Sunlight returns to the Marsh

At long last some sun and blue sky. I only had a couple of hours so I went down the local Marazion Marsh. Took out the 300mm lens hoping to find some Goldcrest.  First thing I spotted was a Water Rail in the open on top of a gorse bush to far away for the 300mm.  Then a GS Woodpecker again to far away.  Next up was the Carrion Crow or Raven? (picture below) I didn't have time to change the camera settings but a combination of blue sky, the low winter sun lighting the underside of the bird meant I got the image.  As the light was good I again tried out the 2x converter on the 600mm first thing I came across was the Heron fishing, this one is a master three attempts and three fish caught!! I managed to compose the image and get one sequence the other two he just gulped down instantly. This is the closest I have been to a Heron and the shots are hardly cropped. Next a Mallard in flight again lit nicely by the sun and a Song Thrush.  A step down to the 1.4x converter as the light faded for an Oyster Catcher flying low accross the marsh.  Whilst packing up I met Keith Hargreaves another local photographer, so good to meet up. His blog/site can be found here. http://keithhargreaves.blogspot.com/.  Starting next year I will not be listing all of the Camera Exif information but more detailed information on conditions, set up equipment used, as necessary etc.  Today 21st December is looking pretty rubbish lighting wise so I may post some images from earlier this year until the blog commenced in March.  I will then follow this up a some stage with my top image from each month in one post.  Well enough of the future and back to todays images. All these a worth enlarging to full size.

Carrion Crow/Raven: Exif: Canon 1D Mk111, 300mm F2.8 lens, Aperture Priority, F9, 1/500 sec,  ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Grey Heron with Fish: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Grey Heron: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/1250 sec, ISO 400, + 0.7 stop

Grey Heron: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400, + 0.7 stop

Song Thrush: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Mallard: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/500 sec, ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Oyster Catcher: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (840mm), Aperture Priority, F5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO 400, + 0.7 stop  (Panning the camera withthe bird was the only way to get a sharp exposure here)