The Birds and the Bees

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Sylvanite

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Let me tell you about the birds:

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and the bees:

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and the iguanas in the trees:

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that I saw when I visited my parents in Florida over the holidays this year.

Once again, we strolled around the local wetlands for about an hour each morning, taking pictures. If you're interested, please scroll down and have a look. I'll post more of my snapshots below.

Regards,
Eric
 

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Sylvanite

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And More Iguanas

There are more iguanas than in previous years. Being herbivores, they don't bother the birds, and the iguanas have no natural predators. I'm told that unless there's a cold snap (which kills the iguanas), the wetlands managers periodically shoot several of them.

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Sylvanite

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Cormorants

I don't usually take many photographs of Double-Crested Cormorants, because - well - they're just not very photogenic. This one, however, was posing and squawking up a storm, so I snapped a pic:

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Later, I also took these pictures:

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mark james

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Medina, Ohio
Wonderful pictures Eric. I appreciate and admire seeing these.

Totally unrelated, but the Cayman Islands are being overrun by Green Iguana's. After mulling what to do, they instituted paid culling: $5-6/iguana. In the first 8 weeks they have culled close to 250,000 iguanas, and have earmarked funds for 1 million. This will stabilize the population. Similarily, almost no native predators.

https://www.caymancompass.com/2019/01/03/cullers-eradicate-a-quarter-of-caymans-green-iguanas/

Anyone want to cast iguana skins???
 

Sylvanite

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Palm Warbler

Now, you may not believe me, but waterfowl activity was actually way down from previous years. There are not nearly as many birds, and the ones present were not flying as much. Therefore, I sometimes occupied myself by trying to take pictures of some small perching birds, such as the Palm Warbler below.

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The bird was tiny (only about 4" long) and constantly on the move - jumping or flitting from branch to branch. Tracking it through a super-telephoto lens and trying to maintain focus was quite a challenge.
 

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RangeRat

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Arkansas
Some great shots there, Sylvanite! (Of course I expect no less from what I've seen on the pen photography threads!) I started beekeepojg about 3 years ago, so I really like the bee shots!
 

BRobbins629

Passed Away Dec 28, 2021
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Your photography skills have always impressed me. Your artistry is even more impressive. Thanks for letting us look.
 
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You know Eric, there's a fellow at my local Farmer's Market in downtown Knoxville that does photography.... he takes pictures of the local old buildings and such around town, blows them up to various sizes and mounts them on a backer board, puts them in glassene sleeves and sells them at the market... he must do fairly well as he's there every weekend from May through December.... your pictures are salable quality. Something to think about.... if you do shows, put a section of your booth dedicated to your photos.
 

Buckmark13

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Aug 14, 2018
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OK, it's a photographer thing... gimme the gear run-down
You've got the knack for the panning shots, evidently!
I have a hard time gettin' a softbox on'm... lol
Definitely interested in hearing about your equipment, especially the lens!
 

Sylvanite

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OK, it's a photographer thing... gimme the gear run-down

Would you believe:

93144-holding-camera-pointing-stuff-boxcamera.jpg


Just kidding :biggrin:. I used a Canon 7D Mk II body with a Sigma 150-600mm lens. I'd only used the lens once before, so I missed a lot of shots getting used to it, and several because it doesn't focus closer than 10ft, and a few more because I inadvertently moved the focus range limiter and image stabilization switches to the wrong positions at one point. There also were times when I simply couldn't zoom out wide enough.

All in all, though, I can't fault the camera or lens for image quality. When I did my job right, they did theirs. - and that's something I think holds true for most cameras and lenses.

Regards,
Eric
 

MDWine

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Manassas Park, Virginia, USA.
Nice... I often hear Sigma "poo-poo'd" for being soft, but I don't find that with my 70-200 or my 17-50. I'm glad to see such nice work through another Sigma.

Pardon the pun, but that 600 is a Cannon!

Well done sir, your panning skills are impressive.
I particularly appreciate the flamingo catching his morsel. Great timing!
Nice work and thanks for sharing!!
 
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