Bird Life in Photos (includes parakeets mating)

Beautiful sunshine, new camera and one hour for lunch…

I'll start with a great-crested grebe.

Then a heron.

Next, a swan.

The Egyptian geese were in combative mood…

Finally a parakeet in search of love 😉


The last parakeet shot is the hen (for those who are interested). That sequence was taken across the lake and the shots are all very heavily cropped.

I have to say I am very impressed both with the ease of using the 7D (having a view finder that you can see through is literally an eye-opener) and the quality of shots. These were all taken at ISO 400, and most of them have had no noise reduction applied and only very basic preparation for posting. For the swan I utilized one of the menu settings which prioritizes highlights. There are other settings I want to play with, particularly some of the options for tracking birds in flight though the defaults work well enough. A lot to learn, but I'm going to enjoy the curve 😉
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

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This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. RobinL

    9 Feb 2011

    Words, well I'm impressed!

  2. cakkleberrylane

    9 Feb 2011

    Very well done! The grebe is so elegant!

  3. gdare

    9 Feb 2011

    That goose is walking on the water :eyes:

  4. anonymous

    9 Feb 2011

    Anonymous writes:

    What clarity for a cropped image – you shot from across the lake. But, I still can't get over British parakeets! — Marilyn

  5. Words

    9 Feb 2011

    Robin, to be honest I am as well. I can understand the high praise the camera gets.

  6. Words

    9 Feb 2011

    Marilyn, I'd love to get close to the parakeets but they seem to prefer the relative seclusion of the island. I'm knocked out be finally seeing them, having heard so much about them.

  7. Words

    9 Feb 2011

    Lois, the grebe was a beautiful start to the walk.

  8. Words

    9 Feb 2011

    Adele, thanks! The last shot of the grebe is quite possibly my favourite of the lot. 😀 I'm still playing with the settings to see what it can do. There are some very interesting modes for tracking which should help you keep focus even if something cuts across in front of the frame. Lots to learn.

  9. Words

    9 Feb 2011

    Darko, it's great how they do that!

  10. SittingFox

    9 Feb 2011

    Well, I can see why you're so happy with the camera! Very crisp images with a professional-looking depth to them.

    I like the grebe's hairstyle 😀

  11. Mickeyjoe-Irl

    10 Feb 2011

    Originally posted by SittingFox:

    Well, I can see why you're so happy with the camera! Very crisp images with a professional-looking depth to them.

    +1

  12. Words

    10 Feb 2011

    Thanks Mick!

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