New to me, Long-tailed Duck

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ssheipel

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Hundreds, maybe thousands of these Long-tailed ducks last weekend, most all of them far from shore, riding the very choppy waters (wind warning winds that day). A couple of birders let me know what they were. A small group of 40 or 50 were sticking around a spot where I could get down nearly to water level and unlike their pals weren't all that concerned with my presence once I sat and stayed put. Animal detect had a near heart attack trying to decide what to grab :) and 3D wasn't much better as these birds were constantly diving and 'skipping' on the waves and wind and swirling around each other -- so single point and me tracking was a dismal failure. This is the only usable shot of a male, with tail showing, I got :)

Long tail duck sized.jpg
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Good photo of him; too bad there were so many others, especially the one right behind him. But you take what you can get.
Thanks Woody. Amen to take what you can get! :) There were two males in this group and in the half hour I sat with them those two not once left the group; and of the 100 other shots with the males in focus, no tail visible. Then there's the multiple shots where the focus was not on the male. I'm whining so I'll stop :D
 
Awesome shot of the male! I saw my lifer Long-tailed Duck earlier this year, but it was nowhere near the experience you had!
Thank you! I would have stuck around longer to try to get more shots of the males -- I didn't really notice some of the crowd had colour and a flashy tail 'till one swam into the viewfinder :) -- but this was about 20 minutes before sundown and I was about 50 minutes walk from the car :) Congrats on getting a shot. I really hope to see these guys again!
 
Steven, I too have been challenged (frustrated) in using Z9 with groups of active waterfowl, no matter what settings I try and adapt to. Whereas my D850 or D5 I could pretty much select my single subject and stick to it. You would think out of all those ducks one could get several keepers....:unsure:
Nonetheless very cool to see large groups of this species and good for you in getting at least one useable image!
 
Steven, I too have been challenged (frustrated) in using Z9 with groups of active waterfowl, no matter what settings I try and adapt to. Whereas my D850 or D5 I could pretty much select my single subject and stick to it. You would think out of all those ducks one could get several keepers....:unsure:
Nonetheless very cool to see large groups of this species and good for you in getting at least one useable image!
A challenge, yes! These guys, this group anyway, were like the warblers of waterfowl -- they were not just floating around, were in constant motion, and diving, and there was the high wind and a foot or two high waves and at 700 mm ducks were moving in and out of frame even as I panned with my favoured subject :) Almost all the shots had a duck in focus, in fact, just not the duck I wanted LOL Several shots of this male are in focus, even nicely framed, but with the tail not visible. Auto Area Large (should have used small but forgot to switch it) and 3D with animal detect on with 7 or 8 or more moving subjects simply kept jumping from subject to subject. Gawd knows I couldn't keep single point on a subject. Cheers!
 
Awesome catch! This is one of my bucket list birds, glad you were able to find them!
Thanks, there were a LOT of them but even starting from too far from shore for a good shot they would still move en mass whenever anybody walked by; got lucky with this smaller group diving near a spot on shore that was accessible by scrambling down the bank onto a boulder beach.
 
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