I use an automatic camera. It has several settings you select from a wheel on top. When I am outside shooting an animal or bird or butterfly, it might focus on a near object and blur the subject. So I set it on Landscape before I went out there. This is rather a fail safe setting and I use it for nature/water shots, sunsets etc. It was sunny out so there was plenty of light. All I had to do was zoom some. It also has some jiggle stabilization, but when I get real excited it is hard to hold still even with it.

This is a Sony 20x zoom, and has really been nice for me.
I was never really into film cameras... too much time between the shooting and developing. But the digitals give instant results and now I love taking photos!

Here is a new one of Mrs. Goldfinch taking some nesting cotton I took yesterday:

And the second one is Mrs. QuackQuack in our yard yesterday, illustrating the distance focus advantage with Landscape tool.

You know we haven't seen Mr. QuackQuack at all since Sunday morning. He likes to sit on the neighbor's mansard roof, and I wonder if a hawk took him? She was here alone today again. sigh. I hope he is just sitting on the eggs for her, so she can visit our feeder. They have been very tame and here alot more this spring than usual.

Stunning photos! Thanks for showing them here.

I sure hope Mr QuackQuack is alright.

Some interesting things on the hawk cam today...
there is a replay of a starling entering the hawk nest, and one
one the hatchlings tries to catch it with his foot.

They still have their fluff, but some pin feathers appear to be coming in.

You can see much more of them compared to the Norfolk eagle cam.

Your hawk photos are excellent! You might consider sharing them with folks at Gardenweb.com, in the birdwatching forum. Or maybe blowing them up and framing. I use Walgreens online system - it's easy.

Thank you Sparky.... it was such a fluke that I managed those photos! It was pure chance and luck!

I am fast with the camera, and it is automatic, and I just click away. Some come out some don't.

I had just put allergy drops in my eyes that day and couldn't see much to even frame them. So I just did my click away thing and some came out. I guess it was destined!
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The starling nest to the left....of the cam...finally resulted in action from one of the parent hawks..There is a video for this but it is rather gruesome IMO so I won't put it up.

These starlings have been daring and heckling the chicks so this morning one of the parents was caught and killed.

The remaining parent starling is very agitated right now and causing more grief... if not careful, he will become lunch.

I saw the starlings in the video yesterday hopping around the nest.
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I figured they wouldn't last long.

I hope both adult starlings weren't killed. That'd be sad too.
Nature.

Here is a video on how they made the cam... all the difficulties that had to be solved:


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It is pretty interesting.

Also I see this morning that a fledged starling was taken as food today.
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The chat is banning people also today who are not conforming to the Cornell rules of behavior.

One of the starling nestlings has wandered into the hawk nest.

It is begging for food, and the 3 chicks are just watching it!

Very strange!

Oh, ick...one of the hawk chicks is trying to kill it now! Don't tune if you are faint of heart!

Oh gosh...nothing like this at the eagle nests...that is for sure!

Since the starlings on the Hawk Cornell site became a problem, and were eaten and the remaining evicted... a discussion on the chat there discusses a starling vs Kestrel fight for a nest box:


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The Kestrel won in the end.