Camera School
Following on from the basics of bird photography covered in previous Camera School articles, Species Classes articles concentrate on individual species and provide insights into where, when and how to get the best images
A tutorial of insights into where, when and how to get the best images of Grey Phalarope
Visit one of the well-known red Kite feeding stations, such as gigrin Farm in Wales, and there are opportunities to photograph Buzzards, too. they are not as aerobatic as their cousins but they still provide a wonderful flying spectacle. In soaring mode, a Buzzard appears to be moving fairly slowly, but this can be deceptive: a shutter speed of at least 1/2,500s is recommended to ‘freeze’ movement, combined with a reasonable depth of field – an aperture of f/8 or f/11 perhaps. Buzzards spend a lot of time perched, on the look-out for food, danger and rivals. use fieldcraft and binoculars, work your local patch and identify some of the most regular perches – ones that perhaps provide opportunities to photograph the bird at eye-level. In open habitats, Buzzards often use the tallest perch for observation. the canny photographer can use this to their advantage and, for example, strap a weathered and discarded fencepost to a new one, making it a foot or so higher than its neighbours. Like most other raptors, a Buzzard’s diet is more varied than some might suppose and, apart from live vertebrates, includes everything from earthworms to carrion. the latter predilection can help with photography and a roadkill rabbit, for example, can be irresistible to a hungry bird. If you use this approach, be sure just to use road casualties because there is a risk that carrion found elsewhere might have been poisoned or shot using lead pellets. and don’t try the technique if there is any danger of birds associating food with humans – there are unenlightened people out there who don’t look kindly on raptors.
Regularly used perches can provide opportunities for taking ‘landing’ shots. It can sometimes be useful to wait for a windy day because the direction of landing becomes a bit more predictable: like many other species, Buzzards will typically approach a perch heading into the wind and knowing this will improve the chances of getting a sharp, in-focus image. This photo was taken by back-button focusing on the perch, then re-composing and taking the image with no attempt to focus on the incoming bird. These days Buzzards are a regular roadside species and fenceposts are often used for perching, even when cars are whizzing by. Young birds tend to be less wary than adults on the whole and late autumn and early winter can provide great opportunities for photography. with a bit of common sense, and windows screened with camouflage netting, a car makes an ideal mobile hide. Obviously, you need to be mindful of other road users, so the technique is best employed in relatively quiet and rural spots such as dartmoor, west Cornwall, central wales and west Scotland. Southern Israel is a major migration route for the Steppe Buzzard, the migratory subspecies of Buzzard that goes by the scientific name Buteo buteo vulpinus. In spring, birds are heading from wintering grounds in Africa to breeding territory in Asia and, on a good day, more than
100,000 individuals pass through. Many stop off to feed, rest and pause on their travels, and arable fields and wetlands around Eilat and in the southern Arava Valley are great locations to watch these photogenic migrants.