In Flight

I have lots more shots from Chester Zoo to share but I thought I would mix things up for today otherwise I might end up going off on another conservation rant.

Last week I went to Mere Sands again hoping to snap the elusive kingfisher but again without success. There were a few different species of wildfowl to see so it wasn't a total disaster and I decided that I would also try capturing some shots of birds in flight. I managed some cormorants and some shelducks and these shovelers. I like the shapes they make with their wings and I like the way they flock together. 

Because these are low resolution files they are not as sharp as the originals but  for me these pictures more about the motion and shapes.

Birds In Flight

So before I get into today's post and talk about the pictures below I have to put something right. The other day I did a post titled Long Eared Owl and I shared some beautiful shots of a really magnificent bird. The only problem is it was not a Long Eared Owl it was a Eurasian Eagle Owl and I wanted to clear that up, it doesn't change the fact that they're great pictures though so if you haven't seen them take a few moments and have a look.

But now for today...

I won't pretend that these are necessarily great pictures but they're not dreadful either. They do show how difficult it is to get perfect shots of birds in flight especially in low light conditions where it isn't possible to use a fast shutter speed. The light really was poor on this particular day and these birds don't hang about so it is not a good combination.

Nevertheless there it was a good challenge and while I have discarded lots of images I think these few are worth sharing. Bear in mind that these were all shot handheld at 1/200sec with and ISO of 640 between 300mm and 600mm with birds capable of flying 50 - 60mph or more.

So from top to bottom we have a British Barn Owl (this one is called Bob and at one point he sat on my head), next we have two shots of a Snowy Owl, next up is a Harris Hawk and then a hybrid bird, a cross between a Gyr Falcon and Saker Falcon (which by the way is absolutely beautiful and I will share a better picture of it tomorrow) and the final two shots were the last of the day and feature a Black Kite that was demonstrating how agile it is by catching food that was tossed into the air. 

I am fairly happy with these pictures, but as ever they just spur me on to want to do better so come the better weather (better light conditions) I will be back to try again.

Float Planes

So the last couple of days there has been a recurrent theme of flight and today I have continued the theme with this shot of a float plane at Georgian Bay. 

We stopped off for lunch at Parry Sound and went down to the marina to explore a little. There were a few of these planes moored up, I have always liked the idea of taking off and landing on water and I was really tempted to take a flight over Lake Huron but there wasn't time to do it on this trip. Maybe next time. Just one of many reasons I want to go back.