A hectic day with Birds of Prey

I got myself a really hectic Saturday this weekend. I knew the weather would be good and that meant I actually wanted to get out to see if Halland had something to offer.

The alarm rang at 4:15 and 30 minutes later the car was packed and I started the drive southwards towards Halland. I wanted to catch the first light and see if there were any migratory birds around.

My mind was set on finding a good location to take some nice landscape photos. That meant I headed inland when I got nearer Varberg to see if I could find a good location. I drove around for 10 minutes before I realized I soon had to turn back if I didn’t want to miss the first light at Getterön. Still I had brought tripod, Gimbal head and 70-200mm so I surely had to take at least one or two landscape photos.

This is the result. Not what I had in mind, but still a nice sunrise. I have post processed this picture in two steps to get good exposure on both grass and sky. You don’t get the HDR feeling when you do it moderate like I have done in this picture.

Now I turned the car and headed towards Varberg to get to Getterön and the hides there. As I got nearer I started to see Cranes in the air and once I parked the car action erupted. A Pallid Harrier came sweeping over the car with an intention of getting a meal. The flock of Starlings went up as the Pallid Harrier came nearer and the hunt ended as soon as it had begun. The light was nice, but not good enough for me to get any action photos so I took my gear and headed towards the small photo hide. I wasn´t really attentive during the short walk which meant I wasn´t prepared to see the Pallid Harrier on top of the photo hide. It flew off, but when I got inside the hide I could see that it had landed on a stone in the middle of the water. It was a bit far away, but I took a couple of documentation pictures. It just sat there preening itself for a few minutes before it took off again.

My feeling was that the photo hide probably wasn´t the best place to stay at if I wanted to catch better photos of the Pallid Harrier. I knew that the stone where the Pallid Harrier had been sitting was nearer to the Birdwatching hide so that was my next destination.

It turned out to be a great decision as the next three hours turned out as a crescendo culminating in the pictures when the Peregrine Falcon killed a Gull. I had Marsh Harriers everywhere, the Pallid Harrier that tried and tried and once in a while a Sparrowhawk appeared. It was really hectic and I didn´t leave the hide until everything had settled down.

Now I could satisfy my hunger before I did a quick stop in the photo hide. I had another stop in mind before heading home and that were the famous bird spot called Lis bog. A place where birds of prey congregate during migration.

I really hadn´t the push to do anything special at Lis bog, but it was great to see Common Buzzard, Hen Harrier, Pallid Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Hobby and Merlin in this area.

I had great light during the hectic morning, but lost the edge when I left Getterön that produced so much photo material this morning. I hope you will fins some photos to your liking in the gallery.