A new camera

While I'd been happy enough over the last couple of years photographing birds in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary with my crop sensor Nikon D5200 and 70-300mm lens, I wanted more reach and better image quality. It was time for an upgrade. I settled on a Nikon Z6ii (mirrorless) and Nikkor Z FX 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR. I wanted full frame, and although I considered DSLR, I decided that the future was mirrorless. I didn't want or need 45Mpx; the 24Mpx of the Z6 or Z6ii was sufficient. I also liked the CFExpress cards for their superior speed over SD.

When I started thinking about an upgrade there was no optimum lens for the mirrorless Z mount system for birds (perhaps the 100-400mm with 1.4x teleconverter, or perhaps one of the frightfully expensive primes, e.g., 400mm or 600mm with teleconverter), but I'd heard through the rumour mill that the 180-600mm was in development so waited. The pre-release reviews were very positive so I pulled the trigger.

I received the gear on 22nd November, had a quick glance through the 900 page instruction manual (yes, the new gear is severely complicated c.f. the film SLR days) and headed outside my house today for the first test on birds.

Fortunately there was a family of warou (welcome swallows) on the roof and then a bit later they moved onto the overflow pipe from the upstairs bathroom. Four fledglings were being fed by a parent. I snapped a few hundred photos. Feeding visits were every minute or two, so in that way much easier than photographing kākāriki karaka (where the parents visit every hour or two). The parent would grab a small bug on the wing, circle around then deposit it in a hungry mouth. I watched and photographed probably ten feeding visits. After the first few visits I noticed that the fledglings were all watching carefully as they eagerly awaited their parent to come in with a snack, and I could work out where the parent was likely to land (left of the fledglings, right of the fledglings, or in the middle somewhere) by watching which way the fledglings were facing through the viewfinder (the parent of course was in the air behind me), then I'd quickly adjust composition so I had the parent in the frame when it landed. The fledglings in unison moved their gaping mouths left or right as the parent (presumably) circled around or zigzagged back and forth. Most sequences were a chaotic mess of feathers and off-focused movement. But this one (below) worked like a charm. Almost. I'd ideally have a bit more to the right so I could get all the wing feathers, and also taken the shot a tenth of a second earlier so the parent was clearly airborne above the drain pipe, but then of course the wings may have been in a poorer position etc etc. Such is wildlife photography. I don't think anyone has ever got a 'perfect' shot. Needless to say I was happy with the results of my first shoot with my new gear.

Note on warou. The appeared in New Zealand as rare vagrants from Australia prior to about 1950, but since then their population has grown rapidly. They're a self-introduced native bird. They've benefited greatly from humans clearing land and building structures (which inadvertently assist their nesting).