Hi Mark, too right about the chances to get an Albatross (which one) and you did very well under the circumstances. Great detail and colour on the Pidgeon.
Who would not be happy with these? Not me certainly. Well captured.
To photograph an albatross!
If I ever saw one, I think I'd be too excited to hold the camera.
Glorious. You have made two wonderful images of the experience. Images, I think, to be very, very proud of.
Last edited by Donald; 19th July 2012 at 06:20 AM.
Clive
I'm pretty sure this bird is a Grey Headed Mollymawk. Diomedea chrysostoma.
Another possibility would be a Buller's Mollymawk, but the pattern under the wing makes me think the former more likely. The photos were taken at 46deg south, listed as a locally common native, ranging widely through the Southern Oceans with a few visiting NZ coastal waters especially in winter. ref Field Guide to Birds of New Zealand (Heather, Robertson - Penguin, 2005)
Could also be a Buller's Albatross, Thalassarche bulleri which has one of the nesting sites at Three Kings Island. [ref Their world, their ways, albatross (Tui de Roy, Mark Jones, Julian Fitter, published by Bateman 2009]
Nicely caught Mark, that has got to be the best fed Pidgeon I have seen!
Thanks Mark and Ken for the possible ID. These birds amaze and fascinate me and long for the day to see one.
Thanks Ken
The Bullers Albatross and the Bullers Mollymawk are one and the same. Just different nomenclature. The Grey headed variety has a broad band on the leading edge of the underwing and a narrow band on the trailing edge. The Bullers has narrow bands on both edges. That's the only reason I think these are the Grey Headed variety but I'm no expert. My brother is a bird fundi. I'll ask him to check it out. These shots were taken at Bluff last week. There was a pair of them scavenging off a local fisherman. I was hoping they would come closer. I took all these shots hand held with about 10kg of camera and lens. Needless to say my arms were pretty tired.
Paul
These are wild wood pidgeons. They occur all over New Zealand. They feed on berries and fruit of our local native flora.
Thanks Mark, we have a large pidgeon here that is considered a woods pidgeon...called a ringneck I believe. They are twice the size of our city Pidgeons which are actually a rock dove I believe. Although none of ours have the girth that this bird has.
All excellent photos, Mark, but the albatross ones are superb. I've often seen advice to avoid 2x tele-converters as they degrade the quality of the image. Your photos show that this advice is not always correct.
Dave
I only use the converter if I have to. These are practically 100% crops. The quality is not what I'd normally like it to be, but you either get the shot or you don't sometimes. I haven't noticed a lot of image degradation with the 2X III Canon converter.
The pidgeon was taken with a 70 - 200 from about 20 feet away.
Three beautiful images, Mark. I think I may be seeing a sharpening white halo around the dark edges of the wings in the first two - or maybe I need to look again when I am more wide awake. If it is a halo it can easily be fixed with the Clone Tool. Nice set!