: johntubbs at comcast.net - johntubbs at comcast.net




Hi Doris,



I have several cameras that I use.? The Pine Siskins were taken with a Panasonic Lumix FX28, which is a digicam (no separate lens) that has an 18X optical Zeiss lens built in.? This is a great little and inexpensive ($300) camera when you don't want to haul mega lenses and cameras around.



I'm doing more painting now than photography, so tend to only use the Lumix since I can take it and my painting gear.?



When I was doing really hardcore bird photography, I used (and still have and use on occasion) Canon professional SLR bodies and lenses - a 1Ds Mark II and a 1D Mark II coupled with large (500mm and 600mm) Canon professional lenses.? These are really serious investments, heavy as all get out and require a tripod because of their weight and size.? A complete rig with camera, lens and tripod at that level of gear is around $20,000 unfortunately.? Another option, which I haven't gotten very good at yet, is 'digiscoping' which involves using a cheap point and shoot camera and taking pictures through a spotting scope.? So basically in that situation, you're using the spotting scope as a substitute lens.



Unfortunately the nature of bird photography, with very small, highly active subjects that are often buried in vegetation or quite far away, it's really tough to get good shots without really high end gear.



Hope this helps.



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net


----- Original Message -----
From: johntubbs at comcast.net
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:46:26 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: [Tweeters] Leucistic Pine Siskin




Hi everyone,



The latest unusually-plumaged bird to visit the yard was a leucistic Pine Siskin that showed up with the normal flock this morning to tank up on some water from our recirculating stream.? Much of the bird (particularly the head through the shoulders) is quite white, but the eyes are normal color?and there is the normal yellow wash on the wings and tail and some streaking on the flanks and other locations as in a normal bird.? It was quite an interesting bird to watch, although it was so active that getting decent pix was a little challenging in the low morning light.



The following link shows the body of the bird - http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=9869256&cat=38994 ?- and clicking Next from that link shows a frontal view of the bird, with its almost completely white head.



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net


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