Category Archives: Birds

Cool Day for Coots

November 5, 2014 by Words | Comments Off

After yesterday’s deluge, some welcome sunshine. True, the ground was sodden, but it made a change to have blue skies. Still playing with the camera and trying things out, but there was no need to push ISO settings today so I just concentrated on taking pictures. Of coots.

Coot

There’s a small group of them on the pond, which is in itself slightly unusual. This isn’t one of their usual haunts, but they seem to be fitting in well with the ducks, gulls and moorhens. Like the slightly smaller moorhen, the coot is a member of the rail family and shares a number of characteristics, including absurd feet (though those were kept well out of sight today).

coot

“Smile for the camera”

Coot

Those are all early morning shots. There was more variety at lunchtime, and it was brighter.

There were ducks, dabbling…

ducks

Moorhens calling…

Moorhens

A herring gull splashing…

herring gull

And still there were coots, calmly patrolling the pond.

Coot

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. I added the
Canon EF 1.4xIII extender for the final shot of the gull.

Also posted in water birds, Wildlife Tagged , , , |

Fine Weather for Ducks

November 4, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

Today proved to be perfect weather for ducks, and pretty good weather for testing out the 7D Mark II in some fairly challenging conditions. I’m still tweaking settings as I go, but I’m getting it closer to how I want it to work and learning more about some of the incredibly useful controls you can use while still glued to the viewfinder.

Anyway, it was raining cats and dogs this morning when I arrived at Falmer Pond. Not that the ducks were complaining. Given the conditions I would not have attempted these shots with the original 7D. It was truly gloomy out there, but a good test of the cameras ISO capability. After the first shot I increased ISO from 1600 to 3200 to retain a decent shutter speed.

Duck in rain

Sleeping duck (ISO 1600)

Duck in rain

Happy Duck (ISO 3200)

Duck in rain

Serious Duck (ISO 3200)

It was still raining at lunchtime, though there were breaks in the weather. The ducks were still enjoying themselves.

Hybrid Duck (ISO 3200)

Hybrid Duck (ISO 3200)

white duck

White Duck (ISO 3200)

A female mallard flew across the pond. These are from a longer sequence

Duck in flight

Duck in flight (ISO 2000)

Duck in flight

Duck in flight (ISO 2000)

And to close: Swimming in the Rain…

Ducks swimming

Swimming in the Rain (ISO 1600)

Still much to learn and to test out, but early impressions are of a highly responsive camera, with great and easily accessible controls, great focusing and excellent low light capability.

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

Also posted in water birds, Wildlife Tagged , |

Up in the Sky

November 2, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

I’m still playing around with the 7D Mark II and spent some time today calibrating the 400mm lens, which had felt a bit soft. I’d had to do the same with the previous camera and my method of calibrating is none too exact, though making the in-camera adjustments is easy. It may take me a few attempts to get the lens working to its maximum capability. That said, the settings are not too far off.

The first sequence (with the uncalibrated 400mm lens) is a sparrowhawk flying over the garden this morning, startling (but not attacking) a small flock of starlings.

sparrowhawk and starlings

The sparrowhawk flies close to the starlings

The starlings wheeled away. The sparrowhawk was searching, but not hunting. It hung over the garden for a while longer.

sparrowhawk

sparrowhawk

sparrowhawk

The next shot, of a helicopter, was taken with the 100-400mm lens.

Helicopter

Now a herring gull (I’d calibrated the 400mm lens by this point and was using the 1.4 extender).

Herring gull

There’s one other regular feature in the sky that is hard to miss. It appeared mid to late afternoon.

Moon

Moon before nightfall – 400mm lens

And it was still there tonight.

Moon

Moon after dark – 400mm lens + 1.4x extender

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II. Lenses are the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM and Canon EF 1.4xIII extender as indicated.

Also posted in Bird of Prey, Helicopter, Moon, sparrowhawk, water birds, Wildlife Tagged , , , , , |