Day 9 of the 12 days of photos is this set of birds in-flight from my visit to the Red Kite Centre in mid-Wales.
I would say that my specialist photo subject is people with added motorsports, there is something to be said for trying a wide variety photography. I live close to the point where the red kites where reintroduced to the Chilterns on the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire border. The success of the reintroduction program means that if I’m at home then it is very unusual not to see red kites.
Going back to my childhood and I can recall my father stopping the car and pointing out a red kite as we drove somewhere around Snowdon on a family trip. The population of red kites in Wales never quite disappeared, but the numbers were down to just a few pairs and it was quite rare to see them. Since the winter of 1992/1993 the farmer at Gigrin Farm started providing rabbits for the kites to feed on. Initially a few pairs were turning up, but now the farm can see upwards of 600 birds each afternoon at feeding time. So it was to Gigrin Farm that I headed to give my EOS R6 and a “new to me” EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens a bit of a photography workout. I also took my EOS 7D Mark II and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM. All pictures below are with EOS R6 unless specifically mentioned.
EOS R6 camera setup for birds in flight
EOS R6 was set for face detection and tracking AF method, animal eye detection, and I had a manually selected initial AF point so that I could choose a specific bird to follow. I used manual exposure with auto ISO, and mostly used the exposure lock with hold to set the exposure. One thing to remember is that if you point the camera at the sky it will see a lot of brightness and underexpose the shot. Locking the exposure with the camera aimed lower and including more land than sky, I knew that the light falling on to the bird would be the same regardless of the background as the sun was behind me.
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm
- 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO 320
Red kite feeding
The initial wave of the kite feeding frenzy was astonishing, so many kites flying through the air it was a challenge to decide which bird to photograph, choose one and a dozen more would get in the way. After the initial wave the birds retreated and then a second smaller wave of birds appeared and so it continued for almost two hours.
I had pre-booked a space in the largest tallest hide that holds up to six people, so I was quite pleased to find that it was only me in there on the day as that meant I could layout cameras and lenses on the bench and move along the hide for slightly different viewpoints too. It was early October so I wasn’t at all sure what the weather would be like, but as I approached mi-Wales the sun came out and I had an almost perfect afternoon of bright sunshine and blue skies.
The farmer puts out a lot of meat and the kites start to swoop in to pick it up from the floor. One thing that kites do is feed on the wind, so this “in-flight meal” is quite common to see, and this is one of my earlier shots of the afternoon.
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm
- 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO 320
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm
- 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO 320
- EOS 7D Mark II
- EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 200mm
- 1/2000s, f/3.5, ISO 100
- EOS 7D Mark II
- EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 200mm
- 1/2000s, f/3.5, ISO 100
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 371mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 800
Sometimes you shoot so much it’s only when you review the shots do you find interesting behaviour, like inverted flying. EOS R6 sure kept on tracking the head of the inverted bird.
- EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 200mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 1250
It is not only kites that are feeding at Gigrin Farm, I only realised this was a buzzard when I was reviewing images in Lightroom and found this odd looking kite with a rounded not forked tail.
- EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 200mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 1250
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 400
Then something quite unexpected appeared, a rare leucistic red kite. Leucism is where the pigment is much lighter than normal, yet the eyes are normal colour. So this is a white kite. There are a one or two that are known to visit, but they don’t come every day so I was lucky to see it.
- EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 200mm
- 1/2000s, f/4, ISO 320
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 320
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 371mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 400
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 371mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 400
- EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 200mm
- 1/2000s, f/4, ISO 160
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm
- 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 640
A few points to take note of…
- Use a fast enough shutter speed for the subject and lens. Image stabiliser only reduces camera shake, not subject movement.
- Don’t be too worried by higher ISO settings, if that is what is needed for the shutter speed to get a sharp shot.
- I shot these with the camera mostly in medium speed drive mode, mostly shooting short bursts of less than five shots.
Day 9 of 12 done, see you tomorrow for some more photos.