I can’t say I ever expected to chase Flamingos around a golf-course. I can now retrospectively add it to my bucket list though, because it was quite fun, and I think everyone should try it.
The Flamingos in question were Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus), the larger and more common of the African Flamingos. And after you’ve typed Flamingos three times in the same sentence it begins to look very odd. Flamingos themselves look rather odd and somewhat comical, especially in flight. We had some good opportunities to get photos, both at the golf course on the Langebaan Country Estate and the West Coat National Park not far away. The National Park was good for a lot of things, and I’ll do a post later about other photos we got there.
We were unlucky with tides, which meant the birds were much further away from the hide than we’d hoped, but the light was workable in the evening and beautiful in the morning, and we got some nice photos looking out across the blue lagoon.
I was still struggling with the distance with the 200-400mm, so when there was enough light in the morning I added a 1.4x teleconverter to get a little closer. Flamingos are fun to watch as they forage. They kick up the substrate and sift their bills through to feed, which means doing a little bopping dance which is quite endearing. It’s times like these that I long for a camera that can also take video footage!
Anna
15 Jun 2014Haha. Having video is my favourite part of my camera over yours, you have more adjustable settings…but I would probably never use them anyway.
Did you have to stay in the hide for photos, or were the flamingos just quite skittish if they noticed you?
Edin
15 Jun 2014I need to look at getting a camera that can take video. We stayed in the hide, it wasn’t possible to see them from outside as the boardwalk leading up to it was limited and had screens up so the birds wouldn’t see you approaching. On the golf course we just wandered around, but they weren’t too happy about us following them!
Anna
15 Jun 2014Feel free to borrow mine, although that won’t work when we’re together. If you do try and see if you can get one where you can focus through the eye piece. I can’t on mine and its awkward to try and focus using the screen and to try and track things when you’re holding it out in front of you.
I see, so you had to to get decent photos but not because of rules sort of thing. To be fair, the 200-400 lens looks pretty daunting! I wouldn’t like you to follow me around with it either :P
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