This is not a great photo but it's the best I have gotten with the elusive swift. I tried "panning" (following a bird in flight by moving the camera) but quickly found it to be impossible as they fly way too fast. In fact, to get this shot I simply made many, many random shots into the sky at a very fast shutter speed in the hopes of catching one. And this blurry image is the best so far.
Anyway, we love the swifts and swallows (hirondelles in French) around our house, as they eat prodigious amounts of insects. And, to us, they make an interesting chirping sound as they swoop around scarfing up dinner. Some of our neighbors, however, are probably not pleased with their nests that the birds build underneath the eaves of the houses. (We don't have eaves, so no problem for us.)
When did you take this photo? The swifts here in Preuilly left a couple of weeks ago, back to the Congo for the winter. I saw some very high one evening in Milan last week though, so they haven't got that far yet.
ReplyDeleteSwifts nesting in your roof don't make a mess, but swallows and martins do. Most people find ways of mitigating it -- hanging a poo catcher underneath or covering stuff with a tarp during the breeding season. It's worth it for the amount of pleasure they provide with their aerial antics and ecological services.
Swifts make a sort of whistling scream as they pass over, swallows make all sorts of electronic buzzes and staticky noises as well as chirping sounds.
Actually it's a shot from mid-July a few years ago. I had put off posting it in the hopes that I would get a better one, but that hasn't happened. Swift-watching from Milan doesn't sound too unpleasant.
DeleteThey are fiendishly difficult to photograph, I know.
DeleteI don't know if we have them around here. Plenty of other birds, though.
ReplyDeleteYou did well Stuart flying birds are incredibly hard to capture. I don't think we have swallows and swifts here, I may have to go and ask Mr Google :)
ReplyDeleteYou did well Stuart flying birds are incredibly hard to capture. I don't think we have swallows and swifts here, I may have to go and ask Mr Google :)
ReplyDelete