Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[tikay]

Loved Kev B's peregrine photo, too. Drooling here, cant wait till I get my proper camera thing. Just gotta find the "subjects" then.

[RED-DOG]

Tom,

When I said "incredible photos", the photographic quality never crossed my mind - it's just sheer envy that you have such an amazing set up there, with such beautiful birds "eating out of your hand" almost. I'm staggered.

Oh yes. I totally agree. I wanted to say something about that but I didn't know how.

The really good thing about the photograph is that in order to attempt to take it, you have the privilege of seeing the bird in the flesh, in all it's glory.

I'm still not sure I've explained it very well but you know what I mean.


Having said that, anyone can attract beautiful birds to their garden or windowsill or whatever. You have to put a bit of effort in and mess around a bit trying different foods and feeders, but it's very rewarding.

[david3103]

In essence, to have a shallow depth of field you want a low f-stop. On most modern cameras there's a 'portrait' mode which will achieve this because portraits work better with low depth of field too. use the centre focus bit and the 'hold' facility.

Your high-end compact will certainly have both of these - all you need then is to avoid any shaking at your end. I'd think that you also have a multi-shot facility too on either the portrait or a 'sport' setting. Take lots, discard most, is a pretty good rule these days - after all, a deleted digital photo has a cost so tiny as to be ignored.

[Rod Paradise]

Click to see full-size image.

Wow! A peregrine. I've seen one at Croft quarry but only in the distance.

Great pic.

Hate to play Gatso here, but I think that's a sparrowhawk. Not got the dark band across the face/eye:

sparrowhawk:



Peregrine:



Still a great thing to see in your garden & even better to get a picture, the only one's we've had have been in really wet weather when one's sat on a fencepost in the garden really fed up & reluctant to move - so a very bedraggled sight it was.

[Kev B]

I thought it was a Sparrowhawk at the time but didn't want to go against Tom's better judgement. I wondered though wether it's a bit big for a Sparrowhawk?

[Rod Paradise]

I thought it was a Sparrowhawk at the time but didn't want to go against Tom's better judgement. I wondered though wether it's a bit big for a Sparrowhawk?

It is a biggun, but the females are usually a bit bigger than the males - I think that's what it is.


Googled it & a peregrine is from 15 to 20 inches head to tail, a sparrowhawk is  12 to 16 inches. Reckon it's a sparrowhawk.

[Kev B]

Thanks Rod, either way it's a beaut.

[RED-DOG]

I thought it was a Sparrowhawk at the time but didn't want to go against Tom's better judgement. I wondered though wether it's a bit big for a Sparrowhawk?

I'm sure Rod is correct. He's our resident raptor expert.

Anyway, I don't mind being wrong, I've had loads of practice.

[Rod Paradise]

I thought it was a Sparrowhawk at the time but didn't want to go against Tom's better judgement. I wondered though wether it's a bit big for a Sparrowhawk?

I'm sure Rod is correct. He's our resident raptor expert fan.

Anyway, I don't mind being wrong, I've had loads of practice.

Just lucky there's a lot of them about here, an advantage of living in the arse of nowhere.....

[Rod Paradise]

For the more cultured diary  - some more street art - from P183 already dubbed "Moscow's Banksy"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2012/jan/31/moscow-banksy-p183-in-pictures?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

[bobAlike]

Talking about dead animals, a couple of years ago the wife woke me up at 6:30 to tell me one of the kids rabbits was dead on the lawn. When I went out side to remove before the kids awoke, it's head and front legs were missing.
The following morning at the same time a leg and the head were in the exact same spot. On the third day the remaining leg was deposited.

It felt like we had a mafia fox leaving a message.

Not sure why it happened like this but assumed that the fox was maybe teaching it's young??

Could be a cat, or perhaps a bird of prey.

Are there any trees overhanging that spot?

I don't think trees did it.

Perhaps not. Their bark is worse than their bite....

Could well have been a bird of prey as there was a buzzard that sometimes circled the area and there are over hanging trees (not very big ones). Just didn't think a buzzard would keep delivering rabbit parts in appreciation.
There was also lots of fur on the floor and a couple of big scars on the rabbits back.

[Kev B]

Here's another beauty, a bit smaller than the last one.

[Rod Paradise]

Another tough one to get a pic of Kev, those wee coal tits never hold still long enough for me to pick up the camera, turn it on find the bird again then take the pic.

[RED-DOG]

The beautiful game?

Now I know you can't blame football for this, but seriously, WTF?


http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16161429

[RED-DOG]

No carcases ever found? No road kills? No photographs? No hard evidence of any kind? 

"Big cats are out there". Actually mate, no, they're not.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-16760599