Dorset Stilt Walkers

[MJB]

A rare visitor to the UK at RSPB Lodmoor, a pair of Black-winged Stilt. The female was more confident than the male, but well chuffed with the photos.

Male:

mstilt2 by Martin Bone, on Flickr

mstilt by Martin Bone, on Flickr


Female:

fstilt by Martin Bone, on Flickr

fstilt3 by Martin Bone, on Flickr

fstilt4 by Martin Bone, on Flickr

fstilt5 by Martin Bone, on Flickr

fstilt2 by Martin Bone, on Flickr

[peterob]

Thanks for posting the Stilts. I've never seen one. I saw them on your Flickr and wondered why you hadn't included them in "twitchers" but they do deserve their own thread. Delightful! 

[MJB]

Apr 27, 2023 6:19:48 GMT peterob said:

Thanks for posting the Stilts. I've never seen one.

I didn't realise how rare they were in the UK. They believe just 2 pairs breed in the UK each year. These were seen doing the deed a couple of days ago, so fingers crossed they'll be hanging around.

[zou]

Well done! Much of a crop or close to full image?

[MJB]

Apr 27, 2023 19:53:45 GMT zou said:

Well done! Much of a crop or close to full image?

The male is probably 50% of original image size. The shots of the female amongst the reed stems are slightly cropped to improve framing. I know I've just horrified someone wearing a hair shirt and self-flagellating with birch twigs, but if the image quality is there I'm more than happy to zoom by cropping. Of course my wife will be told I need the RF 800mm lens.

[zou]

Apr 27, 2023 20:03:37 GMT MJB said:

Apr 27, 2023 19:53:45 GMT zou said:

Well done! Much of a crop or close to full image?

The male is probably 50% of original image size. The shots of the female amongst the reed stems are slightly cropped to improve framing. I know I've just horrified someone wearing a hair shirt and self-flagellating with birch twigs, but if the image quality is there I'm more than happy to zoom by cropping. Of course my wife will be told I need the RF 800mm lens.

That's why I was asking! My longest is a 300, or the old superzoom at close to 450 equivalent, and there's generally no chance to get waders at that level of detail even with cropping. The teleconverter seems to work well, assume AF is still very quick?

[MJB]

Apr 27, 2023 20:07:46 GMT zou said:

Apr 27, 2023 20:03:37 GMT MJB said:

The male is probably 50% of original image size. The shots of the female amongst the reed stems are slightly cropped to improve framing. I know I've just horrified someone wearing a hair shirt and self-flagellating with birch twigs, but if the image quality is there I'm more than happy to zoom by cropping. Of course my wife will be told I need the RF 800mm lens.

That's why I was asking! My longest is a 300, or the old superzoom at close to 450 equivalent, and there's generally no chance to get waders at that level of detail even with cropping. The teleconverter seems to work well, assume AF is still very quick?

The AF is super quick. It always was on the old 7dii, and I was expecting it to be a little sluggish using the EOS R to EF adapter. It'll be interesting to see how the RF 100-400mm compares to the EF 100-400mm L mkii.

As I said elsewhere I'm truly gobsmacked at how good the R7 is.

[peterob]

Apr 27, 2023 20:03:37 GMT MJB said:

Apr 27, 2023 19:53:45 GMT zou said:

Well done! Much of a crop or close to full image?

The male is probably 50% of original image size. The shots of the female amongst the reed stems are slightly cropped to improve framing. I know I've just horrified someone wearing a hair shirt and self-flagellating with birch twigs, but if the image quality is there I'm more than happy to zoom by cropping. Of course my wife will be told I need the RF 800mm lens.

Cropping is almost always inevitable, with my field-craft skills [not] anyway.  I have been surprised at the difference going from 100-400 to 150-600 has made in terms of reach.  I wasn't expecting to notice it much but the lens is also a little lighter than the 100-400 and better (I think) balanced for hand-holding at the long end.  The Fuji 150-600 has internal zoom so the length stays fixed whereas the 100-400 extends quite a lot.  The easier handling may be influencing my judgement.

A small disadvantage with using 600 (on APS-C) is the narrow field of view especially with small birds in cover.  One twig looks pretty much like another twig and it is difficult to know how far off I am  because my "aim" can be off a fair bit.  I have found myself backing off the zoom just to orientate myself with the view in the viewfinder as it can be hopeless to start searching when zoomed out.

The only fixed focal length I have used of similar length is my 500 x 1.4 on APS-H which is 910 mm effective (wrt FF) which is much the same as 600 mm on Fuji APS-C (900 mm effective) and finding the target is hard.  It is not a combination I use much.

I'd think 800 mm on APS-C would need an awful lot of practice to use because of the narrow field of view.  It would still be a bit tricky on full-frame, for me anyway.