BIRDQUEST2004

It  wasn’t to long ago that I saw my first Upland Sandpiper, as a matter of fact it was 6 years ago in 2006.  Recently I heard that a few of these birds had been seen in the Dwyer Hill Road – Panmure area.  So off I went in search of a better photo for my collection.

I search the area for at least an hour but I couldn’t find a single bird.   Being in no hurry to get back home, I decided to do a big circle through Galletta, Constance Bay and Dunrobin and see what I could find.

While driving on Concession Road 12 off of Panmure, my eye caught sight of a Sandpiper on a post.  Not in the best light but close..I hoped he’d sit still and give me a chance.

Give me a chance he did, I managed to fire off about 10 images, from about 25 feet, before he flew further afield and out of camera range…below is the best of ten.

I was using my D3s with a Nikon 300 f4 lens with a 2X teleconverter, handheld.

Photographing birds ususally takes a back seat to golf and fishing this time of the year.  The main reason is the birds are nesting and they have young but also because I just don’t like the bugs…lolololol.  Recently I did manage to find a very co-operative family of Mute Swans.

They allowed me to get fairly close considering they had young,  lolol..the last thing you want to do is get a 26 pound bird mad at you for getting to close, yup thats right 26 pounds.

The bottom 2 images show the difference in the faces of a Mute and Trumpeter Swan (trumpeter being the all black bill below)