Fork-tailed Swifts

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DenisWilson
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Fork-tailed Swifts

On another "thread" raysimula asked me to post some images I had taken two weeks ago of some Fork-tailed Swifts (Apus pacificus) which flew around my house for about 15 minutes.
So I have decided to try my luck at uploading those images here.
These images are not great, but in view of the relative rarity of these birds, and the "degree of difficulty" involved in photographing these birds, which fly past at all crazy angles, going so very, very fast, I have decided they were worth publishing.
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Fork-tailed Swifts - first time I have ever seen them in Robertson (Southern Highlands, NSW) - on top of the escarpment, south-west from Wollongong (so still "coastal" as far as these birds are concerned.
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If anyone else uses Picasa as their web-hosting site, kindly advise me why the "link" option shown on the Picasa album does not appear to work. I have had to edit out about 6 lines of html gibberish to get these images to post. Very clunky indeed.
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This is my clearest photo, but not very diagnostic. The reason I say that is that it shows no features of the bird - just shape. It does just show the forked tail, but not very clearly.
The real issus is what it does not show, for the White-throated Needletail, seen from that angle, would show a white throat and a white patch under the short tail.

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white rump clearly visible.

Probably my favourite shot, for it makes the flight appear so elegant. It was taken at 1/1250 second, on F5.4, and 300mm. I needed that speed to capture the wing "frozen". (Fortunately the light was very good)

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Meanwhile, if anyone wishes to see other images, and the story of what happened when these birds arrived, you may read about it on my blog page.
http://peonyden.blogspot.com/2009/01/fork-tailed-swifts-appear-over.html
and here
http://peonyden.blogspot.com/2009/01/fork-tailed-swifts-have-landed.html
Cheers
Denis

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