Hullucinating Lone Wolf

Seal Rocks San Francisco

I've been struggling to get a handle on the data available such as historic temperature and humidity records to try an grapple with the changes occurring on the San Mateo Coast climate wise. I've been feeling the changes for about 3-4 years now but I seem to be a lone wolf in this "feeling" as most people I bring this up to look at me like I'm hallucinating! I thought surely it's warmer and there is less fog, this should be demonstrable thru historic weather data. I did find that in January 2014 the average temperature was approximately 7 degrees higher than historical records for San Francisco Airport. However other months I checked around that time had much less variation in temperature! Later I turned to humidity data as my sense is increased humidity is an integral part of the climate puzzle. However I'm not a meteorologist and examining humidity data shed no light for me as the fog plays a big roll in skewing the humidity data. Looking at the data on foggy days coastside humidity is 100% and humidity varies widely throughout the day varying with the ebb and flow of the fog.

On about April 3rd 2015 I felt that distinctive AC coolness return after a long absence! By accident I found out that the local ocean temperature holding at about 57 degrees F for several months dropped to about 52 F. This held thru May and early June and during this period I found my self overjoyed every time that wonderful cool air enveloped my body.

On about July 5th the most bizarre aspect of this 4 year drought occurred and continues today July 8th in a somewhat reduced fashion. The ocean temperature at buoy 46012 off Half Moon Bay shot up to 65 F rapidly in a few hours a good 10+ degrees above normal. Although a heavy fog was attached to the coast line the humidity was so high at my residence I was sweating heavily and uncomfortable at 7 pm, something I've never experience in my 16 year stay on the coast. Again on July 6th the ocean temperature soared to 65 F once again. Just writing this I can sense most people will think big deal, but this is a really big deal for the coastside and the state of California and for the world! Now buoy 46012 is more an accurate predictor than other data I've been following.

Computer models are now predicting a significant  El Niño event perhaps even an historical event. I'm getting further and further away from the thought that our climate will return to normal, thats a concern for me as I thrive in a Mediterranean type climate typical of the central California coast. On a positive note, we may see more southern species wildlife such as boobies, frigates and other southern climate birds and marine mammals! 

Since July 6th 2015 up to July 12 2015 the water temperature at the buoy has reached 65 degree F everyday. I'm currently researching the records for such a warm period but believe this clip is unprecedented. Notice the CDAS chart, the Pacific is basically on fire right now!

Buoy 46012 Standard Deviation
11/19/80-7/2007

Deviation from Historical Data
Compiled 7/13/15

August 4, 2015 Update

Conditions are currently warming up in the Pacific, and the NOAA Climate Prediction Center expects a greater than 90% chance that El Nino will continue through the winter and most likely into the spring. This image shows the July 13-19, 2015 sea surface temperature departure from the 1981-2010 average. In addition to the warmer than normal waters generated by the El Nino conditions, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is also creating persistently higher than normal sea surface temperatures in the northeastern Pacific. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

The Vast Wasteland

Cable New beats a page two story to death!

"Television and the Public Interest" was a speech given by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton N. Minow to the convention of the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961. The speech was Minow's first major speech after he was appointed chairman of the FCC by President John F Kennedy. In the speech, Minow referred to American commercial television programming as a "vast wasteland" and advocated for programming in the public interest.

"When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it."

54 years later the only thing to have change in the TV wasteland is the vastness, now there are hundreds of mindless TV channels to choose from! I’m in the mood for a little rant about Television especially after spending a good amount of time in the hospital with no books, computer or smart phone, only a TV screen about 3 feet from my head. So yes out of boredom I verified Mr. Minow's experiment many times. Yes true to scientific experiments it is repeatable and verifiable! I’m astounded why books are not more popular as a brief exposure to TV should surely send book sales skyrocketing!

