[NatureNS] Beware of Photo Perspective

From: "john belbin" <jbelbin@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: "Naturens" <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 09:56:58 -0300
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I pass this on just in case anyone is tempted to jump to conclusions, as I
did yesterday.

Yesterday morning I had a visit from a brilliant male Cardinal, my first one
since moving here last summer. Going out for a walk a little later I heard
it singing in the distance, and tracked it down to the top of a tree in the
woods at the end of our subdivision. I managed to get a number of digital
shots from different angles, three of which were clearly better than the
others.

Enlarging, cropping and sharpening the first of those, I was amazed to see
that the bird was clearly carrying a small twig - it must be nesting! I
hadn't noticed anything when I was watching it before I brought up my
camera, but I had only had my small glasses with me at the time. The same
thing showed up on the next two photos - we had a breeding bird! It was only
when I was finishing off the third photo that doubts struck - the bird had
its beak wide open and was clearly singing it's heart out. How could it be
carrying something at the same time?

I then enlarged up the critical parts of the poorer photos, taken from
different angles, and could clearly see the branch and the bird as separate
items. So, Hantsport doesn't have a breeding Cardinal after all, not yet
anyway! It's one of those things that can make you feel quite foolish. But
at least I now know where to look for this bird and my habit of shooting
lots of images from several locations seems to be a good thing. Let's hope
it actually starts to nest soon.

Maybe this will be useful to someone,
John Belbin
Hantsport

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