My birthday present from Sarah this year was a day of learning how to use my camera with specific emphasis on capturing the ideal pictures of birds. Before everyone thinks that is have gone all paparazzi and am taking photos of topless celebrities in Cannes through some telescopic lens, i can assure you these birds were of the feathered variety!
The location was the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Hampshire, and upon arrival i could tell that i was the completely wrong demographic for this sort of pastime, seeing as the rest of the group were in the age range of 60-80 and clearly looking for things to do in their retirement before the father time finally caught up with them. Unperturbed though, i assembled my kit and waited patiently for the trainer to arrive.
One thing should be noted about photography; there is an element of lens envy, which is not dissimilar to comparing penis sizes - the size of your lens is important. However it is also a sign of social status too, and i could tell the retirees had way too much disposable income by the fact that they all had white lenses (even a dullard like me knows that a white lens means serious moolah has been spent out). One chap even had an iPad 2 which he could link up to his memory card and see his shots on the fly (forgive the pun). Still there was one lady on the course who came along with a small compact camera, so i didn't feel completely emasculated.
Also, i took enjoyment that even the lenses of the rich retirees were completely overshadowed by someone else, not in our group but wandering the trust, who had a lens so big that it would have put the Hubble telescope to shame - i swear with that thing he could have zoomed in to see the amoebas on the ticks on the bird!!
Also, i took enjoyment that even the lenses of the rich retirees were completely overshadowed by someone else, not in our group but wandering the trust, who had a lens so big that it would have put the Hubble telescope to shame - i swear with that thing he could have zoomed in to see the amoebas on the ticks on the bird!!
Anyway, aside from the lens envy, the group were all reasonably nice; the retired University professor whose anecdotes always started with the prefix "one of my research students......" or "when i was at the University....."; The strange man from Portsmouth who hadn't done anything wrong at all, but people naturally kept a distance from (he made a gaffe later in the day which justified this feeling of weirdness); an 80 year old retiree from Bedford way; a mother and daughter combo from god-knows-where and some Welsh folk.
The purpose of the day was to a) understand my camera and b) learn how to get some good shots of birds. The course didn't disappoint in the number of birds we got to see, like photographic hors d'oeuvres they were wheeled out one after another for use to photograph. It was a combination of perch shots (shots with them sitting in a tree or on a stump) and "action" shots where the trainer gets them to fly from one designated area to another, allowing the group to catch them in flight.
The day started off with Owls and boy were there a lot of different varieties to go through - we started with a Tawny Owl called Troy, then a Milky Eagle Owl called Tolkien, a Eurasian Eagle Owl, a Great Grey Owl (Molly), a Snowy Owl and a Barn Owl.
I have to say i was quite happy with my perch shots, but the whole action shot area of the business is not something i am cut out for just yet - i snap away like a crazy tourist, but almost every shot is worthless as either the face is blurred, or the bird isn't even in the shot....
After the Owls, we sat down and had some lunch, which was actually rather nice, we were led up to some log cabin past all the peons who paid for a normal ticket, and were made to feel very VIP looking out on the balcony at the flying display below (a kestrel was demonstrating its hovering ability). I had some lovely soup and regaled my table with tales of birds i had seen before being sent out once more unto the breach.
The afternoon session was more Eagles and Vultures, which was a welcome relief as i was getting a bit owled out. We started off with a hooded vulture, a relatively small vulture by the sub-species standards.
The trust was having to pick and choose which birds it brought out for parading, as some of them had obviously performed in the flying displays earlier, and so having been fed they were less likely to be coaxed to flap their wings for the silly humans with the big lenses. As if to illustrate the point, after a couple of flights back and forth the vulture lost interest in flying and so next we were treated to seeing a Bald Eagle (called Cheyenne). The wingspan on this bird is massive, approx. six feet and the beak and talons are enough to make you think "i don't want to piss one of these off!" I was impressed as they arranged for his flight to go over the top of us, and so we were treated to incredible close ups of him flying past - he was so close to me, i could feel the wind from his wings! Indeed there were a couple of occasions when i had to take evasive action to prevent myself getting impaled by a bald eagle - i don't know where i would stand on my life insurance!
Next on the menu was a training demonstration with a Saker falcon called Drifter. They have a piece of meat on the end of a rope (lure) and swing it around their heads and so to get fed, the falcon has to try and catch it. This mimics as best as possible their prey in the wild and allows them to hone their hunting technique. I have to say, the speed and agility of these birds is amazing (still nowhere near as fast as a Peregrine in a stoop), and as an added bonus we also got a demonstration on how the bird got her name, as she soon got tired of the lure game and flew off over the hills. All of a sudden there was an almighty commotion of terrified cawing and hundreds of crows flew up into the sky - it was clear that they had met Drifter, and a part of me smirked at the thought of the poor sods below the being rained on by crow shit. Needless to say Drifter moved too fast for me to get any meaningful pictures of her, as by the time i had found her in the sky, she was gone.
