Another Morning on Peebles Island

I walked around Peebles Island this morning carrying the 5D Mark III with 24-105mm lens and the 7D Mark II with 70-300mm lens on my OP/TECH Dual Harness. Wildlife was very sparse this morning. Not a single deer in over an hour, and while there was an eagle hunkered down on the nest, nothing else was going on.

So, I ended up with a few frozen pond scenics and a shot of some sycamore pods. There are quit a few Sycamore trees on Peebles Island including a gigantic one right at the entrance to the trails.

Only the wide view of the pond was made with the full frame body.

This Morning on Peebles Island

Another nice weather morning found me on Peebles Island with the 7D Mark II and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM lens. Rather than stand around at the eagle nest, I decided to walk around the island and shoot bracketed sequences for HDR processing, something I hadn't done with the crop sensor 7D Mark II.

While the 7DII is certainly capable of making some nice scenics, I guess the question is why would you? If it's your only body or if it's the only body you have with you are two such reasons.

One up side is hand held bracketing at the 10 frames per second continuous shooting speed. One down side is that, with the crop factor, lenses have a longer effective focal length than with a full frame body. This is good for wildlife, not so good for scenics.

70mm (112mm eq.)

70mm (112mm eq.)

70mm (112mm eq.)

262mm (419mm eq.)

70mm (112mm eq.)

106mm (170mm eq.)

Peebles Island Bald Eagles

Conditions on Peebles Island were perfect for checking on the Bald Eagle nest this morning. Temperatures were below freezing over night so the trails were frozen for easy walking. It was sunny so ISO levels could be kept low and shutter speeds kept high.

The 70-300mm lens works well and while the quality is good enough for 100% crops for posting online, those files aren't really large enough for printing. I finally sold the Tamron 45mm lens and the current plan is to replace the 70-300mm lens with the cheaper of the two Sigma 150-600mm lenses.

If the lens comparison tool on The Digital Picture can be trusted, the Sigma is sharper than the Canon 70-300mm lens from 150mm to 300mm anyway. It is, however, larger, heavier and more expensive.

As I approached the nest viewing location, one eagle was on the nest and the other in a nearby tree. Then the one in the tree landed on the nest, the other eagle flew off and then both eagles were off the nest for about 12 minutes, flying around. Then one eagle returned to the nest, apparently incubating an egg or eggs. Here is the sequence of photos.