Return to Watlington Hill

I went back to Warlington Hill in Oxfordshire last weekend to try and capture some more Red Kite images.I tried a new strategy instead of following the Red Kites I stayed in the same spot more or less and hoped they came to me. This seemed to work as within an hour I had many photo opportunities as many Red Kites flew overhead. The morning was partially cloudy making the light slightly more difficult to read and this batch may not be as good as my previous set however I do enjoy the challenge of capturing their flight and have found this great way of spending an early Sunday morning.

Watlington Hill

I recently went to Watlington in Oxfordshire to photograph Red Kites that have been successfully bred and released into the Chilterns. Watlington Hill is a good spot to try and photograph them as they nest in the surrounding woods and can be seen fairly frequently in the area. Sometimes patience is a requirement to get some decent images, and whilst it's a quality I rarely have I did manage a couple of images that I was fairly pleased with. It is quite a steep hill that requires some degree of fitness and during one descent I came across a small herd of what I believe were Fallow Deer. The deer stopped briefly in the middle of the track but once I had been spotted they quickly disappeared into the undergrowth.These images were captured with a new Nikon 200mm-400mm Telephoto lense with a 1x4 Teleconverter and so far the results from this lense have been quite encouraging and appear slightly sharper than my previous Sigma lense. I hope to go back soon to try and take some more images and have to say that watching Red Kites flying closely overhead is quite an exhilerating experience.