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| Canon 800mm f/5.6L lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS-1D MIII. Flash at zero with the Better Beamer. (As a result of mis-setting the flash (I forgot to reduce the flash after changing the flash head batteries) this image was very light out of the box but Levels and Selecitve Color adjustments worked wonders as the image was not over-exposed.) |
I drove from Long Island, New York to Monterey, VA on Tuesday May 19 and met Dean Newman in hopes of photographing Golden-winged and Mourning Warblers. On the clear, still morning of May 20 we photographed what I thought was a singing male Golden-winged but when I viewed the images on my laptop I realized that it was instead a 2nd generation back-cross Brewster’s Warbler, the result of hybirdization between Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers. Dean was disappointed that we had missed golden-winged and reminded me that blue-winged is out-competing golden-winged for breeding habitat and that golden-winged populations are declining precipitously as a result.
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| This male Chestnut-sided Warbler was photographed with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L lens, a 25mm Extension tube, and the EOS-1D MIII. This bird surprised me by landing on a small portion of sunlit perch. In retrospect I wish that I had had my 1.4X teleconverter on…. |
The next morning we tried for the elusive Mourning Warbler only to find that they had not yet arrived on territory. We did well with a male Chestnut-sided Warbler. We lured him into range by judiciously playing its song on an i-pod speaker combination. Dean and I decided to head for his home in Maryland in hopes of photographing Ovenbird, Wood Thrush, and Hooded and Kentucky Warbler.
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| This Ovenbird was photographed with the 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 800. I was attempting to use flash as main light (1/30 sec. at f/5.6) but the flash failed to fire. The resulting image was terribly underexposed but salvageable. |
The woods there turned out to be deep and dark. I managed only one keeper photograph the first morning so I changed my Auto Train reservation from Monday to Saturday and headed to Lorton, VA after our Saturday morning session in a park near Prince Frederick, MD. The trip home was restful and uneventful and I arrived in Indian Lake Estates two days earlier than planned at about noon on Sunday, May 24.
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| To learn how I created this image, check out the BPN thread "Desperate Times…." by clicking on the active link below. |
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37180
My next post will be a trip summary.