Juncos and Sigmas

This female Slate-colored Junco has decided along with her mate that it was a good idea to make a nest to nurture her baby birds in one of my fern plants hanging in our carport. Daughter and I discovered the dad and mom making the nest several weeks ago and tried to relocate it but they came back and built another nest in the same plant. At that point, I figured it futile to pursue moving it again and far be it for me to deny a momma a nice, warm place to tend to her young. I gave up and continued to water my ferns as usual until one day I disturbed the momma in one of my three ferns. The next day I went out to check on the nest to see what was in it: eggs or baby birds.

I spied feathers and a foot all the while making both mom and dad very mad as they were chirping at me from a nearby tree. It makes it very difficult if not impossible to water this fern because I am afraid of hurting the hatchlings and making momma and dada too mad or, worst case, prompt them to abandon the nest. Every time anyone goes outside now they begin their defensive clicking chirps. I captured this photo while outside watching the kids play on their swings which is right near the nest.

I took this with the 400mm f5.6 lens I inherited from my Dad. It is very, very old and I think it may have dust or dirt in it as pictures come out sort of faded and hazy most of the time. I plan to send it away to a Sigma repair center for a good cleaning. I tried to take it apart to clean it myself but just ended up stripping one of the screws so I will now leave it to the pros. Hopefully, the cost will be reasonable and the time it takes, zippy as I will miss it.

Speaking of lenses, one of the other lens I inherited from my dad is a Sigma APO MACRO 180mm 1:2.8. It will not work with my rebel XTI and I found out last week after calling Sigma that it cannot be rechipped to work with my camera because they no longer make the chips for it, as the lens was discontinued over ten years ago. It was made sometime between 1991-1997 and it is in excellent condition. My Dad loved his Sigma lenses and took great care of all his equipment. I am bummed a little because I really like taking macro shots but I do have his 35mm Canon EOS ELAN camera body which it will work with. So whenever I get a chance to take a class where I will need a film camera I will have an awesome macro lens to shoot with.

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