After a great week visiting, I dropped my sister and niece at Faro airport very early yesterday morning so used the opportunity to visit Ludo at sunrise to back-light the Greater Flamingos.
Rather than re-write information about these magnificent birds, you can read an article I wrote for the Algarve Resident last year (Read here…).
Currently there are a huge number of Greater Flamingos gathered at Ludo and after short wait a small group started to argue which gave the perfect scene directly into the sun.
{Click image to view in the shop}
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 @ 1/800sec, f/8, ISO560
Next up a solitary bird that I underexposed to silhouette with a little back-light lighting the edges.
{Click image(s) to view on Flickr - opens in new tab}
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/2500sec, f/8, ISO110
Once the sun had risen a little more I snapped these next shots;
This next photo I gave up waiting for them all to stand in the typical Flamingo pose so went for all 4 in a different pose instead
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/1250sec, f/8, ISO200
This next shot made me laugh, there were 3 Black-headed Gulls following this Greater Flamingo around like it was their mother, but I suspect it was because it was disturbing the fish and they were after an easy meal.
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/2500sec, f/8, ISO400
Then I concentrated on some flight shots.
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/2500sec, f/8, ISO280
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/2500sec, f/8, ISO280
Apart from the Greater Flamingos there was a lot of bird activity as you’d expect at Ludo. The Black-winged Stilts were making their usual noisy presence heard.
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/2000sec, f/11, ISO640
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/1250sec, f/8, ISO180
The reason for all the noise? They had a youngster.
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/1250sec, f/8, ISO200
On the way back to the car I spotted a Ruddy Turnstone busy foraging in the sandy mud where the tide was retreating.
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 with Nikon TC14E III 1.4x Teleconverter (giving 700mm) @ 1/1250sec, f/10, ISO720
As usual, the retreating tide exposed thousands of Fiddler Crabs, I will be writing a separate blog post about these, but here is a male with it’s single large claw which is normal for these very odd Crabs.
📷 Nikon D850, AF-S 500mm f/4 @ 1/1250sec, f/8, ISO250