Let’s take a look at the corporate approach to TV and advertisers. From the beginning TV was not possible without revenue from corporate sponsors. So the dilemma for TV people was how we can hold the interest of our viewer’s in-between commercials. So this is where modern TV programming sprung from, and the TV show was born. Soon a variety of TV shows was created and continues to be created today in an effort to hold viewers’ attention between commercials.

Guess what the powers to be found out? The quality and content of the fillers didn’t matter any junk they could come up with worked just as well. Thus we have the TV of today and yesterday a vast pile of moronic content emanating from every channel. Don’t believe me, turn your TV on and flip thru the channels, firstly you’re going to get advertisements (mostly dishonest) , infomercials, and misleading (actually immoral) pharmaceutical ads. Turning on your TV is like inviting hundreds of lying salesmen into your living room to pitch bull-shit and deception right in your face! Oh the real content, yes, bathroom humor sitcoms generated by sophomoric minded teenage boys masquerading as writers. Formula generated dramas that wallow in stereotype characters. Nonsensical game shows, reality shows, soap operas and phony doctor shows such as Dr. Oz and others. 

Oh, let’s not forget the news, starting with our local news channels here in the Bay Area. I believe local news starts at about 5am. Every local channel ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX has morning news programs running until about 9am. Every channel has the same news and content at the same time as if they were programmed by one person. Here is one astounding characteristics of these channels, they are obsessed about the weather, all start their program with the weather report, usually presented by a well-dressed “meteorologist” standing in front of a weather map reading about 20 temperatures that don’t vary more than 2 degrees. You get the feeling these weather reporters have never been outside, because their hair is perfect! Here is an exercise, next time the weather segment (about 3 times every ½ hour) comes on switch to the other 3 stations, guaranteed you will see the exact same thing, just a different “meteorologist” calling out temps from the map! It’s perplexing because anyone familiar with Bay Area weather realizes there is no weather in the Bay Area; it’s the most anemic climate just about anywhere. I could see this weather emphasis say for the Buffalo area, but here? 

It’s a shame that with such a block of time there is no creativity in the realm of TV news. What an opportunity for one of these channels to come up with an innovative idea to be unique and creative, given the bland competitors this could be a slam dunk for progressive action. 

Let’s not forget our great cable and corporate news outlets and the bought and paid for company men such as Brian Williams spouting nonsense and spreading propaganda as dictated by the corporation. Am I the only one that sees these cable and corporate networks as being complicit in the run up to the Iraq assault and the many other conflicts now raging? Did you notice how gung-ho the anchors were selling the invasion and bringing on consultants usually ex generals on the payrolls of defense companies? This goes on today with little objection, but of course who is going to report it?

 So now the only thing left for me to enjoy on TV is watching the wonderful Giants playing baseball! The only issue here is I have to watch baseball alone; my wife refuses to watch because baseball players spit! Dang I wish she would not have pointed that out to me!

Climate Deniers Are Not Aware Beings!

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

I live in a California Coastal community called Moss Beach. I don’t live here by accident I actually chose this location because of the climate. It’s a cool Mediterranean climate with summer temperatures about 65 degrees and winter about 55 degrees.  Fog occurs all year round but mostly in summer July and August. This climate is important to me and I’m in tune with it both physically and intellectually. 

We are now in the 4^th year of extreme drought (I've seen lesser ones in the past). About 3 years ago I started to notice subtle local climate changes, such as less fog, less rain, higher temperatures and more humidity. This has progressively worsened. These conditions have continued and worsened right up to the present moment.  Last week there were multiple days with some Bay Area locations hitting 90+ degrees, and hitting the 80’s Coastside. This is after-all winter time! With that being said, the climate changes have been obvious and frightening to me. However I’m in a small minority Coastside because most local residents I talk to are not aware of what’s bothering me? Rather they wake up in the morning to a warm cloudless fog-less day and exclaim “Oh what a beautiful day!” What is a beautiful day around here now? Well how about dirty air, and numerous spare the air days, a fire season now lasting all year and perpetual gridlock traffic filled with fools who love “beautiful days”! It may be a beautiful day for them, not for me!

