Chihuahuan Raven
birdfotos.com
An Unkindness of Ravens
From the legend that ravens pushed their young from the nest to be "nourished with dew from heaven," as The Folk Lore Birds put it in 1885, until the adult birds "saw what color they would be."
Ref. An Exaltation of Larks. page 35.
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Chihuahuan Raven
Most of the Raven nest that I photographed have been right along the main highways of Arizona. They are not hard to find. These photos were taken right along state road 85 between the edge of the road and the fence. Maybe 30 feet off the road. In an area just north of Why, Arizona. April 1997 - 1998
To learn more click here http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Chihuahuan_Raven.html
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I photographed shots like this by laying on top of
my car and photographing them as they fly over.
In order to get a good exposure of the bird I
had to over expose the shot, thus completely
washing out the sky.
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I hadn't planed to photograph the two Ravens sitting on the top of that pole. I was panning the camera on the flying Raven in hopes of getting some different wing images in order to make an animated image for this web site. As it turned out the bird flew behind the two birds on the pole top and I accidentally got them all. Another just dumb luck shot. If the sun had not been behind me there would not have been the high lights that are in the photo. I couldn't have pick a better time of day to take this photo. There was much more sky and foreground in the picture but I cropped it out. This way we can concentrate on only the birds.
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The black lines on the pole cross arm and the birds back are shadows from the electric wires above. Getting to take photos with clouds in the sky is a rare day for me, so when ever it happens I really take advantage of it. Most of the photos you will see are with no clouds in them. In fact in the next image which was taken a few days after this one, you won't see a cloud in the sky.
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You can tell it is the same cross arm on the same pole because of the knots in the wood on the arm.
Black colored birds are extremely hard to photograph and get any texture in the image of the birds feathers, or eye area.
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An experiment in how to get good feather images in an all black bird and still keep the back ground.
You may contact me at birdfotos@aol.com
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