This is a great time to photograph the Pied-billed Grebe at the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. I see them in several areas of this refuge. This one caught a Crawdad and was getting read to swallow it.
Here is another one I photographed on April,1: Pied-billed Grebe Swallowing Fish
How I Got The Shot – Pied-billed Grebe With Crawdad
I was driving the auto tour road (8:45 a.m.) when I spotted the Pied-billed Grebe diving under water near the road. I pulled over and waited for it to resurface. When, it did it came up with the Crawdad. This was at a place called Tuff Pond which is near the Tuff Boat Ramp.
This bird kept its back to me while I was shooting and at first I didn’t think I would get a good photo. The sun was also bright during this time of the morning.
I’m using a Fujifilm X-T3 camera with a Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens attached with a Fringer EF-FX Pro. I had this setup resting on a bean bag draped over the open window of my pickup.
Camera Settings
- AV Mode
- Back-button focus
- Aperture f7.1
- ISO 1000
- Shutter speed – 1/4000 sec.
- Auto White Balance
- Single Point, Continuous Auto Focus
- Multi Metering
- Focal Length – 400 mm