OK I accept that I’m more sensitive to climate than some others and that’s OK. What bothers me is the group of people living here or elsewhere totally oblivious to the changes around them but highly vocal among the denier crowd. I've come to the conclusion Climate Deniers are asleep, not awake and not aware. Apparently they spend a lot of time on the internet looking for denial material but absolutely have no idea what's happening in their own habitat! It's irritating to see the more vocal ones spreading misinformation and they have no clue as to what's happening right out their own front door! I've talked in the past of how climate change is a subset of Global Destruction and if you concentrate on the destruction going on due to mankind’s greed you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see the destruction first hand. You’re on a fragile spaceship with groups of moron’s hell bent on inflicting as much damage as possible to get the last of what resources are left. Mistreat your own space vehicle and you damn right the climate will change and all life will disappear! Who is polluting our oceans with plastic, who is chopping entire mountain peaks off, who is dumping petroleum products in every river stream  ocean and lake, is it that hard, come on spit it out MANKIND, who else, why is this such a mystery to climate deniers.

Even if all the climate deniers worldwide were to suddenly awaken, it’s likely too late, the damage we have done cannot be reversed, and we have probably already passed a tipping point on the exponential curve. I would like to have a more positive attitude but to this day I see no real effort to slowdown the greed driven destruction.  So we have a problem, but as of yet, we are just talking about it, we have not even established a starting point!

A Simple Mathematical Phenomenon is about to Blind-Side Planet Earth!

One Kind of Blind-side

 "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." - Prof. Al Bartlett  

It’s very frustrating to see so many people constantly trying to spin scientific data in a deceitful way in order to add weight to their ill-informed arguments about the calamity now suffocating our planet! The big problem with this argument is that it is peeing away the precious little time we have to recognize and fix our space ship before it blows up! The question is how do you convince a population that has been dumbed down by corporate manipulation of the media, television, newspapers, magazines, religion and the internet to such an extent that it is widely believed by many the earth is a mere 6000 years old! It’s insane to think a religious idea or position such as Intelligent Design is being bandied about as a legitimate alternative to evolution? Why are so many people duped into such an illogical stream of thought? Yes brain washing is part of the problem but I think a major contributor to this form of delusion is the inability or lack of desire to understand the simplest of mathematical and geological time concepts.

Despite what I just said about people being dumbed down, there is one thing that will get people’s attention and initiate action, and that is direct experience or observation with negative changes occurring on planet Earth. Yes this will be painfully obvious as the situation worsens, sea level rise, loss of coastal lands, major flooding and displacement of populations. The bad news is once it gets to this extreme point, it’s over, the tipping point has been reached and the human race is about to be blindsided by one of the most scariest physical phenomenon’s simply and perfectly described by a little equation called exponential growth.

Figure 1.
Exponential Curve for Bacteria

Exponential growth is a predictive equation and describes many natural, economical, and physical behaviors such as population growth, compound interest, nuclear reactions and just about any system feed by an expansion and growth. One of the most common and simplest examples of exponential growth is related to growth rate or doubling time in simple interest problems. In a nut shell $100.00 invested for 10 years will see that money double in 7 years for a 7% growth rate.

“When things get bad, they get bad in a hurry!”

I’m not going to go into details on the mathematics here as it is well explained on the internet and I will link to some very simple and powerful examples. Basically I'm using the late Doctor  Albert Bartlett's presentation on exponential growth using bacteria as an example. The interactive presentation "Understanding Exponential Growth" is found here and I have condensed it somewhat in my presentation. I want to concentrate on the stunning example of bacteria growth and how this example shockingly paints the scenario the human race is about to face.

          http://www.cairco.org/reference/exponential-growth-doubling-time-rule-70

The truly shocking thing about this example is that once it is recognized it is far too late to act. The bacteria example I’m about to summarize paints the bleak picture in the most simplistic mathematical relationship. Understanding this concept one will realize the cornerstone of Capitalism can never work and will only destroy the financial basis our society is built upon. This is called unlimited expansion or growth and shows that resources and populations need a zero growth rate to be viable.

 http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/exponential-growth-tutorial/bacteria-exponential-growth.html

The link above connects to an interactive web page using bacteria growth as the example. I’m going to attempt to condense this down a little and show how it’s related to Climate Change and the ramifications of continuing on this growth path. If I do a poor job just click the link above and follow the tutorial and you will understand I’m certain.

