The beautiful Red Footed Falcon.
01st May 2023
One advantage of going to Lesvos early is that you could see the Red Footed Falcon passage. These beautiful birds come through in late April and are usually gone by the first few days of May. They hunt insects on the wing and also come down to the ground to feed.
They are a stunningly beautiful bird anywhere.
But it is on the wing where they are at their most spectacular. If you can line one up against a nice background on a bright day they are totally gorgeous.
We were driving along one of the quiet roads one sunny afternoon when we could see birds hunting over some fields and this could have been Swallows, Swifts or Bee-eaters so we stopped to take a look and to our pleasant surprise we could see they were indeed Red Footed Falcons.
We quickly parked up to watch them because they disappear as quickly as they come – once the insects are eaten that’s it. I began to try and take some shots but it’s not easy with these fast moving and very aerial falcons. However, with the Canon R5’s tracking ability and the lightweight and very manoeuvrable Canon RF100/500 it is possible.
I had the camera set to crop mode and the Canon RF 1.4 tele converter attached. This gave an image stabilized focal length of 1120mm @ f10.
You don’t get many images that are just right because usually there is something that’s in the way, or the bird is moving or looking away at the wrong time. Even the light bouncing off your subject at the wrong angle can ruin a shot.
At the risk of becoming very boring I again extoll the virtues of the Canon RF100-500 lens, even with a tele converter attached there is no slowing up of the focussing or degradation in image quality.
It is the perfect travel lens because generally speaking going on holiday means you are in a sunnier country and small apertures don’t matter because of the abundance of light. I can imagine that this lens would be perfect for big game in Africa with its ability to zoom in and out. It’s also so light and compact, it can fit in a very small bag in hand luggage.
They are a stunningly beautiful bird anywhere.
But it is on the wing where they are at their most spectacular. If you can line one up against a nice background on a bright day they are totally gorgeous.
We were driving along one of the quiet roads one sunny afternoon when we could see birds hunting over some fields and this could have been Swallows, Swifts or Bee-eaters so we stopped to take a look and to our pleasant surprise we could see they were indeed Red Footed Falcons.
We quickly parked up to watch them because they disappear as quickly as they come – once the insects are eaten that’s it. I began to try and take some shots but it’s not easy with these fast moving and very aerial falcons. However, with the Canon R5’s tracking ability and the lightweight and very manoeuvrable Canon RF100/500 it is possible.
I had the camera set to crop mode and the Canon RF 1.4 tele converter attached. This gave an image stabilized focal length of 1120mm @ f10.
You don’t get many images that are just right because usually there is something that’s in the way, or the bird is moving or looking away at the wrong time. Even the light bouncing off your subject at the wrong angle can ruin a shot.
At the risk of becoming very boring I again extoll the virtues of the Canon RF100-500 lens, even with a tele converter attached there is no slowing up of the focussing or degradation in image quality.
It is the perfect travel lens because generally speaking going on holiday means you are in a sunnier country and small apertures don’t matter because of the abundance of light. I can imagine that this lens would be perfect for big game in Africa with its ability to zoom in and out. It’s also so light and compact, it can fit in a very small bag in hand luggage.