'Hogs...and not from Harley

[Jim Becker]

Spring is here, it appears. A litter of three "Hogletts" (Ground Hog) are out and about. Amazing that they don't exhibit a lot of fear now, but will get more skitish as they get older. This is one of the three on the deck outside our back door. (They are living under the deck with "mom") Good opportunity to play with the new camera.

[Chuck Wintle]

they are interesting little critters. What will happen when they get older?

[Jim Becker]

they are interesting little critters. What will happen when they get older?

Groundhogs are territorial, so they will just wander off to find their own space. Besides "mom", we have a male that lives up on the hill under the wane pile. They avoid each other...most of the time but not all, apparently...

[Chris Padilla]

Nature calls to all of us...eventually....

[jim barter]

Jim / There are hogs in our back field as well no babies yet. We do however await the ritual of the mom and pa feeding the youyng birds at the feeders.We get quite a few wood peckers,pilated downt,hairy as well as red breasted groos beaks.There are many other birds as well. Its great inthe spring when the whole yard comes alive
Jim :

[Jim Becker]

Yes, we have five Chickadee "chickletts" that are about a week from fledging, based on my peek into the box this afternoon. I'll take the last picture tomorrow as it's not good to disturb them once they are so far along.

This year was the first for us to get the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and the males are incredibly beautiful. (Pic below taken outside my office window) We also have mated pairs of cardinals, bluejays; red-belly, hairy and downy 'peckers, two varieties of nuthatches, catbirds, ruby-throat hummingbirds, various finches, etc. Being bird people, we enjoy them a lot.

[Julie Wright]

Isn't he Cute

The groundhog that is.
The birdie is Pretty

[Peter Stahl]

Jim,

Camera takes great pics, what brand/model is it? Amazing definition even after you resized it to aprox. 50kb. Do the ground hogs tear up your garden? We have some really big ones at work. One building I used to work at you had to watch for them because they would run from one bush to the other which were on either side of the steps. They would scare the heck out of ya.

Pete

[Dan Smith]

Jim,

We have Grossbeaks for the first time near us this year as well. Also my in-laws have them up the hill from us. Wonder if it has something to do with weather patterns, or just that we noticed them this year?



-dan

[Jim Becker]

We have Grossbeaks for the first time near us this year as well. Also my in-laws have them up the hill from us. Wonder if it has something to do with weather patterns, or just that we noticed them this year?

I suspect "ours" were just passing through as they hung out for a week or so, ate well in the feeders and generally hung out. Two males, one female and a juvinal. But I haven't seen them in over a week now...perhaps they moved up to your house! I know that some of Dr SWMBO's online friends in New England say they have them for the season.

[Jim Becker]

Camera takes great pics, what brand/model is it? Amazing definition even after you resized it to aprox. 50kb.

It's a Nikon D70 Digital SLR. It solves two problems that I've had with my other digital camera...the big delay from when you press the button and when the picture gets taken and the abilty to "see" what the camera "sees" before taking the shot. It's great to be back to an SLR again. I haven't used my film-based Nikon in years...literally. My lenses are compatible with the new body and I will be keeping them in addition to the two I bought with the new camera.

The detail that is captured is pretty amazing, but that's to be expected with something like 6 megapixels. After cropping and resizing with Photoshop Elements, the detail is still better than what I was getting before, although my older CoolPix does an excellent job. The smaller camera will still be hanging around (after I get the battery door fixed) as it's easier to throw into my computer bag when I travel on business for quick shots when I visit other woodworkers and their shops along the way.

Do the ground hogs tear up your garden? We have some really big ones at work. One building I used to work at you had to watch for them because they would run from one bush to the other which were on either side of the steps. They would scare the heck out of ya.

No. Our garden is fenced in such a way that it even prevents tunneling in to a certain extent. The 'hogs generally eat the grass and clover in the lawn. If they would pay attention more, I wouldn't have to mow.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Jim, you're right about the quality of picture, even at a reduced size. For my Shaker Tall Cabinet I've been taking most of my pictures with my old (yea, go figure 3 years is old) Canon s110 which is a great little camera. I've taken a couple with the dRebel and the difference between the two is stunning as far as detail is concerned.

I usually print out my photo's at Costco because they have all their equipment profiled and downloadable so that what you see on your computer is what you'll see when you get the photos. I've come to know the lady there and she always takes good care of me. She showed me around the lab and how everything works. Pretty cool.

I stepped up to the 512 card. When we take photo's of the kids, it's usually on burst mode and so we burn through the bandwidth. The burst mode on the dRebel only allows four shots and they you have to repress the button. I think your Nikon is limitless to a degree isn't it? I thought I read a side by side comparison between the two and this was one of the differences.

Anyway, you'll have a lot of fun. I find that I spend less time dabbling with Photoshop and more time setting up good shots - or at least what I think is good. The only problem is that I can really only afford one expensive hobby at a time.

Here are a couple dRebel pics reduced down to a managable web size.

[Jim Becker]

3 FPS in continuous shot mode...and yes you can take a bunch really fast! The 256mb memory card can hold 144 shots in "default" mode (large size 3008x2000) & high quality and 252 in "medium" size which is about 2048 pixels wide. Max on the CoolPix 880 is about 1150 wide, so twice the detail can be recorded with the D70. One of the things I really like about digital is the fact that "learning" doesn't require consumables. Yes, the digital cameras are more expensive than film units, but there is no film and processing cost other than any software choices you make. You can shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and then throw out the crap as a learning exercise!

You can see the specs and a review of the D70 at:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond70/

Here's a couple more pics off the new camera; one of our birds (Spike the Cocketiel) and a "flower portrait". These are saved from Photoshop Elements at "low" quality to keep file size down, but are still remarkably crisp, particularly in the forground.

[Jim Becker]

Jason, here's another one with less compression...Tosca, our Senegal parrot. Her foot is raised as that is how she communicates that she wants to go somewhere...even pointing in that direction. This is in addition to occasionally sayin, "Up"...which originally was our command to her to get up on our hand, but has morphed into HER command to us to do her bidding. Kids!

[Lee Schierer]

Around here we use them for target practice. They are mostly considered a pest and a real hazard for horse owners. They are quite edible. No they don't taste like chicken

We also have had a lot of birds through the winter and now in the spring. We have at least three pairs of Orioles, 6 Rose Breasted grossbeaks, countless goldfinshes, chickadees, titmice, 2-3 pairs of cardinals, blackbirds and numerous hummingbirds coming to our feeder. We also have tree swallows and bluebirds in the nesting boxes out back. A couple of wrens have been make a racket outside the bedroom window too so I suspect we will soon find a wren house occupied.