Bacteria Example:

Figure 2.
Bacterium Added to Jar 11:00

Figure 3. 
Bacterium Split at 11;01

Bacteria is a well know organism that when healthy multiply in an exponential way. The experiment will follow the behavior of bacteria when a single bacterium is placed in an empty jar at 11am (a random time) and allowed to multiply until the jar is full which will happen after 1 hour or 12 noon.  A bacterium is placed in an empty jar at 11:00. At 11:01 the bacterium grows and splits in two, now there are 2 bacteria.  This process continues and the bacteria in the jar keeps dividing and adding more bacteria to the jar and doubling every 1 minute. Notice at 11:05 there are now 32 bacteria and yet so small a microscope is needed to see them. The bacteria continue doubling every minute for 1 hour until 12 noon when the bottle is full. I'm going to examine the bacteria jar's 1 hour experiment and see the growth state and ramifications of each state. Lets examine the question at what time will the jar be 1/2 full? The jar will be 1/2 full at 11:59, the jar is 1/4 full at 11:58. So when the jar is 1/4 full, only 2 minutes remain until the jar is full. In other words the jar took 58 minutes to reach the 1/4 level and only 2 minutes to be totally full!.

Figure 4.
At 11;05 the bacteria has increased
 from 1 to 32 in 5 minutes

Figure 6 shows the jar's content from 11:54 through 12:00. At 11:45 the bacteria is hardly visible and at 11:30 the bacteria could only be seen with a microscope! Examining figure 1 the actual exponential growth curve we can see the growth of the bacteria tracks what appears to be pretty much straight line behavior until near the very end when it's exponential behavior sky rockets in the very waning seconds of the bacteria's life. The straight line part of this equation and it's not really a straight line tends to fool researchers into thinking it's a straight line problem with predictable values at any given time!  Looking again at figure 6 we can see very little signs of growth say up to 11:54, doubling is shown for the last few minutes in this example. When things get bad, they get bad in a hurry!.......no doubt!

What Time is It?

Figure 5.
Bacteria Jar Full at 12;00

The more we know about a growth system the more we can predict it's behavior. Looking at planet earth in relationship to climate change numerous undefined systems are working together in an interconnected way. Down at the Waddell Sea in the southern ocean the frozen ocean expels salt into a brine. This brine formed at 1 trillium gallons per hour is the backbone of earth's ocean currents. The currents in turn make the weather all over the globe. Consider this an interconnected living organism all working together as a single unit. It has to be understood in it's entirety and cannot be accurately divided into the individual components. This is a common mistake when people try to isolate weather phenomenon such as snow fall in Buffalo and wonder how can the earth be warming when it's so damn cold in Buffalo?   Perhaps if they examined further they may see the connection between the snow in Buffalo and the extreme drought in much of California.  It's all the signature of a distressed system.

Figure 7
time 12:01

Figure 6
Doubling Time Stages

Let's take a look at possible solutions and their likely outcomes. Being an engineer myself I've come to understand that given enough money, resources and time just about any concept, no matter how outrageous can probably be completed. Some amazing projects come to mind like the Millau Viaduct in France, the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Geneva which is 27 Km in circumference, and the Kansai international airport in Japan and the salvaging of the luxury line the Costa Concordia. So I guess it's no wonder that some so called Geo Engineers think they can solve the problem by outrageous schemes such as Russ George an American businessman illegally dumped 100 tons of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean off of British Columbia in 2012. The result was the formation of a 10000 square kilometer artificial plankton bloom visible from satellite as high concentrations of chlorophyll in an attempt to lower CO2 content in the atmosphere! Here is a novel idea, let's fix what we broke and return the planet back to as close as we can to it's natural state.

