“Big Bite” – Chickadee with Seed
“There is no mundane dimension really, if you have the eyes to see it, it is all transcendental.”
― Terence McKenna
The view from my back window yesterday afternoon, as the birds returned for a feed. I posted several images of other local birds in late December and the simple chickadees, who are frequent visitors, were omitted. I began questioning myself on that. Why was I ‘editing’ what I shared? Is the humble chickadee less worthy than the bright cardinal or more elusive nuthatch? Will the photo not impress and get more likes. Have I gotten to that point? I certainly hope not. I’ve always enjoyed seeing beauty in the mundane and sharing those moments; I don’t ever want to lose that gift, especially in these superficial times.
So, as I considered the image again, and looked at all the wonderful details in this ‘common’ bird, I found myself seeing it anew. The soft pastel orange of the belly feathers, the fine details in the delicate wings, and incredible details in and around the eyes, often missed because they move around so quickly.
The other thing that struck me, and inspired the title of the photo was the size of the seeds that the chickadee choose. He’d land, pick one, and then fly away with it, as another bird took his place. Never once did more than one bird occupy the dish. They waited, swooped in, took a seed, and departed, for the better part of the afternoon. Then, the cycle stopped and none returned, even though there was still food in the dish.
Nikon D800
Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G I AF-S VR Zoom @ 300mm
1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200
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Indeed!! Re. title and what you wrote/observed!!
I’m glad to see your chickadee, I miss them from home! Chick- a-dee-dee-dee 🎵🎶
Gorgeous study … so fine in detail, love his little eye sparkling like that!
Very good, subdued light yesterday.
Great shot, I really like the colors. Chickadees are one of my favorite birds to see at my feeder. Out of curiosity what kind of camera/lens did you use?
The details are at the bottom of the post.
Oh, ok. Thank you! I have a similar lens (nikon 55-300mm). Wish I could afford something a little faster, but a fixed lens is way out of my budget :).
I have seen it refurbished on Amazon for around $419 CDN. That or the Tamron equivalent.
Yeah, that’s not too bad. My lens is very similar to yours actually, besides the focal length, the only real difference is that the minimum aperture, with yours being f/32 and mine f/22.
It’s be nice to get a fixed 300mm lens that’s able to open up to f/2.8, but then your talking about spending thousands of dollars, haha!
I saved up a few years ago and got the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 and it’s spectacular, and lots less than the Nikon. Aside from my recent macro images, the 70-200 is my go-to lense now. But, it’s a heavy beast 🙂
Yeah, that sounds nice. Even though it has a smaller focal length, I’m sure the speed compensated that by a lot. How much did you pay for that one out of curiosity?
Something like $1,700 US
Yeah, I just looked it up on B&H, they have it for normally $1,500 new and they have a used one for only $1,200. Those prices aren’t bad at all (at least compared to the nikon). Definitely a lens I would consider purchasing in the future. Thanks for telling me about it!
The VR alone gains you 5 stops.