Swallows on the Road to Sagami
While my Sagami trip a few days ago didn’t net any actual birds in the wild, it did net me some closer looks at birds in town. On the road back from the lake, I saw some swallows resting on a power line, and soon noted that a lot of swallows were flying about in the area. It soon became clear to me that nests were in the area, and I started snapping away.
This fellow I caught in midsong (click on image to see 1000-pixel unreduced image).
The birds were also strangely drawn to the higher edge of a wall of a convenience store; why I do not know, there was nothing there for them–no nest, no food, and no good perch, unless they love hanging off of signs like this:
Here are some good images of one swallow on the single nest I was able to see:
Click on this one for a larger image
And finally, you can look at a movie of the swallows (8.6 MB AVI file), half of which shows them playing King of the Hill in a crevice in that popular wall I mentioned, the other half of the mama swallow on the nest.
There’s more, but I’ll put them into the “continued reading” area.
So here are the other photos, as promised:
Click for a larger image
Click for a larger image
Luis once again nice photos. Couple of things, have you seen the news release on the Powershot S2 IS – 5 megapixle and 12x opt zoom, and why are you in Japan? Born there, moved there, girl friend or wife moved there, job is there? and last where in Japan do you live?
Thanks and keep up the great work — Robert
I hadn’t heard about the new S2, but of course I expected something like it would eventually come out–just like computers, you buy one and 6 months later, something better comes out. Maybe after I’ve had this S1 for two years and they come out with the S3… Anyway, it looks like the same form, so the zoom lens should be swappable. But for now, my S1 will do just fine. The upgrade, though nice, wouldn’t be worth another 500 dollars right now. But if you’re going to buy a camera soon, it might not be a bad idea. The only caveats–for birdwatching, the Powershot’s focus is not ideal: manual focus is not handy and autofocus has a hard time looking into trees and even birds on the ground, you have to learn tricks to get the focus right most time with birds. Also, my shutter button seems to be halfway malfunctioning, I don’t know if that’s just my camera or if it’s a design flaw.
As to why I came to Japan–I was studying Japanese in college, came here to get some experience with the language and culture, found a good job and that I liked the country, and stayed. I live in the Tokyo area.
As always, it’s a pleasure to catch a glimpse into your part of the world. I thought that having some video footage was a nice addition to the images