Archive For The “Minolta 500mm f/8 RF mirror lens” Category
Trumpeter swans, signets and canvasback ducks in the Kitimat River estuary, Dec.15, 2018. (Robin Rowland)
My portion of the Christmas Bird Count in the Kitimat River Estuary (courtesy Rio Tinto) was in an afternoon blizzard which cut visibility by up to about 80 per cent at times and was no help to the cameras, whether or on auto focus or manual.
A killdeer hunts for food on a patch of wetland grass as the tide rises (Robin Rowland)
A rare sighting of a Wilson’s snipe out in the open on the river estuary. (Robin Rowland)
A bald eagle overhead. (Robin Rowland)
Another shot of the killdeer. (Robin Rowland)
Another shot of the Wilson’s snipe. (Robin Rowland)
The Wilson’s snipe getting a last shot at a meal as the tide rises. (Robin Rowland)
The trumpeter swans, signets, canvasbacks and mallards. (Robin Rowland)
A great blue heron huddles against the snow storm. (Robin Rowland)
Another great blue heron. (Robin Rowland)
A loon in the choppy waves of Kitimat harbour. (Robin Rowland)
On Thursday, April 19, was a soggy, to say the least, with wind-driven, cold, pouring rain when I went down to Kitamaat Village and Kitimat harbour to photograph the spring bird migration. The highlight were the snow geese I saw both at MK Bay (above) and at the Kitamaat Village soccer field. (Robin Rowland)
A bald eagle, drenched in the pouring rain, at the mouth of Whatl Creek near MK Bay Marina. (Robin Rowland)
A crow takes off from the sea grass in pouring rain near Kitamaat Village. (Robin Rowland)
Snow geese feed at the Kitamaat Village soccer field (Robin Rowland)
A snow goose at the Kitamaat Village soccer field. (Robin Rowland)
Snow geese fly past MK Bay. (Robin Rowland)
An Oregon junco on the waterfront. (Robin Rowland)
Mallards take to the wing as a bald eagle passes overhead (Robin Rowland)
A gull passes two bald eagles in the low tide puddles of Whatl Creek near Kitimat Harbour (Robin Rowland)
Two bald eagles in the low tide puddles of Whatl Creek near Kitimat Harbour (Robin Rowland)
Raindrops fall on the head of an American robin who posed on a log beside my car just as I was getting ready to leave. (Robin Rowland)
Cackling geese skim over the mouth of Whatl Creek, MK Bay, Kitimat, BC (Robin Rowland)
Cackling geese (Branta hutchnisi) make look like Canada Geese, but they’re a separate species, smaller (close to the size of a mallard duck) with a shorter neck, rounder head and a stubbier bill. The west coast species often spend summers in the Aleutian Islands and then fly south to the Central Valley of California, so these probably stopped in Kitimat on their way south.
A cackling goose. smaller than a Canada goose, hides in the grass along Whatl Creek. (Robin Rowland)
A bald eagle keeps an eye on the flock of cackling geese at Whatl Creek (Robin Rowland)
The bald eagle at Whatl Creek. (Robin Rowland)
A raven flies over Kitimat harbour (Robin Rowland)
A flock of about 50 mallards along the waterfront of Kitamaat Village. (Robin Rowland)
Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Unit 63 alpha and bravo vessels, the “Snowflake Responders” exercise in Kitimat harbour on Sunday, August 13, 2017. (Robin Rowland)
On Sunday morning, we held a North West Photo Fest long lens photo workshop/photo walk on the seawall at the Kitamaat Village, mostly shooting birds, when the search and rescue boats came out for a training session.
(Robin Rowland)
(Robin Rowland)
(Robin Rowland)
(Robin Rowland)
Related: Kitimat christens new SAR 63 rescue vessel, Snowflake Responder III October 25, 2014.
Jay Gough of Nikon and the participants in the Kitamaat Village photo walk (Robin Rowland)
And around the same time we caught a rainbow over the harbour, putting the legendary “pot of gold” at its end right in the Rio Tinto aluminum smelter. (Robin Rowland)
A merlin (falco columbarius)a small falcon perches on a driftwood stump near the Kitamaat Village seawall during the North West Photo Fest photo walk on Sunday, August 13, 2017. (Robin Rowland)
Camera is a Sony Alpha 77 with the Minolta 500mm f8 mirror lens, which is light weight, which easily makes up for the lack of flexiblity that might come with a much heavier standard telephoto zoom or prime lens that have more adjustments.
The merlin takes off (Robin Rowland)
The merlin skims across the low tide sea grass. (Robin Rowland)
About 10 minutes earlier, a squirrel scampered along the driftwood log. Lucky the squirrel didn’t stick around.
That shot was taken with my Sony Alpha 7II with the Sony 70 to 300mm G lens, at 91mm. The little fellow came up so fast, I didn’t have time to extend the zoom.
Jay Gough, the Nikon representative who was a speaker at North West Photo Fest, put together a Nikon D500, 400mm f/2.8FL and TC-20III (teleconverter) to get a similar shot during the photo walk.
