Monday 3 August 2009

Not an Amazon in Sight

Spent a couple of hours lazing in the garden today and occasionally photographing and filming the butterfly visitors but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Just about teatime a group of about ten Swallows suddenly appeared and spent about ten minutes zooming around overhead before moving on. I tried the camcorder but to get them in vision meant wide angle and I ended up with a few specks speeding across the screen. In the end I fetched the DSLR, set it to a fixed focus and tried for a few stills. Most were out of focus and all were grainy as I had upped the ISO to get a fast shutter speed. Today they stayed high up so the pictures are cropped from small sections of the photos.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS


Just one gave a passable photo, certainly better than anything I managed last year anyway.

Swallow in Flight

Plenty of Swallows, but not an Amazon in sight.

Last year I watched a group on the cricket field. Marvellous to see them swoop down at high speed within a couple of inches of the ground over and over again. I watched them for nearly half an hour as they gradually cleared the field of all the insects they could catch.

10 comments:

  1. WOW! I love them John, well done! Swallows are so difficult to photograph in flight. I would be more than pleased if I had managed to capture them.

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  2. Thank you kindly Jan. They certainly are bally difficult to photo. They move sooooo fast. It was a pity the best shot was against the only dark cloud in the sky. I guess it must be getting near migration time as that is the only time they seem to gather here near the coast.

    Just had a bird of prey land very briefly on the wires over the feeders. At first I assumed it was a Sparrow Hawk but looking at piccies on the net I think it may have been a Kestrel. By the time I'd picked up the camera it was nowhere to be seen :(

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  3. I found your blog through another blog that I found through another blog.........etc etc and so it goes on! :)
    I've so enjoyed watching your videos and reading about the life in your backyard. I'll definitely be back to finish some of the older posts.

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  4. Better than any of my efforts John. They are fast. Great to watch though.

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  5. Very excellent swallow shots John...great capture...now there's a bird that is hard to get good shots in flight they are faster than a flee on a horse!!! I gave up trying...but I might try again now that I've seen yours.

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  6. Hi Pam. Thank you for visiting and your kind comments. You are very welcome. I think we all find a lot of blogs that way.

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  7. Hi Keith. As you say they are fast. Last year I spent ages trying and I think I binned the lot so I was pleased to get something that looked like a Swallow this year.

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  8. Hi Crista. Thank you. They kept coming back for an hour or more but most of the time I just enjoyed watching them. I find the auto focus is useless for that type of shot so I choose a distance which they seem go through many times and set the camera to that and hope!! The one thing I forget to try is setting the camera to multi shot which may increase the chances of a clear picture.

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  9. Looks like the profile of a Spitfire! You can see where RJ Mitchell found his inspiration!

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  10. Hi Matron. Very true the wing shape is remarkably similar.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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