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| Black-winged Stilts Himantopus himantopus "Seitaka-shigi" - Japanese Rice field next to Fukushimagata, Niigata, Japan Nikon 1 V1 + Nikon ED50 Fieldscope May 24, 2014 |
Last weekend, Saturday May 24 2014, I was carrying digiscoping gear around at Fukushimagata in hope of finding Common Kingfishers when a couple of Black-winged Stilts flew in front of me and landed in an adjacent rice field. I followed them and got most of these shots. It was my first try with the V1 camera attached to my Nikon ED50 Fieldscope. (I just got an adaptor a few weeks ago to try out, being the gear head I am) I'm not so excited by the shots when I pixel peep but the subjects were 50-80 metres away so I think the results are nice enough.
It was my first time to see Black-winged Stilts outside Australia and I noticed how their heads have black patches on top compared to Australia's version, Himantopus leucocephalus, which has a white face with black on the back of the head/neck. - Check out the last image.
I found 7 stilts there on the Saturday and went back the next day with my D800 and 400mm lens and found 9. It's interesting with the big camera that even though I was much closer to the subjects I had to crop the pictures significantly. The V1 pics are not cropped.
I admit I'm not so good at Digiscoping and it a an art form worth investigating. I'm not so patient, however.
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| May 25 with Nikon D800 + AF-S 80-400mm and two below. |
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| These are Black-winged Stilts, Himantopus leucocephalus, seen at Cape York, Australia. Note the black on the back of their neck and not on top of their heads. Photo with Nikon D800 + Nikkor 300 f4 + 1.4 TC |
5 comments:
It is interesting to see the differences between the two, and I like the effect of the rice plants, particularly in the larger frame. I've never tried digiscoping myself, but it does have a place for distant birds that cannot be approached any other way I think!
the delicate tracery of the rice fields really adds a wonderful character to the already beautiful stilts. Your finale' photograph of the stilts in flight is also superb Russell
I especially like your in-flight shots Russell, and the picture of those in the green rice field works particulalry well. i wqas watching them in Menorca just two weeks ago. It's a small world indeed for some bird species?
Nice Stilts Russell. The first Stilt I ever saw was in Australia actually...........
Lovely photos of the stilts among newly planted rice. These are common birds in Thailand as well.
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