Male Snow Bunting on a very cold and windy beach - didn't seem to bother them though!

Tags:   Plectrophenax Nivalis Male Snow Bunting

© All Rights Reserved

Or possibly 2.

Tags:   Plectrophenax Nivalis Snow Buntings flight

© All Rights Reserved

Yes, I am scratching around for titles - but based on the english meaning of its latin name. Silk tail is a cool way of saying fancy plumage.

From last year - one where he/she was at just the right angle and distance to let me capture full feather detail at f5.6.

Tags:   Bombycilla Garrulus Bohemian Waxwing

© All Rights Reserved

Are words used to describe the flight of Snow Buntings - they have a distinct habit of queue-jumping, flying over each other to get to the front of the group, meaning that the whole flock seems to roll forward.

Tags:   Plectrophenax Nivalis Snow Bunting buntings flock flight flying beach uk winter plumage

© All Rights Reserved

Taken on a wonderful sunny morning when for once, the weather turned out to be nicer than predicted.

Male Snow Buntings chillin' on the beach.

I think this is the most detailed flight shot of a SB that I have managed to date. Using the 3 step principle I apply to much of my flying bird photography - get your settings right - then take an awful lot of shots - hope that one of them is in focus.

I do love shooting with the super light Nikon 400 / 4.5 - with a 2x teleconverter in good light the F9 aperture gives a nice DOF for this sort of subject. Plus I could commando crawl across the shingle holding it to get closer to the birds.

Tags:   Plectrophenax Nivalis Snow Buntings beach winter

© All Rights Reserved