Tag Archives: bird

Swallows Over the Grassland

These shots are not going to win any awards but they are an example of trying a lot of goes to maybe get something that works. While waiting for the arrival of some interesting jets, I was standing near some grassland south of Tacoma. The sun was out and I guess that there were plenty of bugs in the air. This had attracted a lot of swallows. I love watching swallows fly because they are so fast and agile. They are amazing aviators. I never see the bugs that they are catching but clearly they know what they are up to. Of course, the targeting of the bugs means that they are always changing course. Since they are so small, a long lens is necessary but tracking a rapidly weaving small bird with a long lens is a tough call. At least modern autofocus can give you a fighting chance of getting a shot. Will it be razor sharp? Probably not but here are some of the results that weren’t total failures.

The Hummers Are a Quick Test for the New Lens

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One of the things that I knew would be a limitation of the RF 200-800 was the aperture which is a lot smaller than for really expensive lenses (yes, it is also expensive but not in the tens of thousands type of expensive). In low light, this is going to be an issue and it would be interesting to see how things worked out. When I got home with it, I was sitting on the deck when some hummingbirds started feeding on the flowers in one of our beds. This area is in shade a lot of the time so light was limited. I was rather pleased with the effectiveness of the focus, the sharpness at full zoom and the relatively limited noise related issues from the R3. This is a combination that looks like it could be quite useful for a wide variety of occasions. Not the solution for everything but definitely versatile.

I Guess Ospreys Love Seafair

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Two years ago, I went down to Lake Washington to watch Seafair. I posted then about an Osprey that was flying along the shoreline while the airshow was underway. This year I went again and, while it wasn’t as frequent a visitor as last time, we did get another osprey checking out our part of the shore once more. We were well away from the display axis so no risk of an osprey checking out a gas turbine. Such a cool looking bird to see. Soon they will be gone for the season.

Are You a Wren?

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Walking through Juanita Bay Park with mum, we saw and heard a small bird nearby. When we got a clear look at it, mum asked what it was. Now, I am not a bird specialist, but I do have two things on my side. One, I can get a photo of it and two, I have a very big book of North American birds at home so we can look it up afterwards. Mum thought it looked like a wren based on the shape and angle of the tail and I thought she had a good point. Sure enough, get to the book at home and it was indeed a marsh wren. Cute little thing.

How Will the Heron Eat This?

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This story is one of a bit of frustration. I took a while to get a good fix on this heron as it took off and, by the time I did so, it was heading away from me with no good angles. However, it was an interesting subject. The heron had caught itself a far larger fish than I normally see. Instead of grabbing it, it had skewered the fish with its beak. It must have had its mouth open at the time as the top and bottom mandibles had speared the fish separately.

It flew over to the shore and landed to contemplate its meal at which point one of the local eagles seems to have swooped in with the intent to steal the fish. The heron got spooked by this and took off again but dropped the fish in the process. The fish fell into the water and sank so I guess nobody got to eat it. I don’t know how the fish did but two sharp objects through its body probably didn’t help it too much.

Jackdaws Searching for Snacks

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We stopped for a small snack at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park after our walk. We were heading to lunch later, but you don’t want your energy to drop so a cake of some sort is a necessity. The tables around the café provided plenty of food for the local jackdaw population and they were very keen to get whatever fell from the plates of the customers. With the sun on them, they looked really cool. I didn’t know what they were at the time, but the grey heads were quite distinctive, and I did a search later on t identify them. Funny to learn these things so long after I had lived in the UK.

River Test at a High Level

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The River Test really should be considered multiple rivers because it splits and rejoins as it moves across the Hampshire countryside. You can cross all sorts of minor streams, but you do also get some larger crossings where the river is well defined. One of these is the road to Longstock. There is a weir across the river just upstream of the bridge and it seemed to be flowing pretty well when we were there. We had experienced lovely weather, but I guess quite a bit of rain had preceded our arrival. There was a single swan on the river, and it seemed to be making some effort to move upstream.

Another Robin Comes Out to Play

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We had the robins visiting the garden when we stayed in Stockbridge, but they were rather reticent about being around when we were there. They tended to disappear whenever they realized we were watching them. During our visit to Hinton Ampner, we came across a rather more bold member of the family. This one was sitting in a hedge right next to us when I realized it was there. I got a shot before it moved but it only repositioned to a perch close to us. A brave little fella and very cute.

Family of Blackbirds Out for a Meal

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A family of blackbirds was a regular sight in the front garden of the place we rented in Stockbridge. They were happily finding whatever they could eat in the grass. There appeared to be two parents with some youngsters in tow. The chicks were now pretty fully grown and seemed to have their feathers, but they were less interested in finding food than they were in having their parents do the work. I will let those of you with children make your own comments. The chicks actually looked a little larger than their parents, so they are probably eating well.

Cormorants Aplenty on a Ferry Trip

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Time for another cormorant related post today. When taking the ferries on the various routes around Puget Sound, the infrastructure at the terminals is often popular with the cormorants. This can mean that you can get quite close to them while on the ferry without them getting spooked. They are also coming and going with some frequency so takeoffs and landings are common, and they will often fly quite close to the ferry.

On this trip, the angle of the light to the terminal was in my favor and I was able to get a few close-up views of the birds. There was still some ironwork in the way of a totally clean shot, but not enough to ruin the images. They also obliged by flying around at convenient times when I was ready to get an image and I got some of the better shots that I have taken of cormorants in recent years.