Great Egret with the Canon R5.
17th July 2022
Llangors Lake in the Brecon Beacons has a small number of Great Egrets present. These birds hitherto called Great White Egrets up until a few years ago were a real rarity in the UK, they have followed in the footsteps of the Little Egret which was also in its time a rarity. Little Egrets are now commonplace and are no longer talked about so much and the Greats are going the same way. On the Somerset levels they can be found in quite large numbers and are a real success story. These birds found in southern Europe are moving their range further north as our climate warms, similarly are the Glossy Ibis and Cattle Egret. Penduline Tits are also moving north and in time they will become more numerous.
Great Egrets are very shy birds and normally they fly off at the first sign of people but when I was in the car park at Llangasty Church a few days ago a bird landed right in front of me near the reed bed and stayed there for a few minutes. I couldn’t move too much but luckily I had my gear set up and was able to shoot a few frames before it decided to fly off.
I have now switched to a Canon R5 ‘mirrorless’ camera body from my trusty Canon 7D mk2, DSLR, a camera I have had some good results with and am keeping as a backup body. However, the R5 has clear advantages over the 7D mk2 such as much higher frame rates, double the sensor resolution, totally silent shooting and above all the formidable animal eye tracking auto focus which has to be viewed to be believed. The only thing I don’t like are the viewfinders on mirrorless camera, they present an awful synthetic image unlike the totally natural view from a DSLR, but I will have to get used to it. These are the first images taken with the R5 and I am still very much getting used to it so things will improve over time.
After all it really isn’t all about the camera and lens, although quality helps a great deal, it’s about field craft and getting close to wildlife in a responsible way that matters.
Great Egrets are very shy birds and normally they fly off at the first sign of people but when I was in the car park at Llangasty Church a few days ago a bird landed right in front of me near the reed bed and stayed there for a few minutes. I couldn’t move too much but luckily I had my gear set up and was able to shoot a few frames before it decided to fly off.
I have now switched to a Canon R5 ‘mirrorless’ camera body from my trusty Canon 7D mk2, DSLR, a camera I have had some good results with and am keeping as a backup body. However, the R5 has clear advantages over the 7D mk2 such as much higher frame rates, double the sensor resolution, totally silent shooting and above all the formidable animal eye tracking auto focus which has to be viewed to be believed. The only thing I don’t like are the viewfinders on mirrorless camera, they present an awful synthetic image unlike the totally natural view from a DSLR, but I will have to get used to it. These are the first images taken with the R5 and I am still very much getting used to it so things will improve over time.
After all it really isn’t all about the camera and lens, although quality helps a great deal, it’s about field craft and getting close to wildlife in a responsible way that matters.