PeterHG's fifth attempt

[Soukous]

Lovely House Martin - (at least that's what people say when they come to visit )

ans congratulations on reaching 250 as well.

[PeterHG]

[PeterHG]

251. Common Cuckoo. Winterswijk, May. Very distant but it may well be the only photo I'll get of the bird this year.

 

[PeterHG]

252. Common Redstart. Winterswijk, May. Both this photo and the previous one were taken when we tried out a cautious visit to my brother's garden in the east of the country. We do not get the Redstart over here.

 

[Dave Williams]

Love the detail on the Stock Dove for future help to ID one. 250...great stuff.

[PeterHG]

Last night (around 7:30 pm) I decided to pay a quick visit to my favourite area again, to try and get some flight shots and perhaps add one or two species to the list. Blue skies and a strong wind from the north. A westerly wind would have been ideal, but you take what you can get, especially these days. Not too many other people around, fortunately. 

253 Eurasian Spoonbill. Arkemheen, May. They can occasionally be seen here, though their nearest breeding site is some 80 kilometres further on.

 

 

[PeterHG]

254. Tufted Duck. Arkemheen, May. Quite common here.

 

[PeterHG]

255. Sand Martin. Arkemheen, May. A few of them were circling around with the House Martins, but they mostly stayed low and were too unpredictable in their movements and this was the only shot that was reasonably in focus because it was taken from a greater distance.

 

[shazdwn]

You are a master of BIF Peter

[PeterHG]

The House Martins and Barn Swallows were already on the list

 

 

[PeterHG]

The biggest challenge, and the most fun were the Swifts. There were plenty about, hunting quite low for insects. I took up a position on the dyke, separating the Arkemheen area from the wide expanse of water that was kept between the mainland and the reclaimed polders in our 'IJsselmeer'. The Swifts would come in low over the fields, swooped upwards over the dyke and then, facing the wind, would slow down for a second before either turning into the wind or race off with the wind behind them. The trick was to catch them already when they were approaching the dyke and the hope I could keep on tracking them when the passed close by. Many shots were binned, of course, but I also got quite a few 'keepers'. The 300mm lens, like may others, has a focus limiter switch, which limits the range in which the camera will focus to e.g. 4 mtrs to infinity. For this occasion I used the software focus limiter, which the Olympus has and set that to 2 metres to 40 metres.This certainly has a positive effect on the autofocus speed. I shot in shutter priority, setting it to 1/3200. Sorry to ramble on about the photography details, but perhaps also in this BY thread it would be useful to some. And for me it kills some time....;)

 

 

 

And even one at eye level against the green background of the dyke. I had never managed that before.

 

[xelas]

Masterful BIF craftsmanship, @PeterHG!

[Zim Girl]

Unbelievably amazing shots of small flying birds!!

[Galana]

3 hours ago, PeterHG said:

Sorry to ramble on about the photography details, but perhaps also in this BY thread it would be useful to some.

Ramble away. I listening.

Great shots.

[Peter Connan]

Amazing stuff Peter!

[Dave Williams]

Near to perfection Peter. We discussed positioning, location and wind conditions elsewhere and this is putting it into practice for all to see with great background information about getting the shot.. The one thing not mentioned before was the focus limiter, it certainly helps in many situations and one that's all too easily forgotten about. Just remember to return it to 'normal" or you might wonder why your lens won't focus on something out side the limits at a later date, or worse still miss the shot!!

 

[TonyQ]

Superb shots Peter, and useful information 

[Soukous]

stunning Swifts @PeterHG. The other fast movers are impressive as well. The EVF on the Olympus must be pretty special.

[PeterHG]

3 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

Just remember to return it to 'normal" or you might wonder why your lens won't focus on something out side the limits at a later date, or worse still miss the shot!!

Sound advice, as I know from experience...;)

[michael-ibk]

Incredible Peter - Bravo! 

[pedro maia]

Wow!!(

 

(that´s also what my wife said)

[Kitsafari]

fantastic swift shots (and of course, brilliant shots prior).

 

[PeterHG]

Thank you very much, @xelas, @Zim Girl, @Galana, @Peter Connan, @Dave Williams, @TonyQ, @Soukous, @michael-ibk, @pedro maia, @Kitsafari.

 

Yesterday my wife and I made a longer birding trip for the first time since the lockdown. We are allowed to do so, within the social distancing rules, so it felt good to do this again. We drove to the north-east of the country, an hour-and-a-half to visit a wetland reserve, which we knew could be interesting in spring. The main target was trying to see and photograph the Black-necked Grebe. It is one of the few spots where you can reasonably expect to see them close enough for photos. Well, the trip was not wasted.

 

256. Black-necked Grebe. Oostpolder, May

 

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

257. Meadow Pipit. Oostpolder, May.

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

258. European Stonechat. Oostpolder, May. The male was there, too, but decided not to pose for a photo.