Up for some eye-catching shots of raptors like harriers and Kestrels?
I recently spent a day in a grassland - away from the main roads and very vast. I was amazed that I could see so many raptors in one day. Further, I could actually see them gliding right in front of my eyes and got some amazing flight shots..
Harriers are winter migrants in my location. These graceful birds seem like a store of energy.. They glide day long, flapping and gliding with swoops, a few feet above ground. They float around fields and grasslands for the whole day - rarely sitting down.
They look for prey like grasshoppers and small bugs and sometimes even lizards etc.
It is not easy to get a nice flight shot though because they are always moving away whenever they spot humans.
It is even more difficult to get shots of them sitting down because they come to ground to roost only late in the evening when the light fades.
Since @nelinoeva announced the theme of the contest as free theme this week, I thought of sharing some of these nice Harrier clicks I have..
Montague's Harrier male
Fondly referred to by my friends as the 'Grey Ghost' this is a harrier that prefers roosting in the grass I had to lie down under my car to be able to get this shot.
The grey ghost
My own click
Montagu's Harrier female
This lady had an attitude and seemed to say 'My ground my rules' as she defiantly started me down as I crawled towards her for a close up shot... Just look at those eyes!
Feisty lady..
My own click
Pallid Harrier male
With a white upper body, this harrier is a bit rarer and looks like a Knight on a white horse as it glides around in twilight. I caught it looking over the shoulder as it settled in a field...
The White knight...
My own click
However, my favorite shot of a harrier, and my entry for SMAP 96 is the shot below. It is very precious for me because I got it after almost an hour of following it around, waiting for it to sit down and also because of the beautiful setting in which I got it...
My entry for SMAP 96
Of course - another equally favorite picture is the one which I used in the blog title collage. It is one of the best flight shots of a harrier that I have clicked. Here it is in it's full format..
Flight !
My own click
Hope you all enjoyed seeing these lovely harriers.
What do you think? Did you like the pics? Please feel free to share your comments and opinions.
A big thank you for support
Thanks to c/hive-106444 (Feathered friends community) for providing this wonderful opportunity to present my experience and photographs. Thanks to @barbara-orenya and @melinda010100 for all the support and encouragement to this community. Special thanks to @nelinoeva also for starting the Species hunt initiative. My posts are not exactly in that format but have all the necessary info and Good original Photos. Further guidance will be very much welcome.
Thanks to HIVE for this wonderful platform. Thanks also to @adalger and @dna.org for encouraging me by recognizing some of my posts as worthy of Densifying nature project.
Further, thanks to Amazing nature community for welcoming me and showing me their love on some of my posts.
Note: All images and collages in this blog are created by me, based on photos clicked by me personally and/or free vector images from Pixabay. Any other sources, if used, are indicated as image credits below the picture.
Quotes used, if not credited, are either from unknown authors or are proverbial old sayings.
