Spoonbills

[MJ224]

An early morning bird watch at our local Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT)

Quite a dull morning, so I was kinda surprised what the camera and Lightroom achieved.

Also, amazed that these birds were 150 metres away from the hide....

OM1 ii, 300mm + 2x TC, f8, 12800 ISO

(OMD is 2x crop)

[HansE]

Good result. Never seen more than one at the time either.

[MJ224]

Thanks HansE. There were 9 in total this morning. And we have seen 17 in one go, a while ago. They are a species that are moving north with Climate Change. But I bet their feet were tingling this morning with a local temperature of zero degrees...

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day Mark

Nothing to worry about here - shows us what good optics you're using
-- and to get pics like these without the birds zipping away is a good result

Phil

[MJ224]

Optics are good, and Lightroom really helps too...

[Isac]

Lovely shots Mark! They are a very unusual looking bird as far as their bill goes. These ones are the Eurasian Spoonbills. A bit different from the Yellow Billed Spoonbills I see here in W.A. They do like to be in pairs and I have a few shots of them performing similar activities. They look a bit strange when flying overhead.

[MJ224]

Thanks Isac. They are a very unusual bird really. And we have only seen them in numbers, the last 10n years or so...

[wigz]

Good detail and colour in these Mark considering that it looks like 1200mm equivalent to full frame. Their colouring is fairly similar to the Royal Spoonbills we get around here. I've occasionally seen groupa of two three foraging together.

[MJ224]

Thanks, Alan. Yes, FF equiv of 1200mm. I was able to rest the lens of the windowsill of the hide....

[David_MC]

Nice shots Mark. A bit different to our Roseate Spoonbills that we occasionally see here.

[MJ224]

Thanks David. Maybe a visit to your part of the world would allow some more birds species to be seen...