After yet another successful year on the Odds & Sods thread, initially started I think by Hazy, it might be wise to kickstart the 2023 thread off.
Thank you to those who have contributed to last years thread, and there has been very interesting odds and sods in "Odds & Sods 2022" that aren't enough to place into a dedicated thread, which you can look back on the following link:
https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/278729/odds-sods-2022/1417300?pifragment-4285=76#pifragment-4285=1
What better for me, and as yet, I've not ventured far, ewe know what I mean, with this lassie on Baddesley Clinton estate yesterday....
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
I always love to see Lollipops. They seem such happy little chaps ... and chapesses ...
A few from yesterday and this morning
A Tawny Owl. I wasn't too close, quite a long lens and a decent crop ...
A Hare taken this morning, About 50 yards away
Not just a Woodpecker ... Two Woodpeckers! Not often I manage to get two together ...
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
Please let this be a Skylark. It sounded like a Skylark. It flew like a Skylark. It looked (to me) like a Skylark. But is it really, really, really a Skylark.
Photographed on the Manor farm restoration, this Skylark had appropriated a large mound of soil as a neat place to broadcast its territorial message. Can't say I've ever seen this behaviour before.
Can you see it? The beastie was quite a ways from the Blackwater footpath. Even more tricky for my camera to focus on, as it was so small.
Cropping out photo and further photos to give all a decent chance to identify birdie.
WWII planes I have a good chance of identifying. Wee birdies around me, minimal hope.
My R7 insisted on focusing on the rock the Skylark is on or the rock pile beneath. AI was reasonably useless, so many false hits, so I turned it off. AF was set to Spot AF, but even this was too coarse to pick out the Skylark.
Then the Skylark took to the air and flitted around about 20 feet off the ground. AI tracking took over and did a super job. AF was set to case 3 aka nearest object, with all tracking sensitivities turned to lowest possible value. AF was also set to Whole Area AF, which I would never have done with my Canon 80D.
Cropping out bird, and subsequent shots.
Best Skylark photos I've ever managed. They are normally a few hundred feet up in the air, seen as a tiny dot against a bright background.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Google lens says ...
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Linda257 said:Oh I have yet to get a swallow sitting at peace! Lovely set ...thanks for sharing
Happy to oblige.
regards
John
i love robins said:Great Photos John, nice to see the Avocet, I have a photo similar to your swallow, never photographed one in flight yet either. I also liked the bee photo and the Moorhen on the Lily pads. Thanks for sharing John.
Thank you.
I'm still trying to get a swallow in flight, and a housemartin. I'm about to give up on swifts, I only seem to get sky, trees or buildings.
Those photos are just superb.
Its good reading the issues you have with the AI focusing, because I am finding the same. There might be hope for me yet....
It's been a long time since I last saw a skylark.