Post #180 - Red-necked Phalarope showcase, part 2 of 2

In my last post, I chronicled two recent and emotionally-charged encounters with Red-necked Phalaropes. However, those represented only two-thirds of the story, and I'll use this post to fill in the remaining chapter.

As a reminder, I ran into an amazingly-cooperative octet of Red-necked Phalaropes at Hayward Regional Shoreline on May 25th. I was on my bicycle on that day, and I captured a few nice images of the birds with the Canon 7D2 and 400mm f/5.6 lens I was carrying. The pictures were good (again, last post), but I deeply regretted I hadn't intersected the birds with my preferred photographic equipment, my Canon 1DX2 and 600mm f/4 IS II lens, because the results would have been even better. Returning home that afternoon, I decided I'd return to Hayward Regional Shoreline the following morning, a sunny forecast suggesting ideal shooting conditions if the birds stayed through the night. The sun scheduled to rise at 5:55am, I departed the house at 5:30 to be in position by 6:15.

As the following shots will attest, the birds did stay through the night. They proved as cooperative as the previous day, and I spent 90 minutes interacting with them as they paddled about the surface of the small pond I show above (I was laying in the mud just to the left of my bag). I started with my 1.4x III teleconverter mounted on my 600mm lens, and by the end of the session I'd removed it and added a 25mm extension tube to facilitate closer focus than the naked lens would allow. Rather than drone on, I'll just shut up and show you the results. I hope you enjoy them! You will want to click on the images to see them larger!

Red-necked Phalarope pair - female in front, male behind
Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS 1D Mark II
1/2500 at f/5.6, ISO 640

Male Red-necked Phalarope 

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II on EOS 1DX Mark II

1/2500 at f/7.1, ISO 800

Female Red-necked Phalarope 

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS 1DX Mark II

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Female Red-necked Phalarope 

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS 1DX Mark II

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Female Red-necked Phalarope 

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS 1DX Mark II

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Male Red-necked Phalarope 

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II +1.4x III on EOS 1DX Mark II

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Female Red-necked Phalarope 

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 25mm extension tube on EOS 1DX Mark II

1/2500 at f/7.1, ISO 800

It was a truly amazing morning, one of those rare instances when photographer and subjects connected perfectly. I never thought I'd be able to obtain such close-range breeding plumage captures of this species outside of Alaska, so I was thrilled to walk out of my local encounter with so many keeper frames. These are the mornings which make wildlife photography - the pure, in-field sort where subjects are stalked/approached under natural and unbaited conditions - such a wonderful and rewarding pursuit.