L0n3Gr3yW0lf
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Somerset, UK
- Name
- Ovi
Hi, I wanted to write this for a week but life kept me busy. I have wanted to do this myself for a while but never got to (so much for taking my own advice) but I happened on this event twice in 6 years: When farmers cut down the fields of grass to be used as hay for their farms it will reveal an abundance of wildlife opportunities and experiences that is worth exploring.
Wildlife has adapted to human presence for thousands of years and they (the wildlife) will take any opportunity they can find to thrive on and after human activity especially when it comes to farming. If you can contact and talk to your local farmers and ask them if they can give you a timeline or notify you when they will harvest specific fields you can get there before or on time to enjoy the spectacle of life. It is worth it because cutting the grass down removes the safety that field mice and insects use and the animals that pray on them congregate there to have an easy hunt. Once the grass is collected the last layer of protection is removed and they have nowhere to go and become easy pickings for their hunters. It's the closest you can get to getting easy shots without going to feeding stations in wildlife sanctuaries and national parks (but animals and birds may have ID tags on them).
I have put in bold the advice I can give you if you wish to read only the more useful parts.
Sunday, 11 June, around 17:00:
I arrived at a field without knowing what I was about to see. I noticed a large conglomerate of birds of prey in the distance but I did not pay much attention to it and thought it was just another day with a few extra birds in the sky. I even noticed the smaller birds, Swallows were very active in the area and I was a bit more focused on them for about half an hour, trying to make pictures that I wanted for a long time: Swallows flying above grass and hunting for insects:
I got a few opportunities and attempts but not much success because I didn't have the right lens with me (it was too long and too slow to keep up with birds flying so low).
So I moved to the next field, passing by a large hedge that obscured the view. When I did get there I saw that the tall grass (almost a meter tall) was cut down and piled up and arranged in straight lines. The scene was most vibrant with many birds and even a little mammal, all paying attention to the grass. Within one hour I saw: Blue Jay, Magpies, Crows, Gulls, Peregrin Falcon, Kestral, Buzzards, Swallows, House Martin
2 Kestral overlooking the grass field from a large power line tower.
Kestral with a successful catch after hovering above the grass and listening, when it finds its target it dives bomb into the grass and catches it, then flies away to a safe place where it can eat.
Whether it's trees, buildings or large structures, anything that keeps them safe they will land on and enjoy their hard work.
Not all hunts do pay off so there will be some nice opportunities to get landing and takeoffs.
Unsurprisingly, the largest of birds also takes notice of the opportunities (be it knowing the place and the time by memory as it happens every year) or by seeing others congregate around the field. As they fly low, with a bit of positioning, there are many opportunities to get framing of birds with some beautiful background beyond just blue and grey skies.
Not that I did not take the opportunity to shoot the boring shots as well. The truth of wildlife photography is that if you want to capture the right moment you need to make sure you shoot as much as you can (unless you know a subject so well that you can predict its every action and limit your shooting and timing perfectly ... I do not). So I have shot in 2 days over 5.000 images and I even hit the limit of my main SD card of 64 GB (my backup is a 256 GB card that is a bit slower so I didn't lose any shots).
Kestral hovering above the field, listening to movement in the grass and looking around. They are always a marvel to watch them hunt. For moments like these, I shoot with a costume-AF formation of 11 by 19 AF points in vertical orientation because I know the bird will fly down when it finds the subject and I want to capture the diving moment as well. (PS. I didn't get that because I was too slow)
Another advantage of such moments is that the birds get a lot closer to you without you needing to hide or wear camouflage to stealth your way to the subject. You can fill your frame with the birds in flight with lenses like Oly 100-400mm f 5-6.3/Pany 100-400mm f 4-6.3/Oly 150-400mm f 4.5 PRO or Oly 300mm f 4 PRO/Pany Leica 200mm f 2.8
At times you can catch the birds sitting in the grass, whether to rest or to eat their catch, you can get more interesting compositions then birds on a stick/tree or in the sky.
As you can see in the background we were not that far from civilization so you don't have to go very far if you have farm fields near you (I know not all places have them). Normally the birds only sometimes venture this close like then their other hunting grounds are not as productive and need to find food.
I changed my position to the opposite side of the field, from where I started, because there is a hill towering about 25 meters above the grass field and it gets me a bit closer to the hovering Buzzards and a perspective of close to their eye level or even bellow eye level (shooting them from above while they hunt).
I was so close to them that I did not need to crop at all (sorry but the bold font is stuck and I can't seem to be able to turn it off, weird).
Even the Gulls were starting to show up but it seems to be to early for their method of hunting (more on that later, the next day).
One thing I learned that I did not know was that even Buzzards have the ability to hover in one spot while they hunt, very similar to the Kestrals but they are a bit slower because of their size.
The next positive surprise was this little fellow showing up:
A very beautiful fox came to hunt in the grass for field mice. Unfortunately, it didn't stay too long because it was spooked but ...
... I did get a couple of opportunities to photograph the fox's hunting method of listening for the mice and when it found one to jump and pounce on them (spoilers, it didn't catch anything before it ran away).
Coincidentally my first experience with farms cutting down grass fields and bringing wildlife there was with a mama fox and 3 cubs I found 5 years ago.
Day 2, 12 June, around 14:00:
I wasn't feeling like going out but I eventually forced myself to get the camera with me and go back to the field because I wanted more than one hour and more opportunities. I eventually spent around 5 hours at the field as things got significantly more intense the next day. That was because it was harvest day (I did not know):
The tractors came to collect the grass and left the field mice with nowhere to run if they hadn't already made it to safety at the edge of the field or the grass patch under the power line tower (behind the tractor). This has attracted an even larger crowd this day:
These are all Buzzards (I looked at them with my Oly 100-400mm to make sure), I couldn't fit all of them in the frame because I didn't take any wide-angle lenses with me and this is what my phone could capture, there were around 20 of them just before I got to the field.
