04 December 2008

Stone curlews at Jamnagar

Stone curlews

The stone curlew, or Eurasian thick-knee (Burhinus oedicnemus), is a strange-looking bird whose primary defence is to crouch or stand perfectly still. We were lucky to see these just before the last sunlight vanished. I'd never seen them before, and to date have never seen them again.

All content © 2008 Pete McGregor

4 comments:

  1. Kia ora Pete,
    I love this photo and in particular the clarity of the forward bird with the position and slightly blurred second one. Also how easy it must be to completely walk by them with their colours so blended into the environment.
    Cheers,
    Robb

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  2. Thanks Robb. I'd like to say the shallow depth of field was deliberate, but in fact I had no choice — there was so little light that I had to open the lens' aperture right up to f4 (wide open). Luckily, it worked in this case.

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  3. I just wanted to say exactly what Robb said about the focus :)
    I also liked the eye of the bird, and the ray of light on its tail.

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Constructive criticism is welcomed (I particularly appreciate thoughts on what you like and don't like), but please keep it courteous.