Tag Archives: Birds

The Swan Whisperer of Galway

If you’ve ever wandered down to the Claddagh in Galway, you’ll know the swans are less “graceful wild creatures” and more “assertive locals who know exactly when the bread’s coming out.”

That’s what happened on this day in 2005 when we visited and saw a young woman feeding those swans. Other birds wanted crumbs of bread too! Now we know that bread is not an ideal food for birds. Green vegetables are better for them.


Apertureƒ/3.5
CameraCYBERSHOT
Focal length17.2mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/125s

Stop crows walking on people

It’s a serious problem all over the world. Crows are walking on people. In Cork, they put up signs hoping to discourage the crows, but instead the crows just walk on the signs.


Apertureƒ/2.8
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length24mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/1250s

Swallows fly fast!

Two swallows in the air, one out of focus above a rural landscape with a house in the background and some poles.

Swallows fly really fast and they’re difficult to photograph in flight, so when I managed to catch this one in flight I had to share both.

As I was advised by Rory, I didn’t zoom in which made it easier to catch them crossing the scene. On my Sony camera I set it to wide focus and I must have tracking enabled somewhere in the settings because it did a remarkable job of tracking the bird, showing green focus spots moving quickly across the screen!

This is a heavily cropped image, and it has been cleaned up in Topaz Photo AI.


Apertureƒ/5
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length160.3mm
ISO2000
Shutter speed1/4000s

The Crow and the Swallow

A crow stands on top of a pole as a swallow flies past him. Those swallows are really hard to photograph, so I zoomed in on the top of the pole and just watched the pole, without looking through the camera. When I saw a swallow fly close, I hit the shutter button hoping burst mode would take help me catch it in flight!


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length436mm
ISO2000
Shutter speed1/4000s

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