Violet-green swallow

Although I have seen violet-green swallows before, I have rarely photographed them.  In fact, the body of the above photo was only the third time I have managed to record an image of one.  The inset I photographed in 2011 with a Nikon D7000 and a 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens sporting a 1.7x teleconverter.  

The main photo above was shot with a Nikon D500 with a 500 mm PF lens and a 1.4x teleconverter.  It was a dull day when I was out and the f/8 minimum aperture meant that I had to use an ISO of 1600 in order to pull off a decent shutter speed. Although my D500 performs much better than my D7000 ever could, I find that I can't use focus tracking on it when the minimum aperture is f/8 (probably not enough light for the system).  It works fine when shooting at the lens' native f/5.6 aperture.

I have not taken the time yet to uncover the species of bird behind the swallow, but I suspect it may be a flycatcher of some form.  The dead tree was home to quite a group of them, I am including a photo I took of them below - the swallow was not part of the shot as it was out of the field of view.  You can see the image below.

Had I not seen the group of birds I wouldn't have spotted the swallow.  They were busily flying about catching the myriad of bugs that were hatching from the nearby pond.  Besides the violet-green swallow and flycatcher was a common yellowthroat, a yellow-rumped warbler, and a host of tree swallows.  I also saw a ruddy duck, a red-headed duck, coots, red-winged blackbirds, and California quail.  Had it not been raining, I am sure I would have spotted other species.

I will do a blog on the flycatcher next day.  Until then, take care.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com