Here's another ID THREAD ;)

Got me as to whether this brown thrasher's eye color will change, but they should :)

Ah so it is a Brown Thrasher :) So now i can say that it the best Brown Thrasher Picture on the Net :)
Its the eye color that realy had me stumped , all the Brown Thrasher Pics i have in books and that i saw on the net had a light colored eye.

You can't exspect every field mark to appear on the bird. With interbreeding(neotropicals mostly), plumage changes during the year and variable plumages through the range, you need only a vast majority of the field m,arks to match(in most cases) so I have been told.

I don't know about the best, but that is a pretty good image I must admit ;) THANX

I'm not positive on these two, but I think the first one is a brown headed cowbird, and the second is a fox sparrow. Please correct me if I'm wrong. :)

I shot this one yesterday and just noticed you posted one a few posts back but this is an adult bird. This guy was singing up a storm and if I didn't see it I would have thought I was listening to a Mockingbird. I never knew the Thrasher had such a large song catalog.
Mike

MJS... You are correct on both

Mike T.... Brown thrashers are minics just like mockingbirds, but mockingbirds don't repeat the song like thrashers do :) Knowing what you hear will help you find the good ones and rule out the common birds :)

Spent an hour out on a grey day turning to rain.
Got to replace my 100-400 and 2x converter with a decent lens !

I think the fish is a Perch from the reddish fins.

I know I've photographed these before, but not with the 100-400 IS lens and 2x converter.
I really have to get a good long lens somehow, this just doesn't do it.
With f11 wide open, and a little blurring from the converter, I'm wonder if even a 300mm prime and 2x crop would do better.

If you scroll down SmartWombat you will C that your doing much better than me with my point &shoot tryng to get ducks lol . Now if your going to be getting rid of those lenses & getting some primes ,ill take them lol . Ill even buy a camera to fit them hehe :)

Paul,

Those are some pretty good great crested grebe images you have there, considering the 100-400 / 2x . Tell me does that setup AF on a 1 series camera? I have trouble focus tracking and getting sharp focus at times with the 100-400/ 1.4 tc.

Being that I am on dialup(yeah I know) your images load one at a time slowwwwwwly :) I seen the head of that female tufted duck and knew what the second was going to be.. the male :) In the US we get lesser and greater scaup, a few tufted and ringnecked ducks, all four are very similiar, but tufted duck female have a squared off back of the head from the tiny tuft they have :)

Here's a few BOP's from this morning, the first picture is pretty bad but it was the best I could get.
Mike

What is a BOP, all I see is a sharpshinned hawk and a female harrier :) Who needs all those field marks the SSHA has, when you can see the bold eyebrow and forward looking eyes ;)

The SS is a very rare nester, so I would think it's just passing through, but that harrier may just stay if there is enough open grassland and a male to help. Last week I found a male harrier in my area, but I don't think he stayed.

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Originally Posted by paulnj

What is a BOP.

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I was being lazy, Bird of Prey. I saw a lot of Red-tails, a few Osprey these two and I think I have another I'm not sure of but it could be one of the two I posted already but it was flying pretty high. I was 95% on the Harrier, but only about 50% on the other guy. I was thinking the Sharp-shinned because it wasn't a very large hawk. I think I saw the Harrier in the same spot a few weeks back I'll have to look later when I have time.
Mike

Quote:

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Those are some pretty good great crested grebe images you have there, considering the 100-400 / 2x . Tell me does that setup AF on a 1 series camera? I have trouble focus tracking and getting sharp focus at times with the 100-400/ 1.4 tc

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Nope, even the 1D bodies can't AF at the long end with even the 1.4xTC ... f5.6 is the limit.
You'd be better off with a 20D or 30D and the 1.6 factor than a 1DS and 1.4x
1DmkIIN with its 1.3 crop would come close to the 20D :)

The 1D bodies have seven cross sensors around the centre region, 20D has only one cross sensor in the centre focus point..

The 1D bodies also have high precision sensors that focus within 1/3 depth of focus instead of the normal precision sensors on other bodies that focus within the depth of focus. BUT only if the lens has maximum aperture of f2.8 or wider and only in the horizontal direction..

http://www.cps.canon-europe.com/kb/d...jsp?faqId=1110

The big advantage of the 1D bodies is the bigger, brighter viewfinder which makes the MF easier. With the 2xTC it was f5.6 plus two stops, f11 wide open ! So it was dark in the finder and very difficult to get into focus.

I read that article and your reply. I assure you that the 100-400IS w/ canon 1.4tcII does AF using the center focus censor, but tracks a bit too slow (especially for your use) and isn't that accurate on low contrast subjects.

Here's one I took at that same area ( Hyper Humus ) back on 03/28 . I had to crop in a lot on this one it was across a field.
Mike

Yesterday after the sharp shinned flew off this one came by. I was wondering why I didn't see many small birds around but with all these birds over head maybe they headed for some safer places.
Mike

Quote:

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I assure you that the 100-400IS w/ canon 1.4tcII does AF using the center focus censor, but tracks a bit too slow (especially for your use) and isn't that accurate on low contrast subjects.

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Well, maybe that's why Canon say it doesn't - or maybe shouldn't :o
I would expect it to work at 100, and get less and less reliable as you zoom.

My 1DmkIIN doesn't work with my 100-400 and 2x at 400 it's f11, and I find it slower and less accurate at f5.6 without the converter on the 100-400 than the f2.8 70-200.

Nowhere near as good as everyone else's pictures, but enough to identify the long-tailed tit.

I don't think this is a funny looking sparrow, more like a reed bunting ?.

Now then, Grey wagtail male almost certainly - but is the one hiding in the tree a female?

Pretty sure this is a pied wagtail, but it wouldn't stay still.

Easy one, despite the bad angle.

These last 2 are both Sharp shinned hawks to me. The first is a bit hard, but I will go with Female SS due to looking large, but having that bold supercillium(eyebrow) not on the cooper's hawk. The flight shot.. well I am a hawk watcher and that tail in too flat and squared off looking.

Again, bird behind a twig isn't the ideal pose :)