We returned to the vulture world for our next bird - an African White-backed Vulture. This was considerably bigger than the hooded vultures we saw earlier, but they realised that the crowd enjoyed being "buzzed" by the birds so repeated the feat with this one. Once again i got some reasonable perched shots but the quality dipped really low when trying to capture the bird in flight. Still its size meant that it moved slow enough for me to find it in the sky and get some moderately in focus snaps!
Next on the list was another demonstration, but with nine Black Kites. Having been to Wales and seen the Red Kites being fed, i knew roughly what to expect, and before long there were kites zipping over us gracefully swooping and soaring chasing each other for the meat they were being fed. I found the Black Kites a little less exciting than the Reds, but that is because the Red Kites i saw were actually wild and coming to be fed, whereas these were trained to come and be fed - a subtle but important difference i felt.
By this point in the day, the light was starting to fade meaning that any chance of capturing action from the Kites was nigh on impossible, and so we retreated to the hides on site to watch a Heron feeding demonstration. This was a rather odd way to end the day really considering that the whole site is dedicated to birds of prey, but as i am a bit of a fan of Herons i did not mind in the slightest. Indeed there were a goodly 15 Herons we could spot on the site and i managed to get a couple of shots off before the light went completely.
After this it was time to say our goodbyes and make the long journey back to civilisation (well if you can call this town civilised!!). All-in-all though it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, packed full of birds of prey and one i will not forget in a hurry.
After the Owls, we sat down and had some lunch, which was actually rather nice, we were led up to some log cabin past all the peons who paid for a normal ticket, and were made to feel very VIP looking out on the balcony at the flying display below (a kestrel was demonstrating its hovering ability). I had some lovely soup and regaled my table with tales of birds i had seen before being sent out once more unto the breach.
The afternoon session was more Eagles and Vultures, which was a welcome relief as i was getting a bit owled out. We started off with a hooded vulture, a relatively small vulture by the sub-species standards.
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| accidentally good action shot..... |
The trust was having to pick and choose which birds it brought out for parading, as some of them had obviously performed in the flying displays earlier, and so having been fed they were less likely to be coaxed to flap their wings for the silly humans with the big lenses. As if to illustrate the point, after a couple of flights back and forth the vulture lost interest in flying and so next we were treated to seeing a Bald Eagle (called Cheyenne). The wingspan on this bird is massive, approx. six feet and the beak and talons are enough to make you think "i don't want to piss one of these off!" I was impressed as they arranged for his flight to go over the top of us, and so we were treated to incredible close ups of him flying past - he was so close to me, i could feel the wind from his wings! Indeed there were a couple of occasions when i had to take evasive action to prevent myself getting impaled by a bald eagle - i don't know where i would stand on my life insurance!
Next on the menu was a training demonstration with a Saker falcon called Drifter. They have a piece of meat on the end of a rope (lure) and swing it around their heads and so to get fed, the falcon has to try and catch it. This mimics as best as possible their prey in the wild and allows them to hone their hunting technique. I have to say, the speed and agility of these birds is amazing (still nowhere near as fast as a Peregrine in a stoop), and as an added bonus we also got a demonstration on how the bird got her name, as she soon got tired of the lure game and flew off over the hills. All of a sudden there was an almighty commotion of terrified cawing and hundreds of crows flew up into the sky - it was clear that they had met Drifter, and a part of me smirked at the thought of the poor sods below the being rained on by crow shit. Needless to say Drifter moved too fast for me to get any meaningful pictures of her, as by the time i had found her in the sky, she was gone.
We returned to the vulture world for our next bird - an African White-backed Vulture. This was considerably bigger than the hooded vultures we saw earlier, but they realised that the crowd enjoyed being "buzzed" by the birds so repeated the feat with this one. Once again i got some reasonable perched shots but the quality dipped really low when trying to capture the bird in flight. Still its size meant that it moved slow enough for me to find it in the sky and get some moderately in focus snaps!
Next on the list was another demonstration, but with nine Black Kites. Having been to Wales and seen the Red Kites being fed, i knew roughly what to expect, and before long there were kites zipping over us gracefully swooping and soaring chasing each other for the meat they were being fed. I found the Black Kites a little less exciting than the Reds, but that is because the Red Kites i saw were actually wild and coming to be fed, whereas these were trained to come and be fed - a subtle but important difference i felt.
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| For all you Trekkies out there, this is 1 of 9 |
By this point in the day, the light was starting to fade meaning that any chance of capturing action from the Kites was nigh on impossible, and so we retreated to the hides on site to watch a Heron feeding demonstration. This was a rather odd way to end the day really considering that the whole site is dedicated to birds of prey, but as i am a bit of a fan of Herons i did not mind in the slightest. Indeed there were a goodly 15 Herons we could spot on the site and i managed to get a couple of shots off before the light went completely.
After this it was time to say our goodbyes and make the long journey back to civilisation (well if you can call this town civilised!!). All-in-all though it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, packed full of birds of prey and one i will not forget in a hurry.
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