Let's continue with the bacteria example and take a look of possible actions to mitigate or change the outcome. In a situation like the bacteria or population growth the obvious solution seems easily obtained by adding more space or more empty jars in the bacteria case.  So let's add 3 more totally empty jars to the mix now we have 4 times the space we originally had. Well here we go, let's do the math. At 12;01 our original jar doubles and whoa we had to fill another jar! So we still have 2 empty jars to play with but once again doubling gives us 1 more minute of time until all 4 jars are full!

Figure 8
Time 12:02

What's this look like for world population, our population had doubled twice in the last 100 years. If population growth is 1.3 % we can calculate there would be 1 person per square meter in 780 years and in 2400 years the mass of people on earth will equal the mass of earth! Fortunately the worlds population growth has been shrinking and currently the growth rate is about 1.19%. It should be noted that any growth rate greater than zero will produce the same results eventually.

Conclusions:

I presented this exercise because I think it's a very simple and dramatic demonstration of the exponential or doubling concept. I present this as an alternative way at looking at Climate Change from the perspective and nonlinear equations as opposed to linear equations. Considering all the complex systems working within our planet such as greenhouse gases, ocean currents, weather patterns, temperature changes, ocean and atmospheric compositional health, species distribution and over-all species health is there an unchecked growth pattern baring down on us right now. Consider the measured CO2 in the atmosphere currently at 400 ppm (parts per million). In 1958 it was 315 ppm. During the ice age CO2 concentrations ranged between 180-280 ppm. So with respect to CO2 or ocean acidification or any other complex system what does this mean? I have no clue and I think a lot of people are in the same boat. We don't understand the systems we are tinkering with and more importantly we don't know what time it is????

Bizarre Bird Tale

On a recent Beach Watch Survey at Tomasini Creek on Tomales Bay a freshly dead adult Brown Pelican was found with a dead Double Crested Cormorant stuck in it's pouch! Apparently the pelican mistook the diving cormorant as a fish, a fatal mistake for both!

Dead Pelican With Dead
Double-crested Cormorant in Pouch

Brown Pelican and Double-crested Cormorant

The New Canon 7D Mark II and Bird Photography

I recently added the new Canon 7D Mark II (7D2) camera to my photography equipment. This is not a technical review of the 7D2 but rather just first impressions based on what I have learned about the camera so far. I’m not including comparison photos at this time, just general comments on the new camera and its relationship with bird photography. I’ve been using the Canon 7D for about 4 years now and decided to add the 7D2 basically to have a second Canon body and enjoy the new features of the 7D2 especially with respect to bird photography.

I started out in bird photography about 7 years ago with an Olympus E-1 body, one of the first digital DSLRs. I added the 50-200 Zuiko lens which is excellent and the 70-300 Olympus lens which suffers greatly in IQ (image quality) at longer reaches. Because the 50-200 was on the low end for reach in bird photography, I splurged and added the Zuiko 300 f2.8 lens to my collection. I consider this one of the finest lenses available and would match it up favorably to the longer Canon lenses, the 500 f4 and 600 f4 lens family. Since my specialty and goals are birds in flight (BIF) the big weighty lenses just mentioned are a challenge to quickly move for BIF, and I found frequent use and arm exercises greatly enhance one’s ability to swing such weight quickly? The Olympus DSLR family includes the E3 which I have and the latest E5 which I did not buy. In the DSLR world Olympus is a notch below Canon and Nikon. Olympus appears to have lost interest in the DSLR world and has jumped whole heartily into the mirrorless realm. If I had known this when I first bought the Olympus, I would have probably opted for the Canon line. However at that time I was not into bird photography that grew shortly after.

