Picture Picnic 🅿🅿: Raptor

Showing posts with label Raptor. Show all posts

Session with a Kestrel

I was recently invited by Austin Thomas to photograph a female Kestrel. It is a wild bird that has become very confiding in him, as he has been feeding it for some time now. He recently won the award of Birdguides photo of the year with a shot of the bird running towards him.

When we arrived at the site the Kestrel obviously recognised Austin's car, as it flew in and perched up nearby. I got set up, lying on the ground, and in no time at all the bird had flown down onto the track. This low angle produced some weird and wonderful images. As it would run towards us, it's feet were at times completely off the ground, and with the track sloping away, the only thing in focus would be the bird. It was great fun and I managed a good variety of shots in a relatively short session.

Many thanks to Austin for the invite. I am very grateful to be invited to share, in reaping the rewards of the many hours he has put in, to be able achieve such images.

Buzzards in Sunshine

With spring on its way (hopefully) the sun is now high enough for me to photograph the Buzzards in the garden with good light. They are looking in really good shape and have been displaying for a couple of weeks now, so hopefully will breed again nearby. Although this brings back memories from last year, of being woken at dawn by the screeching calls of the young, outside the bedroom window. All good fun though.

Red Kites

Back in November my friend Rich and myself took a trip to mid Wales, to the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm, Rhayader. For this visit we decided to use the big tower hide for the first time. The beauty of being higher up gives you the ability to take shots with trees or grass as a background, rather than the sky. It does make it a bit trickier to lock the focus on the bird though, but I think the results are far better.

Milestone

A quick post to celebrate reaching over 10,000 images on my website, which has been up and running for 10 years now. Here's to the next 10,000.

My Website - Steven Round Bird Photography

Juvenile Buzzards

The Buzzards in my garden have bred and the two noisy youngsters have now discovered the food I put out for the adults. I popped into the hide this afternoon to photograph one of them.

Buzzard Close-ups

A quick session in the garden yesterday with the Buzzards. When I do one of these sessions I have to decide which lens to use - whether I want the whole bird in the frame or just part of it, I opted for the latter this time for some moody, full frame close-ups with a nice dark, shaded background.

A Quick Session with the Buzzards

I had time for half an hour in my hide yesterday to photograph the Buzzards. I am working on getting some close up flight shots, which will be an on-going project. For now though, I have to make do with one landing.

Sparrowhawk up Close

I have been keen to get out to my hide over the last week as there have been up to 11 Greenfinches visiting the feeders, along with the 40 plus Goldfinches. Greenfinches have been quite scarce here for some time now, with only the occasional one visiting from time to time.
A brief spell of sunshine and I set myself up to photograph them. I had only been in the hide for 5 minutes when the alarm calls of the Blue Tits alerted me to the probability of a Sparrowhawk in the area. It then swooped down in front of the hide hoping to catch an unwary Goldfinch. Without success, it perched up next to the feeders. As I was set up to photograph small birds it was too close to fit in the frame so I made the most of a few close up head and shoulder shots.

bird, raptor, bird of prey, hawk, nature wildlife

Frosty Birds

The past couple of days here have looked like a winter wonderland. Having had freezing fog, everything was covered in a thick layer of frost. With the sun shining I braved the minus 3 conditions for a few hours in my hides. My first goal was to try and get the Buzzards down on the frosty grass. It took quite some time before one of them decided to come to feed. The male was sitting in the tree above, but for some reason didn't want to come down. I think possibly because he had watched me go into the hide. The female who is much more wary than the male did eventually fly in. I had to be extra careful not to spook her as I had a feeling it would be over for the day if I did. Carefully, I managed to get the shots that I wanted. After she had gone I turned my attention to the 5 or 6 Jays that were coming in to feed. After about 3 hours the skies clouded over and it was back to the house to thaw out.

bird, raptor, nature, wildlife, frost, frosty, winter

bird, nature, wildlife, frost, frosty, winter

Red Kites

My friend Rich and I decided that we were long overdue a trip to the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm in mid Wales. It was 2006 that I was last there so some new pictures of the Kites were desperately needed. We chose what was supposed to be a clear sunny day, I say supposed to be. There was a lot of dark cloud about and very little sunshine which isn't good for flight shots.
The birds were fed and the frenzy of several hundred Kites circling and diving was quite a spectacle. We made the most of the brief spells of the sun, which only totalled about twenty minutes throughout the afternoon. I was trying to achieve shots that were a little different from the norm which went reasonably well. Another trip is on the cards later this winter though, this time with a clear afternoon.