Who'll stop the rain :-(

Steve Cavigliano

Hello All,

OK, so I'm here in sunny California and itching to shoot some pics. My only problem is that sunny CA has turned into Seattle :cry 19 rainy days out of 21 so far in March. Not fun for a bird shooter.

Oh well, enough of my problems and on to the pics. These are from today, shooting with Andy and from last Friday. When Andy arrived today it was raining, yet again. Not good for shooting the City and IR shooting was out of the question too. So we meandered down the coast and stopped at a beach near Half Moon Bay. A few Egrets were hanging around, so we had to get one shot in for Egret Fest :rolleyes



I saw a Kestrel on a sign. He must have mistaken Andy for a sheepdog :lol3



Other than a ton of gulls and some crows, the only other birds around were blackbirds. Sweet song they sing and some look great when hit by the light. Their feathers that usually look black, turn irredescent. They almost glow





I didn't get any Egrets last Friday, even though I went to the Baylands rookery :dunno All I saw were a bunch of BCNHs and a pheasant. Of course it was a beautiful sunny day.........NOT



Yes, those are raindrops :cry



This one was wondering why there isn't a DGrin Heron Fest :lol
A little noisy, but the light was bad :rolleyes



Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed the pics. C&C's always welcome.

Steve

Art Scott

Steve...these are great....especially the black birds.....wow what colors they have.

Harryb

Hey Steve,

By now you should know that if Andy's around the weather will suck. I had great weather down in Florida and then Andy came down and we had two days of rain. It hasn't rained since Andy left.

Very nice shots there, Love the pheasant's colors. Since herons are members of the egret family it would be redundant to have a heron fest.

ginger_55

I love that last night heron! The others are good, too. I notice that the egret has a black bill, means he is not breeding, or whatever. I just read that last night. When they are in a breeding mood their bill turns yellow.

Also, the Night Herons, they are picked on by other birds. Probably because the Night Herons steal from the other birds and are not very nice themselves. When they are breeding their legs and feet "blush" red. Plus a couple of other things.

Happy shooting, the sun is coming back out here, but it is coolish.

ginger

Stormdancing

Great shots Steve.
The Grackles/Starlings as we call them here, really are pretty birds and quite musical.
The Pheasant is the showman of the bunch. What are the white specs floating around?

The rest are just stunning.

Thanks for sharing.

PS Where's the shots of the Fair Headed NY'er?

wxwax

Goodness, Steve! Talk about close! Super sharp and nice color.

ian408

Supposed to be clear(er) tomorrow

BigAl

Great series Steve. I really like the Egret and the flying NH!

Dee

Hey Steve
We spotted a great blue at Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park -- landed in a tree of all things! The usual egret was at it's haunt at one lake... and we saw starlings (the irridescent birds), pidgeons, sea gulls, mallard ducks, coots but I didn't see any turtles.

I had to get out today -- yesterday we had 2 minutes of HAIL during the day! And the day before it was raining.

Sick of rain, you bet!

Looks like you went a little bird crazy there -- and I don't blame you...

Thusie

Great shots all! Rain blah

4labs

beautiful series Steve, Liked em all.

Skippy

Gosh What A Series

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Hello All,

OK, so I'm here in sunny California and itching to shoot some pics. My only problem is that sunny CA has turned into Seattle :cry 19 rainy days out of 21 so far in March. Not fun for a bird shooter.

Oh well, enough of my problems and on to the pics. These are from today, shooting with Andy and from last Friday. When Andy arrived today it was raining, yet again. Not good for shooting the City and IR shooting was out of the question too. So we meandered down the coast and stopped at a beach near Half Moon Bay. A few Egrets were hanging around, so we had to get one shot in for Egret Fest



I saw a Kestrel on a sign. He must have mistaken Andy for a sheepdog

Other than a ton of gulls and some crows, the only other birds around were blackbirds. Sweet song they sing and some look great when hit by the light. Their feathers that usually look black, turn irredescent. They almost glow
I didn't get any Egrets last Friday, even though I went to the Baylands rookery All I saw were a bunch of BCNHs and a pheasant. Of course it was a beautiful sunny day.........NOT
Yes, those are raindrops :cry

This one was wondering why there isn't a DGrin Heron Fest :lol
A little noisy, but the light was bad
Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed the pics. C&C's always welcome.
Steve

Boyyyyyyyy oh boy.......... you got some Great shots here didn't you
Hmmmmm my hundreds of sparrows have nothing on those birds
Thanks for sharing.......... Skippy (Australia)

Rohirrim

Lovely series Steve, great sharpness and colors in every shot.

