A few from the refuge.

[mn shutterbug]

I visited Squaw Creek NWR on Monday and Tuesday, and here is what I got.

[mjs1973]

Looks like you were able to give that 100-400mm lens a good workout Mike! Very nice!

[scott-devon]

Very very nice shots Mike. Love that last one.

[Martin Brazil]

Both of the Eagle shots are beauties. Good shooting Mike.

[Loupey]

Very nice in-flights!

I'm thinking about trying out the AF - what focusing mode did you use for these?

[mn shutterbug]

Thanks, all.

Loupey, are you serious? You are the onloy photographer I know of that would ever shoot bif's in manual focus.

[Loupey]

Loupey, are you serious? You are the onloy photographer I know of that would ever shoot bif's in manual focus.

Very serious.

The focus throw on the 500mm ring is so long and the focus so precise that it is very difficult to do at long range shots - especially with gloves. The 300mm with a 2x is a piece of cake in comparison.

I shot a GBH warming up in a farmer's field the other day. Shooting through the rising thermals from the field, the GBH was a long way away (100'~130') and I still could only get about 2/3 of the shots on focus. The rest were off a foot or two to the front or rear - enough.

So the servo mode uses only the center AF sensor right? The other servo mode uses any/all the sensors? Better for in-flight?

[mn shutterbug]

I'm sure you can designate any of the AF points in servo. However, if you designated the far left one and the the bird flies to the right, you'd be screwed, and vice versa. If you always knew which direction the bird would fly, you could get by with it. If you have the far left AF point chosen, and he flies to the left, you could focus on just his eye and nail him. Of course, birds don't always do what you expect.

[paulnj]

Awesome images!!!!!!!