Thought about driving to a mountain known to be good for migrating Golden Eagles, but decided to stay home and begin the day with a nice walk around the neighborhood.  Seemed like a poor day for photos and too much uncertainty about whether I would even see birds.

So, off I went for a brisk morning walk.  Rounding the last corner on my way homeward, I spotted Robins and Cedar Waxwings eagerly feeding on small crab apples.  Rushed home, added some extra layers before assembling the camera on tripod with a flash. The birds were feeding in a determined manner and cared not that I was only 20 feet way.  Neighbors on their morning walk stopped to chat without any effect on the birds.  They were just hungry on this windy and cold day.  Best two photos of the day were:

Acrobatic Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing feeding.

I lasted about 1-1/4 hours before the finger tips got sluggish.  Really happy with this, in large part because the birds are so quick.  You have to anticipate the image; waiting until you see the pose will give you a photo of something that happens 1/4 second later.

Pushed the ISO to 800 and used luminance noise reduction. Exposures were as slow as 1/100 second with fill flash to help freeze the motion.

More photos of Cedar Waxwings and Robins in the Perching Birds gallery of SmugMug. Select the gallery in  http://pschmitt.smugmug.com/ . Hope you enjoy.

Regards,

Paul Schmitt