Steve Cavigliano

Art Scott wrote:

Steve...these are great....especially the black birds.....wow what colors they have.

Thanks Art

I agree about those blackbirds, which I believe are European Starlings (thanks Storm ). It was one of those days where you are just happy to come home with anything at all.

Thanks for looking and your comments,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

Harryb wrote:

Hey Steve,

By now you should know that if Andy's around the weather will suck. I had great weather down in Florida and then Andy came down and we had two days of rain. It hasn't rained since Andy left.

Very nice shots there, Love the pheasant's colors. Since herons are members of the egret family it would be redundant to have a heron fest.

Harry,
Yeah, it usually rains when Andy visits. But the sad part is that it keeps raining even when Andy is not here :cry Thanks for the feedback on Egret Fest. I'll have to inform the BCNH colony that they are most welcome...lol


Thanks for your comments,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

ginger_55 wrote:

I love that last night heron! The others are good, too. I notice that the egret has a black bill, means he is not breeding, or whatever. I just read that last night. When they are in a breeding mood their bill turns yellow.

Also, the Night Herons, they are picked on by other birds. Probably because the Night Herons steal from the other birds and are not very nice themselves. When they are breeding their legs and feet "blush" red. Plus a couple of other things.

Happy shooting, the sun is coming back out here, but it is coolish.

ginger

Hiya Ginger and thanks for your comments

That goofy looking NH was swaying in a tree and the wind was whipping his feathers around. I caught him just as it was rippling his neck area. Made him look even funnier than they normally look....lol

You are right about Egret bill colors. The yellow area right below the eyes sort of merges and much of the bill becomes yellow during mating season. I think one sex gets the yellow bill and the other a red area below the eyes. I notice Greats get a green area below the eyes

Sort of like this


Yes, NHs are badboys. They are really nasty birds. I see most of the duckling kills and juvenile heron/egret kills done by NH's. :uhoh No wonder no one wants them as neighbors...lol

Thanks again Ginger and doncha just love that 400mm F5.6


Steve

bfjr

Hey I know the feeling when it hasn't been raining it's been windy and yes Cooollllldddd for Cali

The shots are crisp and clean and show your usual quality, even though I've been told Andy can be a handicap :lol

Steve Cavigliano

Stormdancing wrote:

Great shots Steve.
The Grackles/Starlings as we call them here, really are pretty birds and quite musical.
The Pheasant is the showman of the bunch. What are the white specs floating around?

The rest are just stunning.

Thanks for sharing.

PS Where's the shots of the Fair Headed NY'er?

Thanks Storm

I knew these weren't actually blackbirds, but your comment caused me to look them up...lol Yep, European Starlings is what they are. They were with hundreds of redwing blackbirds. Probably cousins or something.

The white specks floating around in the pheasant pic are raindrops. I don't have a weatherproof body (and neither does my camera ) so I rarely shoot in the rain. I got a few shots of that guy in before having to duck into the car fto wait for the rain to stop.

You know I was thinking about getting a shot or two of Mr Williams. But, there's been so many shots of him posted recently, I figured you all would be tired of his smilin' mug.....errrrr....smug mug.....lol Maybe we'll get a shot or two at dinner tonight. There should be 4 of us there (Andy, Ian, Cletus and myself). Damn, that's one motley crew :lol I hope the lens doesn't crack...lol

Thanks again for commenting,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

wxwax wrote:

Goodness, Steve! Talk about close! Super sharp and nice color.

Thanks Sid

The closeness that 896mms gets you These were all shot with the 400mm + Tamron 1.4 TC mounted to a 20D. So that gives me that nice longggggg FOV. My biggest issue is dealing with the shallow DOF @ F5.6/F8. That last Night Heron was like 20-25feet away and up in a tree. I couldn't even get the tip of his 5 inch bill in the "in-focus zone"

I love this combo and most of these are cropped bigtime and still look decent. The only other issue I have with this combo is the bokeh isn't as nice as the bare lens gives. It gets sort of grainy/crispy like a P&S image. Oh well, better than spending $5500 (not including Sherpa fees......lol) for the 500 F4.

