Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Seeing Eye to Eye




Early this afternoon one of the children called me to see a big bird flying around. As I waited and watched, two square-tailed kites circled nearby. Soon one of them flew almost directly over me, as if to check out this strange being who stood with a big black glass eye pointed skyward.














I was delighted to have seen them again, from our own backyard. After a few minutes they flew away out of sight.




On our walk over the bridge yesterday we spotted a cattle egret flying low over the river. I love how it flies with its legs stretched straight behind.




A friendly kookaburra kept an eye on us as we returned from the bridge. It's such a joy to be able to see such marvellous birds from our own backyard and local surrounds.


Sharing at World Bird Wednesday.

43 comments:

geanina said...

great captures!
have a nice day... :)

s.c said...

Great bird shots.like them

Marty said...

truly wonderful images !

Sylvia K said...

Gorgeous birds and superb captures, Karen! I do love seeing them against your beautiful blue skies! Hope your week is going well!

Sylvia

Rosemary said...

Lovely shots Karen - that little kookaburra has such a quizzical and intentlook about him.

HANS-PETER ZÜRCHER said...

Wow fantastische Aufnahmen!!!

Grüsse aus der Schweiz

Hans-Peter

Q said...

It is such a delight to see your birds.
I am looking forward to getting to know you and your beautiful country.
Sherry

Noke said...

Klasse Bilder von den Greifvögeln.

Gruß
Noke

Thomas GIMOND said...

Très belle série :)

Ruth Hiebert said...

Beautiful images. Catching birds in flight is such a joy.

tinajo said...

Wow, so gorgeous pics!

LindyLouMac said...

Wonderful bird images.

FilipBlog said...

How powerful these prey birds.

Greetings,
Filip

Dianne said...

You have captured these in-flight moments beautifully.

Talibra said...

Ale piękny, wielki, wspaniały, zazdroszczę spotkania :)
Pozdrawiam.

Sarah said...

wau!!! Great picture!! Such a beautiful bird!!! Love Sarah

Marijke said...

How exited you must have been watch this bird so close up. Fantastic photo's Karen.
gr. Marijke

Giga said...

Cudowne zdjęcia ptaków, gratuluję i faktycznie cudownie żyć w ich pobliżu. Ostatni ptak jest słodki. Pozdrawiam.
Wonderful pictures of birds, congratulations and actually wonderful to live near them. The last bird is sweet. Yours.

Jana said...

wowww, great compo with the blue sky in the first shots, very powerful images!

Ellie said...

You got some great pictures of those birds, my goodness that is some wingspan on the kite.

Laura~Pretty Pix said...

Incredible, beautiful captures. Wow!

Unknown said...

Great shots!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

Anonymous said...

Was für wundervolle Fotos. So schööön ♥

Valerie said...

You've captured those kites so beautifully - don't you just love the amazing colours and structure of their feathers? Thanks for sharing.

Brian King said...

Fantastic shots! Love that blue sky as a background, too!

Unknown said...

WOW! What an amazing capture..

eileeninmd said...

Wow, cool sighting and neat looking bird. Your photos are wonderful. thanks for sharing your WBW!

mick said...

Great in-flight photos and wonderful to see them over your own back yard.

Gail Dixon said...

Oh, me! That kookaburra is too cute!! Love the hawk shots. So majestic!

NatureStop said...

WOW!!!I love those amazing flight shots!!!Have a great day!

Shantana

Vores have said...

Great pictures you show. Wishing you a good Wednesday. Hanne Bente / hbt.finus.dk

Dave said...

Lovely bird photos Karen. I specially liked your kookaburra. We have a green and blue kingfisher here that looks like your fella but a different colour. They too don't come into town very often - dave

Seeing Each Day said...

I can't give you a specific reason why because all these photos are well taken, but it's your 4th that's got me.

Cloudy said...

Great shots. I like these photos from faraway lands...

Best wishes from Germany
CL

J said...

Wow, so tolle Fotos. Gefällt mir sehr!
Liebe Grüße Jana

Liz said...

All wonderful captures of birds. Your flight shots are wonderful. I'd love to know what settings you used. I'm still stumbling around in Av mode, trying to get the settings just right to get a really clear shot of movement.
I too love your last shot. The eye focus is beautiful!

mariondejong said...

Marvelous, love especially the birds of prey, beautiful colors against that sky!
Best regards, Marion

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

Hi Liz, thanks for your comments and questions. For the square-tailed kite shots I had the camera set to sport mode which worked particularly well as it flew overhead, giving me a sequence. It was so close, the second, third and fourth are NOT cropped at all (lens zoomed to 270mm).

For the egret I had not time time change anything, just zoomed and snapped in no-flash-auto. For the kookaburra I was in P mode to focus on his eye as best I could.

Hope this helps.....I'm just a beginner when it comes to settings.

Jennifer {Studio JRU} said...

Wow... those in flight shots are amazing! How neat to watch it fly like that so close! Love seeing all your birdies. :)

Pat said...

Beautiful flight shots and that Kookaburra is so cute!

Gillian Olson said...

Your pictures are wonderful, and a treat for me too because I have never seen a kookaburra before.

Modesto Viegas said...

Great captures!!!!!

Pia said...

I love love love this wonderful bird shots!

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