Birds In Flight... Upload your photos.

[Soukous]

21 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

What a lucky sighting - great pictures!

 

Yes, pure luck, but not complaining. 

[PeterHG]

A very beautiful set of the Barn Owl. Great sighting and you certainly made good use of it!

[pomkiwi]

During our latest lockdown I am volunteering at a local nature reserve to top up the bird feeders. As a result I am spending some time watching and photographing the visitors. The finches are always good to watch as they are a grumpy lot who continually fight over access but a few minutes later co-exist happily. These are greenfinches but the goldfinches are just as bad.

 

 

Nikon D500, PF500/5.6, 1/1600 sec, ISO 5600

[Soukous]

What a lovely way to spend your time

[TonyQ]

A great photo @pomkiwi

[pomkiwi]

@TonyQThank-you - lots of deleted images to get this one!

 

@SoukousIt is a good way to spend some time and definitely a help in pushing all the current preoccupations away!

[Soukous]

Lots of Swans about right now.

 

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

Great photos, @Soukous! They are such beautiful birds and I love the sound of their wingbeats.

[Soukous]

1 hour ago, PeterHG said:

Great photos, @Soukous! They are such beautiful birds and I love the sound of their wingbeats.

 

Yes, and that sound tells you they are coming and gives you time to grab the shot. I wish all birds were as helpful.

[Soukous]

It was such a beautiful morning, blue skies and frosty, that I accompanied Madame Soukous on her dog walk this morning.

No much to see until an Owl rose up ahead of us. 

It settled again about 75 metres away then rose again. I hoped it would come closer but it started to move away. All of a sudden though, there were 2 birds there. Better grab some shots.

At first I thought it was a pair of Barn Owls, but the second bird was too dark.

 

They were drifting further away, but the second bird did turn towards us and it was a Short-eared Owl. In fact, contrary to what I first thought, neither was a Barn Owl, they were both Short-eared Owls

 

2 Owls in flight in the same photo.

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by Soukous

[Soukous]

Getting 2 Owls in flight in the same shot was pretty lucky, but the day was not finished. The sun was still shining so another walk was in order.

A noise overhead made me look up to see 3 Buzzards.

 

They were almost directly overhead and then began to fly away from me, but I grabbed a couple of shots anyway

 

 

 

[pomkiwi]

Our local nature reserve is seeing some mixed groups of black headed and common gulls. They seem to have frequent contests over sticks and stones - other than boredom I can only assume they are thinking of nesting materials?

 

 

Nikon D500, 500mmPF/5.6, 1/1250sec, ISO 2000

[pomkiwi]

A lapwing flying laps of the reserve in an effort to display to the females

 

 

Nikon D500, 500PF + 1.4 TC, 1/1000sec, f/8, ISO 280

 

[PeterHG]

We visited a wetland reserve in the north of the country, where both Common and Little Ringed Plovers were claiming their territories and chasing each other away. Perfect setting for some flight shots, though I had never managed any worthwhile flight photos of these plovers before. From a dam surrounding the reserve I was looking down on their nesting sites, so for nearly all the shots the background of sand and water made it hard for the camera to nail the focus. Using the software limiter shortened the odds somewhat and patience did the rest. And of course I still had to bin lots of attempts...;). But I was quite happy with what I managed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

@PeterHG sharp and clear. Wowzer. 

[Peter Connan]

Stunning shots!

[TonyQ]

Excellent Plovers in flight!

[Soukous]

We have a lot more Red Kites in our area than in previous years. I seem to see one every couple of days.

 

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

Beautiful birds and photos!

[PeterHG]

A common bird, but I find it quite hard to get a good flight shot of it with the pure white and intense black. I'm happy with this one, though.

 

[Peter Connan]

Stunning!

[offshorebirder]

On 4/27/2021 at 8:26 AM, PeterHG said:

I'm happy with this one, though.

 

As you should be!

[Soukous]

Just before I set off for Scotland I went looking for Hobbies at one of the nearby reedbeds.

I didn't find any Hobbies, nor much of anything else really, but this Lapwing was very accomodating

 

 

 

 

 

[Soukous]

A quick side trip as I was drivign up to Scotland brought me to the RSPB site at Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire.

Bempton Cliffs is renowned for its seabirds and although the Puffins eluded me the Gannets were very active.

The cliffs give a great vantage point for photographing these huge seabirds

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Soukous]

A challenge is always a bit of fun when photographing birds so when I was viewing at the Arctic Terns on North Uist  I thought it worth trying to see whether i could get any photos of them as they dive bombed me.

I wasn't very close to their nesting area, but apparently even 50 metres is not acceptable to an Arctic Tern.

They ar enot very big birds but boy are they aggressive and despite the fact I was wearing a heat I still found myself ducking to avoid their sorties.

 

 

 

 

 

even a mouthful of fish did not stop them from trying to chse me away