Bird photography day out

[Mike Farley]

If nothing else it was a good day out with like minded people.

Agreed. As much as anything, it was a learning process for me, not having done anything like that previously.

At least the Nature Competition is covered for a few years!

You should certainly be OK for that!

[Mike Farley]

I am having a bit of difficulty with my bird recognition. If anyone can help out, that would be appreciated.

I think this shot is of a juvenile Goldfinch.

Juvenile Goldfinch?

Unidentified birds (1 of 2).jpg (135.61 KiB) Viewed 2918 times

While this is of a Blue Tit and a Great Tit together. BTW, I am trying to think of a suitable title for this pair of birds. Any suggestions?

A Blue Tit and a Great Tit?

Unidentified birds (2 of 2).jpg (111.32 KiB) Viewed 2918 times

Both shots taken on my Canon 7D Mk1 and 300 f/4L.

[Mike Farley]

A couple of Great Spotted Woodpecker shots. Taken on the 7D + 300L.

[Mike Farley]

Some reflection shots. I have done some cloning out of the detritus which was on the surface of the water, which I found a bit distracting.

[Mike Farley]

Here' one of a Woodpecker and Blue Tit taken with my Olympus E-M10 and Panasonic 100-300, a combo which cost les the Canon 300 f/4L lens I was using.

[davidb]

Mike

I think your first shot is of a female Chaffinch but I'm prepared to be corrected.

[Mike Farley]

I think your first shot is of a female Chaffinch but I'm prepared to be corrected.

I have found an illustration in my book of British birds and I believe you are right. The female is less brightly coloured and it certainly makes more sense than my original suggestion.

[Mike Farley]

I finished up the day shooting for around 30 minutes with a manual focus Leica R Vario-Elmar 80-200 f/4 mounted on my Fuji X-E2 and zoomed to its maximum focal length, for a full frame equivalent of 300 mm. I wanted to see both how the lens performed and how difficult it was to focus manually from a hide. The answers were excellent and difficult, respectively. The focus ring is at the far end of the lens and it was difficult to operate while keeping my hand within the netting. In the end, I simply prefocussed and waited for the birds to land on the branch I had chosen. While I think it is the sharpest lens which I used all day, it is not something I would repeat in similar circumtances.

The first shot is of a woodpecker, for comparison to similar shots which I took with the Canon 300 and Panasonic 100-300 lenses.

Woodpecker

Birds (1 of 2).jpg (114.97 KiB) Viewed 2917 times

The other shot is of what I believe to be a juvenile male blackbird. It is similar to the female, but has more spots on its chest.

Juvenile male blackbird

Birds (2 of 2).jpg (130.79 KiB) Viewed 2917 times

[davidb]

Mike

I tend to agree about the Blackbird.

My "bible" for British bird identity is "Collins Bird Guide" by Svensson, Mullarney and Zitterstrom.

[davidb]

I know some people like to know the EXIF details so here they are:

My photographs are saved as RAW data and imported into Lightroom. All the images are 5472x3648 (landscape) or 3648x5472 (portrait) but in each case the image has been cropped -

1. Great Tit
1/500 @ f/6.3, iso 400, focal length (fl) 400mm, landscape cropped to 2326x2326
2. Blue Tit
1/250 @ f/5.6, iso 500, fl 400mm, landscape cropped to 2336x2336
3. Great Spotted Woodpecker
1/250 @ f/5.6, iso 200, fl 271mm, portrait cropped to 2339x3508
4. Jay
1/500 @ f/5.6, iso 800, fl 400mm, landscape cropped to 2755x2755
5. Nuthatch
1/500 @ f/5.6, iso 500, fl 340mm, landscape cropped to 2413x2413
6. Grey Squirrel
1/500 @ f/6.3, iso 200, fl 176mm, landscape cropped to 2841x2841

Having said all that none of the final images were untouched in some way. Highlights and shadows were adjusted and exposure, contrast and clarity were tweaked. I also used sharpening and noise reduction and in some a degree of vignetting to tone down bright edges and corners. So the EXIF data is not much use when viewing the final product.