Latest arrivals

[Craigie]

Some images from today from my local pond.
The two Gossander female ducks arrived today, The male ones have been here a week already.
A pair of Tufted ducks appeared in the last couple of days. The female was very shy and hid in the rushes, if the male saw me it would swim away.
Both these type of ducks have never been seen on this pond before.
It was a bit cloudy hence the ISO in a couple of the images.
C&C welcomed.

1 Gossander female f6.3 1/800sec ISO 1250 FL 421mm


2 Gossander female f6.3 1/2500sec ISO 3200 FL 600mm


3 Tufted duck male f7.1 1/800sec ISO 500 FL 600mm


4 Tufted duck male f6.3 1/800sec ISO 640 FL 600mm

[DanK]

very nice shots. These look like what we call mergansers on this side of the pond. If that's what they are, I've never gotten a good shot of one because they tend to be skittish, at least where I see them. I just splurged on a longer lens, so perhaps I will do better next summer.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice set, Gary. I particularly like no.2. Head on shots of waterfowl don't often work well but this is one of the cases that does. Excellent detail, nice water, and a lower angle than the broadside shot. Love the eyes on 3 and 4. Looks very similar to our scaup.

[madcrow]

Great images, love your models and very well executed.

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[Craigie]

very nice shots. These look like what we call mergansers on this side of the pond. If that's what they are, I've never gotten a good shot of one because they tend to be skittish, at least where I see them. I just splurged on a longer lens, so perhaps I will do better next summer.

Thanks Dan, the female Red Breasted Merganser and the female Gossander are very similar. See link below.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wi...der/index.aspx

[Craigie]

Nice set, Gary. I particularly like no.2. Head on shots of waterfowl don't often work well but this is one of the cases that does. Excellent detail, nice water, and a lower angle than the broadside shot. Love the eyes on 3 and 4. Looks very similar to our scaup.

Thanks Dan for viewing and commenting.
There are similarities between the male Tufted duck and the Scaup. See link below.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wi...aup/index.aspx

[Craigie]

Great images, love your models and very well executed.

Thanks Maurice your comments are appreciated.

[Craigie]

Nice captures.

Cheers John.

[bnnrcn]

Nice series Gary, my fav is #2

[Craigie]

Nice series Gary, my fav is #2

Thanks a lot Binnur for viewing and commenting.

[Cantab]

Thanks Dan, the female Red Breasted Merganser and the female Gossander are very similar. See link below.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wi...der/index.aspx

Like Dan, my initial reaction was that the gossanders looked like female mergansers. Thanks for the link and congratulations on the photos.

Edit: Having looked more closely at the link, I see that the Latin name for a gossander is mergus merganser, known overhere as the common merganser.

[Craigie]

Like Dan, my initial reaction was that the gossanders looked like female mergansers. Thanks for the link and congratulations on the photos.

Edit: Having looked more closely at the link, I see that the Latin name for a gossander is mergus merganser, known overhere as the common merganser.

Thanks Bruce for your comments and the extra info on the merganser/gossander.
I am fairly knew on bird identification, I use the RSPB web site to assist me.

[bje07]

very nice shots, # 3 would deserve a little crop to eliminate dark part on bottom RHS

[Wavelength]

Lovely shots

[Craigie]

very nice shots, # 3 would deserve a little crop to eliminate dark part on bottom RHS

Thanks Jean for your comments and suggestion.
I really did not want to crop, as I would have lost some of the OOF reeds on the LH side.
So I worked on it in PS and cloned out the dark area, not perfect but it is good practise for me.

5

[Craigie]

Lovely shots

Cheers Nandakumar.

[Craigie]

Love the eyes on 3 and 4. Looks very similar to our scaup.

I finally got a decent shot of the female Tufted duck, not the most of colourful ducks. Though there eye colour is special.
C&C most welcome.
6 f6.3 1/800sec ISO 320 FL 600mm

[Cantab]

Gary, the female tufted duck is very good. I like the detail in her feathers as well as her position in the image. Did you crop the original photo much or were you dealing with a friendly duck? It appears you had the camera not far above water level. With these sorts of photos, the lower you can get the camera the better (although I say this as one you doesn't bend down to ground level ).

[Craigie]

Gary, the female tufted duck is very good. I like the detail in her feathers as well as her position in the image. Did you crop the original photo much or were you dealing with a friendly duck? It appears you had the camera not far above water level. With these sorts of photos, the lower you can get the camera the better (although I say this as one you doesn't bend down to ground level ).

Cheers Bruce, the female is extremely skittish (the male slightly less), and as such any photo had to be taken at some distance.
Hence this image was cropped, but not overly.