In the Field

Red Squirrel - A Little Lippy! Findlay Creek, British Columbia, Canada. January 11, 2026.

While my favourite wildlife photography subject matter tends to be terrestrial North American carnivores, I still find watching and photographing many other less "charismatic" wildlife species to be both fascinating and highly enjoyable. Red Squirrels rate very highly for me among the "non-carnivore" species to watch and photograph, especially when I'm doing a lot of gear testing. Not only are they conveniently "available" right outside my door (our acreage is covered in wall-to-wall Red Squirrel territories) but they are just super-animated little beasts! This particularly lippy squirrel had just finished chasing another squirrel out of its territory (which are about 1 hectare in size) and stopped to proclaim his or her ownership of this patch of land (both male and female Red Squirrels individually defend territories).

In the autumn of 2025 and winter of 2026 I was engaged in a ton of testing of various bits of Sony camera gear. Much of the testing was focused on the testing of Sony E-mount lenses for which there was no Nikon Z-mount equivalent (in either focal length or maximum aperture). I tested these lenses using both Sony bodies and Nikon bodies (through the use of the Megadap ETZ21 Pro+ mount adapter that permits the use of E-mount lenses on Nikon Z bodies - see the adapter review here).

One lens I was particularly interested in testing was the Sony EF 300mm f2.8 GM OSS prime lens, primarily because there's simply a huge hole in the "fast prime" Nikon Z lens lineup between 136mm and 399mm (which is a focal range where I REALLY like having a fast prime). The Sony 300mm f2.8 stands out in its small size and low weight relative to other 300mm f2.8's as its shooting weight is "only" 1746 gm (AKA 3.8 lb). In comparison, the last Nikkor 300mm f2.8 lens produced came in at 2900 gm (or 6.4 lb) and the excellent Nikkor 120-300mm f2.8E tips the scales at 3250 gm (7.2 lb). That's a HUGE difference!

Of course, while that small size and low weight intrigued me, I needed to know how it performed in the field. And, holy smokes, the Sony 300mm f2.8 performed spectacularly well in the field - both when shot on Sony bodies and when adapted for use on a Nikon Z 9 body. That great performance included both its autofocus performance and its optical performance.

One thing about its optical performance that stood out and "sold me" on the lens was how well it performed with both the Sony 1.4x TC and the Sony 2x TC. As a very long-standing Nikon shooter I have to admit that the Sony 300mm f2.8 performed better with TC's (in both sharpness and impact on the bokeh) than any Nikkor lens I have ever shot.

As an example, this image was captured using the Sony 300mm f2.8 paired with the Sony 1.4x TC - and it was shot wide open! If you have the time download the 4800 pixel version of this image linked below and check it out.

Bottom line? The Sony EF 300mm f2.8 GM OSS is an exceptional 300mm f2.8 lens and, with the appropriate teleconverters, a very, very good 420mm f4 lens and a shockingly good 600mm f5.6 lens.

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this lippy squirrel for your perusal:

• Red Squirrel - A Little Lippy! Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 3.9 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

Behind the Camera

Red Squirrel - A Little Lippy! Findlay Creek, British Columbia, Canada. January 11, 2026.

Lossless Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 4000.

Sony A1 II paired with Sony EF 300mm f2.8 GM OSS lens with Sony 2x TC (600mm). Tripod mounted. OSS on camera on; OS on lens on and set to Mode 3. Expand Spot (Tracking) AF area mode with subject detection mode set to Animal/Bird.

1/1000s @ f4; -0.7 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Red Squirrel - A Little Lippy! Findlay Creek, British Columbia, Canada. January 11, 2026.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .arw (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 9.3 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.7). In the case of this image only one global adjustment was made - an overall contrast bump using the Levels tool. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 3 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Red Squirrel - A Little Lippy! Findlay Creek, British Columbia, Canada. January 11, 2026.

IUCN Conservation Status*: Species of Least Concern.

The Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is a medium-sized squirrel that occupies year-round exclusive territories from which they will aggressively repel intruding squirrels. They are widely distributed across much of North America almost everywhere conifers (and the cones the squirrels feed on) are found, except on portions of the west coast where they are replaced by Douglas Squirrels (AKA "Chickarees").

Red Squirrels have adapted well to the presence of humans and have the IUCN conservation status of a species of Least Concern. In many urban areas in North America the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) have been introduced and ecologically replaced Red Squirrels. In North America this hasn't seemed to impact much on rural Red Squirrel populations, but in Britain the introduction of the Eastern Gray has had a major impact on the native Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), with the invasive grays replacing the native reds over much of their historical range.

*as determined by the IUCN: The Internation Union for Conservation of Nature - see www.iucnredlist.org