Wildlife Photographic Journals

Gigrin Raptors

I was passing close by to the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm around feeding time the other day, and so thought I would drop in to see if there was any action to be had with the camera. There were quite good numbers of birds coming into the free food hand out along with buzzards and ravens. A number of the birds were looking quite tatty as they were still going through the moulting process. Unfortunately the light was poor, as has been typical recently, which ruled out achieving any decent sky flight photos so I decided to try and get photos of the birds as they dropped in to grab some of the scattered beef pieces. Its always difficult photographing birds against a 'busy' background as it tends to drive the focus systems on most camera bodies into overdrive but was made even more difficult by the lack of light and the tendency for the kites to swoop down very rapidly without much in the way of warning. For those who have not seen red kites feeding they very rarely land and Gigrin Farm is a superb place to watch these acrobatic birds in action.

Starting with some buzzards

Much as I would have liked to pjotograph some ravens it seemed pointless trying to photograph a black bird in such low light conditions and so to some of the Red Kites. They are such photogenic birds.

This certainly will not be my last visit to Gigrin and I intend to return later in the year when they have finished moulting and hopefully the sun is shining.