What's its all sorts (Feathery and Cute things)

[Overread40]

Random load of random incomming!

First the FEATHERY

Both shot with my Sigma 120-300mm + 2*TC at 600mm.
The latter is a bird trying to get into some caged birds - he failed in his attempts despite flying back and forth for a few days over the cage.


And now the CUTE

 

[SCraig]

Great shots! Perhaps a better title would be "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" though

 

[Overread40]

Hey! The Finch isn't that bad looking!

 

[TamiAz]

The brown bug looks like it wants to kick your a$$!!

 

[SCraig]

Hey! The Finch isn't that bad looking!

The Finch is the good, the Falcon (I think it's a Falcon) is the bad, and the bugs are the ugly

 

[Overread40]

I've been told it looks like a sparrowhawk though I've not dug my bird book out quite yet (lazy...... and it was in the wrong county when I took the shot originally).

And the bugs are NOT UGLY!!! I mean just look at that pretty furry moth!!

 

[SCraig]

I've been told it looks like a sparrowhawk though I've not dug my bird book out quite yet (lazy...... and it was in the wrong county when I took the shot originally).

We don't have any small raptors around here. We have Eagles, Hawks, and Owls and that's about it. Anything smaller than those three is automatically a Falcon to me so you could certainly be right about it being a Sparrowhawk.

And the bugs are NOT UGLY!!! I mean just look at that pretty furry moth!!

Well, "The Good, The Bad, and The Not-Ugly" just didn't work well

 

[Overread40]

Tends to be about the same with us - if its smaller its some sort of Falcon. Peek in the bird book and it suggests that its a Juvenile Sparrowhawk based on the browner feathers (as opposed to a more slate grey) and the slightly more broken up breast markings (as opposed to more distinct bands)

 

[SCraig]

I took a look at some Sparrowhawk photos on Google and they are really cute little raptors. They look exactly like some of the larger hawks we have around here, just reduced in size. Are they common over there?

 

[Overread40]

Fairly common and we get them all over the UK all year round barring possibly some of the more northern parts of Scotland. They tend to be seen more often too as they go after the little finches and birds more commonly found in gardens (and considering how many small wild birds we get in our garden its no surprise that one of these is flitting around).

 

[SCraig]

Fairly common and we get them all over the UK all year round barring possibly some of the more northern parts of Scotland. They tend to be seen more often too as they go after the little finches and birds more commonly found in gardens (and considering how many small wild birds we get in our garden its no surprise that one of these is flitting around).

That would almost be worth a trip across the pond! I enjoy photographing birds even though I don't claim to be a "Bird Watcher". The raptor family amazes me and I'd love to see that packed into a small bird. I've seen a Peregrine Falcon but it was a captive bird. That's as close as I've come to one

 

[Overread40]

Peregrine are a little bigger though at a distance probably look quite the same in size to the Sparrowhawk - when I first saw it I wondered if it could be a peregrine, but the head and breast markings appear to be all wrong for that bird (even when in juvenile state). And yes I agree that raptors are a fantastic group of birds! Always been a fan of the Kestrel myself

 

[SCraig]

I'm a licensed pilot (although I haven't flown in a number of years) so watching something that can fly that fast with that precision absolutely amazes me. They see something on the ground, dive at full speed through trees and bushes, and pull out perfectly so that their claws just brush the ground to grab their prey. Very few humans could manage to do that, yet nobody ever told them that it's damn near impossible so they just go ahead and do it. I could sit and watch them all day and be perfectly happy.