Black shouldered Kite

[Alan]

BSK - (Elanus axillaris) Moruya Heads this morning



I haven't seen one of these around for awhile, but this one turned up a few days ago and took up station on top of one of it's favoruite trees. That means the angle for photography was steeper than I'd like, but I think this shot is acceptable from that regard. Nikon D7000 300mm Nikon and x1.7 TC Tripod. f/7.1 1/640 200 ISO Cropped to a third of frame. Might try for some blue sky tomorrow.

[seaslug]

Special, I don't see these around here. I do get to see the Grey/white Goshawks occasionally but never been lucky enough to get decent shots of them.

[Grumpy John]

Great shot, looks like he was posing for the shot. Are they a migratory bird Alan?

[Alan]

Thanks Greg and John

from Birds in the Backyard.....

"Nomadic; populations may irrupt in response to mouse plagues in particular areas."

Cheers

[Grumpy John]

Thanks for the info.

[Ironwood]

Lovely capture Alan, and great PProcessing.

[Isac]

Lovely shot of a lovely bird Alan. Great framing and liking the colours. It would be a rarity for me to use a square crop, but this works. I'm interested to hear why you selected a square crop when my choice would be a portrait crop.

[Alan]

Thanks Brad and Greg.

Greg I thought about the crop for awhile and did try a Portrait crop but decided there would be too much tree. Since most of my photos end up on Instagram now, which works best with square or slight Portrait crops, I decided to just go with square as it also seemed to work best in my eyes. Welcome to have a play.

Cheers

[Isac]

Had a look at alan_down_under and you've got some wonderful images there Alan. Great PP effects on some as well. Not a fan of the square crop most times, but I guess you've got to obey their rules. Seems odd that Instagram chooses a square format, when most phones use a non square shape.

[Alan]

Thanks Greg. Yeah - seems a stupid idea to me. But then they have another section for "Stories" where you can post videos and photos that only stay on their site for a short time, (and even "live video"), but it only takes the full vertical phone format?

[Isac]

Go figure!

[RossW]

Great subject and technique

[HansE]

Love the bird and the photograph. Beautiful. Never manage to get to use a tripod. They always fly away before I can put one up

[Grumpy John]

They scoot before I can get the lens cap off. I am so envious of anyone that can get good bird shots, particularly small ones.

[HansE]

Not enough practice, maybe?

[Grumpy John]

You’re not wrong Hans, practice and patience.