Wood ducks and new toys

I went down to Kettle Pond yesterday afternoon to see how the Sandhill Cranes are doing. It had been 11 days since my last visit and I was anxious to see if they were still there and if both chicks were alive and well. Fortunately, the answers to those question are “Yes” and “Yes.” When I was there, however, I was distracted by another bird, a Wood Duck.

I’ve seen Wood Ducks at Kettle Pond before but they’re elusive creatures and were always on the opposite side of the pond. When I’d walk around to try to get closer to where they were located they’d swim across the pond and easily foil my attempts to photograph them. This time was different.  For one thing, when I first spotted the Wood Duck he was sitting on the branch of a dead tree hanging out over the pond and was on the same side of the pond as I was.  Also, I had recently purchased a new toy, a Canon 1.4x EF Extender III to use with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM Lens. So, not only was I a little closer, but I also had a lens that was a little longer. Bingo!

Some bushes partially blocked my view but I was able to move around until I found an opening in the leaves sufficient to take the photo below. This image is not the full frame; it has been cropped.  However, the dimensions are still 83% of the original, which results in an area that is 70% of the full frame, so it’s not a major crop.  Since I’ve never been able to photograph these beautiful birds in the past, I was quite pleased.

Technical notes for photo geeks like me:  The camera body was a Canon 7D and the picture was taken hand-held at 1/250 sec @ f/10 with an ISO=800.  The lens was fully extended giving a focal length of 280mm.  The sharpness and the low noise are testaments to the quality of the equipment.

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