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[KaingU Lodge]

Likewise my keeper rate must be 10% or less. I do tend to do a lot of "spray and pray" at 10fps!

 

Waiting for a canoe party downriver the other day I was watching the good old Forked tailed drongo hawking insects:

 

 

Bateleur (of which the Kafue has a lot) in poor light:

 

 

backlit reed cormorant:

 

[Peter Connan]

Love that drongo @@KaingU Lodge!

 

I can't tell you how many exposures I have wasted trying to get a nice Drongo in flight.

[Peter Connan]

Grey Hornbill:

 

 

African Hoopoo:

 

 

Grey Go-away bird:

 

 

Stonechat:

 

 

White-breasted Swallow:

 

 

Lesser-striped Swallow:

 

 

All taken at Rietvlei on Saturday 7/11/15 with Nikon D750 + Nikkor 500mm f4, set to manual mode with Auto-ISO, approximately 1/2000th exposure and normally f5-f5.6 aperture.

[michael-ibk]

All great captures, but just adore the Hoopoe!

[offshorebirder]

Nice @@Peter Connan. Swallows are some of the toughest in-flight subjects around.

[Peter Connan]

Thank you Gentlemen, I appreciate your comments.

[Treepol]

These were all taken in North Queensland in July-August 2015

 

Sarus Cranes, Yungaburra

 

 

 

Pacific Black Ducks, Lake Barrine

 

 

Crested Terns, Mossman River

 

 

Magpie Geese, Keatings Lagoon.

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Peter Connan

 

In a general sense, where is Rietvlei located?

Is it near Johannesburg, or elsewhere?

Tom K.

[KaingU Lodge]

Good old wattled plover (sorry, Lapwing) a couple of evenings ago.

 

[Peter Connan]

Very nice @@KaingU Lodge

 

@@Tom Kellie, Rietvlei is located between Johannesburg and Pretoria. It is merely 24km from my home, which makes the fact that I have only been there twice this year quite shameful.

[Big Andy]

A couple from the banks of the Zambezi at Mana Pools.

Canon 5DIII with EF400 DO lens +1.4x extender.

ISO 400 f6.3 1/1250s and a lot of luck.

 

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Big Andy

 

The second carmine bee-eater image is CRAZY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's it doing in Safaritalk when Audubon would turn a somersault to print it?

The other bird turning to look, the sharp focus on the hapless dragonfly, the triumphant glance of the skilled hunter — all top-class.

Surely one of the most memorable bird images of 2015 or of any year.

Thank you for posting it for all of us to enjoy.

Tom K.

[Big Andy]

Thank you @@Tom Kellie your comments are much appreciated, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I must say that I enjoyed taking it in the first place.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Big Andy

[Peter Connan]

Andy, superb!

[mvecht]

This is not a perfect Photo of Whooper Swans (shutterspeed too slow) but interesting as one of the swans is quite melanistic.

 

[Tom Kellie]

This is not a perfect Photo of Whooper Swans (shutterspeed too slow) but interesting as one of the swans is quite melanistic.

 

~ @@mvecht

 

May I please ask where these swans were photographed?

Were they near your home in Denmark, or elsewhere?

Tom K.

[mvecht]

@@Tom Kellie

 

Hi Tom

I am sorry I forgot to mention it in my post.

They were photographed in Denmark about 12 miles west of my home.

They were part of a Group of app 100 swans where a few more showed some signs of melanism.

The whooper swan is a common visitor to Denmark in the Winter time and it is not uncommon to see more than 500 resting together on land.

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@mvecht

 

Thank you for that information.

Supposedly whooper swans also visit eastern Asia, although I've never met anyone who saw them.

Observing hundreds of them together must be a remarkable experience!

It's a plus to see them here in Safaritalk, as a reminder that such noteworthy wildlife lives in Europe and elsewhere.

For someone like yours truly who lives in a heavily polluted urban area, it's a special joy to see photographs and information about such beautiful birds.

Tom K.

[pomkiwi]

NZ Flutering Shearwaters. These images are posted at the suggestion of @@Tom Kellie having originally been posted in one of the photography sub-fora. Apologies if I have transgressed a rule on multiple postings.

We were headed from Auckland to Waiheke Island across the Hauraki Gulf and were acocompanied by a sizeable flock of these small birds flying at 20-25 knotts only centimetres from the water. The light wasn't great and I was using my 'travel lens' (Nikon 18-300mm) attached to a Nikon D7200. 300mm, ISO 400, f6.3, 1/2500 sec. It was a lovely moment and great to be in their company for several minutes. Apologies for the quality of the images which only serve to confirm that any future I have photographing wildlife is not as a birder!

 

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@pomkiwi

 

What's especially impressive about these images is that the photographer was aboard a moving vessel while the shearwaters skimmed along.

The optical physics of the two moving bodies is an exercise in kinematics.

Yet you did it! Such lovely photographs.

Thank you.

Tom K.

[pomkiwi]

@@Tom Kellie It is only honest of me to point out that it was flat calm! It was a lovely distraction during a ferry crossing (although the landscape is enough distraction in itself). Thank-you once agian for your interest and encouragement.

[pomkiwi]

Northern Giant Petrel (I think). Sighted off Kaikoura in New Zealand whilst whale watching

 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

Been trying for a long time to get a nice Drongo-in-flight photo. This weekend, I got fairly lucky.

 

 

Nikon D750 + 500mm f4

 

Manual mode with Auto-ISO enabled, f5.6 and 1/2000th got ISO720. Back-button focus, AF-C with 9 points active, hand-held.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Peter Connan

[The_Norwegian]

My favourite bird, the eurasian sparrowhawk. The af-system in your camera hasn`t had to work before you set out to photograph these rockets. Taken in the steep hills of Dalen in Telemark, Norway. D4s with a tammy 150-600 at the time.

_DSC1045 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

[Big Andy]

A couple from the Gambia taken a few years ago in the mangrove swamps opposite Tendaba camp when on our way upriver for a birding safari. These are great egret.

 

Camera Canon 50d with Sigma 120-300mm lens.