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A week away trying to shoot vultures.
#1
Hi guys,

 

   I had a week away in my camper van trying to nail some close up shots of vultures, birds that since my old cowboy tv film days have always fascinated me, circling menacingly over dehydrated "bad boy" cowboys near to death looking for water. Oh those were the days!!

 

 Vultures had almost disappeared in France with only one remaining pair left in 1950, it was decided to reintroduce them in the seventies, and many pairs were bred in captivity before their release. They have now more than re-established themselves and can be seen in the "Causses" (Millau) region as well as many other areas flying and circling looking for food. It is said that they can spot a carcases even through undergrowth at distances up to 3 Kms. 

 

 I had a contact with a farm who would put out the odd dead livestock not fit for us humans, or sometimes just offal and general animal bits. I telephoned to say that I was in the area for the week,

 Three days later I received a call saying that it was "on" for that afternoon.

 

I arrived and we spread out the offal and the like on the ground, I was left to myself and set up the D750 and AF500mm F4D on my recently acquired gimbal mount on my tripod in the campers side door with the Nikor poking through the legs of a pair of camo-trousers..I waited and looked around, hardly a bird..an hour went by and I sat reading, then looking up to find fifteen vultures attacking the meat, they arrive in silence! What I hadn't realized is they seem to eat low down on the ground and the vegetation hid their lower bodies, I jumped up and decided that I would hand hold the Tamron and shoot them coming in, this prompted them to take flight.

This still left some meat and I set about rearranging it and cutting some of the grass stems in front of the food. Having regrouped, I then got back in position for the next arrival, but they didn't return as they like to return to their "niche" for the evening.

 I stayed the night and in the morning I got another call saying that someone would arrive with more offal, two dustbin bags of it, this was great news. It turned up and I thanked the person and spread it out  at 15-20mtrs front of the camper's side door.

 The scene was set, the first vulture arrived and settled in the upper branches of a nearby tree, one by one others turned up until there were twenty or so perched leering at the food. You could sense the tension in the air as even more circled round, there now must have been fifty or more!

  Another tense ten minutes past and then shadows appeared in front of me followed by twenty five vultures who descended on the meat which they set about eating at break-neck speed. I was machine gunning away with the D750 and there was so many it was difficult to really frame a shot, I shot what looked like the most interesting of the action, such as the odd scuffle. Apart from the odd hissing, all this was surprisingly silent, then just as quickly as they arrived they all, bar a couple of stragglers, flew off, the stragglers gazed around for half a minute before joining the rest in an adjoining field. Two minutes later there wasn't a vulture in sight.

 I looked at where had been the meat, all that was left was couple of bits of pork skin picked clean of the fat, oh and a feather.   They had eaten 25 Kgs of food in two and half minutes!

 

  In vulture land there's no saying "Grace" or standing on ceremony, you arrive, you eat and you go!

 

 It truly was an experience to watch and shoot, I was buzzing, I also realized I was the only one who witnessed it. I'll be doing it again I hope, next time I will cut all the grass in front and will feed them in two servings. I stayed another night and found them circling above the next morning, I'd made some friends I think.

 

A few of the images from my Flickr page,

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124690178@N08/

#2
You are making very good use of that lovely big prime! I'll just keep telling myself that the small size and weight of my 500mm f8 are great features, to keep my jealousy at bay Wink
#3
Amazing.

#4
Very good vulture shots, Dave. In particular the one of the bird gliding, as it shows lots of grace in that activity, unlike eating  Wink.

 

PS Another spot for vultures in France is the village of Rougon, in the Verdon canyon. I don't think it would be easy to see them while they are eating, but they can be easily seen gliding. For people living in northern Italy, Switzerland or Austria, there is the Riserva Naturale Lago di Cornino, in the very north-east of Italy. In all these places vultures have been reintroduced as well.

stoppingdown.net

 

Sony a6300, Sony a6000, Sony NEX-6, Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS, Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS, Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS, Sigma 150-600mm Æ’/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary, Samyang 12mm Æ’/2, Sigma 30mm F2.8 DN | A, Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 100mm Æ’/2.8, Samyang 8mm Æ’/3.5 fish-eye II | Zenit Helios 44-2 58mm Æ’/2 
Plus some legacy Nikkor lenses.
#5
Quote:Very good vulture shots, Dave. In particular the one of the bird gliding, as it shows lots of grace in that activity, unlike eating  Wink.

 

PS Another spot for vultures in France is the village of Rougon, in the Verdon canyon. I don't think it would be easy to see them while they are eating, but they can be easily seen gliding. For people living in northern Italy, Switzerland or Austria, there is the Riserva Naturale Lago di Cornino, in the very north-east of Italy. In all these places vultures have been reintroduced as well.
   Thanks SD!   Their eating doesn't show a lot of grace it's true, I guess I'm a bit used to it though, as it reminds me of some of the local curry houses I frequented at pub kicking out time on a saturday night in jolly old England.  Wink 
  


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