Some Winter Birds

   I am trying a new mirrorless system....the Olympus EM5 Mark III combined with the Zuiko 300mm Pro lens. The weight of this combo is a fourth of the weight of the Canon DSLR and 500 F4 combo I've used for many years. 
   In addition, the Olympus body has IBIS (in-body image stabilization) allowing sharp images as low shutter speeds....a real boon for hand-holding while tracking little birds.  
   Another bonus of the Oly camer is that it is a micro 4/3 system...meaning that it has a 2x crop factor...making the 300mm lens a 35mm equivalent of 600mm. I added the 1.4x and 2x converters, but most likely won't need them for much of my imaging. 
   Yesterday, here in Ohio, we had a beautiful, sunny day. Cold, but great light for testing out the new combo on winter birds. I headed to Buck Creek State Park at the Overlook area. Here's some of my walk around images. 

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Tufted Titmouse

Carolina Chickadee

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Downy Woodpecker

Buck Creek State Park Re-do

We hit the road this morning at a bit after 7am....light was beginning to improve. Crossing over Robert Eastman Rd, it was amazing to see a frozen mist over the surface of the lake. The 45+ degree drop in air temp combined with the lake's warmer temp created a lake effect in essence. As we headed down the slope toward the marina, this is the view we caught....the full moon getting ready to set and hiding behind the clouds of mist over the lake. It was amazing and beautiful!

After driving out of the marina, we saw a couple of bucks battling....we weren't able to get clear shots, but enjoyed watching them!

After following our regular route through the park, we stopped back in the area where we saw the battling bucks earlier, and found the apparent winner spending time with his lady. 

He didn't get by without some wounds...note the abraided area on his foreleg, and some blood.