And then there was Sunday

[Steve Foss]

Ken and I had a day full of birds on the way to photograph the sharp-tailed grouse.

Here's a sampling. Man, I could watch pelicans wheel and soar all day long. Truly they are the synchronized swimmers of the bird world.

Aside from the drumming ruffed grouse, these are all essentially grab shots of birds we came across while traveling. Squeal to a stop, hop out, shoot as long as possible, hop back in, accelerate!

All with the Canon 1D Mk3, Canon 200 f2.8L, 300 f2.8L IS or 500 f4L IS with and without the Canon 1.4 TC, most at iso400, wide variety of shutter speeds and apertures. The pellies in particular I shot stopped down to f9 and f11 so they'd all be sharp.

[Steve Foss]

And here's the rest of the cast of characters.

[Debbie K]

Man - I wanna hang out with you guys!!! Great pelican series.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Debbie. We DO have our share of fun.

[finnbay]

Hey, some super shots, man! Those pelicans really came out well! Eagle shots are better than I would have thought under conditions we faced and the killdeer really came out nice. I haven't started to look at those folders yet. After sharpies I had some other work to do, and baseball today. I will try to get some up later, however!

Really, my fave is the first ringbill shot.

[Steve Foss]

Boy, after that marathon post-processing session with the grouse, I was ready to just blow off sorting and processing the other folders and go shoot, but I figured if I didn't get at it right away, I maybe never would.

Think I'll go out this afternoon and see if I can find the pair of great gray owls I located near Ely on Friday/Saturday. I hope they nest here. I only have one series of images of a GGO with green leaves in the frame.

[DTro]

Nice shots! I love watching Pelicans fly.

I need to take one of you guys out on the river sometime to get some nice shots of the Kingfishers that seem to be everywhere lately.

[Steve Foss]

Darren, Kfishers are high on my list of wants. I know where a pair nest here every year in a rock cliff face overlooking water, and I keep promising myself I'm going to make it happen. So far, I haven't.

[buzzsaw]

I think those dats are alot of fun! You gotta keep the fun invloved or it becomes all work right?!

P.S. Man that last Grouse image makes me hurt its so good!

[Jim Almquist]

The Pelicans and the Grouse shots are very nice. Looks like you were trying to wear that camera out before it gets back to CPS

[Dbl]

I'm with Mike, that last two grouse images are AAA+++. The killdeer keeps me going back as well. Great outing for you guys!

[Birdsong]

Love the killdeer!!

[ShawnZ]

Great variety! I love how you can see the ring so well on the second ring necked duck image. Some very nice images sir.

[finnbay]

Well, I didn't get quite as many as Steve did, but managed a few and even one of a species he didn't get:

Rough legged?

[gatorhunter]

I like what Steve did with the baldy. Great environment shot that makes the eye follow the tree up to the bird...Classic!

That vulture looks like he meant business...yikes!

This thread is my absolute favorite on this forum. Thank you to everyone for contributing such beautiful bird photographs!