[Theme] Show Birds

[ColinM]

Beautiful birds, here !
Below , some bee-eaters, returning from Africa to France for mating.
Very social birds, using to come in the same location each year.
They use to nest inside burrows in sand cliffs.
Thanks for watching.

What beautiful birds Francis.

Can you tell us what you used to capture these images?

[Bent Hjarbo]

What beautiful birds Francis.

Can you tell us what you used to capture these images?

Indeed beautiful

[Bent Hjarbo]

A duck making a touch and go.
This is a duck

[Hugh_3170]

Sure is Bent. 

Quite a spectacular manoeuvre on the duck's part and likewise capturing it on your part.

A duck making a touch and go.
This is a duck

[Bent Hjarbo]

Sure is Bent. 

Quite a spectacular manoeuvre on the duck's part and likewise capturing it on your part.

Thank you, a bit of luck is needed 

[rosko]

Colin, thanks for commenting.
I've  used my old Df with the 500mm PF.

[rosko]

Hi, Bent !
Thanks for passing by...

[Fons Baerken]

June 1

'oystercatcher', no oysters around here

Z fc  -  afp 70-300mm f/4.5-.5.6E

[Bruno Schroder]

Very nice pictures, Francis, particularly the third one. Lucky you are to have these beautiful birds at hand.

[ColinM]

This seems to be a week when Barn Owls are out hunting, trying to feed their young chicks here in the UK.
I saw some by chance on Sunday and Monday evenings.
Tonight I was prepared with a D500, 300mm PF and AutoISO
There was a wonderful red sun setting during my time there, but finding an AF setting that coped with the bird flying amongst tree branches etc was a challenge

In amongst the images are ones showing the size rodents (rats?) the birds were bringing back.
Plus a Sparrowhawk that perched hopefully outside the Barn Owls' nesting box, till the owls kicked him out

The noise coming from the chicks hidden inside (hissing etc) was spectacular

[Øivind Tøien]

Very nice series, Colin. That is a big catch!

[Akira]

Nice owl-in-flight and the sunset images, Colin!

[ColinM]

Thanks Øivind and Akira
It was wonderful to just watch them flying and hunting
A first for me

Now, I just need to decide when/if to use 3D, group or single point AFC.....

[Øivind Tøien]

Also try dynamic 25 point, which differs from single point. I use it the whole time with D500, except when it is too cold/too thick mittens to reliably operate the subselector to place the focus point, then I use 3D with focus point locked to the center and reframing.

[ColinM]

Also try dynamic 25 point, which differs from single point. I use it the whole time with D500, except when it is too cold/too thick mittens to reliably operate the subselector to place the focus point, then I use 3D with focus point locked to the center and reframing.

Can you tell us how these various setting fare when birds are flying through
- groups of trees,
- branches,
- past structures etc?

When I switched to groups and 3D, I lost many shots because the AF was latching onto other things nearby
(much of the time, the owl was flying almost directly towards me, but through branches etc)

Even in open sky when it was flying on a path parallel to me, I got worse results with 3D and groups than I did single point AFC