Weekend raptor(s)

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Canonguy
Canonguy's picture
Weekend raptor(s)

I set a hide at a friend's property in western Sydney a week ago.

Saturday morning, I went in at 5:30am and walked out at 5:45pm.

Had a great day with raptors, but all were White-bellied Sea Eagles of different ages.

A portrait with stacked teleconverters, making my lens 1,400mm focal length. Nice to get tight portraits.

This was with the 500 f/4L IS USM and no cropping at all.

A bit distant as it approaches the perch, I was using my 500/4L IS USM, but on the perch I managed to mostly clip wings when they were spread. Not always, but more often than not. No cropping in this shot.

The close flight shots only needed a lens of about 300mm really. This is taken with a 70-200/2.8L IS and 1.4x teleconverter.

This flight shot was the last one on Saturday. ISO 5000 is clean enough in the 5DMkIII. I was most impressed with the easily manageable noise.

No crop here either.

ISO 12,800 and glad I had this available to capture the action. Though it is not the best quality image, it would not have been possible even five years ago. My last photo of the weekend. A spectacular sight to end a fantastic 17 hours in a hide over two days.

miccro
miccro's picture

lovely shots, great to have the opportunity to set a hide, looks like it really paid off! looks like they are fond of that perch. 

mike

Devster
Devster's picture

Fantastic shots! What a great way to spend two days.

timrp
timrp's picture

Amazing shots! Looks like a great weekend.

Reflex
Reflex's picture

Great stuff! I really like that portrait.

Good to see the converters giving such good results.

Samford Valley Qld.

laza
laza's picture

Brilliant shots

Dont take life too seriously, it never ends well

WhistlingDuck

Fantastic photos - thanks for sharing them.

HelloBirdy
HelloBirdy's picture

Magnificent shots. 

Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera

Rick N
Rick N's picture

Great set of shots and shows the value of planning ahead. Wonderful set.

Canonguy
Canonguy's picture

Thank you for looking guys.

It is important to note that bringing the birds closer is easier than trying to chase them to get close. It's possible, but not that easy from my limited experience.

birdie
birdie's picture

Hey Canonguy they look even better on here, and I love to see the sequence like this, forgot how good it was after Facebook laugh

CHeers

Sunshine Coast Queensland

jason

Nice, and congratulations.  Its great when a plan comes together.  

Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks

Wanda
Wanda's picture

Hi Canonguy 

Wow oh wow you have not lost your touch. Your series is absolutely amazing. 

vas
vas's picture

Amazing series. All great captures too.
I am seriously thinking about getting a hide myself even thou i can get pretty close to most birds but i'm in a dilema of what type to get. Something portable but something small and easy to carry like kwik camo but then the luxury of something more roomy that i can move around in a little.

cheers

Canonguy
Canonguy's picture

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Vas, what do you mean get close? 10m, 20m, 30m? To what birds?

To get a really good quality image of say a Superb Fairy-wren and to get it full size in the frame you would need to be just about 5-6 meters away even with a 600mm lens.

In my experience, habituated birds are easier to approach than really skittish ones and even different species will have their own personal tolearance levels of human closeness.

For a hide, I'd recommend the Ameristep Doghouse or Ameristep Outhouse blinds. Easy to carry, erect and take down/pack. Super easy.

The outhouse blind stands about 2m tall, the doghouse about 1.5 or so.

You can check them on Cabelas.com and should set you back about AUD 160 shipped to Australia. You don't want to buy cheap shyte Chinese or other copies. They will not last at all.

dmp
dmp's picture

Fantastic set.17 hours well spent.

Thanks for info on the blinds too, I have been looking for something like that.

vas
vas's picture

I mean i want to get closer to skittish little ones and also hide my presence around bigger birds that are skittish or shy. Alot of the time when i get a certain distance they spook. I walk alot on bush trials or off the trial work but will be great to basically wait for certain birds that i know will come to the area if they are unaware of my presence even thou i expect them to be a little shy of the hide for a while. I only have 210mm with a 2x crop factor (420mm FF equivalent) at the moment, will have more reach hopefully late this year with a 600 or 840mm with TC FF equivalant.

I plan to photograph more birds that hang around rivers, creeks, lagoons, lakes, bushland, open woodland and private dams, property etc so the hide will allow me to set up for perfect shots on certain perches i know they use alot. Most of my knowledge about these birds and where they are comes from the my countless bass fishing adventures and knowledge of the whole hawkesbury/nepean system and its tributaries where i do not carry a good camera when fishing due to the amount of rock hopping, wading etc and my bag has all fishing essentials tackle and lures i carry on these adventures. I also have pretty much kayaked the whole upper nepean system, places not the average person would dare to venture and was thinking maybe some netting on my kayak would be a great idea thou i would probably keep rapid running to minimal if carrying camera gear.

Maybe i can just get some netting and design a few frames for multi purpose or get one like the one you recommended, still deciding ;)

Canonguy wrote:

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Vas, what do you mean get close? 10m, 20m, 30m? To what birds?

