Been a while since I have done a photography trip in which the primary was bird life. This time SE Arizona for the second year in a row was rewarding in terms of number of species ID'd (122) and several lifers including the Elegant Trogon and the cutest Owl I have ever seen, the Elf Owl, which tops out at 3 in. Unfortunately my images of these two target birds truly suck but I post them anyway. A tip to those of you who might at times be as much of a "Bozo" as yours truly. Don't try to use your flash while using Liveview!! could figure out why my flash would not fire and took shots with available light from my guide's flashlight. 1/15s doesn't cut it with a nervous owl. And when I realized what was wrong I adjusted and we found another Owl while standing again in pitch dark this time on a bridge over a small creek. The little sucker landed less that 12 feet away and I with my 500 plus 1.4X could not back up quick or carefully enough to get the Owl in focus. But great to get such a good view of the smallest Owl in North America!!
Some of these shots are worthy of this Forum's quality while some are documentary. BTW, lighting in anything but early morning or late afternoon at 3000-5000 ft in SE AZ is tough!!
I post a few landscape shots also and one hummingbird size Spinx Moth.
Looks like a marvelous trip Mike, congrats on all the species and especially the lifers.
Yellow-eyed Junco and House Wren are fantastic images... very well done.
