Rain was a possibility, however, when I arrived at the meeting point at 7:45am in Silves, there was a broken cloudy sunrise and the day was looking promising.
It was a cold start and at our first stop the White Storks looked very uninterested in waking up.
I’ve been thinking about this shot for a while, but if I’m honest, it was more to get a White Stork family with juveniles in the shot. However, when I arrived and pair were standing facing each other it worked even better.
The sun is directly behind the nest creating this amazing back-lit silhouette of the White Storks sitting on the nest. Standing a fair distance away and using a long lens (500mm) created the sun to be almost the same size as the nest. I love the way it looks like the streetlight is lit too, it wasn’t.
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You may remember back in February, I spent the morning in Silves photographing the returning White Storks. I watched in amazement at what seemed to be battles for nesting space. The blog post and battle photographs can be seen in This Post.
Today I was in Silves and had a few minutes to spare so went to have a look at the same location (near the prison). In the Tree-Top nest there was a Juvenile sitting on top. It wasn’t the best time to visit as it was almost 4pm and not only was the sun overhead and bright but most of the birds were away feeding. The other nest that was under attack in February had two juveniles sitting on top, however, they flew away soon after I arrived.
Juveniles are easy to spot as their beaks and legs are much greyer in colour, although as you can see they are already turning red. It is believed that the adult’s beaks and legs turn red due to the diet consumed.
As promised a week ago, here is a collection of shots after spending a large part of the day in Silves photographing White Storks. I won’t go into too much detail about the White Stork as later this week I will hopefully have another post explaining some news about why I was photographing these giants, so for now, enjoy the photos.
First some shots of the birds on the ground and nests. In the 2nd shot, can you see the Sparrows nesting in the bottom of the Stork Nest?:
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