Greater Sandhill Crane, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa
During yesterday’s trip to the Green Island Preserve I found only one Sandhill Crane. This is not really a surprise, we are stopover territory and most cranes breed further north and have probably moved on already. We do have some breeding pairs here in eastern Iowa but this bird had obviously no mate yet, maybe it is still a bit too young. Since I saw a Sandhill Crane already two month earlier in the same area I wonder if this is the same bird and it may have some impairment. I haven’t figured out that yet since I can’t be there every day to keep track.
Photographically it was the same approach as in yesterday’s image. The 1.4x teleconverter was employed and the camera was set to DX mode, delivering the same angle of view as a 1275 mm lens. I cropped the picture a little bit on the left and right hand side to keep more of the muddy mess around the bird out of the frame.
Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, @850 mm (1275 mm DX mode), 1/2500 s, f/9, ISO0800