I may be having little luck with the foxes (one snatched shot tonight), but the kestrels are quite another matter. We had more garden waste to recycle, so after a quick visit to the local recycling facility it was down on to the Downs. The kestrels were out in force. We saw at least four during the afternoon, and I spent much of the time trying to get to the right side of the light. It can be infuriating having a perfect angle, with the kestrel hovering 20 or so feet away, but with the sun directly behind the bird. So I spent quite a lot of time scrambling around trying to find an angle to work from. I've added a small selection to my Kestrel album, today's photos starting here. Here's a sample:
Kestrel photographed into the sun
As a small side note, we seem to have two hedgehogs in the garden at the moment. Here's one from last night.
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
Vulpes vulpes
20 Oct 2008More excellent shots! The hedgehog is so sweet. :love:
Mickeyjoe-Irl
20 Oct 2008Great bird shots as usual, but the hedghog peaking from behind the leaves is cute. 🙂
gdare
20 Oct 2008Nice, as always :up: Especially hedgehog 😀
What ISO level you have used on these?
Words
20 Oct 2008Darko, thanks! The hedgehog is obviously a star! The first kestrel was at ISO 400, then I switched to ISO 640. The hedgehog is ISO 100.
Words
20 Oct 2008Thanks Mick. I know what you mean about the hedgehog. It was so cute I had to include it somehow!
Words
20 Oct 2008Vulpes, thanks!
SittingFox
20 Oct 2008I don't think that a hedgehog is ever just a side note! Great pictures, all. These kestrels are beautiful. A TV documentary that I saw about gyrfalcons claimed that they were deliberately positioning themselves against the sun to help disguise themselves from prey on the ground. Certainly a lot of the raptors that I saw in Alberta were headed sunward. Clever, to be sure, but it doesn't make the photographer's life easy :insane:
Cynthia23
20 Oct 2008Stunning kestrel photos and the hedgehog, ah, so very sweet! :up:
Words
20 Oct 2008Adele, that's an interesting point about where they think the prey might be lurking. I'm not sure the kestrel was being deliberately 'difficult', more that I was in the wrong field and cutting across it takes time. What was great was that it was hovering so low. That's what I love about that area. You can get up to about the height of the bird which is hovering in the next small dip along the way.
The hedgehogs both looked moderately small (not underfed, just young), which means we probably have three in the vicinity (at least).
Words
20 Oct 2008Thanks Cynthia. The kestrels were wonderful to watch. Usually we get to see a couple in an afternoon, but they seemed to be almost everywhere we looked this weekend.
Ukwildlife
21 Oct 2008Your certainly having alot of luck with the kestrels at the moment!
Words
21 Oct 2008Neil, it's a great location for them. Never really any trouble seeing them, and often they are simply hovering ovr the road side at the edge of the fields.