Special Feature - Defying Gravity: Blue Jays were swarming my suet cages. In an effort to save something for the smaller birds, I moved the suet cages away from adjacent limbs the Jays used for perches. This produced some humorous antics by the Blue Jays, who put on quite a show to reach the suet, even trying to hang upside down like woodpeckers and nuthatches. >>Read the rest of the story>>     Chronological Listing - News and special features: November 3, 2009 - Not long after the January '09 entry below I took another trip to the Outer Banks in February. I saw and photographed more ducks on that trip than ever before. Many new duck species and lots of great shots of ducks were added to the gallery and identification pages in the weeks after that trip. My next next trip came just last month in early October, but it did not turn out so well for birds. It was just too early for the migratory birds to be gathering and I frankly saw very few birds at all. I spent my time instead photographing the wild Spanish mustangs of Corolla for another of my websites, OuterBanksGuidebook.com, and came back with a lot of wonderful action shots of the wild horses. Over the summer I added an additional full-frame DSLR body to my equipment, along with a new tripod and ballhead, and a new lens for scenery to round out my camera bag. I'll be heading out soon for more busy days on the Outer Banks to see what I can capture of the migratory flocks along the North Carolina coast. January, 2009 - My fall/winter pilgrimages to the Outer Banks are underway in ernest now for the 08-09 season. Four trips so far have netted me a lot of new photos and new species - especially ducks. The new camera body is providing me with far greater resolution to work with, and the new images clearly show that. Not only are there a lot of new shots in the gallery, but those new photos translate into new images for the identification pages as well. I've gone through and cleaned out many of the older and lesser quality photos from the indentification pages, and removed the sometimes excessive number of images for individual species. Things flow much better now in the thumbnail sidebar. So, from here I'll see what time I have for the rest of the winter and into spring for more photo expeditions, and hopefully bring back some more great photos. October, 2008 - Well, it's autumn again, and prime photography season for me on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I've added another great new lens - a Canon 300mm f/4 L with image stabilization. Between it and the 500mm I reported last entry, I will get even better images than before. A new camera body is on the very near horizon as well, which will increase my image resolution 2 1/2 times for even finer photos. In the meantime, I've been off to the Outer Banks already, with more trips planned before January. The past two trips this month netted some super images which have already been added to the image gallery, including the Great Egret on the gallery main page. I've added several new species to my collection, which will soon be posted to the identification section. It looks like this year will be a good one for weather, and I expect to soon have many more photos to add. April 4, 2008 - Hmmm, it would appear not much has been going on for quite awhile, but appearances can be deceiving. Much has been happening, just not visible things on the web site. I now have a fantastic new 4WD vehicle with room for all my photography stuff, and comfort for those long trips exploring the great outdoors. Over the winter I've added a great new Canon 500mm image stabilized lens and teleconverter, gimbel tripod mount, refitted my small camoflaged "sneak boat", have a new equipment cart to drag my gear along with me into the boonies, and more. Besides all that, I just finished revamping the whole "image gallery" and added great new photos from my fall and winter trips. Now that spring is slowly creeping up, I intend to put my new goodies to great use. For now though, enjoy the "remodeling" job on the image gallery while I look for more things to put there. November 23, 2005 - New photos from an early November trip to the Outer Banks provided enough images for a whole new page and more for the Photo Print Gallery. It also netted four new species and new photos added to the Game Birds & Shorebirds section. September 17, 2005 - Added 21 photos to the lists of Gamebirds & Shorebirds. One new species was included (Northern Shoveler ducks). December 23, 2004 - Added 46 photos to the lists of Songbirds, Gamebirds, etc., and 3 new species (Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Black-bellied Plover). December 20, 2004 - Busy, busy, busy. I've made a major expansion to the gallery of available prints/stock photography. There are now over 180 photos (more than four times as many) available. Prints are no longer limited to just 8x10. Larger prints up to 20"X30" are now available, depending upon the original digital image size. I've also added a new "Notes, Comments & Observations" to Blue Jays that you just have to see. I captured some real aerobatic and acrobatic antics of two jays who were having a time figuring out how to get to the suet in one of my suet feeders. Some of these photos were also added to the galleries. July 18, 2004 - Added photo of a juvenile Eastern Towhee (Rufus-sided). July 5, 2004 - A fresh new interface design is now online for NCBirds.com, and some reorganization is underway. New information for commercial licensing of photos is coming as well. June 23, 2004 - Mystery bird imprints discovered on window: Now believed to be from Mourning Doves, these amazing imprints showed detailed outlines down to individual feathers. I work at a school that has a 2nd floor passageway connecting two buildings, pictured at left, which has been nicknamed the "gerbel tube" because of the large circular windows. On June 7, 2004, mysterious imprints of two birds were spotted on the outside glass of the south window. One of these amazingly detailed imprints is pictured at right. Obviously these birds flew into the glass. Just what mechanism was at work to make the imprints stick to the glass is the first mystery. The second mystery is trying to figure out what kind of birds these might have been. >>Read the rest of the story>>     June 17, 2004 - 125 new photos, including 14 new species, have been added (combined among songbirds and gamebirds). April, 2004 - A new item called "Notes, Comments & Observations" is being added to some thumbnail lists as time permits. Look just above the thumbnails for the "binoculars" button pictured at right and click it for interesting information about the bird species you're viewing. Feb. 16, 2004 - Lots of new photos and species added. A total of 219 new photos have been added (109 in songbirds and 110 in gamebirds) and 19 new bird species are represented (7 in songbirds and 12 in gamebirds). Plus, the "Gallery" thumbnails are finally up (mostly for songbirds at the moment), but not yet linked to the large preview images. Gamebird photos will be added shortly. Also, the navigation menus were revamped and expanded.
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