COMMON BUZZARD – STORM EGON

11/1-2015

The storm Egon hit us hard last weekend and the sounds in the house during night kept me awake. Since I was already up I decided to get out to see if I could get some photos of birds in the aftermath of the storm.

I went out in the dark and when the first rays of light hit I was in place. The wind was still tough and I really did not have much hope for pictures. The two first hours went by with nothing happening and I started to think of getting back home. Then a Red Kite (Milvus milvus) flew over and it seemed like it was playing in the winds.  After another 30 minutes a Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) came and was soon followed by another one. They got into a serious fight, which went on for quite a while and even if the light was bad the Nikon D4s with the 500mm/f4 lens gave a good results. Tack sharp and very little visible noise even at ISO 1600 – fantastic!

The strong winds stayed somewhere between 15-20 m/s and I think that helped. The sound from the camera probably was drenched in the sound from trees and wind all together. I had the wind from my back and when the birds took off they flew just up towards me and I got some fascinating frame filling close ups on the Common Buzzards in the air.

The Red Kite came back and stayed in the background for a while and then suddenly attacked the Common Buzzard. Due to the strong wind the speed at which the attack happened was incredible and it was over within fractions of a second. The Common Buzzard got beaten up but did not give in its position. They are smaller but stronger and as long as I stayed I did not see the Red Kite succeed. It is the same story as I have seen so many times. Even though the Red Kites are larger they chicken out in the fights with the Common Buzzards. I will be back next weekend to see – hoping for winter and snow…