With free time available, I spent the last week of the hoped-for “walking” (was not) year actually walking, while testing a new lens at various places around Goleta.

For a couple years, I have been thinking about a replacement for the Tamron 200-500 mm. Too much sun had ruined the focus ring, and it should be repaired. While auto-focus had always been slow, it seemed to have worsened with age.  However, the effective 700 mm reach of the lens with a 1.4 adapter was wonderful, especially since the lens was not as heavy as many others.

Eventually, the intersection of economy, weight and focal length more or less made the decision for me – a 400 mm/5.6 Canon lens, at about the same time there was a sale at Samy’s. At first, the thought of a fixed focal length seemed like an impediment, until I realized that most bird photos with the Tamron were shot at max focal length. And as disappointing as it is, not having the 700 mm range with the new lens, there is a rather nice compensation. Photographs of birds in the distance are much sharper with the Canon 400mm. (Autofocus does not work with a 1.4 adapter on my Canon camera/lens combo.)

But the best advantage of the new lens, is the speed of focus. Without this speed, I would never have been able to photograph the Little Gull at all. With the Tamron, I would have resorted to hit-and-miss manual focus for a bird that moved at the speed and sudden change of direction as the Little Gull. Even then, it took about 10 shots to get the hang of aiming the lens in the right place to photograph the Gull, and having fast focus meant one less thing to worry about.

Below, is an in situ slideshow of the photos taken over the last week or so with the new Canon 400mm, with a few having been taken a couple weeks earlier on an outing to Goleta Slough. The slideshow ends with photos of other winged creatures, the Monarchs.

To see the same slideshow but with large images (better) on Flickr, please click here.  But the “Wonderful World” video below is really worth watching.

The sighting of the rare Little Gull (not seen here since 1992), happened after a string of lucky events. I was at Devereux photographing, and was thrilled to find a Redhead close up near the bridge.

Another person birding at the south pullout asked about the swans on the far side of the slough. I had once before seen a group of Mute Swans there, and just did not think much more about them, although they appear in one of the photos. If I had stopped to investigate, possibly I would have spent some time photographing the Tundra Swans and missed the Little Gull.

However, after shooting a few birds on their floating logs, I left and was set to go home, except that I found myself in the exit-only lane, and the traffic was such that I could not get back on the freeway. So I decided on the spur of the moment to continue exiting and go to Lake Los Carneros and look for the reported Rail and Sora.

I walked east and then south, and arrived at the “feeding” area to find a group of Canada Geese close by in the lake. I walked down to the railing close to the water, at about the same time that the Geese noisily took off. And then I noticed the bird that was behaving like a Tern, and eventually captured about 10-20 images of which 2 were reasonable, thanks to the new lens. They are now part of Bird Records. Amazing. Hopefully, the Tundra Swans will return next year.