Canon EOS 50d, EF 100-400mm L lens
1/400 @ 7.1, iso 800, 400mm
Today turned out to be surprising and gave me a lot of photos to trawl through. We arrived at Sence Valley at about midday, and walked round to the hide. There's rarely anything close enough to be of interest, but we always look and hope. Today there were a few Mallard and Coots but the light was wrong and they seemed to be dozing in the sun Further away there was a Heron sitting on a rock, I didn't think it would be a good pic, but I tried anyway.
Canon EOS 50d, EF 100-400mm L lens
1/400 @ 7.1, iso 800, 400mm
Then Maja pointed and said, "look there are two Pheasants fighting!" I turned the camera to the direction she was pointing and sure enough, two male Pheasants were having a right old ding-dong. They were a long way away and at an awkward angle from the hide windows, but they were in a fenced off area surrounded by bushes and trees, so the hide was the only place they could be photographed from - so I set too. The fight lasted a long time and eventually disappeared from view behind bushes and a bit of raised ground, but not before I'd taken over 40 pics.
After a walk round with Skipper, we drove back up to the upper car park to use the Loo's (it's a god stiff walk up a steep hill). But as we drove back down, we spotted a falconer and his son exercising his Harris Hawk and stopped for a chat. He was happy for me to take pictures and keen to show his beautiful birds, as I would have been if they were mine.
CanonEOS 50d, EF 100-400mm L lens
1/2500 @ 5.6, iso 800, 400mm
While they prepare for the next flight the hawk, which was nearly a year old, sat on a fence and posed for me. Then, rewards prepared the hawk flew and I was able to get some good, in-flight shots. But the hawk was so fast I managed only 10 shots for a flight of perhaps 100 yards and had difficulty keeping it in the viewfinder.
Canon EOS 50d, EF 100-400mm L lens1/1000 @ 5.6, iso 800, 100mm
After those two experiences, the dozing ducks seemed a bit of a disappointment, so after another walk with Skipper we made our way home.
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