as you will see, the title refers to some shots i got of a pair established on a nest, since last weekend there are definitely more ospreys here on long island, and quite a few nests have pairs established on them, the first one is a nest in new suffolk, literally 75 feet or so from the parking area for a busy restaurant. but that does not mean this bird is not keeping an eye on me, i pulled into a parking spot and literally shot this over the hood of the truck, this bird eventually flew off and after awhile i moved on to some more nests. today was more of a scouting mission to see how many nests i can find, someone i know involved in the audobon society told me that as of last month there are 69 nest platforms up right now in southold town, i do not know how many in riverhead, and the pair has come back onto the cell/radio tower behind my firehouse and are busy housekeeping. i am seriously looking into a camo sleeve for my big white lens, and i now have the 1.4 tele extender, on for all today's shots, very nicely sharp at f8, 580mm 20 frames per second.
this is going to be one of my most photographed pair, simply because of ease of access, and they are pretty close to where i can stand and shoot, again on mattituck inlet, one of the nests i was shooting last week from across the creek, this one had no birds landing on it last week, today it has a committed pair one flew off for awhile, probably fishing and did return, without a fish and why i titled the post what i did i thought the other one would take off, but it was just some feather preening, they settled down to some conversation and hanging out with each other
Neat to have a nesting pair to shoot - very cool. We have osprey everywhere down here, but never nesting. Just hanging out, fishing, chasing each other, yelping all the time. I've never gotten to see osprey on their nests, or the chicks...so it will be nice to see what you get of this pair. They are excellent fishermen. In fact, there are a few birds around here that are lazy, like northern harriers and bald eagles, that will watch an osprey, wait until they get a fish, then chase them down to try to steal it. They figure it's easier to grab a fish from an osprey than to go try to get their own. Had a really nice fly-by of an osprey with his catch last month: All taken with the FE100-400mm at 400mm, but no TC...he was close enough I didn't need it.
I can't say enough good things about this gear combo, Sony A9, fe 100-400, 1.4x tc i have never had this fast an autofocus before, even with the tc on the iq is just outstanding. I am so fired up for birding this year Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
That was definitely an exception - not only close, but perfect angle to the sun. I was walking with a fellow Sony shooter, who didn't have any experience with BIFs...walking him through camera settings and discussing conditions - as we were walking I noted how perfect the light was in that direction for BIFs, with the sun at our backs, and nice warm lower light..when up from behind the reeds comes this osprey, and heads right in our direction. I whipped up the camera and took a series of shots of it - unfortunately my shooting partner wasn't quite ready yet. He had all the settings right, but still hadn't gotten the motions down - being ready to shoot any time with no warning, and how to acquire a moving target in the finder at 400mm in a second or two...that part takes some experience and practice. He's learning though - the wood storks are large and slower so he got in some good practice with BIFs on those guys. I've been shooting with nearly a dozen other Sony shooters the past few months - they're really starting to expand quite a bit into the birding and wildlife ranks down here. Quite a few A6300s and A6500s, 3 A7rIIIs, two A9s, and a few A7RIIs. We've done a few camera and lens swaps so I got the chance to try the A9, and lent my 100-400mm to a few who didn't have it to try out. It's been nice having a growing Sony community down in the wetlands, as I was always a bit jealous when I'd pass two Nikon shooters swapping a cool new lens, and I was the only Sony shooter out there back then!
It was a little freaky actually - it's eerily quiet! I didn't even have silent shutter engaged, and STILL it was so quiet I barely knew I was taking shots over the noise of the baby wood storks all squawking. Tracking is certainly on target - my A6300 is already pretty solid in that regard, but being full frame the A9 has to be more accurate with the shallower DOF and it seemed to be having no issues keeping up.
yes the a9 is everything i had heard it would be for tracking, i spend half an hour almost every night reading freedman's 638 page user guide, doing it cover to cover, leaving out the video sections, i have zero interest in video, never have and never will. and yes it is spooky quiet, the evf flickering is sometimes the only way i know i am shooting, the only wish have, and this seems across all camera brands, they should have either a selector switch, or a drill down menu choice on frame rate of say 3,5,9 five shots strung together would be just about perfect for steam train photo charters, giving you very good chances at a rods down shot without burying the card in redundant shots. i have already started to accumulate some 128gb high write speed cards, the first one arrived today, fortunately for my gear budget, i only need 4-5 of them to cover main pixelmani days and the usual 2 day steam charters, to go with the 4 high speed 64 gb cards i already have, grip it and rip never looked so good.
so back to the restaurant parking lot. since this afternoon was the first real spring warmth day this month, i watched this guy for awhile, wondering what was up, no fishing, no other bird in sight, and he kept a wary eye on me the whole time, making lots of noise and all of a sudden up pops the other bird, so this nest has been claimed by a pair after all eventually they both flew off, probably fishing, it's a little early for eggs, and they would never leave them uncovered to prevent chilling the eggs. love the feather detail i am getting
so i went to mattituck inlet, to my favorite vantage point, one bird sitting on the perch on the nest furthest away, no birds at all on the nest closer, just about ready to leave , very concerned that maybe the nest was rejected by that pair, when 2 show up wheeling all around the sky, near the nest but never landing on it, then one of the birds lands on top of a solitary piling, off the dock used for spring lines for the homeowners boat later in the season, and sits there by her lonesome, and this happens, which is how i know that is the female. oh look mommy that bird is helping it's friend fly hey babe, you got nothing to eat here, i'm gonna go get an anchovy pizza
