Bird take-offs

One of the challenges of bird photography after finding them and getting close enough for a reasonable image is attempting to capture behaviour action, one which I find very challenging is picking the moment that a bird takes-off throwing itself into the air to be gone in a flash.  Birds of Prey can be quite easy to predict as they tend to go through a sequence of wing stretches and bowl movements prior to final moment of flying,  but trying to catch a bullfinch departing from a seed head that it has been foraging on for perhaps fifteen is another matter,  It gives no indication when one seed head is empty as it suddenly flies away to find another,  The montage image below worked for me when this male Bullfinch produced a fairly slow wing assisted hop onto another close seed head and I used just two out of the four images exposed during the short movement to create a very close composition.

Being quite a large bird you might expect a Greater-spotted Woodpecker to produce a slower response but think again, its spontaneous take-off is lightening fast and its choice of direction unpredictable so it really comes down to spending lots of time photographing them and you might eventually  Get Lucky !!   When people tell me that I was lucky to take a particular shot,  I reply, "Yes I usually find that the more time and effort that I put in the luckier I get !!



Lapwing are often prone to sudden departures and a whole flock of birds that might have been relaxing on a water margin for several hours will all take off in a matter of a fraction of a second with out any apparent reason for departing only to return to the same spot a few minutes later,

Then there is the ever illusive and constantly moving Goldcrest that can drive you crazy trying to capture a clear portrait image but strangely enough when it comes to take-off shots they can be easier to achieve in as much as they are forever doing just that.  What you need apart from the bird in the right position is a camera that will knock out ten or more Raw images a second,   Keep your finger pressed down on the shutter release as they move and produce a post production montage from the resulting sequence,  You would think it would be easy but just trying to capture three Clear and sharp Goldcrest sequenced images will show you otherwise.

All images taken on a lovely morning at Stithians Southern cut-off today.