Wildlife June 2010

[mark smyth]

Quite close to where you live lives a man with his colony of 35 nest boxes

[Peter Maguire]

I thought I'd post a few varied wildlife images from a recent trip to western Scotland I made about ten days ago.
Firstly two views of a dragonfly, Libellula quadrimaculata.
Then two view of Gannets ((Morus bassanus) flying past Ardnamurchan Lighthouse.

[Peter Maguire]

More birds: the common sandpiper was in Glen Etive, the others in Glen Lyon, a fabulous place for wildlife watching from the car on an empty road.
Common sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos
Lapwing Vanellus vanellus
Oystercatcher Haematropus ostralegus
juvenile Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus
Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe

[Peter Maguire]

Final picture from Glen Lyon - a Brown Hare Lepus capensis

[Paddy Tobin]

Great set, Peter, but the sandpiper is outstanding - great eye and perfect background to show off the bird. What lens were you using?

Out swimming a few evenings ago a gannet came down to investigate and skimmed very low overhead. This is normal behaviour with fulmar petrels or great black-backed gulls but I've never had a gannet come so close before. There is a large gannet colony on the Saltee Islands and they come as far as Tramore Bay, where I was swimming, to fish, a distance of about 25 miles.

Saw a wheatear about a month back, very uncommon here.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Peter- great portraits, thank you.... I'm enjoying your orchid shots elsewhere, too.....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5642.msg157527#msg157527

 I'm delighted to have spotted the http://www.pmfoto.co.uk/,link to your photography site too..... I get there in the end.... must have cleaned the specs or something!  

[Peter Maguire]

What lens were you using?

I managed to acquire a second-hand Sigma 170-500m lens when the new image stabilised ones hit the market and those people with more money than sense traded in their 'unstabilised' lenses. The long focal length helps to create a small depth of field and throws the background out of focus.
The picture was taken from the car - when I am driving down small country roads with very little traffic I keep the camera on the passenger seat set-up ready for this type of shot. The sandpiper was just sitting on a boulder next to the road calling to mark it's territory, and I stopped next to it, wound down the window and took several shots before it decided to fly away. For those technically minded, the camera was set to shutter priority f6.3 @ 1/800 was the actual shutter speed, and I used a beanbag on the car winidow sill for support (a Volvo has wide window sills, big enough for potted plants and a window box).  

[Peter Maguire]

Maggi,
The photography site is a 'work in progress'. I keep making tweaks to it but can never be sure how quickly they are made live. I'll put some of the scenic shots from Scotalnd there soon.

[Maggi Young]

Well, I'll be watching it  to see how it goes on.... the slideshow on the  home page is charming.  I hope it generates a lot of photo requests for you.
 


....which reminds me..... what about a wee piece for the International Rock Gardener?? 

[TC]

Peter
I have been using the Sigma 175-500 for 13 years and I don't think that it is up to the job.  Picture quality is good but the focusing is dreadfully slow.  On my trip to N.Z. years ago to photograph Albatrosses, I only had about 20% success in flying shots.  Most of the time it was too slow to focus on the bird and would start"hunting", by which time the bird had gone.
Image stabilisation would have been a boon on a rolling and pitching boat.  I have been thinking of changing for a couple of years but the prices went through the roof after the pound nose-dived against just about every other currency.  Now I think would I really get value for money if I changed lenses.  The jury is still out - however as VAT is going up in January, I will have to make my mind up soon.
Here are a few pictures taken with this lens - hand held-no tripod or support
Bottom picture is a Rock Pipit

[Peter Maguire]

Nice photos Tom, I especially like the Grasshopper Warbler - the lens has successfully thrown the background out of focus here.
Do you think that it's the focussing on the lens that's the problem or the camera? I say that because my Nikon has two autofocus settings, continuous and single. For the gannet pictures, using the camera on single focus allowed me to focus on the gannets (which were virtually all flying left to right), then frame the picture keeping the shutter button half depressed to lock the focus - had quite a high success rate as the birds were a reasonable distance away and the focus did not change (obviously the forum photographs are some of the better ones   ). I also used it last year in the Alps photographing marmots with virtually 100% success rate (on a tripod), and photographing birds on the Farne Islands resting on a camera bag.
Continuous focus admittedly was not as successful (I don't use it very often).
I agree image stabilisation would be useful on a boat, but I wouldn't try currently handholding a 500mm lens in that situation (I might with IS). However if the lens is on a tripod or some other rest, such as a beanbag, the you are advised to turn image stabilisation off - £150+ made redundant at the flick of a switch.
I do have problems with my Tamron macro lens "hunting" to find focus, but it's generally used in situations were it's best to focus manually anyway.

[Anthony Darby]

Then two view of Gannets ((Morus bassanus) flying past Ardnamurchan Lighthouse.

I preferred it when the gannet's name was an island (Sula). Seems it's now named after a mulberry!

[Michael J Campbell]

This fellow dropped in for a drink this morning.

The Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus)

[mark smyth]

I like the way pigeons and doves drink.

[TC]

Peter
It's a combination of both.  The focus works well enough on shorter focal lengths.  The problem is with the larger telephotos..  The physical weight of the lens barrel needs a more powerful motor.  You can almost hear it clanking as is tries to lock focus.  Also the original predictive focusing sensors and chip were not particularly good compared with Canon's.
This has now been sorted with the D300 series.  To compound the matter, auto focus lenses only work really well at apertures of f5.6 or less.  The Sigma just about makes this at f6.3
Another consideration is that I got the lens when it first came out, it was revamped some years later so some improvements may have been made.
Like you, I have a Tamron 90mm macro lens and never use it in auto mode.  It jumps focus if a leaf quivers!!
The Grasshopper Warbler was taken hand held at 700mm.