Brandt and Mike's Excellent Bird Chase

[Busted Knuckles]

So Brandt (Kayaker) and I went to the Merritt Island Bird Sanctuary yesterday, about an hour east of Orlando. We tried out each others long eyes - the Tamzooka 150-600 and the Sowitzer 150-600. Brant even put his 1.4TC on the Sowitzer and got a bit closer. Reach seems to never be enough....

We had a lot of fun. Saw lots of birds, ducks, herons, terns, ibis, spoonbills (3 really) and even a cool sunset. I posted some of the bird pics that I took, a mix and match between the T and S on Flikr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/77760916@N05/).

As I did a multishot pano of the sunset and haven't processed it as of yet, Brandt may get the sun set up before me. Cool settings.

JRW - next time down to Orlando it is worth the trip.

We spent 1/2 the day there and really only scratched the surface.

Now if only Canon could come up with a 3,000 mm F4.....

[Joel Eade]

The fourth image ( a snowy egret, I believe) is very very nice.

[Sean Setters]

Excellent story! I love it when Community members get together and share an adventure (especially when it sounds like they're playing with WW II era explosive devices).

[Busted Knuckles]

The comedy is that we aren't really all that good at identification short of a Blue Heron and Canadian Goose. Any help is appreciated.

[Jayson]

Great story and set. I believe the first photo is of a Green Heron if that helps at all. Looks like a great place to visit.

[Kayaker72]

Ha....it was definitely an excellent bird chase. Thanks again for being the tour guide.

And I stand by the fact that we saw the never before heard of Turquoise-Magenta Heron

But seriously, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, Red Heron, and whatever that "common heron" (EDIT-Tricolored Heron) was....pretty excellent bird chase indeed. And we must have looked like we knew what we were doing because that family stopped and asked us to ID the birds.

Plus the side by side rapid 5DIII "rapid fire" action.

Oh....and that sunset.....

(in camera HDR...I am traveling and do all my post-processing on my home computer)

Thanks again...

[Busted Knuckles]

Was indeed fun, when I got home and looked at my shots, my Tamzooka seemend to be back focusing, so I looked and yep, I set it that way ARRRGGGHH, Then sat on the back porch aimed at the neighbors driveway (165 ish feet) and fiddled w/ the AFMA, and worked to a -5 from a +5. No wonder I was thinking this lens was soft....

Looks like I will just have to go back and do it again

[Busted Knuckles]

Great story and set. I believe the first photo is of a Green Heron if that helps at all. Looks like a great place to visit.

Thought that might be a night heron - just looked up images on google and it certainly not a night heron. Thanks for the clarification

[jamsus]

Uh! Really cool!

This weekend i was about to have a 5-6hours walking\photo trip but suddenly, low back pain strikeS! So Sad!

Cool pictures

[Kayaker72]

After processing, this ended up as my favorite sunset shot from the day....

small-5166 by kayaker72, on Flickr

5DIII, 24-70 II, @ 24 mm, 0.8, f/11, ISO 100 with a 3 stop reverse ND filter