Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Natures Hovercraft...

Kestrels are some of the smallest and most beautiful falcons and occur in various species around the world, including Australia and America. You've probably seen them somewhere along a road with chestnut brown wings, hovering over a field, their typical hunting method. Photographing kestrels is usually not too difficult. Those living near populated areas are are pretty tolerant of humans, at least if you stay in your car when you are photographing. The only challenge when photographing kestrels is getting the sun and wind to cooperate, since the kestrel will always hover facing into the wind and if the wind is blowing towards the sun, the kestrel's head will be shaded. So the best conditions for photographing a hovering kestrel is shortly after sunrise or before sunset with the wind perpendicular to the direction  the sun. That will give you a well illuminated bird and if you are early enough, some light on the underside as well.
The top two pictures were taken in Falsterbo on the Southwestern tip of Sweden during the fall migration where many of the birds heading South for the winter are funneled into a small corridor before crossing the Öresund Straits and continuing on to Europe and Africa.



And here is the same bird in an animated GIF image, consisting of 16 still images, which gives a pretty good example of the kestrel in action Double-click on the image for slightly better resolution:


This kestrel is either digesting his latest meal or taking a more leisurely approach to hunting.


And this kestrel has definitely perfected his style of hunting. I photographed him for twenty minutes as he moved from fence post to fence post. Looking into the grass for any movement and then making a small hop from the fence post onto his prey. He was successful twice during the time I watched.But that's another story...

3 comments:

  1. Hej Michael!
    Helt fantastiska bilder som vanligt, en ren njutning varje gång man tittar förbi dina sidor. Kungsfiskarna i din header, måste vara en av de bästa bilder som jag har sett på dessa blåjuveler. Ja, visst var det hos rackelhanen (jan, feb -09) som vi träffades. Jag åkte helt "obeväpnad" så det finns inga bilder från den dagen av mig. Vi bor ganska så nära och frugan ville titta till den spektakulära pippin.
    Ha en fin dag!
    /Ingemar

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    1. Ja, det måste stämma, den 31.1.2009 fotade vi rackelhanen. Vilken kul fågel!

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  2. Mycket fina bilder på en av de vackraste rovfåglarna vi har (de är alla vackra, eller hur?). Aldrig tänkt på det där med vindriktningen, men det låter ju förnuftigt. Där jag fotograferar finns ibland sand eller vatten och det hjälper ju oxå till att illuminera undersidan under timmar när solen står högt. Läste annars en artikel av Roger Clark (http://www.clarkvision.com/) där med vetenskaplig exakthet slogs fast att när solen står (vill jag erinra mig) 16 grader över horisonten - då ska det bäst fotograferas fågel. F-n tro det, men han har säkert rätt. / Deerhunter

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