View allAll Photos Tagged Swift,
Without you, there is no time
The bee acquires the stillness of a stone
And nature's frantic flap assumes a stationary stance.
Colour fades and life is held as though in heavy glass
The swift, suspended inches from her nest
Will there remain 'til after you return.
for my Elastigirl
I love Swifts almost as much as the Swallows Etc,but trying to get the exposure right i find can be very difficult.
Yesterday morning our local Swifts were flying over the garden so I went out with my camera for some target practice. This wasn't my best photo of the session, but a Swift feeding is something I've been trying to photograph for ages. They fly around catching flying insects which they store in their crop to take back to the nest. They can catch up to a thousand insects before returning to feed the chicks. David Lack who studied Swifts nesting in a tower at Oxford University counted 312 different species of insect and spider in these bug balls, and found that typically they contain 3-500 insects. Because winged insect food is so variable and unpredictable the youngsters can go into a kind of torpor, dropping their body temperature and arresting their development, then resuming to normal development when the insects start to reappear. They probably hunt at about 25 mph but even at this speed they can differentiate between insects. One swift was found to have caught several stingless drone honeybees but neatly avoided all of the stinging females. It is thought that each Swift may catch 10,000 insects in a day, which makes it surprising that this is the first time I have managed to photograph one feeding.
Not as sharp as it looked on the camera, Grantown-on Spey, Scotland.
These are noticeably absent from the skies above our garden this year. In fact, I'm not sure I've seen any at all in mid Sussex yet
July 2022 - reprocessed using Topaz Sharpen AI
Swift Creek splits into several branches at Canyon View Park in Afton, Wyoming, so little steel bridges are scattered throughout the park. Fallen leaves add to the picturesque location.
One of our swifts returning with food for the young in our attic. Wonderful to see them zooming in at various times - think we have at least 2 nests and possibly 3.
We have a very small number this year, all nesting in the one old barn. Now I'm getting on top of their flight plans, it's getting easier to catch them, but still a way to go.
This Swift was about 2 feet from the top of the grass.
Still trying to get one catching a fly in mid-air...
This is all I have to offer of the magnificent Swift this year. They're just about all gone now. Waiting for their return :) Thanks everyone, for comments etc.....I am not returning comments etc on others images as the house is still taking up my time. The kitchen is just about complete now, so my wifes happy. Cheers Gregg
Poor Light while two swifts were flying and when the good light came the Swifts were nowhere to be seen :-( better luck next time maybe.
A Little disappointed as i waited for a while but that's wildlife and why i love it.
The “line_up“ is a paperwork series I developed since 2010. The “liners” are made out of paper (Din A3/A4),
oil paint and graphite. The theme is the hermetical laws of polarity and movement. There is no ending and no beginning in any direction, just an endless movement. You have the possibility to arrange the papers like you want and that makes it an endless playground for my photo-work and the eyes of the viewers.
Yanomano
top20
We climbed Ingleborough to find flocks of swifts at the top, feeding on the swarms of midges. (I haven’t painted the midges). The hill in the background is Pen-y-ghent which means roughly "windy hill" in the ancient British language. Watercolour 11x12", french ultramarine, quinacridone magenta, permanent rose, aureolin, cadmium yellow pale.