Great Egret Catching Lunch...

I got down to the Cosumnes River Preserve today with my long lens setup (Tamron SP 400mm F4 + 1.7x AFTC + K20D) and wandered around for a couple hours not getting close to birds :p... Then, almost back to the truck, I saw this egret along the path. Since the last egret I tried to approach had bugged out when I got within a couple hundred yards, I decided to take it slow, only to watch aghast as a couple of birdwatchers walked right up to it from the other direction... It turns out this bird was so engrossed in the hunt that it didn't even register the presence of the people. I wasn't able to get a close as I wanted before the action started and when it did, I plunked down my tripod and started firing (filled the buffer a couple times in the process)...

Stalking Lunch...



Got 'im...






Look how close he walked to the folks on the trail (well, there's some compression from the 700mm lens... those feet are probably 10-15 feet behind the egret).










Then I grabbed my 5DII with the 100-400mm L at f/7.1 and stalked in a bit closer before he launched away...

Acorn Woodpecker...

I went shooting at a local pond last week, hoping to photograph the wading birds I see there every time I drive by (Great Blue Herons, Egrets, etc...) Well it turns out that all those birds were perched in the trees which line the trail next to the pond, and as I walked along, I heard (but didn't see) them all departing one by one... I hung around about an hour and a half, but then I had to head for home - in that time they never came back, there are other ponds nearby they probably went to...

I did get to shoot some active Acorn Woodpeckers, so good practice with the tele rig (and I do need practice)...

All shots with the K-7, Pentax-F 1.7x AFTC, and Tamron SP 400mm f/4 @ f/8 (for f/14 as calculated by the TC).

Click a photo to see a larger version...









(looks like he's hiding in this one...)

Lookin' for birds - found bugs instead...

Saw some ducks at the pond - they departed when I got within 200m... Saw a killdeer - it left when I took my tripod off my pack... Saw a splash when a frog jumped into the water and disappear (saw that a lot actually).

Luckily, some bugs showed up so the walk wasn't a total wash ;-)...

First the Mantis shots...


Click the photo to see a larger version...

DA* 300mm, f/10



DA* 300mm, f/8



DA* 300mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/22



Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/11





Now the Dragonfly...

Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/16



Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/16



DA* 300mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/14
(I sure wish I had avoided the foreground blur on the right of this one)



Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/16

First shots with the DA* 300mm...

Nice lens!
:D...

(click the photo to see a larger version...)

Bees...

w/ the -F 1.7x adapter...

A Damselfly...

A duck...(no TC for the following shots...)

not sure what these guys are, I think maybe bank swallows...

And a bumblebee video (somewhere in the upload process, the quality got a bit mangled, full size looks better...)

click the screenshot to link to the video...

Dragonfly Video...

My new Pentax K-7 (amazon link) shoots HD video too... I was playing with the video mode yesterday at Pahranagat Lake, Nv...

Pahranagat Dragonflies

I stopped briefly at the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge yesterday and the dragonflies were just swarming - I've never seen such abundance of these bugs...

All shots with the K20D and the Tamron SP AF 70-200mm, mostly @ 200mm with the Pentax-F 1.7x TC.