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Birds, Insects & Bats in flight (outdoors) Page 19
Image Taken on 14 Jun 2008
at 12:58 Image of day on 25 Jun 2008
Swifts and swallows are making intermittent appearances.
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Ref: 20080625_dc1_20080614_1258_192 swift in flight (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 06 Jul 2006
at 17:56 Image of day on 19 Jul 2006
Photographing birds in flight is hard, and flycatchers doubly so.
So getting even a half-decent image is a minor triumph.
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Ref: 20060719_d60_20060706_1756_632 swift in flight (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 05 Jun 2006
at 16:28 Image of day on 13 Jun 2006
This year not many Swallows but a few swifts of which this one
is an example. The BBC Springwatch website and paperwork
packs include Swallows, Swifts and House Martins from our portfolio.
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Ref: 20060613_d10_20060605_1628_486 swift in flight(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 31 May 2010
at 16:05 Image of day on 08 Jul 2010
We are trying to catch the moment of an insect about to go into
a flycatchers beak. During this attempt we got this unusual
sequence of what we think is a swallow reaching way up
to catch an insect. Probably about 200mS between images
with arbitrary positions.
We guess that the insect was hidden by the right wing of the first image,
and inside the beak by the second!
 1-3 of 3 (arbitrary montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20100708_df1_20100531_1605_088-090 swift in flight arching back & opening beak to catch insect (q) 1-3 of 3 (arbitrary montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 22 Jun 2011
at 13:37 Image of day on 29 Jul 2011
Swifts are normally photographed as sickle shapes, but they
have a full range of wing movements, here caught near the top
of its wing stroke.
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Ref: 20110729_df1_20110622_1337_290 swift in flight at top of wing stroke(r+mb id@432).jpg
Image Taken on 04 May 2010
at 15:11 Image of day on 10 Jun 2010
The swifts have been mostly flying very high but have
occasionally come low enough to be much better than 'specks in
the sky'. With naked eye they tend to appear as black silhouettes
but a camera with exposure locked to prevent the sky forcing
underexposure it can show the subtle grey markings.
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Ref: 20100610_df1_20100504_1511_119 swift in flight overhead (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 20 May 2008
at 17:45 Image of day on 29 May 2008
Some swifts did a few low circles. Here one has it's mouth open to
catch the insects it feeds on.
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Ref: 20080529_dc1_20080520_1745_050 swift in flight overhead with beak open(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 22 Jun 2011
at 13:37 Image of day on 29 Jul 2011
No this isn't turned sideways!
The swift was sweeping up to catch an insect
(not big enough to spot even in the original).
(r+mb id@432).jpg)
Ref: 20110729_df1_20110622_1337_238 swift in flight reaching up for insect (unprocessed crop)(r+mb id@432).jpg
Image Taken on 22 Mar 2012
at 00:55 Image of day on 21 Apr 2012
4 days later the Tawny owl visited again, this time around 1 a.m.,
photographing itself twice, first landing and then jumping down onto the
perch with it's back to us. The 2 images are montaged together.
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Ref: 20120421_d3b_20120322_0055_117+118_fb3 tawny owl landing on peanut feeder then moving to perch (adjusted position montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 10 Dec 2011
at 21:32 Image of day on 17 Jan 2012
This Tawny owl made this nice landing on the perch (which we saw
on CCTV as well) but stayed for only a few seconds before flying off.
The time stamp for this image is a few minutes fast.
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Ref: 20120117_d3b_20111210_2132_151_fb3 tawny owl landing on perch (crop 1)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 30 Jan 2011
at 20:56 Image of day on 16 Mar 2011
Lovely surprise of this night was the arrival of this Tawny Owl
who triggered this photo with this arrival (more to follow).
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Ref: 20110316_d3b_20110130_2056_078_fb3 tawny owl landing on perch (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 03 Jan 2011
at 04:56 Image of day on 27 Feb 2011
Wow!
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Ref: 20110227_d3b_20110103_0456_058_fb3 tawny owl landing on perch (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 26 Dec 2010
at 19:59 Image of day on 17 Feb 2011
The Night Shift:
A tawny owl makes a deft landing on the awkward (but at
least grippy terracotta) peanut feeder.
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Ref: 20110217_d3b_20101226_1959_076_fb3 tawny owl landing on perch (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 31 Dec 2009
at 18:56 Image of day on 26 Jan 2010
We first saw this Tawny Owl in Infra-red on the CCTV monitor on
'Raptor' perch. It flew off and 'disappeared' but 7 minutes later
landed outside the kitchen window and stayed for about a minute.
It triggered the camera just the once as it was landing - see the
claws still stretched forward.
 previously seen on raptor perch at 1849 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20100126_d36_20091231_1856_036_fb3 tawny owl landing on perch (corrected time) previously seen on raptor perch at 1849 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 21 Feb 2011
at 23:36 Image of day on 30 Mar 2011
We knew nothing of this short midnight visit by a Tawny Owl until 5 days later
when we imported the images. The wings look close to fully stretched and measure
70cm tip to tip.
 (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20110330_d3b_20110221_2336_052_fb3 tawny owl landing on perch (wing span 70cm) (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 05 Apr 2010
at 00:45 Image of day on 08 May 2010
We had always thought this shiny ceramic top of the large peanut feeder
would not attract a bird of any size - corvids don't land on it.
Checking the CCTV camera we found it had landed on the feeder,
stayed 4 minutes and then flew off and did so again a few days later.
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Ref: 20100508_d3b_20100405_0045_010_fb3 tawny owl landing on top of large peanut feeder (crop 2 @768)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 20 Nov 2011
at 19:06 Image of day on 01 Jan 2012
More Owls as a New-Year treat.
We hear tawny owls calling less than kilometre to our south, and
at least one is making regular visits to either the Kitchen
window perch or the tree stump. Here a bird landed to make a
lovely portrait.
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Ref: 20120101_d35_20111120_1906_074_fb4 tawny owl landing on tree stump (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Nov 2011
at 00:46 Image of day on 25 Dec 2011
Another day on we see a landing from straight ahead, and maybe
discover one of the attractions of this tree-stump - one claw has
trapped one of the Leopard slugs - a nice easy meal for the owl?
The next image was 4 hours later so we will never know!
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Ref: 20111225_d35_20111115_0046_013_fb4 tawny owl landing on tree stump with claw on leopard slug (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image of day on 30 May 2005
There are multiple families of tree sparrows and from this image
it looks like an inter-family boundary fence argument is in progress.
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Ref: 20050530_d3e_17101 fb1 tree sparrows fighting in flight 2005may26_20-09-50(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 10 Apr 2010
at 17:36 Image of day on 19 May 2010
2 tree sparrows having a serious dispute with another watching.
We can't help assuming 2 males and a female.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20100519_d3b_20100410_1736_012_fb3 2 tree sparrows fighting in flight while another watches (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
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