Wildlife has adapted to human presence for thousands of years and they (the wildlife) will take any opportunity they can find to thrive on and after human activity especially when it comes to farming. If you can contact and talk to your local farmers and ask them if they can give you a timeline or notify you when they will harvest specific fields you can get there before or on time to enjoy the spectacle of life. It is worth it because cutting the grass down removes the safety that field mice and insects use and the animals that pray on them congregate there to have an easy hunt. Once the grass is collected the last layer of protection is removed and they have nowhere to go and become easy pickings for their hunters. It's the closest you can get to getting easy shots without going to feeding stations in wildlife sanctuaries and national parks (but animals and birds may have ID tags on them).
I have put in bold the advice I can give you if you wish to read only the more useful parts.
Sunday, 11 June, around 17:00:
I arrived at a field without knowing what I was about to see. I noticed a large conglomerate of birds of prey in the distance but I did not pay much attention to it and thought it was just another day with a few extra birds in the sky. I even noticed the smaller birds, Swallows were very active in the area and I was a bit more focused on them for about half an hour, trying to make pictures that I wanted for a long time: Swallows flying above grass and hunting for insects:
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I got a few opportunities and attempts but not much success because I didn't have the right lens with me (it was too long and too slow to keep up with birds flying so low).
So I moved to the next field, passing by a large hedge that obscured the view. When I did get there I saw that the tall grass (almost a meter tall) was cut down and piled up and arranged in straight lines. The scene was most vibrant with many birds and even a little mammal, all paying attention to the grass. Within one hour I saw: Blue Jay, Magpies, Crows, Gulls, Peregrin Falcon, Kestral, Buzzards, Swallows, House Martin
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
2 Kestral overlooking the grass field from a large power line tower.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Kestral with a successful catch after hovering above the grass and listening, when it finds its target it dives bomb into the grass and catches it, then flies away to a safe place where it can eat.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Whether it's trees, buildings or large structures, anything that keeps them safe they will land on and enjoy their hard work.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Not all hunts do pay off so there will be some nice opportunities to get landing and takeoffs.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Unsurprisingly, the largest of birds also takes notice of the opportunities (be it knowing the place and the time by memory as it happens every year) or by seeing others congregate around the field. As they fly low, with a bit of positioning, there are many opportunities to get framing of birds with some beautiful background beyond just blue and grey skies.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Not that I did not take the opportunity to shoot the boring shots as well. The truth of wildlife photography is that if you want to capture the right moment you need to make sure you shoot as much as you can (unless you know a subject so well that you can predict its every action and limit your shooting and timing perfectly ... I do not). So I have shot in 2 days over 5.000 images and I even hit the limit of my main SD card of 64 GB (my backup is a 256 GB card that is a bit slower so I didn't lose any shots).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Kestral hovering above the field, listening to movement in the grass and looking around. They are always a marvel to watch them hunt. For moments like these, I shoot with a costume-AF formation of 11 by 19 AF points in vertical orientation because I know the bird will fly down when it finds the subject and I want to capture the diving moment as well. (PS. I didn't get that because I was too slow)
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Another advantage of such moments is that the birds get a lot closer to you without you needing to hide or wear camouflage to stealth your way to the subject. You can fill your frame with the birds in flight with lenses like Oly 100-400mm f 5-6.3/Pany 100-400mm f 4-6.3/Oly 150-400mm f 4.5 PRO or Oly 300mm f 4 PRO/Pany Leica 200mm f 2.8
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
As you can see in the background we were not that far from civilization so you don't have to go very far if you have farm fields near you (I know not all places have them). Normally the birds only sometimes venture this close like then their other hunting grounds are not as productive and need to find food.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I changed my position to the opposite side of the field, from where I started, because there is a hill towering about 25 meters above the grass field and it gets me a bit closer to the hovering Buzzards and a perspective of close to their eye level or even bellow eye level (shooting them from above while they hunt).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I was so close to them that I did not need to crop at all (sorry but the bold font is stuck and I can't seem to be able to turn it off, weird).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Even the Gulls were starting to show up but it seems to be to early for their method of hunting (more on that later, the next day).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
One thing I learned that I did not know was that even Buzzards have the ability to hover in one spot while they hunt, very similar to the Kestrals but they are a bit slower because of their size.
The next positive surprise was this little fellow showing up:
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
A very beautiful fox came to hunt in the grass for field mice. Unfortunately, it didn't stay too long because it was spooked but ...
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
... I did get a couple of opportunities to photograph the fox's hunting method of listening for the mice and when it found one to jump and pounce on them (spoilers, it didn't catch anything before it ran away).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Coincidentally my first experience with farms cutting down grass fields and bringing wildlife there was with a mama fox and 3 cubs I found 5 years ago.
Day 2, 12 June, around 14:00:
I wasn't feeling like going out but I eventually forced myself to get the camera with me and go back to the field because I wanted more than one hour and more opportunities. I eventually spent around 5 hours at the field as things got significantly more intense the next day. That was because it was harvest day (I did not know):
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
The tractors came to collect the grass and left the field mice with nowhere to run if they hadn't already made it to safety at the edge of the field or the grass patch under the power line tower (behind the tractor). This has attracted an even larger crowd this day:
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
These are all Buzzards (I looked at them with my Oly 100-400mm to make sure), I couldn't fit all of them in the frame because I didn't take any wide-angle lenses with me and this is what my phone could capture, there were around 20 of them just before I got to the field.