Back Out Shooting Photos

After a disappointing day of equipment failure yesterday, I found myself spending most of my morning running back and forth between different camera stores. Indeed I will be shipping my new 600mm lens back for service. The worst part about this is that I have a big bird watching trip planned for the Sax-Zim bog area on this coming Thursday! The mere thought of not having my lens with on this trip is heart-wrenching. So my next best option was to rent a lens. National Camera had just one of the very same model for my Nikon camera and today I took the rented lens to Palmer Lake Park. I was simply amazed at how well this one worked! In fact it was hard to remember when my own lens ever worked this well. Things were in focus and the vibration compensation feature was a dream. It makes me wonder if my own lens was slowly getting worse over time. Anyway, I was happy to have a working lens back this afternoon as I spotted a Pileated Woodpecker who was contently working on an Oak tree not far above me. This was on the paved trail on the north side where the majority of the Oaks are located in the park. I shot a LOT of photos of this male –note the red, not black "mustache" behind the bill– and enjoyed watching him for quite a long time. It's not often that I see them in the park and to be able to photograph the bird properly gave me such enjoyment. I was already experiencing bird photography withdrawals just knowing that I might not have as good a lens as I'd gotten used to. In fact I was having fun just pointing it at anything and seeing how sharp a shot I could get. Again it was dreary and misting today and everything was wet so the raindrops clinging to the trees were catching my eye. With most of our snow now gone from high temperatures (I believe we hit 50º today) I decided to hike out along Shingle Creek heading downstream. Here my friend had photographed a Mink earlier in the day. Indeed I did spot one running across the only thin ice that was left on the creek. But I was behind too much brush and could not get a clear shot. There was also a Doe followed by a younger Deer out in the field to my right. It was getting quite dark by this time but I had set my camera to 1250 ISO and then later to 1600 to try and compensate for the poor lighting. Earlier I also saw a large flock of Cedar Waxwings, a few Chickadees and I could hear what sounded like Tree Sparrows somewhere behind me.