San Tin 25 Nov 2019 - endgame grebe

The election finished finally which our side was totally defeated, little bit over our expectations but I don’t think this is the end of our world.

Life goes on, especially the birder life. So after finished counting the vote at 3am, I made a second twitch for the Black-necked Grebe, luckily, it behaved well and allowed good views. Not a lifer for me but a HK tick.

For other migrants, several Common Pochard and a female Ferruginous Duck, the same Great Crested Grebe, Whiskered Tern, two Common Starling, a single Greater Spotted Eagle and Eastern Marsh Harrier, and I flushed a Pheasant-tailed Jacana. Also noted two Dusky Warbler in song (not strange in such a hot day!). Furthermore, an interesting pipit with unstreaked mantle was seen but sadly not good enough for confirmed ID. Well, not a bad morning.

Today was also my first time to make a field test of the sony gear. As I haven’t made correct setting, the photos are just record shots. However, I still find some pros and cons of the A7RIV with the 200-600mm and the 1.4x extender, as generalised here (of course, not a full review!):

1. not user friendly enough comparing canon and nikon
2. I haven’t adjusted correct setting so always out-focus for slow moving birds like the grebe and duck
3. high pixel is good for cropping but bad for noise control, max ISO 1000 for me! Also you need much higher shutter speed
4. the 1.4 extender is good, just minor effect on focusing speed and accuracy
5. need faster and bugger card, more batteries
6. too slow to check and delete photos, but good experience for using EVF
7. hood is weak
8. repeat again, not user friendly lol......

Anyway, I will try more before making a conclusion.

Today’s checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61728395
and my 2019 HK Big Year is now 289.

Black-necked Grebe - well I just uploaded one photo here as I am really not satisfied about the picture quality of today's shots (for good lighting and acceptable distance with a 600mm and fullframe camera).... I am not so sure this is because of the 1.4 extender or out-focus or low shutter speed (already 1/800s) or my wrong setting or the suppression of RAW to JPEG or my computer problem. Anyway still need to learn and practice more..... 

And... absolutely better than iPhone lol......💀💀💀💀💀