While I love this blog, I now pretty much only write on my other two blogs: BirdingBlogs.com and 10,000 Birds - I would love to see you there!

Saturday 11 April 2009

The Black Kites are feeling all frisky...

I went out to the Inzinger Gaisau this afternoon to see what was about (and to enjoy the lovely warm spring day). Packed the digiscoping toys in the backpack and headed out there on the bicycle.


After hanging out for a little bit at a side pond (finding a little grass snake and a rather shy moorhen), we went for a walk further back to the westernmost edge of the marshland area. It was the beautiful call - a sound that reminds me of my childhood - that drew my attention to the pair of Black Kites (Schwarzmilan) the was circling and heading in to the flooded woodland. I managed to snap off a couple of okay digiscoping photos. Not great, but at least you can see they are black kites ;-)




I was trying to get the Black Kites with the snowy Alps in the background, but I could not find a way to effectively digiscope them without getting that annoying telephone line through the image. Does anyone have any idea how I can post-process the image?


Happy birding
Dale Forbes

5 comments:

Unknown said...

You managed flight shots with digiscoping. WOW. I tried my hand at digiscoping for about 2-3 months and gave it up since I found it challenging...Thomas

Anuradha Shankar said...

WoW!! beautiful pics..... i wonder, could you have a look at one of my posts? have some pics of what i thik are black kites too.....
http://anushankarn.blogspot.com/2009/03/some-views-from-my-window.html

thanks for leaving the comment on my blog. Yes, the game really makes us see things we dont usually notice... my son notices birds nuch faster now!!!

Anonymous said...

We have white kites on the west coast of north america. It's nice to see your soaring in relationship to the snowy mountains. Thanks for all of your comments at Natural Moments. I look forward to seeing more of your posts. My mother was born in Graz, Austria and moved to Switzerland as a child. My Dad is from Berlin.

Dale Forbes said...

Hi Bernie,

the white kites you mean, are these the white-tailed kites? I know these as black-shouldered kites - also lovely with their stunning black and white plumage and red eye.
Do you know the American Swallow-tailed Kite - a wonderful bird. What I would call an oooh-aaah bird when you see it up close ;-)

Dale

Anonymous said...

Oh, yes...the white tailed kites. I see them alot in the Bay Area of California in and near the marshlands. I haven't had the opportunity to see the American Swallow Kite before. I love how the kites can hover in one spot. I can watch them do this for hours. Kinda like flying kites. :)