I just returned from scouting new locations for future workshops and boy, did I find a gem.
The owners of this property have been putting out fruit every morning for years, at about 7 am each morning like clockwork, the birds arrive.
There were over 30 Kiskadees flying in to pick up grapes, along with three Altimira Orioles fighting over orange halfs, and at least half a dozen Golden-fronted Woodpeckers.
About a dozen Orange-crowned Warblers would feed on the suet. Mockingbirds would land and grab berries, then fight for positions on my perches.
On one day, there were four Clay-colored Thrushes coming to feed on the grapes, which is a rare bird indeed.

This is my third time to shoot at this location and every time I have witnessed the same insane action!
In the blind I used my wide angle lens to try to capture the scene, but it was hard to stop shooting the action with my 600 MM.
Here is the image I took. You can see 7 Kiskadees (one behind the stump), 3 Altimira Orioles, 3 Golden-fronted Woodpeckers (one behind the log) and a Mockingbird.
For those who are in doubt, let me assure you that this is not photoshopped.

Almost as soon as I put the berry branches out, the Kiskadees and Mockingbirds were feeding on the fruit.

Here the Kiskadees are fighting over perches.

The Golden-fronted Woodpeckers also took a liking to the berries.

This is a set-up with a verticle perch and some added berries.

Waving goodbye!

Northern Mockingbirds are very particular about the berries they want.

Once the berries were gone, I worked on some flight images as the Kiskadees would fly in for the grapes and banana pieces.

It wasn’t long before the birds would land on any stable perch that I put out there.

The stunning Altimira Oriole gave me some regal poses.

Setting up a perch very colse to my blind and adding a small dab of suet in the leaves, enabled the Orange-crowned Warbler to stop and feed.

The highlight of the day, for me, was a visit by not one, but four Clay-colored Thrushes. My heart pounded when one jumped up on my perch and posed.

So many times I wanted to give someone a high five after getting a shot, but I was alone.
If you want to join me in a workshop at this location and share in some high fives, just contact me.

I spent a nice few days on a friends ranch just south of San Antonio, TX. One of the ranch hands who was a hunter had shot a wild boar/hog and allowed me to have it to use to attrach birds of pray.
The first thing I did was to find a location that had a nice distant background and clear horizon, allowing the sunrise to hit the set up. I dragged some limbs from the nearby woods to set up over the hog.
Once I did that I set up my doghouse blind and left it all there for a day.

It did not take long before I had many Crested Caracaras and Black Vultures feeding on the carcass.

With all the commotion going on with the feeding frenzy, it was the sub-adult Caracara that was the dominant one. He would try to fight off all the other birds coming in to feed.

While there were many birds feeding, some of the birds would stage on the perches I had set up.

I also managed to get a few flight shots.

In a couple of months I’m going back again when all the wild flowers are blooming and the Texas Hill Country is in all it’s glory. I’m sure I will be in Hog heaven again.

So now that you are doing set-ups and choosing your own perches, have you given any thought as to what angle you place the perch around your set-up?

Well I have been playing around with this for many years. Here’s what I have settled on doing.

If you place the perch going away from you, the bird will land with his side to you. I call this the field guide pose

This image of a Worm-eating Warbler shows the bird in good position, but I feel that the perch running up through the frame is distracting. I also do not like the perch vegatation extending from the back.
The thing I dislike the most is that unless you are shooting at f16, the near and furthest part of the perch will be out-of-focus.

If we place the perch parallel to the camera plane, the the bird will land facing you or with his back to you.

The perch is now all in focus and no part of the perch is running through the bird. But how can we get the perch to look like this and the bird to look like it does in the image with the perch set away from us?

Well, what I have discovered after many hours doing this is that even though the bird will land with his back to you or facing you full on……

It’s only a matter of seconds before the birds does what I call the “twist”. All small birds move on the perch this way.
If you give them a few seconds, they will either turn back when they want to move along the perch.

Now you have the best of both worlds. The perch is nice and sharp and all in focus. No part of the perch is extending out of the bird and the bird is parallel to the camera plane showing that field guide pose.
So when I set my perches up around my feeders and drip ponds, I set them parallel to the camera and wait for that “twist”.

All images are the copyright of Alan Murphy Photography.

© 2009 Alan Murphy Photography