Thanks again for looking,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

ian408 wrote:

Supposed to be clear(er) tomorrow

Ian,
Sounds like that old line from my favorite surf flick, The Endless Summer. "You boys shoulda been here yesterday" I'm looking outside at gorgeous blue sky and I have to be here working. Oh well, maybe Friday afternoon at Steamer's eh?


See ya tonight,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

BigAl wrote:

Great series Steve. I really like the Egret and the flying NH!

Thanks Al

I was pretty happy with those pics too. Especially the NH in-flight shot. The light was prety flat for that one. Yet, the camera captured the colors in the wings very nicely.


Thanks for your comments,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

Dee wrote:

We spotted a great blue at Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park -- landed in a tree of all things! The usual egret was at it's haunt at one lake... and we saw starlings (the irridescent birds), pidgeons, sea gulls, mallard ducks, coots but I didn't see any turtles.

I had to get out today -- yesterday we had 2 minutes of HAIL during the day! And the day before it was raining.

Sick of rain, you bet!

Looks like you went a little bird crazy there -- and I don't blame you...

Dee,
Sounds like you've got Cabin Fever too......lol It also looks like you hit paydirt @ Stowe I hear if you get there early enough, you can see a family of bobcats that hunt around the lake :uhoh

You know, Andy specifically mentioned that he wanted to shoot IR landscapes of of sites in the City. He told me that he did not want to go after birds. I didn't want to shoot birds either. I was thinking maybe street shooting in the City. Once Andy saw the poor light, we really couldn't do much else other than driving down the coast looking for a break in the weather We stopped at Venice Beach and I spotted the kestrel and a red shoulder that disappeared before I could nail him. Then at the next beach down, we weren't able to get to the sand and surf and had nothing good to shoot other than birds from a distance. It got so bad, I saw Andy stalking and shooting a crow...lol Damn, another KPOTD photo op missed

Thanks for stopping by Dee,

Steve

Steve Cavigliano

Thusie wrote:

Great shots all! Rain blah

Thanks Thusie

Yep, rain, rain go away..... But, I can't complain too much. Other parts of the country have been getting much worse weather. Not being able to shoot in the rain is one thing. Losing your home and possibly a loved one is way more of a problem :cry


Thanks for looking,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

4labs wrote:

beautiful series Steve, Liked em all.

Thanks Eric


Steve

Steve Cavigliano

Skippy wrote:

Boyyyyyyyy oh boy.......... you got some Great shots here didn't you
Hmmmmm my hundreds of sparrows have nothing on those birds
Thanks for sharing.......... Skippy (Australia)

Thanks Skippy

Yeah, we were reduced to shooting starlings, gulls and crows....lol I'm kinda glad no one saw us

Hey lady, forget those sparrows. You folks have lorikeets to shoot. I just love those little birds. From a distance of course...lol Gus told me how much of a mess and racket these little guys make. But, boy oh boy, it's hard to find a more colorful bird Or, a friendlier one.

Thanks for your comments,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

Rohirrim wrote:

Lovely series Steve, great sharpness and colors in every shot.

Thanks Steve

I'm loving this lens and learning everytime I go out. Can't ask for more than that, right?


Thanks for looking,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

bfjr wrote:

Hey I know the feeling when it hasn't been raining it's been windy and yes Cooollllldddd for Cali

The shots are crisp and clean and show your usual quality, even though I've been told Andy can be a handicap :lol

Thanks Ben

Yeah, the rain is bad enough, but the cold weather suxs We have snow on the 1000-2000 ft hills that ring the valley :uhoh It's been there for weeks. Which is extremely rare. It might be Andy's fault too.....

Andy is never a handicap. More like a special needs child. As long as he's well fed and isn't taken too far from a Starbucks, he behaves very well
Other than the constant questions he asks, like "Hey Steve, when we gonna eat?" or "Hey Steve, where we gonna eat?", or "Hey Steve, is it time to eat yet?"...... He even tries to elicit sympathy with lines like "Hey Steve, you do know that my stomach is on East Coast time don't you?"

Just kidding. Andy's a blast to shoot with, talk to and eat with. We always have a good time even when there's not much to shoot. Add Ian into the mix and it's the 3 Amigos Or maybe the 3 Stooges...lol

Thanks again Ben,

Steve