Green woodpecker

Canon EOS 1d Mk1v. 800mm lens. 1/200th at f5.6. 800 iso.

There is a meadow full of ants nests which these birds spend a great deal of time in, but the grass is very long and they do not show well. I cut the grass with a petrol strimmer and lawnmower in one small area to create a “lawn”. Not that is a very good lawn! But it did the job and the woodpeckers came to it within 2 hours. Taken from a canvas hide put up by one of the ant hills. I have since added an upright Silver birch trunk to the spot and the birds have landed on that twice, but not posed well yet. I expect I will try again tomorrow although Mistle thrushes are feeding on the Rowen berries already. I need to try for that first.

Osprey

I was slow to learn that my 800mm lens will autofocus with a 2x extender on, but only in Live view mode. I was in a hide with Nick Martin and he borrowed my 800mm for a distant Osprey shot. The next thing I knew he was auto focusing with the 2x on while I am telling him he can’t do that, it does not work. But it appears it does and the rest of the world knew it, but not me.

In live view the focus system works on contrast rather than “phase” focusing and it is slow, but it gets there. Nick feels it is best to zoom in the live view image to get the result sharp. It certainly works. Taken on a focus4nature tour in Finland.

Canon 800mm and 2 x extender. Canon EOS 1d Mk1V. 800 iso. 1/1000th at F16.  From a hide by nest. With the cameras built in 1.3 crop that is a 2080mm lens. I always imagined we would start to suffer with heat haze at such magnifications, but no sign of it.

Black-throated diver

Black-throated diver, Finland. 800 iso. 1/500th at f8. Canon EOS 1d Mk1v. 800mm lens. The Black-throated diver is not such a rare bird in Finland and we watched two nests while on a short trip there. Both nests were very close to wooden summer houses that are so familiar around the Finish lakes. One was only 10 meters from an outhouse in the “garden”. Not that it is a proper garden, but amazing how close to humans they nested. Perhaps because man’s activity keeps predators at bay.

Some individuals can be quite confiding. I was standing in the water for this shot with no hide. Just keeping still, with the camera very low to the water on a tripod and a right-angled finder to save having to bend all the way down to the viewfinder and get a wet backside. If I had known I would have taken my chest waders for a bit more comfort.