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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Image ID 39112)
Photographed byJim Schultz on Fri 14th Feb, 2020 and uploaded on Mon 17th Feb, 2020 .
Resolution1400x855
Viewed179
ID39112
CommentBased on this photo and subsequent advice from BirdLife Moderators these birds are Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. Not long after dawn I noticed this cluster of birds flying in to forage on the drying mudflats at the end of the lake, where I could not see them. Small, excitable and frequently raised by dangers indiscernible to me, they soon streamed back to where they took flight just moments earlier, their legs protruding slightly beyond the tail in flight. I would describe their call as a ‘shrill whistling’. The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is a bird utilizing both freshwater and saline habitats; it breeds in Siberia’s tundras, but migrates to Australasia during the northern winter. Sometimes, you can’t get the photo you want, so you get the photo you can, and as this busy batch of birds came flittering past me several times before the sun rose over the trees, I tracked them with the camera and managed this image, while the water was still dark and the light sweet. Bibra Lake; GPS. Least Concern
EquipmentOlympus OM-D E-M1X camera body with Olympus 300mm f4 IS Pro ED M.Zuiko lens; Velbon Neo Carmagne Carbon Tripod with Manfrotto Ball Head Art 498RC2. Camera settings: Exposure Program/Shooting Mode: ‘Manual’; shutter speed 1/2500 sec, f6.3 & ISO-400. Metering Mode: ‘CenterWeightedAverage’; Focus Mode: ‘C-AF’ and Drive: ‘Sequential shooting (1frame)’ & maximum burst rate habitually set to 12 to prevent filling up the buffer for which reason also I only shoot in RAW. Image Stabilizer on (S-SIS AUTO); In-camera Sharpness +2. Olympus Workspace for metadata; FastStone for viewing & sorting; Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw/CC 2020 for post-processing; Topaz Pro plug-ins Sharpen AI, DeNoise AI & Studio 2 for sharpening and noise control. ‘Australian Bird Guide 2019’ for supplementary data and colour checks.
LocationBibra lake; GPS, Western Australia
Keywordsin flight
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