This year there is something "wrong" at the Neusiedlersee NP. Last year it was a paradise full of birds and wildlife but this year it´s very quiet there. Maybe it is because of the poor weather we got this "spring" in Austria that some birds simply decide to don´t stop here. I don´t know but there is quiet a huge difference regarding the bird population in the NP.

And as there are less birds I found that they are far more skittish and this makes it even harder to get good images. The good thing is that I learned to get sharp images with the 300 + TC20E combo. The key is to keep the shutterspeed high and to stop down at least one stop. Use shutterspeeds of 1/1000s or shorter and f8 or even f11 and your yield will be very high. Well that´s easy said but it´s not so simple. Most of the time there isn´t enough light to do so. That makes this combination only usefull in very bright light but the best light in the morning and afternoon isn´t bright. Anyway sometimes it´s the only chance to get the shot. If you use a more modern camera than I ( like a D2H or D70 ) I would recommend to raise the ISO to 400 or even 800ASA to get short shutterspeeds at f8. You will gain sharpness.

settings: A-Mode, 900mm ( equ. ), 1/750s@f6.7 and 200ASA, WB: cloudy-3 finetuned in Capture