Okay. Here's the cute for today.

The first image in the OP was from GH5 and Nikkor 800/5.6, not 100-400 as stated.

These stills from the 100-400 on the GH5:

As you can see, totally different character (and reach).

The 100-400 on the GH5 was much more fun to use, on a monopod with IS Lock on, the video stays rock steady even though I was being buffeted by quite strong wind.

This is a still from the 800 for comparison:

Very cute. The baby reminds me of the Pixar Short "Piper"

Lovely, charming, fuzzy little thing. Nicely done!

Cheers,

Rick

Bisonbison wrote:

Wow 800mm f5.6... how does it work?

Its nasty. It weighs about 6Kg, is almost 600mm long and is a pig to move around. The IQ isn't particularly sharp, focus is smooth though difficult. Acquiring subjects is very hard with the small FOV, a dot sight might help.

Long lenses are not what people expect, they are not something most people use very often at all.

I'm lucky, I took all the these videos just outside my gate, the hassle of just packing up the lens, moving it and then setting up again is quite a disincentive to use it.

Were you on a gimbal?

No, I was on a decent video fluid head. Supporting a lens like this is a challenge of itself.

But it also means you were much further away from said cute ..... which is probably good for the birds too

I honestly think within reason, the birds don't care. The beach is suburban and heavily trafficked by people and dogs. Daily, dozens of people probably walk through the area where these birds are, yet they've survived this far though I'm doubtful both chicks will make it to the end of the season. Most people never see the birds, and nobody sees the chicks, they are very well camouflaged. The adult birds are very good at drawing dogs away from the chicks or the nest.

If I just sit quietly on the beach for an hour or so, the chicks approach quite close, and I've even had the male walk right around me too close to photograph.

NZ birds don't really have a history of predation, but these migratory birds probably do, just not in NZ - most predators were introduced here. We have falcons and oyster catchers, as well as weka, that would probably predate on these guys or their eggs, but their own numbers aren't in great shape, either.

Biggest threat to these birds are hedgehogs ( real problem here, we trap and kill them) and domestic cats.

Geoffrey532 wrote:

Very cute. The baby reminds me of the Pixar Short "Piper"

Well spotted.

It amazes me how observant good animators are - I have video that exactly matches the chicks behaviour trying to get under the mother.

TN Args wrote:

hindesite wrote:

They don't look related.

No, but teenagers turn into adults, too.