Coming Home (Southern Masked Weaver)

[Morkel Erasmus]

I have always wanted to capture an image of these (common in South Africa) weavers. I even have them in my garden but their nesting attempts are always in dense reeds and the POV is quite high.
I headed down to the Mankwe hide in the Pilanesberg National Park on Monday morning and was able to capture some images at a more pleasing angle in a more open setting. I was pretty pleased with this one! :tinysmile_shy_t:

They are very quick, so I prefocused on the nest he was working on, set the aperture to 8 for enough DOF, and kept my other eye open to see when he would be flying towards the nest.
Seeing the effort he puts into the building process (this guy was working on 3 new "homes"), I can think he gets pretty despondent if the lady inspects it, finds it wanting, and tears it apart, leaving him to start all over again! :eek3:

Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II + 1.4xTC @ 700mm
f8.0 @ 1/2500 SS @ ISO-1800 (auto ISO)
Cropped from horizontal format

[Geir Jensen]

Wow this one was a killer:bg3:

[jack williamson]

The yellows are right on and that eye really pops. Great wing position and a lot of sharp detail all over. Very well done.

Jack

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Morkel! I like the grass in the beak, IQ, colours and fanned out wings and tail.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Killer shot, Morkel. great execution. light is perfect....and such clear view of the head. Awesome shot. Well done.

[gail bisson]

I think you and Stuart must have been sitting side by side in the hide!! Lovely image. Good dynamic action and good techs.
Gail

[dankearl]

This is cool just for the nest.
Another fine high iso PP from you.
Very fine colors.

[Grace Scalzo]

Love it! All the above from me too.

[John Chardine]

Beautiful action Morkel. I can only imagine how difficult this was to get- at least with the bird in focus! You got the wing angle perfectly. I would do a little touch-up top right and remove that little rusty coloured stick.

[arash_hazeghi]

great shot Morkel, wing position was excellent. Was something blocking parts of tail looks like contrast was a bit lower in that area?
you can post 800 pixels tall BTW

[Dumay de Boulle]

A cracker mate, one of your best (If not best) Avian!

[Steve Canuel]

Nicely timed Morkel. I like how the tips of the wings frame the nest.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mork, glad you had some action. I was there on saturday - pity we werent there at the same time. Great wing position and excellent timing. Your introduction explains it perfectly. As I didnt have a spotter either, this type of capture is not easy, so very well done.

[Pieter de Waal]

Fantastic image Morkel, having tried this on a number of occasions I know just how difficult the timing is, they come in like bullets. Great wing position, eye contact and detail. TFS.

[Robert Holguin]

Superb shot!!! Excellent timing, exposed very well, great comp, and excellent detail.
Well done.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks so much for the kind comments, folks...been waiting a while for this one so it's a treat to be able to share it here...

[Josh Clark]

WOW! This is great Morkel. Killer shot. Love everything about it. The fanned out wings are super.

[Arno Ellmer]

Superb,Morkel ! I love the detail in the spread out wings and the HA.