'In Tandem'...

This pair of Buzzards swoop over my father's farm, their cry sounding before you get to see them.

This male/female pair nest in one of the tall trees at the of the top of the field and I usually see them at some point when down. I'd never had a lens with me before to even try and do them justice so haven't tried snapping them before.

I had taken The 'Big Sig' down with me as there was a chance that I was going to get to visit Blashford Lakes nature reserve, where there are hides and is a popular place for twitchers and bird watchers from all over the south. It now looks as if I'll be tied up here for a good while and the Reserve closes at 4pm.

So, this'll be my Blip.

I had been amusing my father with the giant lens on a monopod and sat with him on his bed, as he does for hours, gazing out onto the garden. There were robins, blackbirds and bluetits, of course. All lovely and pretty and mostly VERY small! Of course I could show him on the screen immediately after and zoom in - as if by magic. It was rather fun as he'd say there was such and such somewhere else - and there wasn't! He was being a bit of an old rascal, if you ask me!

I then went outside, leaving him inside. I waved at him through the window. I then took the sky in and now I could hear the mass of birdsong - it is almost deafening if you attune yourself to it. And then you wonder how almost nothing in sight could make such a din - and you look around, more.

Then I saw the male buzzard, through the branches, high up, a distant speck, gliding. I removed the monopod from the lens (via the collar) and shot hand-held. Those who have this lens know that it is quite a beast to handhold (over 2kgs) and is almost the size of Belgium!

I had to focus manually as the AF will tend to lose its grip on a small moving object against a large plain grey background. I didn't have time or thought to change any of the other settings either as I was following my bird of prey.

The buzzard then went over the horizon and I thought that that was that. I felt disappointed but hung about but I had that empty feeling that I had had my chance and whilst I got some OK shots of a single buzzard, they were nothing very extraordinary.

A couple of minutes later, the buzzard returned and from the other direction, his "wife" joined him. Zoomed in at 500mm on a DX crop (750mm eqv) it is almost impossible to fit two birds flying apart in the same frame. Rather than zoom out - and taking my concentration from the birds to the photo - I just followed their flight through the viewfinder - whilst still holding up that massive lens!

This was one of about six that had both of them in the frame. In the others, they looked like separate birds, who happened to be flying near to each other. This, as a friend said, they are joined at the wing. My cousin Paul thought that I had surely Photoshopped the other one in.

Yes, I had to crop it and it was underexposed and it needed a lot of sharpening, all "edited" via a very simple programme on my brother's laptop. So, it's quite noisy for iso 800 but I am no bird photographer and so I am pleased to have got anything half decent, under the circumstances.

Lens is Sigma 150-500mm Apo

Ironically, the one year ago Blip is of my father's dog, Milo. See thumbnail below, right.