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For more information about Starling murmurations please visit the RSPB website HERE
Starling Murmuration. Derbyshire 22012014
Click on any thumbnail image to enter the gallery
For more information about Starling murmurations please visit the RSPB website HERE
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Brilliant, Awesome, Love it !!
wicked, what a great capture Nigel. A great wonder of nature
Thank you. I guess you know that most of my photographs tend to be of things that don’t move! This is the first time I’ve tried to take pictures of birds in flight. You are probably aware that low light and moving subjects present a few technical hurdles. I was pretty happy with a lot of the shots taken that evening. It is the first time I’ve had good reason to use my monopod which gave me a lot of creative flexibility. A lot of other photographers had tripods but I’m not sure how they were able to move with the action as freely as with a monopod. I didn’t see what they were up to when the Starlings were murmurating because I was too busy watching the birds and taking photographs!
yes a monopod would give great flex, now i think if the photographers were bright enough they should have closed the tripod up and extended the column or the legs – instant monopod! it is real treat to see murmurations, and yes i think you did excellent work in capturing them, well worth it!
Photographically I was outside my comfort zone but that’s a good place to go sometimes! It’s the first time I’ve seen a murmuration. There was a chap there who has been to see them 35 times and he said the night I was there was the best display he’d seen. It was a magical and beautiful spectacle. I felt very rewarded for having made the effort to go and see the Starlings. They haven’t been at this site for about 6 years so its great to have then so close to Sheffield. Highly recommended 😉
Wow! i’ve never witnessed a murmuration. I’m glad you did and shared your out of your comfort zone wonderful images, Nigel.
Thank you Lynn. It is hard to capture the scale of the murmuration but I’ve never seen so many birds in one place. Perhaps hundreds of thousands! I felt privileged to witness such a spectacle. As a first attempt to photograph birds in flight I came away with some images that I was happy with. I hope to go back to see them again but they are only murmurating this far north because of the mild winter so if we get a cold snap they may migrate further south. Fingers crossed they don’t disappear before I am able to return. Best wishes, 🙂
I have always wanted to catch one of these live waves! Wonderful work!
Thank you. Until I took these photographs I had never seen a murmuration of Starlings and never taken photographs of birds in flight so there were a couple of firsts on this particular outing. It was a wonderful to see so many birds orchestrating so many beautiful shapes as if for our entertainment!
It is amazing and always the sign of fall weather coming here when you see this! Beautiful work!
Thank you. Have a great week 🙂
Anytime : )
Wonderful. I love a good murmeration
Thank you.
I was treated to a wonderful murmuration on the only evening I went out to see them in Derbyshire. There was a man there who had visited the site about 20 times to watch them and on the evening I was there he said it was the best display they had given! I felt fortunate that I had timed my visit well. The build up to the murmuration was almost as exciting as seeing the whole thing. The build up involved smaller flocks of birds coming to the site from various other directions. It was a great spectacle and I’m not sure my photographs did it justice but I think enjoying the experience is maybe more important and trying to capture it 🙂
Best wishes
Mr C
Completely agree with you about enjoying the experience, sometimes we spend too long only looking through a camera. I used to live on the border between NI and Eire and there was a place where murmurations were common and spectacular. I didn’t have a good camera in those days so never even tried to photograph them