Hand Held Extreme

I've been posting my photos on Flickr since about 2008 and in that time I've gotten to know and be familiar with many bird photographers. There is a friendly competition among bird photographers and I’ve been inspired and challenged by other photographers work to constantly improve my own! . When checking photos on Flickr, the EXIF information is generally available and is a good tool to see what other parameters people use such as ASA, shutter speed and exposure compensation to name a few. I started to notice some of the really good BIF photos were being shot on the Canon 7D with the 400 f5.6 and the 100-400 L IS lenses. I started to look carefully at the 400 f5.6 photos and was impressed by the IQ. So when Olympus introduced the E5 a light bulb came on. I could invest about $1500 in the E5 to basically replace the E3 or I could spend about the same for the 7D and add the 400 f5.6 lens for about $1400 more. So to me the choice was simple, I could spend just $1400 more and have a brand new rig to play with or just update to the E5 with only a new questionably better body. I bought the 7D and the 400 f5.6 lens and have no regrets. With the new light 400 lens and the excellent tracking and focusing of the 7D I saw a large improvement in keepers due to the better focusing and the ability to get on a bird faster.

BIF

I have recently added the new Canon 7D Mark II to my equipment and have had only a short time to play with it. Although similar to the 7D it’s more sophisticated and complicated and has incorporated the focusing and tracking systems of the Canon 1DX. I’ve only touched the surface on understanding the new camera but it’s almost flawless out of the box in that without understanding the features or operation of the camera, its focus and exposure is spot on most of the time! I’d like to spend some time talking about why I think the 7D2 is an excellent choice for BIF and why some criticisms of the camera for noise and not being a full frame camera are not that important in BIF photography.

Let’s talk about BIF photography and how to get enjoyable results. I want to make a distinction between two types of bird photography, birds in flight photography and stationary or perched bird photography. Most bird photographers engage in both types but some may emphasize one more than the other. The techniques for the types are different and often times the equipment as well. In a nut shell BIF photography requires quick action with little or no time for adjustments. Birds only give you a split second to get your shot; you won’t have time for any kind of quick adjustments, so you need to be as ready as possible when the opportunity presents itself. Your camera should be pre-adjusted for shutter speed, aperture, ISO and exposure compensation. If possible try to pre-focus and position yourself in favorable light. Some BIF photographers will use a tripod or monopod, but I've found those devices restrict your maneuverability and tend to just get in the way and hinder you. One exception is finding perched birds with the intent of getting flight take off photos. In this case a monopod or tripod would be an aid as it’s very hard to hand hold a heavy camera in anticipation of a perched bird taking off. In contrast shooting stationary or perched birds changes the game significantly. A tripod or monopod is very beneficial in your set up since the bird is stationary. You have time to optimize parameters such as shutter speed, exposure compensation and composition. You can even take photos check them and make adjustments. In this respect it’s more like portrait or landscape photography. Most of my discussion on this subject will be from the BIF photographers view point.

 Obviously equipment is important so let’s discuss that now. Birds in flight are fast and therefore to stop the motion of a flying bird to get maximum detail a fast shutter speed is critical. Generally I aim to get all motion stopped including the wings. This is fairly easy with a large slow flying bird such as gulls or pelicans. In some cases wing movement adds some drama to a photo but detail is lost in the moving wings. A humming bird for example has a wing speed of about 1/9000 to 1/20000 of a second. Consider the fastest shutter speed on most cameras is about 1/8000 of a second. So to stop the hummer’s wings most serious people incorporate a flash system for stop motion. This technique is beyond this discussion but shows an extreme range of speeds. Most other birds are within the range of our cameras shutter speed to stop all motion. I recommend a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second or more. I have actually not done a study to see how low a shutter speed can be to stop a particular bird, for example a comparison between a cormorant and a swallow. This would be an interesting study as shutter speed, aperture and ISO are all interconnected and the more you know about them the more you can optimize these parameters. Low shutter speed causes blurring in moving objects, large apertures reduce Depth of Field (DOF) and high ISO generates digital noise.

