I finally succeeded in locating and photographing a Western Tanager at Moran Regional Park in Irvine, CA yesterday. These are posted in the order taken, starting with the Western Bluebird. All of the following shots were taken there with a Nikon D500 and Nikkor 200-500mm telezoom. Shutter speeds varied from 1/500 to 1/800; Aperture was f/6.3 on the bluebird and f/5.6 on all the others; Auto-ISO was on along with single-point AF. I actively use EV to boost the exposures for ETTR. ISOs ranged from 220 (Goose) to 2000 (3rd Tanager). I was really happy with these shots, especially the Summer Tanager. Hope you like them.

This was my third trip to Moran RP in search of the Summer Tanager. I waited about 40 minutes, periodically playing several of the species' calls to attract it. When I expected one of the calls to end, it continued and it suddenly made me look up to where I found this individual exactly repeating the call I had been playing. Over 15-25 minutes I was able to move closer, bracing myself behind a tree, where I got 2 of these shots before the bird dropped back into the bush. Moving around the bush, I relocated the bird and shot the third photo of it singing (same song). I left it singing after a few more minutes. Hopefully it wasn't disappointed by not finding a mate or companion based on my recorded calls. Still, it was exciting to get such a great opportunity to see this bird, which is a regular but rare visitor to our area.

jak
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