Swifts (Apus apus)
Swifts have always fascinated me, with their speed and noise around their nest sites. I am very lucky at the moment as they nest in a number of houses close to where I live. However, living on a fairly modern housing development presents a number of problems when trying to take pictures. Firstly as the birds fly low and fast around, over and between the buildings there is only a very short window of opportunity in which to photograph them. Also, pointing a camera with a 400mm lens at someone else's house could be difficult, unless of course they already know what I’m up to!!.
Swifts really make photography difficult, in that they often fly high & slow or low & fast. Also they approach the nest sites at tremendous speed from various angles and go straight in under the roof tiles. Still, it is a challenge that I was keen to give a go, and why not given that I only have to step out of my front door.
The recent warm weather has brought around a change of behaviour from the local swifts. They seem to be making more trips back to the nest. It may be that they are just feeding the growing young. However, I have seen on a number of occasions, a swift being pulled off the house wall by another swift as it attempts to get under the tiles. I haven’t been able to work out quite what has been going on. Also their calls change a lot from a screen to almost a single note warble.
While watching the swifts the local sparrowhawk has flown over a number of times. I guess that it is around far more than I have realised but I haven’t spent that much time looking skywards. The reaction from the swifts is always to go high, but I don’t think that the sparrowhawk really has a chance of catching them.
Hopefully, these pictures do credit to an amazing bird, which has been a pleasure to watch over the weekend
Swifts (Apus apus)
Swifts have always fascinated me, with their speed and noise around their nest sites. I am very lucky at the moment as they nest in a number of houses close to where I live. However, living on a fairly modern housing development presents a number of problems when trying to take pictures. Firstly as the birds fly low and fast around, over and between the buildings there is only a very short window of opportunity in which to photograph them. Also, pointing a camera with a 400mm lens at someone else's house could be difficult, unless of course they already know what I’m up to!!.
Swifts really make photography difficult, in that they often fly high & slow or low & fast. Also they approach the nest sites at tremendous speed from various angles and go straight in under the roof tiles. Still, it is a challenge that I was keen to give a go, and why not given that I only have to step out of my front door.
The recent warm weather has brought around a change of behaviour from the local swifts. They seem to be making more trips back to the nest. It may be that they are just feeding the growing young. However, I have seen on a number of occasions, a swift being pulled off the house wall by another swift as it attempts to get under the tiles. I haven’t been able to work out quite what has been going on. Also their calls change a lot from a screen to almost a single note warble.
While watching the swifts the local sparrowhawk has flown over a number of times. I guess that it is around far more than I have realised but I haven’t spent that much time looking skywards. The reaction from the swifts is always to go high, but I don’t think that the sparrowhawk really has a chance of catching them.
Hopefully, these pictures do credit to an amazing bird, which has been a pleasure to watch over the weekend