Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Another year another yard Merlin w/bad photos

  This morning I let the dog out, filled the bird feeders, then scanned the sky and nearby trees for birds.  Suddenly I noticed a falcon land in a large tree several  (back)yards away.  It was a Merlin.  Last year, I photographed a Merlin in the same tree on January 5.    Here is a composite of shots from today.

   

    All morning I've been wrestling with this question.....is a composite of six bad photos better or worse than the sum of its parts? 
   Here are the excuses for the bad photos.  1) Photos were taken from 8:00 AM-8:03 AM, while sun had just risen at 7:59 AM, it hadn't broken through the clouds near the horizon.  2)  According to Google distance finder the tree that the bird is in is 516' from my barbecue that I was leaning against.  3)  I used a barbecue for stabilization instead of a tripod because the bracket that attaches the camera to the tripod was in my car which Google distance finder shows is 43.14 feet from my barbecue. 

It looks like at least 45 feet.

4 comments:

  1. LOL as the young people say nowadays.Always makes me chuckle to see your Bad pics are better than my Good ones.(exhibit one, facebook Birding Michigan page,check out the lighting etc on the Kestrel)

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  2. I don't have a facebook account. To paraphrase Groucho Marx.... I can't respect an entity that would so readily accept me as a member.

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  3. You don't know what you are missing.Only today my Friends posted a picture of a Cat that looks like Chewbacca,an Anthrax video,and a poem about how much they love their Mum.And I've only got 39 of them.Imagine the untold treasures your popular self might unlock.The Birding groups are pretty good too,lots of pics and discussions.

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  4. They have 1.2 billion users. I can't join now just on principle.

    ReplyDelete