[jbinpg]

Hi, Albert. That is a male Black-headed Grosbeak and should be well within its normal range in your neck of the woods. Great singers!

Jack

---------- Post added 07-09-18 at 10:02 PM ----------

A male Northwestern Fritillary on red clover. K-1 in crop mode + DA 55-300 PLM @ 300mm.

[Canada_Rockies]

Hi, Albert. That is a male Black-headed Grosbeak and should be well within its normal range in your neck of the woods. Great singers!

Jack

---------- Post added 07-09-18 at 10:02 PM ----------

A male Northwestern Fritillary on red clover. K-1 in crop mode + DA 55-300 PLM @ 300mm.

I know it should be in Merlin, but it isn't. I'm sending a note to them to add him to the list in Sparwood. He was identified in that post in the title, but not the body, so I'll edit that as well. He's fascinating. We had two of them for a few minutes yesterday.

Thanks for the note. That's a great image you posted yourself.

[TER-OR]

Now that I'm carrying two cameras in the field, it is paying off!

Green Darner - actually perched, mid-day, very strange since it wasn't a very hot day.


The Darners are the biggest dragonflies around here. This is likely the smallest, the Eastern Amberwing:


Variegated Fratillery. It's heartening to see some butterflies, their numbers have crashed.


And of course the hawks were on the hunt, here's a Red-Tailed Hawk:

[ChipB]

Hi, Albert. That is a male Black-headed Grosbeak and should be well within its normal range in your neck of the woods. Great singers!

Jack

---------- Post added 07-09-18 at 10:02 PM ----------

A male Northwestern Fritillary on red clover. K-1 in crop mode + DA 55-300 PLM @ 300mm.

Jack, nicely shot!!!

[swip]

I took these male Green Woodpecker pictures at 6:30 am from my car with a K-3ii/FA*600mm F4 ED [IF]/Eckla window mount.

Such a lovely bird. Great shots.

[ChipB]

Now that I'm carrying two cameras in the field, it is paying off!

Green Darner - actually perched, mid-day, very strange since it wasn't a very hot day.

The Darners are the biggest dragonflies around here. This is likely the smallest, the Eastern Amberwing:

Variegated Fratillery. It's heartening to see some butterflies, their numbers have crashed.

And of course the hawks were on the hunt, here's a Red-Tailed Hawk:

Very nice series Terry.

[Ducatigaz]

Here are some more Green Woodpecker shots, this time it's the female.. K-3ii/FA*600mm F4 ED [IF]/Eckla window mount.

[WPRESTO]

Bigma on a K5, a combination that delivered many images.

[ChipB]

Bigma on a K5, a combination that delivered many images.

And based on your work, it'll deliver many more!!

[swip]

Here are some more Green Woodpecker shots, this time it's the female.. K-3ii/FA*600mm F4 ED [IF]/Eckla window mount.

They are not exactly pecking wood, are they? What do they eat from the ground?
Nice shots.

[Ducatigaz]

They are not exactly pecking wood, are they? What do they eat from the ground?
Nice shots.

They have a long tongue and feed on Ants/Ant eggs

[boriscleto]

They are not exactly pecking wood, are they? What do they eat from the ground?
Nice shots.

The same thing Northern Flickers eat in North America...

[WPRESTO]

And based on your work, it'll deliver many more!!

Nope. The Bigma went to another Pentaxian some time ago, and the K5 was superseded by a K3, then a K1. Sadly, something went amiss with the flash wiring inside the K5. Hot shoe will not discharge any strobe I've tried in it. Were it functional, I pass that camera on to another Pentaxian. I feel guilty about keeping equipment that I don't use - rather see it go to someone who wants it and will put it to use.

[WPRESTO]

The Bigma was replaced by a 150~450mm, an amazing lens, BUT, just too big and heavy for me except under special circumstances, so it, too has gone to another Pentaxian, hopefully someone younger and stronger than I (wouldn't take much).

Below, uncropped and cropped images taken with the 150~450mm @ 450mm

[normhead]

I shot today with DA 55-300 PLM and the 1.4 TC,
Results were judged as "better than nothing."

As a stationary blind lens, it's avery nice walking lens. I doubt the TC helps it much.

Juvenile white throated sparrow.


Mommy or daddy


Eating bugs is good for your health.



I think this guy just caught my hummingbird moth.


A pile of my red squirrels and flying squirrels have turned up dead recently... king squirrel remains un-affected..



Finches


The local weasel has taken a few chipmunks as well





Birds have to drink...




It was interesting to use the 55-300 PLM with the TC but shooting at 9.3 as you maximum aperture creates serious shutter speed problems. As well, compared to my other lenses, it's simply not as sharp. You can get away with it without the TC for a great portable option, but the TC just magnifies the softness.

---------- Post added 07-11-18 at 01:57 PM ----------

A bonus discussion of bridge cameras diffraction and the DA 55-300 PLM and 1.4 TC.

F/8 at long end with this camera is like f/32 with my K-30 {yes, some of my lenses go that far!}; it is there, but nobody demands that you use it.

And these lenses are seriously diffraction limited by ƒ8

A K-3 image at 500mm f8 (35mm equivalent 750mm)


An XG-1 image. 224 mm (1248 equivalent mm) ƒ6.4


K-3 and DA 55-300 PLM and 1.4 TC. You can do worse with an APS-c camera just by going cheap and expecting too much of your gear. This image taken with $2000 worth of gear on APS_c. The larger the format, the more you pay for less.



You can see that the XG-1 has more diffraction than the others, but does that even matter? It's personal decision. It doesn't matter to me, in any case. Just not as good as the APS_c image. If you aren't directly comparing you can still enjoy the image. Especially considering one was taken with a $1300 camera 1 $3000 lens and $300 adapter, that's $4600, and one was taken with a bridge camera that cost me $250. You might like the APS_c on, but are you wiling to pay $4300 for it?

If you think you might like to get into birding, a P1000 is cheaper than a DA*300 and gives you more reach. Personally I just love that my XG-1 gives me a chance at shots like this without carrying a lot of weight. The Nikon with a tripod would be a lot better.