BIF's........

Photographer's slang for "birds in flight", we try and improve our images of flying birds because these are the shots that everyone likes. They bring the birds to life with a sense of motion and action more than a static standing shot. But they are considerably more difficult to produce. You not only have to get your subject in crisp focus, but you also have to keep an eye on the background.  You don't want a tree growing out of your birds' head!
I was fortunate enough to get a shot of a GBH the other day and the following is a sequence of the bird flying by me. All shots are early morning, high ISO shots.

This first one is the bird just after take-off, trying to gain some altitude.
 

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This second shot is taken as he is gaining speed...

Here the bird has gained some altitude and is squawking, which is normal for GBH. They are a noisy bird....

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And this last one is nearly the same image but pulled back to about the original size. It's more of an environmental shot, meant to show not only the bird, but the surrounding area.

I wish the bird was a little more to the left but I really like the dead branches as a compositional element. I'm still not sure I'll keep the branches and if I do I'll probably blur them a bit so they don't compete with the bird for your attention...... what do you think of the composition?

That's all for now. Tomorrow we have some really good images from Harn's Marsh. Or at least Mel does!!!! Thanks for looking!!