The Bird Thread

Like the pics of the mallard ducks, I've got a pair on my garden pond as I type. :)

Rummaged the half decent camera out

Turns out there’s some half decent stuff on the half decent camera. Have a bee eater and a nightingale in the South of France from a couple of years back, why not?

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^ ace!

As are the nuthatches etc on last page.

Ta. We're overrun with them. I'd keep them all.

We got to watch a barn owl looking for it's lunch yesterday for a good few minutes, quite ethereal watching it glide above the landscape.

Had the camera with me, alas the battery had not made the same journey. It was great to enjoy the moment anyway, of course it's the closest any bird has come all year!

Is it likely to be hanging out in the same area if I try to find it again?

Another two from Minsmere March 2019. Blue tit - nothing very special but the picture came out quite well. The other was something people seemed quite excited about - a Glossy Ibis.

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Yes, theres a good chance of that.

Very jealous. The only times I've ever seen a owl it's been shooting across a country road at night, briefly illuminated by headlights.

Last night while the weather was still warm, in amongst the reeds and rushes

I’m like a stuck record, but thanks everyone for posting all these amazing pictures. Really beautiful, and helps appreciate the different landscapes everyone is in!

Really nice shots.

@greentricky ace bunting fluff action shot! How do you get them to stay still for long enough?

Garden feeder quite active at the moment.

https://youtu.be/hxa7zebd6d0

First swallows sighted earlier! Anyone else had them yet?

bee eater pic

Only ever seen one of these in the bird book. Great pic!

I saw one the other morning - maybe Monday - flying down the Thame valley at sunrise

Cheers! My in-laws live down in the south of France, you get them pretty frequently round their place. Normally you hear them before you see them - super distinctive call, almost like a grunt - and then normally they are high up in the sky. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked out of their kitchen window and there was a group of them sitting right in front of me on the phone wire.

They didn't stay still long but were only bouncing around in a small area so was easy to keep up with them, there were some today at a different site and I didn't get a single photo as they were way to fast

What sort of focal length are you using to capture these? I never seem to get close enough to catch that sort of detail.

While up a tree today on business i learnt that the only uk bird that quacks is a mallard.

420mm (300mm + 1.4x teleconverter) and the photo's are cropped as well, the birds were probably between 3.5m and 5m away

Edit - I have also realised that taking good photo's of birds is pay to play, I can do OK in good light but often out at dusk given time of year or in shade in woods and my photos get noisy and lose detail quickly. Am hunting online for a decent second hand deal but good glass is expensive and more than I want to pay really. I have a Pentax for my sins and there are limited options for fast telephoto lenses compared to Canon and Nikon which doesn't help. So I am stuck at the moment just trying to physically get closer.

While up a tree today on business

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Thanks - that’s kind of the same position I am in, I have a 80-200mm lens and a 2x teleconverter, and find myself gawping at 600mm lenses and having to remind myself that there’s a hell of a lot to do with the kit I have before I could justify dropping £600 or more on a second hand longer lens.

New camera angle

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