Birds in Flight

Photographing small birds in flight coming to a feeder has always defeated me in the past. I have a few poor results, but nothing exciting. The idea is simple enough. You put up one small feeder with a single perch attached for the birds to land on. A few feet away you have another perch and as the birds leave this to fly at the feeder you photograph them in-between.  Focus has to be done manually and even at 14 frames per second the bird is rarely in the frame. When it is it is usually out of focus. The failure rate is high and you have to take thousands to get a result, but others manage it better than me.

This winter I discovered a way to improve the odds of success. I cut a hole in a plastic disc and placed a Niger seed feeder into the hole on its side with the disc upright. The plastic was a colourful purple and as the birds flew at it to grab the sunflower hearts they were wary of it and hesitated. Often they would hover just inches from the disc, giving time to allow for autofocus to be used. Even those that flew straight at it were forced to come in square on else their wings would catch on the disc. I have had more success over two sessions than all previous winters combined.

The disc with a Niger seed feeder pushed into it which was then filled with Sunflower hearts.

Beike BK45 Gimbal Tripod Head

Video is new to me, but I have just done my first sequence and posted it on U tube. It is about the Beike BK45 Gimbal tripod head.

#wildlife #flight #bk45 #head #bk45 #photography #birds #tripod #Beike

More from the reflection drinking pool

So far I have had 13 species down to my drinking pool in just a few weeks. Not bad for the winter months. Great tit, blue tit, coal tit, goldfinch, greenfinch, magpie, jackdaw, wren, collared dove, nuthatch, lesser redpoll, blackbird and pheasant. I am going to modify it so I can photograph birds on the two side edges, sideways on. Currently it is designed for the birds to land at the far end only, which means they are head on to me all of the time. Some days are better than others.  Today was almost none stop visits, with 3 species at one time, but other days can be a bit slow.

I am now renting the hide out if anyone is interested. £80 a person for the day, £150 for two people. Times to suit you, but 0900 to 1500 the light is good. Based near Studley in Warwickshire. You will need a lens of at least 300mm and up to 800mm with a tripod. The hide can be moved to any distance from the pool.

There are always going to be some birds coming to the pool, but if it is going slow the feeding station is very busy at the moment with a wooden two man hide only 10 meters away.

#wildlife #photography #rent #hide #british