More Birds!

I had been going to post some more macro insect shots, but I've decided instead to add a postscript to the previous entry.

Yesterday I mentioned the frequent sightings of swifts, but didn't post any pictures. The reason is simple… I find them about the most difficult bird to capture on camera. Firstly they never land. Well, that's not quite true. They land for breeding/hatching, but other than that they spend the entire year on the wing. They are also extremely erratic and fast in the air so keeping them in shot is a challenge. Plus, they are more or less entirely black, which creates all kinds of problems for photographing against a bright sky. But they are quite common, and late afternoon a number of them were swooping overhead so I attached the long lens and had another go. Of about 50 shots, two survived my editing cull and are in the July Birds album.

Swift

The other omission from yesterday was any mention of a sparrowhawk. It's about a week since I'd seen one (the kestrel seems the most frequent overhead visitor at the moment), but while I was photographing the swifts, a lone sparrowhawk ventured into view. Now generally sparrowhawks are easier to photograph than swifts. The lighter colour helps, and they tend to glide overhead at a reasonable pace and in a straight line so keeping them in frame is reasonably straightforward. The main problem is that they have a tendency to do all this at a high altitude. It's easy enough to get one on camera, but most times the final image is tiny, even with a 300mm zoom. Today though, the sparrowhawk decided to come in relatively low. There are several shots in the July album, including this one.

Sparrowhawk

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This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Flying Red Fox Blog

    9 Jul 2007

    Thats a really good capture well done:D The Sparrowhawk have a lovelly wing pattern.

  2. Words

    10 Jul 2007

    Thanks Mark. I agree, the sparrowhawk has amazing wing markings.

  3. Mickeyjoe-Irl

    10 Jul 2007

    Great shots. I was interested to compare the wing shapes of the two.

  4. Words

    11 Jul 2007

    Mickey, thanks for noticing the wing shapes. It's quite a contrast isn't it.

  5. Nocturnal Nature

    30 Nov 2007

    Great Picture!

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