Bird of Prey pictures?

Four Kites, now that's just greedy!!!!!!! :-)

Now this is greedy...taken from my back garden. Camera more or less pointing straight up. All but one image cropped. The beasties tend to be quite high up by the time I hear them, dash out into the garden and get them in focus.  There are about 4 or 6 Buzzards flying around quite regularly, but only one group of 3.

This is what they look like with my lens at 302mm

Cropped out

After this, they flew to the front of the house and were obscured by the roof.

Red Kite to and to the collection,

What is this raptor?  Or raptors if you can ID the little fuzzy on.

The memsahib and I were taking dinner about 30 minutes ago, in t'back garden, when I spied summat odd in the sky. Actually there were two of them. One not the normal shape I see over our house, more like a kestrel, and the other, bulkier also a bit odd.  The sun was getting low, with a touch of haze, possibly softening the bird's colours and making a bit more golden brown.

Have we got a Common Buzzard here?  Can't say the torso markings are like the Common Buzzards I see buzzing around our house.  Plus the ones around our house always have the classic fan tail.

This is what the bird looks like with my camera at 205mm.

This is what it looks like cropped out.

To confuse matters, there were two birds.  I think I actually wanted to photograph the one with the yellow arrow pointing at it.  I have a feeling that as it was quite small and/or higher up I naturally photographed the bigger looking bird.

The bird is getting ever higher. Now my lens is at 451mm

Cropped out

With the lens at 600mm, focusing was proving interesting.

Cropping out. Detail is not bad for a hand held Sigma 150-600mm contemporary, with yours truly wobbling away.

Kestrel as well

Unknown said:

Have we got a Common Buzzard here? 

Looks like a Sparrowhawk to me, Angus. Probably a female judging by its size. Don't know what the smaller one is unless it's the smaller male. Sparrowhawks do soar, I've seen them do that from my garden. 

Unknown said:

Cropping out. Detail is not bad for a hand held Sigma 150-600mm contemporary, with yours truly wobbling away.

Angus, another brilliant set of photos, wobbly or not, not that I can see much signs of a wobble.

The Sigma 150-600 Contemporary, heavy yes, but it is a very good lens, I use the same myself.

The Optical Stabiliser (OS on the lens) is very good at stabilising subjects.

Thanks Tony, Mike

I'm rather chuffed at seeing a Sparrow Hawk. Only about the third time I have. The first time was in our back garden. It lived up to its name in that it caught a Sparrow feasting on my bird feeder.

I can now up the greed ante. I spotted these four, yes four, Buzzards riding a thermal, during our daily lockdown exercise walk. In actuality I could have also filmed them from our back garden.

Which got me wondering. If I layout flat on a deck chair, would birds (who normally see humans upright) recognise me as a human?  Further, if I were to cover my body up to my neck with a large sheet (say huge towel or bed sheet - hiding evidence of latter from my other half), and perhaps add some form of flat head dress from my brow upward, would birds recognise me a being human? I may have to experiment.

There are possibly five Buzzards in this first clip. Something flies rapidly from top left to mid right

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I need to use a viewfinder, hence why I have to use my ancient Lumix DMC-F72. By contrast, my daughter (to whom I am convinced her mobile phone is surgically attached) prefers to use the LCD on back of camera. Isn't that odd?

The birds sometimes look as if they are in a fighter aircraft dog fight. Watch out for one of them 'dive bombing' another. Though actually, it is standard procedure: get high and dive on enemy, preferably out of the sun

I get roughly 19 seconds of video time with my Lumix to be below the 5120KB file limit of this forum. The next two videos are shorter.

It's brilliant to see the birds circling around each other.

I did think that the birds would all ride the thermal graceful like, circling in the same direction, one after the other where the up lift is greatest. I didn't expect a messy melee that these videos reveal.  They still look like fighter aircraft engaged in a dog fight.

I might, just might have to look at getting a newer bridge camera. I never was too happy with the quality of images I get with the Lumix. My daughter's Canon SX700 HS takes better photos. I was thinking of the awesome Nikon P9xx or P1xxx cameras. My first camera was a Nikon.

Like you, I prefer the view finder, I find it allows clearer viewing and reduces the intrusion of light which you get viewing with an LCD screen, and easier panning of a subject in motion.

Sadly, many camcorders, and it seems a great many DSLR's that are capable of video, all support LCD screen viewing and not view finders.....

You could always try lying back on a deck chair, it might make for easier panning.

As for the younger generations being glued to their mobile devices, I hear you, and fear, not only is it the present, it will be the future from a VR perspective and the reduced need to get outside!

I wish I could claim fantastic photographic skills, coupled with lightning reflexes for this set of images, but alas I cannot. It is all down to pure luck, plus a childlike curiosity as to what is going on in our garden.

Recently, when making chicken stock, I've been putting the cooked bones and skins out for birds. I stuck out my trail cam, yesterday, to see exactly what was consuming them.

Firstly, the biggest surprise. The main consumers were Wood Pigeon! There I was, thinking the consumed only seeds and nuts. Oh, no. They relished tucking into to a bit of chicken gristle, cartilage or skin. The usual suspects did make an appearance: Carrion Crow, Magpies and Blackbirds.

We did spot Red Kites swooping in and grabbing talons' full of bits, but quite sporadically. However, they are so fast (in and out in less than a second) my trail cams have no chance to trigger in time, let alone for the camera to warm up and take a shot.

Until yesterday, when a Carrion Crow triggered the trail cam...

The modus operandi of the Red Kites is to circle our house, eyeing up the carrion on what is allegedly a lawn. Then they swoop in and grab bits. They don't hang around.

In this first picture, there is a triangular shadow to the right. The Red Kite is circling from the back of the back garden towards the front.

In this image, the shadow can just be seen on the right of hedgehog feeding station.

OK, the Red Kite has now swung over the house and has commenced a steep dive. There is a tiny shadow to the left of the photo. Note that only a second has passed.

It has now begun to level out on its final run

How's that? Blink and you'll miss it.  I sorted through 600+ photos and 200+ images produced by the trail cam to find this. As it was I almost missed it and the thing was over and done with in less than a second - I've set the trail cam to take 10sec videos.

And away. The bird now has to pull up very, very quickly as there is a line of birch trees and a huge oak tree some 7 metres in front of it.

This was at least the second time (yesterday) a Red Kite had swooped on the feeder - a large (50cm) flower pot tray. You can see scattered scraps from an earlier swoop. Note: I use the tray to enable me to bring all the scraps in at night. They attract foxes and presumably rats if left out over night.

Off it goes, climbing like billy-oh. Note the scraps flying through the air.

The Carrion crow, that so fortuitously trigger my trail cam, got stuck into the bits.

That's it. Less than a second. Were it not for the Carrion crow, we would not see this. I'm not sure I will put the trail cam out soon. I can't face the prospect of sorting through 600+ photos and 200+ videos only to see umpteen shots of Wood Pigeons leering at me and strutting their stuff.