We got up a bit earlier than usual so we'd be ready to photograph birds at The Pond. I had a bowl of Post Raisin Bran and made a mug of Nescafé Clásico instant coffee to go.

We walked over to The Pond around 6:30 and Bill helped us set up some props. When we had everything set up like we liked, J and I each got into a blind and started photographing the birds. What a blast to photograph all of the species that came for the water and food! A list of the species we photographed throughout the day is to the right. My favorite image from the morning is of a male northern cardinal stretching its wings while it was down at the water's edge drinking (left). I thoroughly enjoyed watching and photographing the Yuma antelope squirrels that came by and occasionally took a drink from the pond (below). J really enjoyed photographing the hooded orioles.


We returned to the RV around 10:40 and I downloaded the images I took this morning then downselected them in iView while having some Clif Bars for lunch. I worked up a blog entry.

I went back out around 2:15 to photograph hummingbirds at a setup that Bill had in the shade. I got some decent images of broad-billed hummingbirds. Then Bill fine tuned a Phototrap setup to automatically take pictures if a bird was in a particular place in space near the feeder. Bill and I chatted for a while while the Phototrap system was taking pictures for me. J came out around 3:15, and I helped her set up some props for the afternoon. I took down my camera that was photographing the hummingbirds so that I'd be able to use my 500 for the afternoon. In hindsight, I should have switched lenses and left the 70-200 set up on the Canon 1Ds Mk III to take pictures of the humingbirds while I was out in the blind photographing birds with my Canon 1D Mk III and 500 f4.

I just love pyrrhuloxia! They're an exotic species for this easterner who grew up with northern cardinals. I was able to get several nice images of a male throughout the day, and the the one to the far left is my favorite. Quail are another favorite for us, and in the afternoon, we were able to get some nice close shots of some male Gambel's quail including the one to the near left.

We took a short break around 5:00 to go back to the RV for a potty break and to pick up dinner to take back to the blinds: Clif Bars for me and a peanut butter and honey sandwich and chips for J.

We continued photographing until the light got really low around 6:10.
Then we switched camera gear and setups to photograph bats over the pond like last night. However, J used her 100-400 so I could use her 70-200 f2.8 to also photograph a western screech owl coming in to get a mouse. Well, setting up to photograph the screech owl was a comedy of errors, so J did the final framing and focussing of my bat camera and then operated both long cable releases while watching the TV for bats to fly to The Pond.

Bill had told me to bring two flashes to photograph the screech owl, so I brought my Canon Speedlite 580EX II and 550EX. On my way back to The Pond, J intercepted me and said Bill also wanted me to bring some flash brackets. So, I went back to the RV and picked up two tiny ball heads that had a flash bracket on the top. When I got back to The Pond, Bill said I'd need a flash on the camera to trigger the two flashes, so I went to the Jeep and got J's Canon Speedlite 420EX because I couldn't find her 580EX. Then Bill said that the small ball heads I brought wouldn't work, and what he needed was the small feet that came with the Canon flashes. I told him I only had one, and as I went to get it, he got a regular off-camera hot shoe to mount the other flash. We started setting up the equipment for the screech owl, and it was a really unique contraption. There was a cross-shaped frame with the target at the head, flash brackets on the two arms, and a post with a ball head for the camera at the base. The whole thing was mounted on a pivot point near the balance point, and the idea was to swing the contraption around so that the owl would fly in from the tree where it was perched directly in line with the target and camera. He had two Phototrap sensors mounted below the owl's intended flight path to trigger the camera. As we were setting up the focus, I realized that he hadn't connected my two main flashes to anything and of course they weren't going off. Bill said that my on-camera flash was supposed to be triggering the two main flashes. Uh, the 420EX can't be used as a master, and it has been damaged so it no longer works as a slave either, so I ran back to the RV to get a PT-04TM wireless flash trigger transmitter and two receivers. So, now I was using the Canon Speedlite 580EX II and 550EX mounted on the wireless receivers and clamped to the flash holders (no special feet required) and the wireless transmitter on the camera body (no on-camera flash required) — aaah!

Bats had started arriving at The Pond while Bill and I were messing around with the owl contraption, but none of the bats were tripping the IR beams to set off the flashes. I used J's iPod to play a western screech owl call to attract the owl, and after a while an owl came in and stole the mouse that we had out on the target without tripping the Phototrap sensors! :( We put out another mouse and then called in another owl. I didn't see it land to the right of where it had landed before, and it was able to come in and grab the mouse from the side without tripping the Phototrap sensors. :( We put out another mouse and then called in another owl. We caught it (below), but it was small in the frame and a bit soft. We adjusted the framing and focus, then put out another mouse. It took quite a while, but an owl eventually came in and took the mouse. Unfortunately, the framing was too tight and I clipped off its wing.

Meanwhile, J was able to capture a big brown bat on both of our cameras as it flew through the trap and set off the flashes (below right). There's usually much higher bat activity at this time of year, but temperatures have been cooler than usual.


J had started to freeze, and the owls hadn't been heard for a while, so we started to pack up around 9:30. We weren't going to run the fully automatic bat system overnight tonight.

We returned to the RV around 10:00. I downloaded the images I took this afternoon and evening then downselected them in iView. I set up a snipe for a Quantum Cable CZ to power a Canon Speedlite that was on auction at eBay to replace the similar cable we have that has an intermittent fault. I went to bed around midnight.