The light lens day continued…
So surprise surprise neither the RF 600 f/11 or the EF 400 f/5.6L are as good as the EF 500 f/4L but on days like yesterday sometimes it’s great to not worry about heavy lenses and dodgy shoulders.
Actually I used the big lens this afternoon and the camera/lens started shuddering and making loud noises and an error message appeared in the viewfinder. Hopefully just a case of cleaning the contacts….
400mm seems awfully short after being used to 500mm for the last 10 years…
But it is a lot easier carrying around.
I tried some Scoter BIFs…
Topaz DeNoise rescued these.
Some more shots from the Canon RF 600 f/11.
Struggling a bit with it: the slowish AF and high ISO are a pixel peeper’s nightmare. Small low resolution shots like this are not so bad.
BIFs are hard, at least they’re hard for me.
A soft but interesting enough shot.
A lot of noise reduction and sharpening going on here. Again, at such low resolution and when looked at on a phone they are passable.
It was raining all the way home…we stopped at a few spots.
The best bird of the trip was the Lesser Scaup, my first lifer since last summer.
Apart from the wildfowl and eagles we also saw 2 male Hen Harriers, a flock of Bohemian Waxwing, Oriental Magpie and Ring-necked Pheasant.
The eerie calls of Black Scoter are a common sound this time of year…
The Lesser Scaup was still around the next day…
Some port ducks…
Some more shots of the Lesser Scaup…
The Lesser Scaup occasionally showed signs of life…
My only lifer of the trip was this male Lesser Scaup. I would never have noticed unless another birdwatcher (the only one I saw on the whole trip) told me there was one mixed in with the Greater Scaups and Pochards in one of the ports. Whoever you are, thank you!
At first it was resting but you can clearly see the different head shape and colour to the ubiquitous Greater Scaup.