Using Monopod for Stationary Subject 

 The major criticism I’ve heard about the 7D2 is noise as compared to the 1DX, 5DIII, or the Sony Alfa 7S. The DPreview web site has a feature where you can compare all new cameras on the same subject but at different ISO settings. At high ISO, the 1DX was superior to the 5DIII and the 7D2, and the Sony Alfa 7S was best of all! The 7D2 was improved over the 7D. On my 7D I can safely shoot (little noise) at 800 ISO. On the 7D2 I can raise that to 1600 ISO. I did some test shoots at 3200 ISO and found the noise unacceptable! The ability to shoot at high ISO no doubt allows one to tweak shutter speed and aperture in a positive way. High ISO is critical in low light situations, indoors, landscapes, weddings, concerts, dark areas and more. BIF is not a low light situation, and it’s foolish to try and photograph birds in flight in low light and most birds don’t fly at night! So in general high ISO performance is not a major concern for BIF and I see no drawbacks with the 7D2 in that respect.


Full Frame Vs APS-C crop sensors: Another bone of contention is sensor size, full frame verses crop sensors. Full frame people will tell you a crop sensor APS-C has reduced IQ and is not necessary at all. The full frame sensor captures all the information of a crop sensor and more. Cropping the full frame down to the crop frame size gives the same image only higher IQ! So they argue any perceived advantage of a crop sensor is just an illusion and the photographer is fooling himself by thinking so. An important and tangible advantage for the bird photographer using a crop sensor system is a reduction of cost and weight of long lenses. In other words a 400 lens becomes the equivalent of 640 lens when used with a Canon 1.6 crop camera body. Here is a comparison between weight and cost using a Canon 400 f5.6 L lens (weight 2.76 pounds, @ $1400) versus the Canon 600 f4.0 L IS II (weight 8.65 pounds @ $12000). Right off the bat, there will be an argument that these two lenses cannot be compared because there is a vast difference in quality and IQ. Although these sounds like a compelling arguments on the surface how true is it? Based on price, you have an 8.5 times different in costs; is the 600 lens really 8.5 times better in IQ and sharpness? I’ve compared bird photos from the 600 lens as well as the 400 and it’s a real stretch to say there is an 8.5 times difference. There is a difference of course and the more distant the subject to the lens, the more IQ you can see in the 600. However, when the subject gets closer to the lens, that IQ difference dissipates in a hurry.

Check the MTF curves of both lenses and there is certainly not an 8.5 times difference. For BIF try wielding an 8 pound lens quickly to get on a bird, not an easy task. However the 2.6 pound 400 f5.6 L can easily and quickly be whipped around and locked on a BIF. My Zuiko 300 f2.8 lens weights about 7.5 pounds slightly less in weight than the new Canon 500 and 600 lenses. Using it everyday hand held I still did arm exercises to increase my on bird speed. Still there were frustrating times that I missed a bird just because I could not get on it quickly. Another criticism of the 400 f5.6 L lens is that it does not have IS (image stabilization) For BIF, this is not critical at all, generally shooting is at high shutter speeds where IS is not required or useful! One last point I’d like to make for anybody in the market for the 400 f5.6 L or the 100-400 f4.5-5.6 L IS lenses. This comparison does not include the new Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6 L IS II which I’m not familiar with. There is no doubt a zoom lens gives the photographer more flexibility in the field. However, one complaint I hear by owners of the old 100-400 f4.5-5.6 is IQ at longer reaches say 300-400 is not all that good. Check the MTF charts for the 2 lenses and you will readily see the difference.

