I’ve had my new camera for a few weeks and I’m starting to get the hang of it. The burst rate for this mirrorless Canon R7 is super fast, and I’m adjusting not only to that but to the advanced autofocus capabilities of the camera.
I have the camera set to focus on the eyes of whatever animals (there’s a people setting, too) that I see through the viewfinder. The camera locks onto a bird in flight, but it will lose the focus, the bird or both as I swing my Sigma lens to keep on target.
On Sunday afternoon, I stashed the R7 in the car as I ran a few errands in town. I stopped by Colonial Lake to see if there might be some waterbirds, and I wasn’t disappointed.
An estimated 100 ring-billed gulls were scattered about the lake, and every minute or so some of them were flying one way or another.
I also heard the chattering of a belted kingfisher and finally spotted it. Typically, kingfishers zoom in on a fish and high-tail it to the opposite side of the lake.
Today, I was lucky. The bird, a female, was nearby and flew out over the lake. To my surprise, she hovered for a few seconds before diving. I had two opportunities to catch her in flight, and I was fortunate to capture a couple of clean images.
I didn’t get her as she hit the water, so I don’t know if she caught anything. But it was quite a kick to observe her and even more delightful to get a good shot.
After the kingfisher took a break, I practiced tracking some of the gulls in flight.
While I had plenty of misses, several images were sharp, and I’m growing in confidence in my ability to take advantage of the R7’s autofocus capabilities. I note also that I had plenty of sunlight this afternoon, which aided tracking of the birds. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 