Paul Ganssle @pganssle@qoto.org

Put up a bird feeder in the back yard last night, I've already seen three (non-squirrel) customers:

- Bluejay
- Downy woodpecker
- Black-capped chickadee

#birding

@n8 Interesting, that one hadn't come up.

I am leaning towards getting a "superzoom" camera like a Sony DSC-HX90V or a Nikon P900 as @eric suggested, but reflex lenses do look quite inexpensive.

And here are two pictures of the (adult male, I think) white-breasted nuthatch I got through the binoculars this morning.

I am much more confident in this identification.

#birding

They seem like a good match for these photos taken recently in NYC: https://urbanhawks.blogs.com/urban_hawks/2020/09/black-throated-green-warbler.html

Here are some pictures of the yellow-headed warbler I saw yesterday (managed to snap a few not great pictures through the binoculars this morning).

I think they are black-throated green warblers, despite the fact that none of the ones I saw were actually black-throated.

#birding

@ted Yeah, that's another option, but it does seem like when you mount your phone to binoculars or a scope, you get these circular photos, like the one from this review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2HL520KIX1F6W

I'm thinking maybe this one could work? https://www.amazon.com/Canon-EF-S-55-250mm-F4-5-6-Cameras/dp/B078GQTWFX

I'm not entirely sure how to translate the focal lengths of the lenses into an equivalent of my experience using binoculars. If I could get photos that were somewhat equivalent to what I see when I use my Athlon Midas ED 8x42 binoculars, I'd be very happy.

#birding #photography

Any #birding folks have suggestions on how to take pictures of distant birds without spending a huge amount on it?

Not looking to become a professional wildlife photographer, just to have some identifiable pictures of the birds I've seen.

I have a Canon T4i, but I'd probably be as happy or happier to just get a little clip-on telephoto lens for my phone if a decent one exists.

I think the warbler may have been a black-throated warbler, but I couldn't get a picture of it and I don't remember if it had the black throat.

It's been hanging around here for the past few days, so I hopefully I can catch it again.

Lots of birds in my backyard this morning:

- Pileated woodpecker
- Downy woodpecker
- Bluejay
- White-breasted nuthatch (?)
- Warbler with yellow head and back
- Some sort of hawk

#birding

@bkastl I also think it was refreshing to see a take that was orthogonal to the "is the algorithm biased" take.

@bkastl That's sad. I thought it was very interesting. ☹

Head's up: Major breaking change coming to tzlocal, as in the next version it will return zoneinfo time zones: https://github.com/regebro/tzlocal/pull/92

Anyone using `tzlocal` should test against master. If your application doesn't break, you are probably using tzlocal wrong anyway.

#python

@shit I tried, it's a very different experience and the pictures don't come out great. 😥

Now I need to get a telephoto lens for my phone or camera, because I keep wanting to take pictures of the stuff I see in the binoculars.

Just got a pair of nice 8x42 binoculars (Athlon Midas ED) and #protip: they make #birding so much better.

I don't know why no one thought to use these to look at birds before I came up with this wholly original idea.

@freemo I heard Ohm got that law passed with a lot of help from Tamminy Hall, so I'm not surprised to find it on shaky ground, TBH. 😉

Tip: On Cinnamon (and probably other Window managers and OSes), Alt + ~ is the same as Alt + Tab, but restricted to the currently active application (e.g. tab between Firefox windows).

Learned this from @LarryHastings@twitter.com last year and I've probably used it every day.