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Jack Douglas

CR for the Humour
Apr 10, 2013
6,980
2,602
Alberta, Canada
Well Alan, I'm just thrilled that the birds appear to have returned to my area after an almost complete absence of a year or so. This may be the sister. The lighting wasn't anyPileated F_37169.JPG better and I went up to ISO 3200 - essentially unusable when I was shooting with my 6D, so in that sense I'm pleased. I had to push the shadows a lot.

Jack
 
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ISv

"The equipment that matters, is you"
CR Pro
Apr 30, 2017
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7,453
I asked several people here, in Wisconsin, and based on your photos, they said American because the photo has a good shot of the tail and long primary projections, with at least 4 primary tips visible. A Pacific would only show 3 primary tips. Pass this info along in case others are missing it. Would this be a first sighting for Hawaii? Keep posting updates please or at least message me. Thank you.

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy!
Not only the primaries are 4 protruding behind the tip of the tail. They also are way to much behind the tip - in the Pacific they go less than 1/2 bill lenght behind the tip, in the American they are more than 1/2 the length of the bill. Tertials of the Pacific are much longer and reach the outer 1/3 of the tail, in the American they are reaching just the base of the tail. All these are "check" in the bird on my photos. Only the markings on the back of the bird agree better with the Pacific.
The problem: the tercials as well as the rectices (the flying feathers of the tail) are very worn in my bird, changing the ratios... We can NOT put new species of migratory bird in the list for Hawaii if we are not 100% confident in the ID! So, what we can do now is to wait for the bird to finish it's transition to non-breeding plumage and all the feathers are fresh. Fortunatelly the golden plovers are teritorial and they in generally stay in restricted perimeter in the summer (on other hand it's very populous park with a lot of walking dogs so, we will see...).
Yes, I will inform you when we get to definite conclusion! And off course I want to take a photo of the bird when it looks better:)!
 
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Jack Douglas

CR for the Humour
Apr 10, 2013
6,980
2,602
Alberta, Canada
Nice shots, Jack. I especially like the second one.

Thanks click. I wouldn't have posted the first but the second wasn't shot yet when I posted. Funny, how a bird can kind of serve as anti-migraine medication. Hopefully tomorrow will bring sunshine and better photos.

Jack
 
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We've had some really drab mornings in SoCal this year so sunrise light shots have just been hard to get along the coast. Sunday, after sitting in the mud and getting blase shots of our local tricolor, kingfishers, etc, I decided to go wander around a local 'island'. After some rain(SoCal rain known elsewhere as drizzle), I managed to get some closeup shots of this female American Kestrel with the gray clouds behind her just as the sun broke through for a few minutes.
SDR58006_sRGB-X2.jpg

1DX MK II 600 f/4L IS II w/1.4X III 1/1600 : f/11 : ISO 1000
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,356
22,535
Went birding at the crack of dawn yesterday in Kuwait. The local expert had a D850 and the new Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF on its first outing, and I am waiting to see the results. The birds in Kuwait are very skittish because they get shot with lead. There were no hides and we had to shoot cameras from an suv at some distance. I sorely missed my Canon gear with the 400mm DO II + 2xTC and was really focal length limited. Here are the first few shots in the dark as it lightened up - a grey heron in the first rays, a female Daurian Shrike in the gloom and then another one as it got lighter. I could have pushed the exposure but want to show what I saw.DSC04097-DxO_heron_@dawnSmall.jpgDSC04124-DxO_femaledaurianShrike@dawn.jpgDSC04174-DxO_femaleDaurianShrike@dawn.jpg
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,356
22,535
Well Alan, I'm just thrilled that the birds appear to have returned to my area after an almost complete absence of a year or so. This may be the sister. The lighting wasn't anyView attachment 180889 better and I went up to ISO 3200 - essentially unusable when I was shooting with my 6D, so in that sense I'm pleased. I had to push the shadows a lot.

Jack
I wondered why you hadn't posted much - the cheeky little things had deserted you. Good news that you are back in business.
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,356
22,535
We've had some really drab mornings in SoCal this year so sunrise light shots have just been hard to get along the coast. Sunday, after sitting in the mud and getting blase shots of our local tricolor, kingfishers, etc, I decided to go wander around a local 'island'. After some rain(SoCal rain known elsewhere as drizzle), I managed to get some closeup shots of this female American Kestrel with the gray clouds behind her just as the sun broke through for a few minutes.
SDR58006_sRGB-X2.jpg

1DX MK II 600 f/4L IS II w/1.4X III 1/1600 : f/11 : ISO 1000
Nice shot of one of my favourite birds.
 
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