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Well, it looks like you nailed focus and exposure, now it is just a matter of getting the subject in the right place.  Ordered some gear this week from wildlifewatchingsupplies.co.uk -- they have a huge selection of interesting and useful stuff. Picked up a neoprene coat for the 500L as well as a "bag hide" you toss over yourself and your gear to blend in. Figured that the bag hide will help find some good opportunities, and if I find an area where there is lots of activity I will put up a more permanent version. Also, fun little story: every spring a little Parus Major (no clue what they are called in America, sorry) spends a huge amount of time tidying up this birdhouse we have on the wall of the shed. Every year, a very angry and aggressive Ficedula hypoleuca shows up and boots him out once the cleaning is done. Then we have to listen to the neverending chatter from the babies once hatched. He is pretty quick but I snagged a snapshot of him the other day with the 500 and 1.4x: 
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Jul 7, 2011 20:17
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Parus major = Great Tit (related to chickadees and titmice in North America) Ficedula hypoleuca = Pied Flycatcher Great Tits are one of the model species of field behavioral ecology, so it's really hard not to snigger when you have to teach students about them... The photo is great- you could probably post that in the Critterquest thread and someone could ID the butterfly for you.
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Jul 7, 2011 20:26
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Well, I just googled "great tits" and it delivered in every way imaginable. Thanks for the translation help.
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Jul 7, 2011 20:36
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Bird ID? And 200mm is definitely too short. Gonna take my 2x teleconverter next time, and accept the loss of sharpness.  What kind of bird by torgeaux, on Flickr
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Jul 9, 2011 18:44
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torgeaux posted:Bird ID? And 200mm is definitely too short. Gonna take my 2x teleconverter next time, and accept the loss of sharpness. Smooth-billed Ani- very cool birds. They are in the cuckoo family, but are super social. Multiple pairs share a nest. edit- possibly groove-billed.
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Jul 9, 2011 18:51
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Groove-billed ani? edit: well, I was close.
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Jul 9, 2011 18:51
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torgeaux posted:Bird ID? And 200mm is definitely too short. Gonna take my 2x teleconverter next time, and accept the loss of sharpness. I'd toss this photo into the Critterquest thread in GBS. They're drat good at identifying pretty much anything if the photo is sharp. Edit: nm, you guys are good too.
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Jul 9, 2011 18:52
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Was it taken in the U.S.? That might help.
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Jul 9, 2011 18:54
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Was it taken in the U.S.? That might help. Cuba. Always two together when I saw them.
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Jul 9, 2011 19:15
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wikipedia says only smooth-billed in Cuba, but i'm not sure I'd take wikipedia as the last word in bird distributions
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Jul 9, 2011 20:08
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Jul 13, 2011 07:51
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 P7136412 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr  P7136462 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr  P7136557 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr
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Jul 13, 2011 22:25
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Found this duck at Sea World. I just love the colors. That water is gross as hell.
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Jul 14, 2011 03:08
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 IMG_0764 by bernsai, on Flickr  IMG_0767 by bernsai, on Flickr I saw some birds! I have no idea what any birds are. I tried to do some searching, but I didn't see anything helpful, or I'm retarded. I imagine these are fairly common. If anyone has any idea, I'm pretty curious now after all this looking. They're in southern Alberta if that helps.
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Jul 14, 2011 05:20
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 Common sparrow. I'm a pretty casual bird shooter, but I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.
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Jul 14, 2011 07:16
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CarrotFlowers posted:
Look like female Red-winged Blackbirds. Nice pics!
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Jul 14, 2011 19:25
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Look like female Red-winged Blackbirds. Nice pics! Ah, that totally makes sense as there were male red-winged blackbirds hanging around too. 
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Jul 16, 2011 05:49
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Spent all week having the wrong lens on my camera when birds were within range, but finally found an Anna's Hummingbird that kept eating while I switched.
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Jul 16, 2011 07:05
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Jul 18, 2011 07:53
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Didn't get any good shots of the hummingbirds at my grandma's house, or the woodpeckers, or the gold finches, or anything since it was so drat humid that I had to spent 20 minutes outside just to let the lenses defog, and by the time I had a chance to just sit out there to get pictures it was dark enough that I really needed a tripod, which was 700 miles away. Oh well. Installed a bird feeder in my backyard today though, maybe I'll get something more interesting than this guy hanging out in my yard.  DSC_0452.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr
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Jul 21, 2011 20:54
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Birds are poo sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean always.   But then they make it all worth it...   
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Jul 23, 2011 05:26
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This is the best I've got. Guess I can include this too. 
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Jul 23, 2011 05:46
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After shooting macro on my last couple of trips, I wanted to shoot some birds now. I didn't come across many, probably because the weather got really bad once I stepped outside. I'd love to get some feedback on those shots though: Untitled on Flickr  Peanuts on Flickr  Untitled on Flickr
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Jul 23, 2011 18:29
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FLX posted:After shooting macro on my last couple of trips, I wanted to shoot some birds now. I didn't come across many, probably because the weather got really bad once I stepped outside. I'd love to get some feedback on those shots though: This is fantastic.
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Jul 23, 2011 19:51
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FLX posted:
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Jul 24, 2011 01:55
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Bird feeders are awesome for the lazy goon photographer.
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Jul 25, 2011 01:13
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 IMG_2414 by like okay cool dude, on Flickr
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Jul 25, 2011 17:32
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sensy v2.0 posted:
Looks like a great tit. Nice. Eurasian coot, juvenile: 
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Jul 27, 2011 20:56
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A few bird shots:  
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Jul 28, 2011 16:34
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Rated PG-34 posted:Amazing. What lens/body?
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Jul 28, 2011 17:07
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sharkytm posted:Amazing. Alas, for telephoto, all I had with me was my Canon G9  Edit: another one, 
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Jul 28, 2011 17:09
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Nice work with the G9, goes to show it's the person behind the camera that matters the most. "I know kung fu"  Some swan  Tern 
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Jul 29, 2011 18:02
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 House Finch by The original David L, on Flickr
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Jul 30, 2011 06:38
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Jul 30, 2011 07:17
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A few recent photos of what I believe are Goldfinches. These were shot using a Sony a850 and the Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 lens. I changed the third one to black and white as I've always felt like fast motion looks more interesting without color. That, and the bird had a strange red spot under its wing - I assume it's just a spot that's bare of feathers, and you're never going to see it unless you're really lucky with a photo like this one.  
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Jul 30, 2011 08:15
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I finally had the money and time to get my 50-500's autofocus motor fixed, so here's one of the first shots with it after I got it back. I love this lens so much. I need to get better at finding shots that aren't just "bird sitting on branch" though.
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Jul 30, 2011 23:00
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When I was in China I found this guy just sitting on the sidewalk:
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Jul 30, 2011 23:11
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Bob Socko posted:A few recent photos of what I believe are Goldfinches. These were shot using a Sony a850 and the Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 lens. I changed the third one to black and white as I've always felt like fast motion looks more interesting without color. That, and the bird had a strange red spot under its wing - I assume it's just a spot that's bare of feathers, and you're never going to see it unless you're really lucky with a photo like this one. First two are indeed Gold Finches. Third one looks more like a house finch or purple finch though.
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Jul 31, 2011 03:51
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  This bird is the coolest bird. Don't have a clue what it is but it let me get to around 4 feet from him no problem as he sat on the beach like this. I probably could have gotten close but didn't want to scare him away.
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Jul 31, 2011 14:24
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HookShot posted:
Some kind of Cormorant/Shag, but it's definitely not North American so I don't have a clue.
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Jul 31, 2011 18:37
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