FighterControl

A run up to the North East of Scotland last week to spend some time in Aberdeen and a visit to the Bullers of Buchan to get some Puffin images worked out quite well,ended up coming home with Peregrines,Sparrowhawks and Foxes in the bag aswell as a bucket load of images
from following a Heron around a pond in Aberdeen.Then in the last few days a lot closer to home I`ve been fortunate to find a pair of Kestrels and 2 fox dens with more cubs.
Anyway here are the images

1/Peregrine Falcon


2/Peregrine


3/Puffins at Bullers of Buchan


4/


5/


6/


7/Fox and Cubs


8/Off with the prize


9/Taking an interest


10/Moving in


11/Sparrowhawk male


12/Hunting heron


13/Down the Hatch


And then back home for some doorstep wildlife

14/Female Kestrel


15/Male Kestrel,this bird has a Red Darvic ring which it was "given" only last year so this is a first year dad to be hopefully


16/Off to chase some Jackdaws


17/And last but not least some of the Fox Cubs from Monday night


18/Peek a boo


I hope these have been of interest of what has been a really enjoyable 7 days or so for me.

Cheers
Ross

Some wonderful photos there, with a wide range of species, brilliant post

Stunning. Especially like the two foxes. Could see that winning an award, or at least turning up on a calendar
How close were you to the foxes? I've never got my 600mm lens to get this close to a fox.
And was it darker than it looks? Wondering why you shot that one at ISO3200... (although I'm not familiar with the particular camera)

Truly lovely pictures. Every one a gem. Extremely difficult to pick favourites out of that lot but if I absolutely had to it would be the fox and cub pic, and that wonderful reflection of the hunting heron. Thank you very much for posting such a stunning set.

AyrForce1 wrote: ↑

Wed May 19, 2021 2:00 pm

Stunning. Especially like the two foxes. Could see that winning an award, or at least turning up on a calendar
How close were you to the foxes? I've never got my 600mm lens to get this close to a fox.
And was it darker than it looks? Wondering why you shot that one at ISO3200... (although I'm not familiar with the particular camera)

The light was really up and down and the foxes were in and out of a lot of shadows (time was 2030) so I had to up the ISO a bit to try and maintain a decent shutter speed at f4,the Canon R5 handles the higher ISO really well so I had no reservations about using it at 3200.
I generally shoot at ISO 1600 since I got this camera as it performs aswell as my 1DX did at ISO 800 so use that as my baseline ISO and adjust from there.
This particular Vixen is comfortable coming close to me and this was the 1st time she brought 1 of her 6 cubs over towards me,usually they keep their distance and at the 1st unusual sound or exaggerated movement hurtle back towards the den,so I felt quite honoured when she got this cub
to come over to within about 10 yards in the end before it turned tail and ran

Thanks for the kind words guys appreciate it

10 yards!
Never got one closer than about 50 yards, and mostly only at midnight, so feel very honoured

AyrForce1 wrote: ↑

Wed May 19, 2021 4:40 pm

10 yards!
Never got one closer than about 50 yards, and mostly only at midnight, so feel very honoured

I`ve been very fortunate with Foxes this year,had 1 in Edinburgh which I photographed every time I went to the park in lockdown at anytime of day which would let me get nice and close aswell,before this year all my best Fox images were from overseas,nice to
put that right this year

This is the wee Vixen that was a star through the last Lockdown for me,anytime of the day she would be around

Some excellent images there, made special by the composition and timing.
I really like the Puffin coming in to land, and the hunting Heron, the reflection is super.

Lovely images,well caught.

Amazing pictures!

great set, whats not to like

Excellent set

Well done Ross you haven't lost it great stuff

Stunning, just stunning..thanks for sharing..