Rara Avis

[ulf]

This is a stretch of the forum's general theme as its link to UV is only the recent topic about hummingbirds.

This is only partly about visual iridescence.

I hope I am forgiven.

 

Last week I was out searching for suitable sites for photos when I stumbled over something I think are very interesting.

I had heard about a small nature preserve with bank swallows.

When I got there, without any camera, I found a group of nice ornithologists too looking for a more rare visitor, the Bee-eater.

They had cameras with fast loong fast tele lenses.

The sand bank is fenced off to protect the bank-swallow colony. You have to stay maybe 40m back from the brink.

 

That beautiful bird is rarely seen at my latitudes. It has happened a handfull of times this millennia.

It was a privilege just to see the bird hovering in the sky.

 

There is/was a pair feeding small ones inside a deep nest hole in the sand bank.

 

I decided to try to get some images myself.

The following day and the day after I got there better equipped and had some luck.

The first day the birds only took dragon flies, the second I saw bumble bees, butterflies, and bees in their beaks too.

 

Here are a few of my better images.

The last five are from a bird-landing sequence taken at 10 Frames/s

 

Telyt 560/6.8 + novoflex 1.5x extender all images except for the sky image, then  Canon EF 400/4.0 IS + EF 1.4x extender

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[colinbm]

You are very lucky with these Ulf.

[Nate]

Beautiful birds and great pics too Ulf.

Lucky to see them and have pictures also!

[ulf]

Thanks,

 

It was a difficult compromise to get enough shutter-speed and DOF. 

I needed 1/1000 or faster as the birds are very fast and with a total of 840mm the DOF is rather shallow.

Had to go to  ISO 1000 and slightly underexposed images.

 

I have a few images where the wings are blurred despite a speed of 1/1000s

A small airplane passed over at one occasion and that speed froze the propeller!

 

For the nest shots the long lens was pre-focused and when the birds approached for landing I took a sequence with the threaded remote release.

 

I think I have 4-6 landing series, but only a few when the bird is leaving as there are no forewarning

[Yves W]

I had the chance to observe it close to home in France 20 years ago, it was hunting and feeding. An unforgettable memory.

Thank you for the very difficult photos to take.

[Andrea B.]

Ulf, that was a rare treat to be able to see a Bee-eater. You captured some wonderful photos. Thanks for posting.

 

I am totally supportive of seeing non-UV/IR images from our members when they have the chance to make photos of something unusual. I once posted a photo of an unusual lenticular cloud, you might remember.

 

[Lou Jost]

These are great photos; I am very happy you posted them. What a beautiful bird.

[ulf]

I returned to this place three more times, each time improving my technique a bit.

Catching the bird in the sky was very difficult and at the end I gave up trying.

Here is the only reasonably good second snap I got:

Notice the undamaged wing pens on this bird that I think is the female and compare with the first picture.

 

This time she got the correct kind of food, A bee.  

 

However I got many other nice pictures and will post some of them here later.

 

During my last visit one of the parents was missing and I think the female was left with the burdan of feeding the chicks.

A week later two chicks were seen leaving the nest and possible the third left successfully later in the evening or next morning. 

I had no free time then for a visit. 

 

During my last visit there I had the camera and lens trained all the time on the nest. I think I used a Novoflex 2x extender this time with the Telyt 560/5.6

The I managed to fill the 128GB flash card with more than 2500 images with sequences when the bird approached landed and fed a chik and sometimes also left for the next hunting round. I got 40-50 occasions, some better than other.

 

Here is an interesting picture I found recently when processing a sequence, that I want to share.

( Please zoom in and take a closer look in the lower left corner ): 

ISO 1600, 1/1000s f/16 1120mm (Including the 2x extender)

The sequence includes 12 images with the bee, that survived. I do not think the bird noticed the close encounter at all.
I am amazed that I from a distance of 30m could get images showing stripes wings antennas and eyes of a bee!

 

[colinbm]

You are doing pretty will with this 1160mm lens.

[ulf]

Thanks Colin,

 

I'm sure modern lenses are much better optically and also have autofocus.

This old design suffers a lot from transversal chromatic aberrations, but a modern quality lens would cost 10-20 times as much.

I am happy that this old museum pice works as good as it does.

 

If I remember correctly, I paid something like 600-700 USD for the entire kit with the latest type D Schnellshuss grip, the Telyt head and  the latest Novoflex 400mm lens head.

There was also some lens adapters and the 1.5x extender in the special Novoflex bag.

 

The type D-grip is essential for getting correct focus. It has a secondary focus adjustment with an adjustment knob beside the squeeze focus for fast focussing.

 

A squeeze focussing method will be extremely difficult to use for setting a critical focus on a camera with a modern sensor.

For Novoflex lenses, knob focussing can be found on the latest type D-grip and on the first types with a focussing bellows mated at the rear of the lens.   

[colinbm]

I have an old Russian MTO 1100mm Mirror lens that is fun to use. The Sun & Moon fill the APS sensor.
I should put on a 1.5x & fill the full frame camera now.