[dane.dawg]

Blackbird season is almost here and I have spent about a month and a half every season for the past three years trying to get Blackbird BIF shots.
So many hours going to the trash bin.
Seeing Drews photo [which is one of the best, if not the best I have ever seen] gives me hope this season.
This is the best Blackbird shot I have gotten and with a lot of luck and the K-3, 2014 should be a great year.

[pearsaab]

i'll take the plunge since these are a hard act to follow and we got to start somewhere

[RobG]

i'll take the plunge since these are a hard act to follow and we got to start somewhere

Beautiful! What a bizarre species of duck!

[pearsaab]

Beautiful! What a bizarre species of duck!

rob it's a hooded merganser

[RobG]

rob it's a hooded merganser

Thanks, I suspected it was a Merganser species after seeing one in Japan. Well, actually the one in japan was a Goosander but close enough!

[TonyTurley]

Very cool @TonyTurley!

Thanks.

---------- Post added 02-14-14 at 09:32 PM ----------

Guys, your Blackbird and Merganser pics are outstanding.

Tony

[Frogfish]

I love these small birds as well ,very nice details Kevin, small birds have always been my favorites, just never seem to see many where i live .

Beautiful photos of a beautiful bird.

Cute! Also well done!

Those are very nice Frogfish

@frogfish: nice birds and beautiful shots. But if the exifs are correct they are all made with your Nikon D3s, is that right?

Frogfish, your White Rumped Munia set is beautiful.

Thank you very much everyone for your comments - much appreciated ! Also thank you very much for the LIKES ; crewl1, dragon132312, fotogaffer, FW Birds, jiimaa, normhead, pearsaab

Pid : yes, I used to shoot with 2 x K5s and Sigma 500/4.5 plus 300+x1.7 and occasionally I'll still put up some shots from a year or two ago shot with those combos but now I shoot with the D3s and D800E and the guys here kindly let me stay on as an 'honorary Pentaxian' TBH I am on other forums where there are no brand boundaries which I also really enjoy because we are all first and foremost photographers with an affinity for (in the case of this thread) long range teles (mostly for birds and wildlife).

---------- Post added 02-15-2014 at 12:10 PM ----------

Great shots, guys. I went out for a while this afternoon, and the birds ran away. C'est la vie.

Tony

made me laugh Tony. Know the feeling well

---------- Post added 02-15-2014 at 12:17 PM ----------

Drew - that is one fantastic BIF shot
!
Travis - Equally superb, wonderful wingspread ! So I take it these are different species and not M & F (re. Drew's) ?

Amy - those Hooded Mergs are gorgeous !

Rob - your Goosanders are more often called Common Mergansers (though I don't think there is anything common about any Mergs)

---

Last edited by Frogfish; 02-15-2014 at 04:34 AM.

[kengoh]

My K-5 somehow likes the blue color when I have it set on AWB.
It was a late evening shot. That might have contributed to the blue tint as well.

---------- Post added 02-12-14 at 12:17 PM ----------



Very nice as usual.

Lovely Munia Ken ! Thanks for reminding me too - I have some other Munia shots that I had totally forgotten to process from last December !!

One of my favourite little birds is the White Rumped Munia (also called 'Mannekin' and has other AKAs). There are three species in China, the Scaly Breasted, White Rumped, and the Black Headed (if that's what it's still called )

Very nice shot ken

Those breast feathers are very attractive. Thanks, Ken.

Another great series Ken.

Tom G

Ken, lovely Black-headed Munia.

Thanks all for the kind comments.

---------- Post added 15th Feb 2014 at 17:42 ----------

Nice munia set frogfish and great flight shot Travis.

[Jens Lyn IV]

I'm confused, is this the long lens thread or the awesometacularly excellent bird photo thread?

Ah well, here's a deer scratching an itch. Or half a deer, anyway...

[fotogaffer]

[kengoh]

Grey-Rumped Treeswift shot this morning.

Front view


Back view

[stormtech]

Fantastic Junco shots @fotogaffer!

[fotogaffer]

Fantastic Junco shots @fotogaffer!

Thanks Stan. I still think you have the "gold standard" Junco shot posted on this thread though! So thanks for your comments - appreciated!

[traderdrew]

i couldn't find the exif info...can you tell us how you did it..it's beautiful!!!

I know I had my exposure at +.07 and my shutter was 1/2000 and ISO 400. Aperture was about F/5.6 or F/6.3. I think I was using all 27 autofocus points at the time. I do like the option of nine points in the center.

I've been playing around with my autofocus settings in the menu. One time my camera froze up for a second on a cool action shot because I think I had it on focus priority rather than shutter release priority.

Blackbird season is almost here and I have spent about a month and a half every season for the past three years trying to get Blackbird BIF shots.
So many hours going to the trash bin.
Seeing Drews photo [which is one of the best, if not the best I have ever seen] gives me hope this season.
This is the best Blackbird shot I have gotten and with a lot of luck and the K-3, 2014 should be a great year.

No kidding around, your blackbird is certainly one of the best I've seen. The lighting and exposure on it looks perfect.

---------- Post added 02-15-2014 at 12:19 PM ----------



This is a Wood Stork I got on the same day as the Red-winged Blackbird.

I got three nice action photos of wood storks on my recent trip to Viera. They're not one of my favorite birds but they gave me photo opportunities.

http://500px.com/photo/61115386

[dadipentak]

Wood Stork

[Pokes head out of cave looking for signs of Spring]
Awesome shot!
[Sees snow, goes back to bed.]