To get a really good quality image of say a Superb Fairy-wren and to get it full size in the frame you would need to be just about 5-6 meters away even with a 600mm lens.

In my experience, habituated birds are easier to approach than really skittish ones and even different species will have their own personal tolearance levels of human closeness.

For a hide, I'd recommend the Ameristep Doghouse or Ameristep Outhouse blinds. Easy to carry, erect and take down/pack. Super easy.

The outhouse blind stands about 2m tall, the doghouse about 1.5 or so.

You can check them on Cabelas.com and should set you back about AUD 160 shipped to Australia. You don't want to buy cheap shyte Chinese or other copies. They will not last at all.

Rick N
Rick N's picture

Hey vas,

I think it depends a lot on what bird and what environment.

In most close, situations ie riverbanks, bush setting etc, just sitting quietly out of the way

maybe propped against a tree trunk for example, will have a surprising number of the smaller species around.

In my experience it takes about 15-20 minutes before much happens.

I have a three legged fold up stool that goes in my backpack, it really does pay to make yourself comfortable, as you

can be in the one position for quite a while. I don't worry so much about camo netting etc in these circumstances, as much as keeping a low profile and staying still.

Another important thing is to make sure that you maximise the potential of your area before settling in, ie light direction, places the birds may land etc. I have had a few times where the best spot, from the birds point of view, was directly above my head smiley

For the more difficult to attract species then Canonguys approach in setting up a hide well before hand ( and all the planning that goes with that) will produce the best results, the two approaches are quite different.

I am no expert in this, and learning as I go along, but am finding that more planning is the way to go.

Cheers

vas
vas's picture

Hi Rick

What you said i pretty much what i'm doing at the moment, wearing camo, leaning againts trees, keeping low profile, hiding behind natural cover, not making too much movement and none at times, thinking about lighting situations and scoping out the structure they are likely to land on, hiding all things shiny etc etc. 
I use a 3 legged little stool too :)
I just thought ide like to try getting even closer and a lightweight hide of some type might help me and open up other photo possibilities and also use it for other wildlife or when i'm out hunting feral animals i could use it too for ambushing pigs, foxes, feral cats etc. My M.zuiko 40-150mm f2.8 pro lens with mc-14 TC focuses very close "50cm" so i would like to get some good close ups of the little birds and also just some portrait shots of some birds too.

I'm pretty new myself and from all my hobbies/sports i find that no matter how experienced one is there is always new things to learn and never ending, one just has to have the will to learn.


Rick N wrote:

Hey vas,

I think it depends a lot on what bird and what environment.

In most close, situations ie riverbanks, bush setting etc, just sitting quietly out of the way

maybe propped against a tree trunk for example, will have a surprising number of the smaller species around.

In my experience it takes about 15-20 minutes before much happens.

I have a three legged fold up stool that goes in my backpack, it really does pay to make yourself comfortable, as you

can be in the one position for quite a while. I don't worry so much about camo netting etc in these circumstances, as much as keeping a low profile and staying still.

Another important thing is to make sure that you maximise the potential of your area before settling in, ie light direction, places the birds may land etc. I have had a few times where the best spot, from the birds point of view, was directly above my head smiley

For the more difficult to attract species then Canonguys approach in setting up a hide well before hand ( and all the planning that goes with that) will produce the best results, the two approaches are quite different.

I am no expert in this, and learning as I go along, but am finding that more planning is the way to go.

Cheers

Canonguy
Canonguy's picture

With raptors the biggest problem is their very keen eyesight. I have never found netting etc too easy to work with.

The only thing I had limited success with was wearing a full on ghillie suit. The one that snipers would use in combat. Even then, I could only get some results was when I sat in one spot BEFORE any raptors were active. That means getting to site in the dark, walking out to the spot I wanted to be in and wait. I had Swamp Harriers fly and check out my dead rabbit (road kill) and they were circling so close and low I could barely fit them into my frame using a 500mm lens with a 1.4x converter (700mm). That's a distance of only about 20-25 meters.

Hides are still generally the best form of concealment, but long lenses poking out can still put raptors off. I'll put some more WBSE shots up from another, early morning, session in my hide. I had spectacular light for only five or so minutes. The rest of the time it was cloudy and yuck.

Canonguy
Canonguy's picture

This is the ghillie I have. The large picture shows off well.

http://www.combataustralia.com.au/ghillie-suit/

Devster
Devster's picture

Wow that a serious outfit Canonguy. You difinately take your Rapters very serious.

Canonguy
Canonguy's picture

Devster wrote:

Wow that a serious outfit Canonguy. You difinately take your Rapters very serious.

I am more a(n) (amateur) photographer whose main interest is photographing birds (raptors esp.) rather than adding birds to a list.

However, to be successful at photography, it is important to understand the behaviours and biology of the species of interest and to develop a deep understanding of the technical aspects of the digital capture as well.  

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