grab shots of a Great-tailed Grackle<\/a><\/span><\/span> taken from my pickup while I was talking to my friend Shane Smith, who was standing right next to my window as we were jabbering. Seconds later I got more grab shots of a different species, this time in flight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/double-crested-cormorant-5675-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"double-crested-cormorant-5675-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/8000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nWhile we were gabbing I spotted this Double-crested Cormorant flying over the pond so I raised my lens and got quite a few sharp photos of it in flight. As I recall I was talking to Shane and shooting at the same time – usually not a good mix.<\/p>\n
Readers know that plain blue sky isn’t my favorite background but this time there were some intermittent puffy white clouds behind the bird so I hoped to get a mix of blue sky and white clouds in some of the shots. But at my focal length my field of view is extremely narrow and the cormorant mostly stayed in front of blue sky. So I only got a few shots with a mix of blue and white in the background and these are two of them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/double-crested-cormorant-5683-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"double-crested-cormorant-5683-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/8000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nEight frames in the burst later I got this shot that included a little more of the white clouds. It was about at this time that Shane raised his camera and took some photos of the cormorant too. But if I remember correctly (maybe I don’t?), his shots would have had only white clouds behind the bird, with no blue. That’s a very difficult exposure, especially with a black bird.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I know, two days in a row now I’ve posted photos of birds that a lot of folks don’t like – grackles and cormorants. But they both have feathers and they’re both native so for me they’re fair game.<\/p>\n
Maybe I should ask Shane to tag along on more of my birding adventures. He seems to be a lucky charm when it comes to increasing the success rate of my grab shots. Usually they’re mostly garbage.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Addendum:<\/p>\n
In a comment below, Kris Eberhard asked to see a photo that shows the crests of this species. When Dan Gleason saw what she said he sent me one, along with the following note. Thank you, Dan.<\/p>\n
“Somone asked about cormorant crests. It’s a frequent question I get. When I talk about cormorants in my presentations I usually include this photo so everyone can see why it’s a Double-crested Cormorant. Feel free to share with anyone if you wish.”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Dbl-crCorm-crests-dan-gleason.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Copyright Dan Gleason<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A human lucky charm for grab shots? (2 photos)<\/p>\n
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