LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD (BUTEO RUFINUS)

I was driving through an olive grove looking for the famous Persian Squirrel of Lesvos Island with a Nikon D300 and a 300mm f/4 lens. I wasn’t having much luck and the weather really wasn’t on my side. Before I knew it, the sky darkened dangerously and it started to sprinkle. I knew I wasn’t going to get another chance at a squirrel and I was pretty much running out of time plus my wife would be expecting me home soon so I placed my camera on the passenger’s seat, swapped the 300mm for a wide angle zoom and started for the journey home hoping that by the time I would reach the town of Agra I may have a chance at a rainbow or a nice scape.

NIKON D300 Ais 500mm f/4P + TC1.4E EXPOSURE: 1/200sec f/5.6 ISO:800

Just as I exited the olive grove and hit the dirt road leading to Kalloni, I spotted a Long legged buzzard flying “heavy” towards me. I immediately let the car roll to a stop while at the same time trying to grab the 500mm from the back seat and started to swap lenses. Trust me, not an easy task while droplets are blown in through the window and also looking to find the teleconverter in one of my pockets. I knew there was no chance of hooking up the lens in time, but I have done this so many times that I know sometimes you just might get lucky, and this was one of those times.

NIKON D300 Ais 500mm f/4P + TC1.4E EXPOSURE: 1/80sec f/11 ISO:800

While half of my senses were trying to assemble camera, converter and lens my other half was tracking the bird. And luck was on my side since he landed on a small tree not far from me on the other side of the river. I placed the 500mm out the window on a custom made pillow to absorb any vibrations framed him and tried to focus. But the tree top was too thin and the wind was blowing so the bird was constantly swaying plus its weight was just multiplying the effect. I tried my best to follow focus at first wide open (500mm f/4 + TC1.4E = f/5.6) and grabbed a few shots. I then rotated the aperture ring a couple of steps to f/11 in the hopes that the extra DOF may give me a clear picture since focus was very hard to get under the circumstances, but my shutter speed was now 1/80sec - way too low for any keepers. I switched to f/8 to gain a tiny amount of extra speed took a couple more frames and then put the car into gear to try and get closer but at that moment he took off.

NIKON D300 Ais 500mm f/4P + TC1.4E EXPOSURE: 1/250sec f/5.6 ISO:800

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LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD | Ecency