Cookie's been out chasing the spring birds and just thought these might be appreciated here.
Pintail takeoff


Ross's flyby

Have a good one,

Ponytails are one of my favorite ducks

Beautiful pintail pic.

nice!

Your wife does beautiful work!

Excellent pics.

That Cookie is one heckuva photographer - I enjoy the images you post.

Sunny morning today, so Cookie wanted to head out into the meadows. I'm a damned good truck driver.

If one puts their head down on the nest, no one can see you. Honker


I guess one can call these waterfowl, Avocet


A spoonbill


and Cinnamon teal

Nice morning to be out. Came home and tuned up the snow blower for next winter.

Awesome photos.
Can I ask what lens was used?

Lens?

Two upper most pics a Canon EOS 50D with a 100-400mm zoom

Lower pics,including this one, were all with a Canon EOS 70D and a Canon 500mm.

One drops a lot of detail here, as these are reduced about 85% for posting on this site.

And a pair of Greater Sandhill Cranes

wonderful! she worked in a black-necked stilt and a yellowlegs with the Spoonie!

Excellent!

Thanks! I need to upgrade my gear, or at least the lens I use.
Mine max out at 300mm. Camera is a Canon T3i, suits my needs for the most part.

Those are great shots.

Would make it easier, but not necessarily required if one is willing to work at it a bit. A little stealth and a well placed blind could probably get one some frame filling shots. A popup blind has worked great near desert waterholes and around places like burrowing owl homes, often with the critters so close one can not even fit their face in the frame.

Again a bit of work, but I've seen folks that put in the effort to disguise float tubes as muskrat houses. With slow approaches, they can get within single digit yards of waterfowl. Cookie is retiring in about a week, will have considerably more time, and will be taking on that approach next season.

Presently, she gets a lot of shots from her car by getting ahead of fowl along a narrow water course and waiting for them to swim into sight. Same approach works for coyotes and deer that are tracking fence lines or stream banks. One needs near everything in position, however, before they arrive, as just the action of lifting a camera to ones face is enough to spook a lot of critters.

This was with her 100-400 zoom at 230mm.


At 180mm


and at 250 mm


Best of all is just getting out there. Have a good one,

wish her and you the best in her upcoming retirement! Mine has been scheduled since January but my bride is still not on board....

Thanks for the replies.
I often use a blind etc myself.
I really enjoy the spur of the moment ki d of shot. That is where I feel the longer lens would be beneficial.
Thanks again for the info and sharing some awesome shots your wife took.
Jeff

More Sandhills--a new painting by my wife. It's big--64x40 inches, oil, and the color in the photo really doesn't do it justice.

Wow Mud..thats terrific work.

Congrats to her.

Has a very Wyeth feel to it.

Just fantastic!