A Pacific Swift up near Oshamanbe this afternoon. There were lots of swifts and hirundines flying south and I tried photographing swifts semi-seriously for the first time.
It was hard.
Some heavy cropping going on here.
In amongst the Pacific Swifts were smaller numbers of White Throated Needletails.
We were at Oshamanbe to check out the waders.
The bird on the left is a Red Knot, the one on the right is the very common Grey Tailed Tattler. Red Knot is a fairly scarce species in Japan and this is a new addition to my Japanese list.
There were other wader species around too; Mongolian Plover, Whimbrel, Sanderling, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and Ruddy Turnstone. Here's a photo of the latter.
And of course the inevitable Red Necked Stints, they were everywhere in small skittish flocks.
This individual appeared to be colour ringed.
Other species today included the first Glaucous Winged Gull of 'winter', Great Egret, Japanese Green Pigeon, Night Heron, Sand Martin, Eastern Marsh Harrier and this young Peregrine.
Thanks for clicking this link.
Still hot, when will it end?
No footy on tonight. How boring................
Wow! A great collection of photos, especially the flight shots. I've tried to photograph swifts in Australia but they were so high and of course, fast. Love your young peregrine too!
ReplyDeleteYou're dead right about trying to take pics of swifts but you got some really good ones there Stu, much better than my Common Swift attempts.
ReplyDeletePacific Swift is a vagrant over here. I like the look of that Turnstone on that paved floor. Well done on the Knot!
ReplyDeleteWhite-throated Needletail is a nice species I've only seen twice. I think these flight shots are already great. I've never got a flight shot of any swift with that much details before. You'll just have to wait for a nice blue sky day to get some better ones.
ReplyDeleteAh but a nice blue sky day would mean they'd be high high up in the sky.......
ReplyDeleteLove the image of the Knot and Tattler, makes for a great ID guide between the 2 species. Congrats on getting the RNS flight shot! Such a hard shot to get of these guys.
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