Like many folks after I’ve been working hard, either physically or mentally, I like to grab a camera and relax by capturing a few images. This afternoon I finished building a ‘honey-do’ project in the backyard and I had a little bit of available time. So, I grabbed one of my cameras and headed off to Hendrie Valley where I spent an interesting hour capturing some images of birds in flight.
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 234.5mm, ISO 220, 1/2500, f/5.6
I’ve visited Hendrie Valley quite a few times and very seldom see any osprey. And, when I have seen them they are just flecks in the sky and not worth even trying to photograph. For some reason today I was greeted by a pair of osprey both flying reasonably low, making good image subjects.
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm, ISO 500, 1/2500, f/5.6
The osprey made a number of good passes overhead which allowed me to capture a few AF-C image runs at 15fps with my Nikon 1 V2.
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 234.5mm, ISO 200, 1/2500, f/5.6
I was feeling quite fortunate to capture some reasonable osprey images when I noticed a few terns fishing. Low and behold they had some success – which I was able to photograph.
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm, ISO 400, 1/2500, f/5.6
Not only did I get a few decent images of terns flying with fish in their mouths, but I also got a nice AF-C run of a bird adjusting the hold it had on a fish, moving it from a horizontal position in its beak, to vertical in preparation to be swallowed.
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm, ISO 360, 1/2500, f/5.6
Another AF-C run yielded some images of a tern actually swallowing a fish.
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm, ISO 360, 1/2500, f/5.6
I was having a difficult time believing the luck I was having in such a short time…but it wasn’t over yet! I captured another AF-C run of a playful tern doing something I had never seen before – what appeared to be a barrel roll!
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm, ISO 800, 1/2500, f/5.6
To cap off my hour long visit to Hendrie Valley a gull flew by carrying a fish it had caught in its beak.
NIKON 1 V2 + 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm, ISO 160, 1/1600, f/5.6
Without question this was the most productive hour I had ever spent photographing birds in flight in terms of the number of species and the variety of behaviours captured. It was one of those hours that you’d like to seal up in a bottle for future use!
Article and all images Copyright 2016 Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, adaptation or reproduction of any kind is allowed without written consent. Photography Life is the only approved user of this article. If you see it reproduced anywhere else it is an unauthorized and illegal use.
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