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Hilton Head Island



Dear friends:

This is my first posting to the group. Thank you for allowing me to 
participate. My name is Tom. I am 29 years old. I have lived in Hilton Head 
Island for about 4 years. I am interested in nature photography, and 
especially birds. I started about 2 years ago. My first book on the subject 
was "Birds of the Carolinas." I'm sure you all are familiar with it.

I have been feeding birds since I became interested. I mostly get chickadees 
and titmice, although I sometimes see redbellied woodpeckers, cardinals, and 
even a rare brown headed nuthatch. Of course, my feeders are empty right now 
while I try to figure out how to minimize the squirrel activity. 

I collect bird calls on my computer. I have about 2 dozen or so. I have found 
it to be very useful to memorize bird calls prior to going out looking for 
birds. It seems to really help with identification. I know enough now that I 
am blown away by the mockingbird's ability to mimic other birds.

I am finding that shore birds are the easiest to photograph. I'm not 
complaining, as they are very beautiful, but I would really like to 
photograph some painted buntings, bluebirds, etc.

If anyone has suggestions as to where I might find these birds I would be 
very grateful. I have only seen one painted bunting since I have been keeping 
an eye out for them, and it flew away fairly quickly.

I just purchased a Vivatar 120-600mm telephoto zoom lens which mounts to my 
Pentax K-1000. I am using it with a Bogen 3040 tripod with a fluid pan-head. 
This seems to be a winning combination, although it takes a few minutes to 
set up.

As you can all see, I am still new to birds, but I am hoping that in the 
future I will be able to make some type of valuable contribution to the 
group, since I live at the southernmost tip of the Carolinas. If any of you 
live here in Hilton Head I would love to hear from you! 

Kind regards,

Tom B.
Code3inSC@aol.com
Hilton Head Island, SC