Birds 1, dogs 0

[ratspike]

Originally published at canisstudio blog. You can comment here or there.

I don’t know what it is but the trees in my backyard are full of them and they’ve been taunting my dogs all morning. A few minutes ago one of them went skipping around the yard and everyone went berserk. The dogs just don’t understand that no matter how hard they try, the birds

Comments

[beautifulwolf]

"The dogs just don’t understand that no matter how hard they try, the birds will always get away."

Sadly, NOT the case in my yard! Galaxy (The stubby Corgi!) like her aunty in Illinois, is a professional bird catcher... she's already snatched a couple right out of the sky this month... eeek!

[ratspike]

And I bet she brings you a trophy afterwards too?

Cooper killed a gigantic rat one morning and brought it inside, all proud of himself. You can imagine the chaos that followed, with the other six suddenly very interested in this strange thing that appeared in the living room.

[beautifulwolf]

Eww! (And I OWN pet rats! LOL)

Actually, she doesn't willingly bring it to me, but rather, if she's out on her own, will try to throw it for herself to catch again.... if she's with the other dogs, she'll play "Catch me if you can", then I'm trying to clean feathers up, strewn from 4 dogs playing tug....

Ewwww!

She's fine in the house with the rats and rabbits though, so I can't complain. I'm sure she'd eat Trin, the bird if ever given a chance, but she's been perfectly fine and uninterested in the other 'prey critters' here... *knock on wood*

I don't know how she'd do with a wild rat, but Kiwi, and Cove both think small animals are food, so I know what they'd do!

[beautifulwolf]

Generally she catches small swooping birds, like sparrows... so I often don't KNOW right away when she's actually caught one, since they pretty much match her color, and are small.

I still can't believe the birds are DUMB enough to come low enough by a dog, a Corgi can jump up and snag them!

[girl_on_a_stick]

"I used to think 400mm was a lot of lens. Now, not so much."
Oh god, word. But have you priced the 600? Let alone tried to lift one off the ground?!

Guessing that's a black-headed grosbeak, but a little hard for me to tell for sure w/o seeing the wings etc.

Nice catch-light.

[ratspike]

Seriously. The long end seemed like more than enough, 'cept that people and dogs are a little bit bigger than birds. Do you shoot with a tripod when you're out birding? Handholding was a lot different with these little guys than it is when I'm shooting other stuff.

[girl_on_a_stick]

I'm handheld almost all the time. Tripods are great and all, but only if you have a blind set up. Otherwise they're so slow you miss the good shots.

We still need to go out birding some early morning. I'll be through my wedding stuff in two weeks, then free again.