Bird Photography on a Rainy Day

I woke up to a tremendous amount of rain on Friday morning. Sometime around noon it finally stopped. The sky remained overcast, but it was nice and bright. I love that type of diffused light for bird photography and try to take advantage of it whenever I can. I packed the gear and drove about 20 minutes to the "Oceanside Marine Nature and Study Area". There were Barn Swallows, Glossy Ibis, Snowy Egrets, Egrets, Willets, Osprey, Geese, and Herons. I noticed this particular Yellow Crowned Night Heron hunting so I got down very low to the ground and kept quiet while watching through the lens. Then, in a fast flurry the Heron speared a crab out of the brush. He turned, and tossed it in the air to make it easy to swallow. I fired off about fifteen shots in a two seconds to capture the image below.

Camera settings: Canon 40D, 400mm at f5.6, 1/250th, ISO 100, tripod.

Oceanside has all of these great natural perches created from large downed tree branches. I was hoping to photograph a bird resting on one, but they all seemed content in the grasses. Then, an Egret flew by and scared the Heron out of his spot. The Heron landed right where I hoped he would, and I quickly hid behind some bushes to get in a good position. For this image I also used a bit of fill flash to capture more detail in the face and head feathers.

Camera settings: Canon 40D, 400mm at f5.6, 1/200th, ISO 125, ETTL Flash - 1.25, tripod.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Great shots of this beautiful birds behavior.

[Anna]

I love the second shot. It is good to know that bright cloudy days are good for bird pictures, I will remember this!

[Chris]

Thanks for the feedback Anna!