Hi You'll, Here's a few pics of egret chicks from my visit to the rookery. The egrets like to nest in areas with alligators because the gators keep other predators like raccoons from their nest. The Great Egrets will usually lay three eggs. The last one that hatches is the smallest and is usually killed and/or pushed out of the nest by the older two. The gators get a small reward for their protection. As I was shooting the chicks I kept flashing back to the raptors in the Jurassic Park movies. {} {} {} {}
Wow, very interesting shots Harry. My fovorite is image #3 which shows just how small the chicks are next to their parent. Well done.
WOW! Great shots Harry! Were you able to get pretty close to the nests at the alligator farm or are these cropped a bit? Nice exposure on the white birds.
Fantastic captures, Harry! The nesting location for my local egrets is on a small island in the middle of the lake, so I never have seen the chicks. Love it 8).
Hey Don, The Alligator Farm built a boardwalk through the rookery that's about 8-10 feet off the water. You can get very close to the birds and you are not on ground level. I could have reached in a taken a egg from a couple of the nests I saw. I started out shooting with my 300mm and 1.4 but had to switch to my 80-400. The first shot wasn't cropped at all, the 2 & 3 were cropped slightly and the last shot was probably a 30% crop. Here's a shot of the rookery at 80mm
Harry, These are some of the best birdie shots that I have seen here on the Cafe. The combo of the D2H, 80-400VR, and your shooting skills is certainly paying off. These shots are well composed, the exposures are spot on, the colors are beautifully saturated, and they are sharp as a tack. I just can't wait to get down there an shoot with you guys. I just hope that there are some targets as good as these to shoot when I get there. 8) Frank
Hey Frank, Thanks so much for the kind words. I prefer my 300mm/f4 but there at times when the 80-400 is invaluable. Most of my shoots at the rookery were at less than 300mm. I came very close to selling the 80-400 after I got the 300mm but I am really glad that I held off.
Hey Gale, Glad you liked them. I don't know about the cute part though. They are mean little suckers.