 Summary of Some EOS 7D Mark II Features 

 •20.2 Megapixel CMOS APS-C Sensor supporting next generation Dual Pixel CMOS sensor-based AF
•10.0 fps continuous shooting for up to 130 JPG/31 RAW frames
•Dual DIGIC 6 Processors
•Highly customizable AF system featuring 65 All Cross Type AF Points with f/8 center point sensitive to -3 EV extreme low-light conditions
•ISO 100-16000 with expansion to 51200
•Magnesium alloy body, shutter durability rated up to 200,000 cycles and enhanced dust and weather resistance
•EOS Scene Detection System features a new 150,000-pixel RGB+IR Metering Sensor for improved precision

Summary

I consider the 7D an excellent choice for bird photography. I was hoping Canon would up-grade the 7D with improvements in the sensor and resulting improvements in focusing and continuous shooting speeds. Canon has not disappointed the 7D2 is an improvement over the 7D in which improvements seem particularly aimed at action photographers such as sports and wildlife. So with little hands on experience with the 7D2 thus far, I'm confident that I have more tools now at my disposal to continue my bird photography passion.  In closing I would like to make a comment about photographic equipment and it's relationship to artistic expression. Although high tech sophisticated expensive equipment is nice to have, it's not critical to artistic creation. A really creative photographer can get astounding results with the simplest camera, even a pin hole camera. So if you think purchasing the latest and greatest camera equipment will make one a good photographer, think again! As Maria Mulder once exclaimed in a song long ago, "it aint the meat it's the motion" very true indeed!

Backyard Bird Up-date

Red-breasted Sapsucker YB#79
Master Woodworker

Since I last blogged about my back yard bird list in May 2013 I've added 5 new species to the list. Here are the latest additions, Say's Phoebe, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Mallard, Belted Kingfisher and most recently Red-breasted Sapsucker. 
The discovery of the Red-breasted Sapsucker has been very informative and rewarding in many ways. It is working a walnut tree in my yard, making geometric excavations in the bark of several branches. I don't know how long this have been going on, but I only became aware of it when the leaves of the tree started to fall revealing the handiwork of the sapsucker. What was surprising to me was that two other bird species were also interested in the flow of sap, the Yellow-rumped Warbler and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, see photos. I've heard the term sapsucker but now that I've seen one in person, I have a better understanding of how one operates. 

Yellow-rumped Warblers winter in the Bay Area and leave for Canada/Alaska in late April. They are the most common warbler on the Farallon Islands. I most frequently see them at Pillar Point Harbor catching kelp flies. I've also seen them with a brownish substance around the base of the bill which has been mistaken by some folks as oil. However this is apparently residue from Eucalyptus flowers, so I've been told. This species can also digest wax so that wax myrtle and poison oak berries are also on the menu, not a common diet for bug eaters! Finally I was surprised to see a Ruby-crowned Kinglet feeding on the sap as well.


Like many birders, I’ve just started documenting a back yard bird list for my house in Moss Beach, California. I’m pleased to report after 4 years in this location I have 80 bird species so far. My good friend Pete of Martinez California also has 74 bird species for his location. We are in a friendly completion and are currently in a dead heat.

Yellow-rumped Warbler YB#47
Mining Sap

Ruby-crowned Kiglet
YB#80



Great-horned Owl

Back yard bird counts usually involve counts made from a specific point, residence, gallery, or business. One such location is the resident quarters at the Farallones Islands which as of 2010 has a bird species count of 360. This is believed to be the most prolific in the United States. Paul Leham of New Jersey claims 300 + at his residence. The Farallones Islands have been criticized because the count is compiled by many individuals keeping records over a long time frame. However Peter Pyle a biologist who spent significant time at the Farallones claims 324 species documented by him alone on his visits to the Farallones.





#74 Hooded Oriole 5/3/13

# 73 Western Tanager 5/2/13

So my 80 species count is pretty modest in relationship to other bird spots, but it’s always fun to add a new bird to the list. Most of the birds on my list are common birds found in this area, Brewer’s Black Birds, House finches and sparrows, Scrub Jays, Dark-eyed Juncos, Mourning Doves, California Quail and Ravens. Some of the slightly unusual birds have been an Osprey, Kestrel, Killdeer and my favorite occasional visitor, Great-horned Owl. Some of the recent additions have been Cedar Waxwings, a Hooded Oriole and a beautiful Western Tanager.