Whenever I see Pete Moulton post on FB (I check it rarely), I importune him for photographs. Here are the latest ones with his notes (indented):
Per your request, here are a few photographs from this fall here in the Phoenix [Arizona] area. All were taken with my old Canon 100-400mm zoom lens on a crop-frame camera.First are two consecutive shots from a burst featuring an adult Snowy Egret, Egretta thula, foraging at a pond in Gilbert. It seems to have missed this time.
Next, a more successful Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, with its Sunday brunch at my home patch. Another grebe was chasing this one, trying to get that sunfish.
I spend a lot of time just sitting quietly in one spot, and sometimes the birds will come over to visit. This juvenile Green Heron (Butorides virescens) did just that, and stayed until a couple of incautious kids came by and spooked it off.
A trip to a park in Glendale, Arizona to look for a different bird produced this early-season duck image. He’s a drake Eurasian Wigeon (Anas penelope), deep in his prealternate molt. This guy’s an old friend, having spent the last two winters at this same park. Most of my other images of him are from later in the season, when his molt is largely finished. If I remember correctly, I’ve sent you one of those before.
Another early-season duck is this first-winter drake Northern Shoveler, Anas clypeata. Shovelers don’t get the respect they deserve, as far as I’m concerned, but they’re quite beautiful in their own way.
And finally, this year’s Facebook avatar. It’s my personal ritual to go birding as early as possible each year, and use whatever bird I photograph first as my avatar, and this year this Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) at the Desert Botanical Garden won out over a Curve-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma curvirostre, in the same area. The Cactus Wren is also the Arizona state bird, so always a worthy subject.
And here’s the thrasher.
Very nice photos. The old saying is especially true in the desert – just add water.
The readers wildlife shots are one of the highlights of this website. The patience that is needed for the majority of shots must be incredible.
I won’t speak for anyone but myself, but laziness is almost as good as patience in my case.
AH, so there is a chance for some of us…
… so long as it’s not a lazy eye, eh? You have great eye, Pete, and your photos are works of art! Thanks for sharing them with us.
Thank you most kindly!
Great images.
I wonder how the grebe is going to down that sunfish. It’s bigger than his whole head.
Gorgeous pictures. But what in the world is a crop-frame camera? According to the exif data, it’s a Canon EOS 500D. Why crop-frame? Just curious.
DSLRs come in two sensor sizes: the full-frame, which is the same size as a 35mm frame, or 24 X 36mm, and the smaller APS-size crop-frame, which is about 14.9 X 22.3mm, depending on the manufacturer.
The smaller sensor has the effect of increasing the focal length, and thereby the magnification, of whatever lens is in front of it. Camera makers typically show this as a ‘crop factor’ in their specifications. Canon’s crop-frame cameras typically have a crop factor of 1.6, while Nikons are usually 1.5. You can multiply the focal length of the lens by these factors to determine effective focal length. So my 100-400mm lens is in fact a 100-400mm lens when it’s on a full-frame camera, but increases to 160-640mm focal length on my T1i (same as a 500D, but different nomenclature).
I like the greater magnification the smaller sensor gives me, but there are trade-offs. The full-frame sensors are capable of greater resolution, for one thing.
Ok, I knew about the sensors, but did not know the expression. Thanks.
Beautiful, Pete! I especially like the wren!