Squaco Heron Leaving – Phillip Grobler

You often see images in magazines or at club evenings and think why cant I ever see such nice sightings. Then when you have the chance to go into the wild there is just nothing happening. Getting up at 4am so that you are ready when the first rays of the sun breaks, waiting and then nothing, no animals in sight, no birds, nothing.

If you do see anything for the day its only after 10 when the sun is high in the sky and the light is harsh.

It's easy to think some people have all the luck, but most of the time it has more to-do with perseverance and planning.

Beginning of 2012 we went to Marievale, just outside of Nigel, a couple of times and saw Malachite kingfishers on every outing and got some stunning shots of them. So over the December break I was quite keen to go back and get some more Malachite shots. With a years worth of extra practice I was hoping to catch them in flight or in mid dive. But as these things go the Malachites where scarce only popping by briefly and them being chased away by the swallow and the clouds and not play along either. Over the Christmas break I went to Marievale 6 times.

Each time getting up at 4am getting ready, driving 100km in the dark looking at the clouds in sky's hoping all stays clear and that there is no wind. If all looks clear you begin to hope that there is space left in the hide. Once there you setup and then begin to wait, for the sun, for the birds, for the clouds, if everything is in place for the birds to actually move, so that its not just a static shot. You basicly sit arround waiting for 4 hours from 05:30 until 09:30.

The first 4 outings where quite unsuccessfull with little activity or only activity on the reeds on the far side.

Then on 2013/01/01 4am I was on my way again eternally optimistic that today would be the day, and indeed it was. It sounds silly, but we only waited an hour before the first Sqauco Heron came closer to the hide. Initially sitting to the right of the hide and then flying over to the perch right in front of the hide to catch a large tadpole. It went back and forth 3 or 4 times and then flew of.

Shortly afterwards the Malachite kingfisher arrived and sat around for about 10 minutes diving into the water 3 times, before leaving.

We then sat around some more until 08:40 when the a second Sqauco Heron made its clearance, again coming right up-to the hide, so close that the bird filled the frame at 200mm on a crop camera. a Number of big lens shooters with 500mm and 800mm lenses could only sit and watch as the action was so close they could not focus on it.

That one day made up for all 5 the other days where we saw nothing and will probably keep me motivated for another 5 trips.

The technical details:

• Canon 50D
  
• Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II USM
  
• Focal length: 200mm      
  
• ISO: 400 - To allow for faster shutter speed
  
• Shutter Speed : 1/2000 – To be able to freeze the movement. - For smaller birds it might not be enough, but for larger birds its fast enough. the wings might still blur somewhat.
  
• Aperture: F/4.0 - with bigger birds you often need higher Aperture otherwise you often only have part of the bird in-focus.
  
• Aperture priority
  
• Spot metering
  
• Mounted on a tripod - for stability especially, when going over 300mm it is almost always sharper if you shoot from a fixed support.

ISO/Shutter Speed/Aperture is often a compromise between noise/depth of field and motion blur 

Phillip Grobler 3*