Five dozen Whiskered Terns above the sun

I had the opportunity to revisit Macabebe (Pampanga) this weekend. Although I brought my full range of birding gear with me, I used the hand held 5D MIII + 400 5.6L exclusively at BIFs. The 5D MIII's wider angle of view makes subject acquisition easier, and its AF is very impressive as well. The disadvantage of the slowish 6 fps frame rate is offset by the low noise of the high-res files.

 

My battle-scarred 400 5.6L on the other hand continues to amaze me with its fast AF speed, light weight and great optics even when shot wide open.

As the sun was setting on Saturday, I shot some test images to review the histogram and fix the optimum manual exposure on my hand held combo. Then I wished for a flock of water birds to pass close enough to the setting sun to be contained within the same frame. My wish was granted. During post processing, I pixel-peeped at 100% view to count the birds - there are exactly 60 of them within the frame.
 

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Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybridus, migrant)

Habitat: Bays, tidal flats to ricefields. 
 

Shooting info - Macabebe, Pampanga, Philippines, March 14, 2015, 5D MIII + 400 5.6L, 400 mm, f/7.1, 1/2000 sec, ISO 320, manual exposure in available light, hand held, near full frame resized to 1500x1000.

1500 x 1000 version

Barn Swallows of Talogtog

The mango trees are in full bloom at Brgy. Talogtog (San Juan, La Union) for a few days now.

And where there are flowers, there are insects, particularly in the afternoon when light becomes sweet.

Where there are insects, there are winged insect-eaters... hunters that hawk the insects in the air.

Of course, when feathered insect-eaters congregate predictably in one place, there will surely be a birdnut around, shootings BIFs like crazy, as if this activity will be outlawed tomorrow. :)
 

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Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica , migrant)

Habitat - Coast to above the forest in high mountains. 

 

Shooting info - Talogtog, San Juan, La Union, March 7, 2015, 5D MIII + 400 5.6L,
400 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640, manual exposure in available light, hand held, major crop.

1200 x 800 version

Shooting info - Talogtog, San Juan, La Union, March 7, 2015, 5D MIII + 400 5.6L,
400 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800, manual exposure in available light, hand held, major crop.

1200 x 800 version

Little Ringed-Plover in flight

This migratory water bird, quite small at about 6-1/2 inches total length, is a very fast flier.  This is one of the very few times that I was able to catch it in flight. It was speeding over the fish ponds of Binmaley (Pangasinan) on March 1st.

The yellow eye-ring and other features in the head area, plus over-wing details, are easily visible, making the ID of this bird an easy job.

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Little Ringed-Plover (Charadrius dubius, migrant)

 

Habitat - Ricefields to river beds.

Shooting info - Binmaley, Pangasinan, March 1, 2015, Canon 1D Mark IV + EF 500 f4 IS,
500 mm, f/5.6, ISO 400, 1/2000 sec, manual exposure in available light, 475B/516 support, major crop.

1500 x 1000 version