Grey heron nest building

By providing a pile of suitable sticks below a heronry I was able to get a series of flight shots of the birds going back and forth to the nest. They were collecting the sticks from below Willow trees, but it was not so open and photographic there. My pile of sticks were in the open and I chose ones that were large enough to be interesting in the bill. Canon EOS 1Dx and 400mm F5.6 lens. 1600 iso. 1/1600th at f6.3. The 1Dx is performing very well. It is a huge improvement on AF and keeps focusing on things I expect to be impossible. The  400mm F5.6 Canon lens is the cheapest telephoto they do and the sharpest lens I have ever owned. Pity it does not have Image stabilization.

Buzzard

Today’s bird was much darker coloured than yesterdays and did not stay long. Perhaps the strong wind put him off, but he never folded his wings and posed for only seconds before flying off. Normally I would wait for a bird to start feeding before taking a shot, but it was too good a picture to miss and with the 800mm I am at a good distance from the bird, especially with the sound of the wind deadening the sound of the camera. 800mm Cano EOS 1Dx. 1/500th at F11. 800 iso.

Buzzard on Red-legged partridge

One difference I have noticed on being married again after many years of being single is that keeping road kill in the deep freeze is not so acceptable. I now bait for buzzards using supermarket chickens at just under £3 a go, which is fine on days I am not photographing and acceptable in the freezer. On photography days I need to find something more natural. Partridge has been a good compromise as they are bought from the butcher and use up little space in the freezer.

The estate I work on has no livestock and therefore the grass is not short enough to bait up on the ground so I put posts up in the fields and nail the partridge to the top. After this session in the hide I have now moved the post so that the background  is darker, as in this shot the buzzard and backdrop are too similar in tone.  Canon Eos 1d Mk1v. 800mm lens. 1/600th at f5,6. 400 iso.