With a new lens, more knowledge (thank you Steve!) and more experience, my bird pictures are improving greatly. Now I can replace some of my older pictures with newer better ones. Here are a few examples:
Red-necked Grebe (2017)
Red-necked Grebe (2012)
Red-winged Blackbird (2017)
Red-winged Blackbird (2011)
Green-winged Teal (2011)
Green-winged Teal (2017)
I bought a new lens on Boxing Day, but have been waiting for some blue skies to go out and try it. I finally gave up on that and went for a (short) walk today with my camera, my old lens and my new one. It was chilly and birds were scarce so I ended up just taking a picture of some buildings in the distance. Here’s the original shot:
I took the same shot with both lenses and here are the cropped results:
Old lens
New lens
Happy New Lens to me!
Today we moved on to our next accommodations, at the Arenal Observatory Lodge.
And today I decided that my next birthday present is going to be a spotting scope. We saw a very cool bird called a Keel-billed Motmot this afternoon. It was back on a dark branch of a tree. Here was my best picture of it:
And here’s the picture our guide, Steven Easley, took with a cell phone and his spotting scope:
Now I realize it’s not just the equipment but the experience of the user that makes such a big difference in these pictures, and that he is using a more expensive scope than I could afford, but still, it looks like something I would like to try.
Speaking of our guide, Steven Easley, here’s a picture of him using my camera to take a picture of some Pygmy Round-eared Bats that roost in termite nests. Cope Arte is the one on the right who is shining a flashlight into the nest. Cope is an artist and naturalist who has an amazing knowledge of the area around his home and took us out into the forest today. (Another day I’ll post some of the hummingbird pictures I took at the feeders at his house.)
And here is one of the pictures of the bats inside the termite nest:
Pygmy Round-eared Bats
I am having the time of my life! (in case you hadn’t guessed)