Widgeon at last.

[woody60]

Ive been trying for a while to get a shot of a widgeon in the local bay , they just like to be at least 100 yards away from humans , yesterday was pretty bad light but i managed to get a reasonable shot . Phew .

[pknight]

Good job! I usually get shots of their tails as they swim away from me.

[jorj7]

Nice shot. We have a couple of Eurasian Wigeons here that hang with the American
Wigeons. They do seem more timid then the locals.

[woody60]

Thanks guys , like i said this shots taken taken some getting .

[Stephen Stephen]

Congratulations on your persistence. I would suggest cropping the image to remove the OOF branch in the foreground.

[hTr]

Nice shot Woody, I agree with Stephen about the OOF branch.

[woody60]

Thanks , is that better , oh , ive got a bit of noise now . anyway thanks guys .

[MikeI]

Like the shot. It is balanced and the reflection adds a lot to it. A quick pass w/ noise reduction might help it out a tad....

People freak when they see Eurasian wigeon around here. I have seen a handful in 25+ years of time in the wetlands. Do you have American wigeon there?

[peat]

Nice shot.

You can get close to Wigeon. Your best bet is to find where they feed at high tide then get into position a few hours before high tide.
If you stay low and dont move they will come right in, Ive had Wigeon too close to focus doing this.

MikeI, We had an American Wigeon in the Isle of Man here this week. Second one ever. (I think)

[woody60]

Thanks for that info pete i went down again this morning while the light was good , waited where they were dabbling with the weed and got this shot , now im satisfied , all ive done to this shot is cropped and resized it.

[woody60]

I also thought id got a male and female here but it looks like it might be an adult and a youngun .

[peat]

Your definately close enough.
But I was just going to say you could do with a touch more shutter speed in the first shot to freeze the bird. Then saw your second shot where the two birds are sharp and seen you had 1/500th on them.
1/250th is a bit slow unless you pan with them. Try aim for nothing below 1/500th (if your handholding your camera.)

[woody60]

Cheers pete ill bear that in mind.