It's probably an ideal time to start the 2022 Odds & Sods thread off, with some squabbling starlings....
To view the 2021 thread, click HERE
This pair of starlings were having a right old go at each other, whilst another nipped in to the coconut shell for a food
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
From Bob's stunning shots, to something a little more prosaic...Barnacle Geese, feeding on nascent Longwater Road nature reserve, photographed this morning. Stupidly, I took my bridge camera. I didn't feel like lugging my long lens - especially as it was murky at the start of my stomp.
These geese were feeding here...
If you squint, you can just make out some yellow hand rails. They are part of a bridge that was used by lorries to get over a conveyor belt that ran through the middle of the ex-quarry. It has been repurposed by burying it to ground level to allow a stream to run under it.
This is what the area looked like in April 2018, before it was filled in.
The lake has been pumped to reduce water levels.
Bob, to get your photo of a hovering Kestrel, all I can offer in terms of advice is point camera at beastie and press shutter. I'm afraid that's all I do - plus being lucky to have a resident Kestrel.
This image has been heavily cropped as the bird was some way away.
The next set taken on a dull morning. Again, the bird was some distance from me.
I'm afraid I am a very, very, very lazy photographer. I leave my camera on P (Shutter priority, I think), and have centre point or centre area (grid of 9 dots) for focusing. I just point the camera in the general direction of the bird, and leave the camera to do its own thing.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Very nice shots. Kestrels are my favourite and quite a few in the local valley, especially around the farms.
I was texting my nephew at university about photographing another sort of bird...aeroplanes. This jogged my memory, and I remembered I photographed this Teal, landing on Colebrook lake in the Moor Green Lakes nature reserve, earlier in the year.
This is a shot after the bird had landed, and was making a stately pass some 50 yds from me. The weather gods were kind, the sun was shining brightly
Now the landing sequence. I picked up the bird when it was about 100yds or so from me.
Autofocus was zinging like mad
I was clicking away equally like crazy, trying to track the thing. Arghhh, camera didn't quite focus on the bird.
Slightly better tracking on my part
Slowing down even further
My camera was resting on a wooden wall, part of some viewing screens placed around the lake. All I had to do was squint down the view finder and swivel camera.
I don't actually breath, while photographing. I'm gasping for breath when I'm done. It feels like I've sprint 100m.