It was another unseasonably sunny day in the Pacific Northwest.  There was lots of springtime wildlife activity at Ridgefield including a four-legged surprise.

Here’s a series of shots of an American Bittern.  It didn’t catch anything while I was watching it but it did rough up its feathers for me.  (7:03 a.m.)  ISO 3200

This is the time of year Marsh Wrens perch on cattails and sing away.  In the second shot it looks like he is ducking!   (7:50)   ISO 3200

Here’s a different Marsh Wren that got a hold of some nesting materials.   (7:53)  ISO 2000

He wasn’t happy about dropping the material.

So he got some more!

A Great Blue Heron takes flight.   (7:59)   ISO 2000

This Green-winged Teal was searching for food in the shallow muck.   (8:22)   ISO 2000

This was my first time to the refuge since the Great Horned Owl owlets had fledged.  Here’s the proud mother although she was far away and the photo is not very good quality.    (8:32)   ISO 2000

This is Yellow-headed Blackbird season and this fellow posed for me.   (8:52)    ISO 2000

When I came across this Pied-billed Grebe, he was about ready to fall asleep and hardly moved a muscle.    (8:55)   ISO 2000

It wasn’t long before he broke into song though!    (8:56)   ISO 2000

Here’s a video of the grebe calling out.

This is the same Yellow-headed Blackbird as shown above.  He was very photogenic!    (9:25)   ISO 2000

Not my best shot of this bird, but it’s been a while since I have had an opportunity to get a photo of the Brown Creeper.  So I’ll take almost anything at this point!    (9:36)   ISO 1600

Here is a FAR AWAY shot (heavy crop) of one of the two Great Horned Owl owlets.  Unfortunately, this one, I believe, is the only surviving one.  No one I have talked to has seen the second one since a few days after fledging.  It’s likely a predator got to it.   (9:53)   ISO 1600

There are a gazillion Tree Swallows flying around the refuge at this time of year.  This is one of them.   (9:57)   ISO 1600

My surprise of the day was when I spotted this Mink in the road.  He was working the right-side brush and would dart out into the road every once in a while.  (At this point, I was out of my truck and on foot).  At one point he chased a rabbit out of the grass only five feet in front of me.  The rabbit ran by me, running for his life, but when the mink exited the grass after the rabbit, it saw me and came to a screeching halt.  It headed back into the grass as fast as it came out.  (10:08)   ISO 1600

Here’s another Marsh Wren.  Can’t resist taking their picture when they pose like this.    (10:27)   ISO 1600

I had stopped my truck and was shooting something else out the passenger side window when I noticed this fellow jump up on a cable out to my left.  He then jumped onto a nearby post.  I think these are the ‘easiest’ shots I’ve ever had of the Common Yellowthroat.  (10:32)    ISO 1600

Later, I was treated to a show by a couple of mature Bald Eagles.  They appeared to be hunting ducks or coots as they swooped down near the ground.  But both came up with nesting materials–not food.    (10:39)   ISO 1600

Here are a pair of Wood Ducks.  The female was taking it easy resting on a log while the male was keeping a close watch on his girl.  (10:59)   ISO 1600

The male Wood Duck.    (11:00)   ISO 1600

I have no idea what kind of flower this is but I thought it looked nice against the water backdrop.    (11:22)  ISO 1000

A Bald Eagle flies high above me.   (11:26)   ISO 800

Another easy bird to photograph is the Savannah Sparrow.  They are all over the place and relatively happy about letting me take their picture.   (11:34)   ISO 800

I stopped at a spot where there were 5 or 6 Canada Geese out in the water with their chicks swimming along with them.   They were  taking turns exhibiting a behavior where an adult would paddle about 50 feet away from its mate, then turn around facing the mate and “running” as fast as it could toward the other bird.  Maybe they were showing off in front of the kids??  I’m not sure but they all took a turn at it.   (11:43)   ISO 800

I happened upon a European Starling nest very close to the road.  In the first two shots you can see a third small beak near the bottom of the tree cavity.  I’m afraid that little one was not getting his share of the food.    (12:19 p.m.)  ISO 1000

Here’s a video.  Mom is shown at the beginning and the rest of the video is the chicks.  This shows the third little chick better than the photos but I don’t have a good feeling about its chances.

And yet another look at the photogenic Marsh Wren.   (1:08)  ISO 1250

I got ready to leave the refuge for the day and drove across the access bridge.  I was almost to the end of the bridge when I looked at the shore of the river below and noticed a River Otter.  I drove to the end of the bridge and parked.  Heading back to the bridge on foot, I caught the otter just below me as it was about to swim underneath the bridge.  Not a great shot but an interesting vantage point.    (1:28)   ISO 1000

That brings this day’s shooting to a close.   Next time I’ll tell you and show you how I did with my new 1.4x III extender attached to the 400 f5.6L lens.  Is it worth double the cost of the II model?  Thanks for stopping by!

I went out to the Ridgefield NWR on May 1 to try out the lens combo with the new firmware update installed on my 5DM3.  There was not a cloud in the sky, which presents its own set of exposure problems as you probably know.  On the other hand, it provided me abundant light to make up for my slow f8 lens combination.  So I’m not really complaining.  These were good conditions to test out the combo.

