After reading about my struggles with photographing the Northern Cardinals around my house, my friend Mickey Roberson called me last night and told me that I needed to come and photograph his birds at feeding time.
Mickey explained that he and his wife Carolyn have been feeding birds at his home for years. He usually feeds in the late afternoon and he said that within minutes of his putting out black oil sunflower seeds, there will be many Northern Cardinals and other birds on hand for me to photograph.
That sounded like a great idea to me! I called Mickey today after UPS delivered my new lens, a Sigma 150-500, and asked if today would be an acceptable day for a shoot. I explained that I only had a short window of opportunity before my wife and daughter got out of work and School. Mickey agreed to feed his birds early to fit my schedule.
I arrived at Mickey’s at 3:30 and Mickey put out the seeds. There were Cardinals on hand in no time!
Male Northern Cardinal at Mickey’s House
These are the first pictures with my new lens and I should have bumped my ISO up from 100 where shutter speeds were around 1/100th of a second to ISO 200 or 250 to allow a faster shutter speed. At this somewhat slow shutter speed and using a relatively long lens some of my pictures were blurred. I’m sure Mickey will let me come back and try some more sometime in the future. (Hint Mickey!)
Female Northern Cardinal at Mickey’s House
This photograph of a Female Cardinal was my favorite of the shoot. The focus was spot on, there was no motion blur and the light was just right I thought. This one begs to be clicked on to see the detail of the full size version!
Carolina Chickadee at Mickey’s House
There were also some Carolina Chickadee on hand as well as a few others that I didn’t get a good shot of.
I left Mickey’s and had dinner with my wife and daughter. On the way home we stopped and picked up a big bag of black oil sunflower seeds for Clifford.
Thanks to Mickey & Carolyn for allowing me to photograph their birds.
Thanks to you for visiting my blog.
-Phil
Phil Thach 
Just as a follow up, I put the sunflower seeds out that evening. There was no action. The following morning I noticed both Clifford and Mrs. Clifford on the back porch eating seeds. I opened the window and they flew away. Still, they know where to look for the seeds now. In time I’ll get a good shot of them!
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