Ack, mind reader!

I really feel “Ancient Egyptian” should really be reserved for the times before the Ptolemies - I was excited by the title until I realised it’s all Greek to me.

Thank you - rather more different to the UK’s Red Fox than I was expecting.

What even is it? It’s probably the angle of the shot but the head seems out of proportion to the body, in a weird chimera like form.

The original JPG is a terrifying 28MB, 5464x8192 pixels.

Lemmy wasn’t even prepared to play with something half that height and width, so I had to go thirds. I’m not sure if its file size or pixel dimensions (JPGs have some compression, sometimes, even at 100% quality, so a little hard to be sure).

My poor UK brain went “Ah-ha, Linnet” until I saw it was a US post - and Google suggests the two species probably have no close genetic link.

But nice photo!

Thank you.

There is a particular joy to catching drops in the air, isn’t there? And pleasingly, really slow shots of moving water are also fun.

Those are 1/1250s, and I can rarely get good enough light to push it beyond that speed with my setup. Aperture set to minimum for 800mm which is 6.3

The ISO is set to auto, but chose ISO500 for at least one of those - quality detectably starts to fall off around ISO2000, so perhaps I could have risked faster if I knew what was coming.

Good luck - given your current work, I look forward to the results.

One thing that took me a while to get used to was the variety of AF modes - from full view to exactly that point, dammit, I don’t care how dull you think it is.

Oh, that’s a fun project, nicely put together.

You only think them plain as you see them so many times. Coming from the UK (where, OK, are birds tend to … subtle … in appearance), those are some pretty little birds.

Are you sure its not a squirrel’s drey?

With that selection, I’m surprised there’s no tits as they fill an obvious niche. The will need a bit of greenery though (just a private garden should do). Have you tried getting a bird feeder? Otherwise find a city park.

I’m curious - in the UK I would have called that a Goldcrest or perhaps Firecrest: a Goldfinch being very different. Is this another case of different places, different names?

Nice sharp action photo either way!

TY - I was guessing a far faster shutter speed

Now this is something that definitely deserves asking about camera, lens, ISO and speed!

The photos are nice, but this “exchange” is a delight.

I suspect it’s more of a can’t win situation: it feels right to me the boundary of grass and sky is two thirds of the way up the photo, and the bottom is where it is with the water just ending near “you”, and the angle/height of the camera is defined by the shot. The width of the photo feels right. Also, the line of the trees at the left ends in the corner which is another incentive to end the top of the photo there.

Thanks

I like the leading “line” of the water to the tree, and how the shape of water in reeds echoes that tree in sky.

I’m not sure I entirely get “Winter’s End” as a title.

Demonstrating nicely that even the most mongrel of feral pigeons can be worth photoing!

(Or at least, I’m guessing what in the UK would definitely be a feral pigeon hasn’t been declared a species in the US)