I began today’s shoot at about 7 a.m., just as the sun was coming up over the ridge.  There was great wildlife activity from the normal species I expected to see and I shot about 850 frames.  When I got back home to review my shots, I’d have a good representative sample by which to judge this lens/extender combination with my camera’s new capability.   Most of today’s images were shot at an ISO range of 1000 to 1600.  But first…I want to report on what I think of this combo and its performance with the 5DM3.  Pictures follow.

What I think about the 400mm + 1.4x using center point AF:

Update 5/16/2013:  Okay, I’m officially embarrassed for not checking my 1.4x before I wrote my ‘review’ of the Canon 1.4x extender/400mm combo.   The 1.4x that I talk about in this post is actually the II model–not the original.  I actually decided to sell it on Ebay and when I got it out to take a few photos of the 1.4x for Ebay, it clearly stated on the lens that it was a II.  So, I apologize for the unintentional misinformation in this post about the model of extender.  Anytime I mention the Canon 1.4x in this post, I am referring to the 1.4x II as the model I attached to my 400mm f5.6L.  This combo was used to take the photos in this post.  In the future, I’ll do better!  Oh–and I did buy the 1.4x III which I will report on after my next blog post, so please stay tuned for that.

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When I reviewed my 850 shots in Lightroom I felt like I was having a heck of a time finding images near tack sharp.  When I got done deleting the rejects, I had 89 photos left that I might consider posting.  But that’s 10% — not really that bad.  Some of the photos below are borderline for sharpness–some are pretty sharp.  I think that with the lens combo, the out of focus (OOF) shots for the most part were WAY out of focus.  When I use the 400mm prime by itself, there are about the same percentage of shots in focus but most of the OOF’s are just barely out of focus.

I can’t really chalk this OOF issue up entirely to equipment either.  Part of the problem could easily be me and the fact that I am not used to shooting with this set up.  Changes in camera bodies or lenses can take time to settle into.  I do know that the combo has the capability of sharp focus–some of the photos below are pretty sharp.  But clearly, there are some that are soft.

Another major issue is AF speed.  Adding the 1.4x reduces my fast focusing 400mm prime to that of a $250 telephoto lens as far as focus speed is concerned.  So that takes birds in flight and any quick moving birds off the table for probable sharpness.  If I have a subject bird that is content to sit and pose for a while, I would be likely to put on the 1.4x and take some shots at 560mm (in addition to shots with the 400mm bare).

And a final issue is the max aperture of f8.  This requires a LOT of light.  So the planets and stars have to line up pretty well to offer a decent environment to use this combination of lenses.

One other thing….my 1.4x is the original version–it’s not a II or a III version.  I would be interested to know if the later versions of converters perform better with the 400mm f5.6 or if they are even compatible.  If anyone has tried these later versions, please drop me a line and let me know how they did!

I’ll start off today’s photos with a Red-wing Blackbird making some springtime noise.  This bird has deployed his nictitating membrane over his eye.    (7:08 a.m.)

[Please click once on the thumbnails to see a more detailed view of the shots.  Thanks!]

High at the top of a tree was what I think is a juvenile Western Scrub Jay.   (7:11)

A partially hidden Great Horned Owl  (7:23)

It’s been a while since I’ve photographed a Brown Creeper with any success.   And that is still the case!   This one did not cooperate in its search for bugs on this tree.  But I love the coloring on the back of this bird.    (7:32)

Canada Geese pairs are all over the place usually followed by a troupe of cute little goslings.  At one point last week while I was driving the gravel road through the refuge, no less than four pair of adult geese with their respective goslings were standing on the road in front of my truck.  Here’s a gosling out on the water.   (7:41)

Yellow-rumped Warblers were abundant today.  Here’s a Myrtle variety.   (8:17)

Same bird.     (8:17)

Here is one of the very soft shots but I had to show this lady catching a small fish.  She was close to a hundred feet away and in bad light.  I got to watch her dive to get this fish!   (8:44)

A majestic Wood Duck enveloped by green grass.     (8:53)

Here’s a Common Yellowthroat in a weird pose.  I really like these birds!    (9:04)

The same bird in a different spot.    (9:04)

Another Yellowthroat near the three tree area of the refuge.    I took a few frames of this bird’s wife but they weren’t sharp enough to post.  I find the females more secretive, quieter, and harder to spot than the males.    (9:21)

This handsome Ring-necked Duck gave me a four-minute preening show and didn’t miss a spot!  Here are five shots from the series plus a 40-second video.    (10:05)

Here’s a video of part of the preening session.  For the best view, change the quality to 1080p (HD) and view full screen.

Savannah Sparrows are everywhere at the refuge.  It’s nice to spot one that is not perched on a sign or post.    (10:26)

A female Ring-necked Duck–what a beauty!    (11:02)

Another ‘butter-butt’—nickname for Yellow-rumped Warbler.    (11:04)

And, yet another!    (11:18)

Finishing off with the king of color — Wood Duck.    (12:06 p.m.)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked something here today!  See you next time!

http://www.photographybay.com/2013/04/29/canon-5d-mark-iii-firmware-version-1-2-1-now-available-w-clean-hdmi-out/

If you are a regular follower of my blog/website you may recall some of the owl photos I have displayed in my galleries.  A memorable shot from 2012 was the upside down GHO owlet hanging from a tree branch.  This owlet is an offspring of the adult female pictured above.

Taken with a Canon 5D Mark III, 1/1250, f5.6, ISO 1250, Canon 400mm  f5.6L lens.