Seven bird species, seven bird images.

[ShawnZ]

All images made with Minolta5d, or SonyA300, Tokina80-400mm, or Sigma 50-500mm, various f-stops, various shutter speeds, periodic fill flash, all hand held, manual exposure, cropped, two minor clones on song sparrow, and northern hawk owl, USM. Comments and critiques welcome. Thankyou Michael Hendrickson for the NHO image Violet green swallow from South Dakota, all others taken with 45 minutes of Duluth, MN.

In order: Northern Hawk Owl, American Robin, Violet Green Swallow, Whimbrel,

Song Sparrow, Hairy Woodpecker,Piping Plover.

Regards,

Shawn Zierman.

[JayinMN]

Sweet collection!

[mcary]

Your building yourself a wonderful bird collection Shawn!

[Dbl]

Just a wonderful collection of shots Shawn. That green swallow is really beautiful though.

[Steve Foss]

Shawn, as always, excellent work. That's not cheerleading. It's how I feel.

The swallow and the shorebirds are fine. The light is right. The pose on the swallow has drama and tension, and the environmental shorebird portraits are smack on. Fine does not mean adequate. Fine means "characterized by elegance or refinement or accomplishment."

[eyeguy 54]

Very nice! thanks for sharing

[USDA3]

looks to mee like the plover is banded as well! cool shots!

[MN Shutterbug]

Cool collection, with the swallow my fave. I've never seen one with that many colors.

[Birdsong]

Georgeous swallow photo, and I love the last, as well.

[ShawnZ]

Thanks as always for the props and feedback, it's a warm fuzzy

The plover is indeed banded, actually sporting three bands, though one is not really visible. The great lakes population of piping plovers are federally endangered. They are probably only holding on due to intense efforts by state and federal agencies to help them. They used to nest on Minnesota Point in Duluth in the early 80's, or so I've read. Any time spent at this location at all after June 1st will quickly reveal why they are unable to nest here any longer.

[Hwood]

Nice stuff. That swallow is a neat looking bird and a nice shot. Good to see a nice shot of a robin, I think it's often over looked.

[Yellowhead]

I like them all the swallow in particular, but what really impresses me is the fact you are getting such great images hand holding the Bigma (Sigma)! I have one and I just can't get any decent shots while hand holding

[Canon Guy]

What a great series! I like the DOF on that last one.

[ShawnZ]

Thanks again for the views and comments. Hwood, robins are often overlooked and I was VERY excited to get the bird to be cooperative in this setting and light.

Yellowhead, I have many unsharp images as well Definately heftier than my previously used Tokina80-400.