Woodies and the limits of IS

Some friends of ours have this small pond on their property where they've had duck boxes set up for years now. They get Wood Ducks that come in to breed, nesting in the boxes. These woodies, however, are not used to people. The first time I went out there and saw them on the pond, I was a good distance away from them and slowly got out of my car. Even before I tried to close the door, they flew off when I stood up.

Yesterday morning I tried again, but this time I stayed in the car, using it as a blind. This limited just how close I could get to the ducks, so i was using my 500 f/4L IS with a 1.4EX, and shooting supported by a beanbag. This pond is in a very wooded area, so the early morning light was not good. I took some shots in the early hours because I feared that they might just fly off again at any time. It 1600 or 800 ISO and shutter speeds under 1/100th, 700mm focal length (effective 1120mm with the 1.6 multiplier of my 20D) I didn't expect much - and I wasn't disappointed when I didn't get much !

Eventually the sun came up but by then the ducks had gon back to roost on/in their boxes or stayed at the far end of the pond.

I plan to go back well before dawn and use a blind that I'll set up and leave at the site, some time in the future. I'll also be hoping for a light overcast to help, or I'll use fill-flash. In the meantime, the first two of these are interesting for what I did manage to get given the light and focal length - and the fact that the ducks were moving and I was panning. They really aren't all that great though, but I thought the results were - interesting. They are all cropped to some extent. The EXIF data is all intact.

I like the reflection in this one.
700mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/80th

Very nice captures of a magnificent duck. My favorite is #2

Ed, you did an excellent job under tough circumstances. Last spring, I had 7-10 woodies landing on my little pond. I put up a small blind like you're going to do. It certainly helped. A few things I learned the hard way:
1. Get to the blind before they come in! Those sonofaguns are like geese! They seemed to have a sentry watching all the time. If I couldn't get there before them,I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get to the blind undetected! Not easy for an old guy!
2. I noticed they would be skittish when I poked the lens out of the blind. I cut a piece of 6" sewer pipe, painted it black and put it on the tripod. I even cut a piece of round plexiglass to simulate the glass in the lens. That really helped settle them down. But I'll tell ya, as soon as I replaced the pipe with the lens and moved the lens the tiniest bit, they knew the difference!
3. Feed 'em and they'll come! I would go out and throw whole corn in the water in front of the blind before they came in. BTW, they were creatures of habit as far as the time they would come in.
4. I found that when I used a fill flash, they would spook!
5. If it's windy, forget it! They hide in the rushes.
From what I've read, woodies were almost decimated because they were so easy to shoot. In my experiences with them, they are not dumb. I've watched them from inside the blind sneaking through the cattails to get at the corn. It's amazing how sneaky they are and how they blend in even with their brilliant colors!
I hope this will save you some frustration with these elusive birds!
Gerry
Not to hijack your thread, but here is one I got last spring:
http://www.pbase.com/p​addler/ducks

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Such a colourful bird. You've captured them very well.

Absolutley wonderful shots! My goal this summer is to get a few pictures of wood ducks in the wild.

These are great shots anyway. I've only seen and shot them a couple times, and got quite close and they just ignored me. Your not like driving up in a fire engine are you?

The water looks like velvet!! Superb shots!

canonloader wrote in post #2730984
These are great shots anyway. I've only seen and shot them a couple times, and got quite close and they just ignored me. Your not like driving up in a fire engine are you?

Lol Mitch! No, I'm using a Prius in stealth mode . Like I said, the pond is pretty remote and these guys are not used to people.

= Ed =

Great shots, I am hoping to get some of these this spring/summer.

I run into this all the time. People having all kinds of skittish birds around and for some strange reason, they seem to pretty much ignore me. The first woodies I got last fall were straight out of the tundra, and I assume not use to people, but they were aware of me, and I was at most 30 feet from them, but they didn't move or freak out, just went back to sleep. I tell ya, it's as weird for me as it sounds to others.

Maybe it's my cologne?

canonloader wrote in post #2731218
I run into this all the time. People having all kinds of skittish birds around and for some strange reason, they seem to pretty much ignore me. The first woodies I got last fall were straight out of the tundra, and I assume not use to people, but they were aware of me, and I was at most 30 feet from them, but they didn't move or freak out, just went back to sleep. I tell ya, it's as weird for me as it sounds to others.

Maybe it's my cologne?

Maybe you have just been around for so long everything is used to you Mitch.
:p

HAHAHA, you could be right.

But, either way, these images are way better than the ones I got, and I wasn't laying on my belly.

Just absolutely beautiful colors on those Ducks; Good Work

Wow Ed..considering the high ISO's and very slow shutter speeds, I am amazed these came out so nicely. The second is my favourite here followed closely by the first image. Very nice work!!

Looks like the IS worked, u got some greaat shots there