Escape the Ordinary: Photographing Sparrowhawks in Scotland

This trip took me up to Dumfries in Scotland, it was a quick one-day trip up to hey photography hide run by Scottish wildlife hides, this hide was primarily to photograph the Sparrow Hawks. For the 7:00 AM start, I headed off up to the Hyde and got myself settled in for the morning, initially the hide was busy With chaffinches and woodpeckers along with a few Jays flying back and forth pinching nuts. It wasn't until around 10:00 AM that the first Sparrow hawk came in onto one of the purchase only a few metres away a perfect position to get some amazing photos of this lovely bird. The male Sparrow hawk stayed for around 5 minutes before flying off with a bated mouse. About an hour later it returned for just a couple of minutes, I'm just enough time to get a few more photos of the Sparrow hawk. As I waited a female Sparrowhawk flew in and tried to take a small Finch from off one of the logs within a couple of seconds it was gone again but what a fantastic sight to see the female Sparrow hawk. After a few hours, I decided to head off and go photograph the red kites at a local red kite centre only a few miles up the road. Having spent a few hours and only seeing a handful of red kites it was clear that the red kites had plenty to eat out in the fields as the farmers were cutting the hey, which makes finding prey such as mice and voles a lot easier for the birds to catch and eat. Therefore putting meat out at the red kite centre during this lucrative time the bears can afford to leave it and come and get the meat as a when they please. Still a fantastic day with some great photos and I highly recommend anybody wishing to photograph some wildlife are put any hides then the Scottish photography hides is one of the best places to go to. PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT USED Canon R5 https://amzn.to/3KGnZ4t Canon R6 https://amzn.to/3qsEytK Canon R7 https://amzn.to/41jeNcw Canon rf 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L Canon EF 70 -200mm f2.8 IS III L Canon RF 85mm f1.2L USM DS Lens Canon RF 1.4 x convertor Smallrig Camara cage x3 Benro Tortoise 24CLV Tripod ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA & OTHER CONTACTS TO SUPPORT MY WORK CONTACT ME [email protected] WEBSITE https://www.wildlifephotographeruk.co.uk FACEBOOK   / wildlifephotographeruk   INSTAGRAM   / wildlifephotographeruk   TWITTER   / ashleyjbarnard   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Other items used, and in my Kit Hikmicro LYNX LC06 Handheld Thermal Monocular: - https://www.pass-thermal.co.uk/hikvis... RSPB Harrier binoculars 10 x 42: - https://shopping.rspb.org.uk/binocula... Tragopan GHILLIE BLANKET KHAKI: - https://tragopan-shop.com/ Tragopan 3D SUIT 2 PIECES: - https://tragopan-shop.com/ Sony ICD-TX660 - Digital Voice Recorder: https://amzn.to/40OeG8a Benro Gh5c Gimbal Head: https://amzn.to/3TGYgLs Benro Tortoise 24CLV Tripod https://amzn.to/3DGLLJ9 Self Adhesive Camouflage: https://amzn.to/3SkqWsp Rain Poncho: https://amzn.to/3VN8Bal Camera Battery Case: https://amzn.to/3VOFtQ8 Tripod Stool: https://amzn.to/3eW2sIr Camouflage scrim: https://amzn.to/3z3rdt4