Since I own the rather expensive Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR lens for a while now, I am becoming a bit more interested in bird photography. I did not do a lot of bird photography in the past, because I simply did not own lenses for any of my cameras that did have enough reach to do it. Combined with the 1.7x extender that I own the lens gives me a 35mm equivalent focal length of 500mm on my FF format D600 and even 750mm on my DX format D5300. I do not like tripods because of the weight, but the compact format of the lens pack and the stabilisation of the lens should make it possible to shoot hand held. The main problem that I meet is the focussing speed. Auto focus of the 300mm on it's own is OK, but combined with the extender the smallest lens opening becomes F6.3. That seems to be border line for the autofocus system of the D5300. Not much experience yet with the D600 in this respect. Of course the light circumstances will have influence too and at the moment the weather is certainly not favourable.

The first two images, the thrush and the woodpecker are shot from my living room window, as in the previous series. The grey heron #3 and #4 has been photographed a few kilometers south of Gouda in the "Krimpener waard". #5 and #6 are not shot with telephoto, but with Sony RX100M4. The white heron #7 an #8 are shot in the wetlands near Haastrecht.

#1 - Thrush

#2 - Woodpecker

#3 - Grey heron fishing

#4 - Heron , no fish , try a mole

#5 - "Knotten" as the call it in Dutch

#6 - They will survive :-)

#7 - White heron , near Haastrecht

#8 - Showing his feathers