Early morning red Grouse

[Steve Kaluski]

Well, it was good to see there are still some of these game birds lurking and feeding in the heather and haven't all ended up, 'in the pot', although they do taste good. :S3:

It was also great to see and watch for around an hour, a pair of Rough legged Buzzards flying around the area to, swept down from Scandinavia.

Thanks to those who posted and looked at the previous image.

Steve

Subject: Basking Red Grouse in heather (Lagopus lagopus)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 500f/4 with 1.4x HH
Exposure: 1/500s at f/8 ISO400
Original format: Landscape, very slight crop, one or two blades of heather removed.

[Marina Scarr]

Side lighting worked nicely here, Steve, since it really accentuates the most important parts of the bird. I am finding the bottom left dark spots more distracting that enhancing. I might try cropping out the dark spots at the bottom and maybe a tad from the left to compensate. Your BG mauve is stunning.

[William Dickson]

Lovely image Steve. Great colours on the bird which blend nice with the BG. Lovely light, and I like the way you positioned yourself to catch that OOF heather clump in the FG.

Did you manage to catch any pix of the Rough Legged Buzzards :w3

[Steve Kaluski]

Did you manage to catch any pix of the Rough Legged Buzzards

I wish, they were about 300m away circling/flying around on the hunt, just a joy to see with bino's and a first for me. Seems others have seen them too and got images further South than I was, but not to far. I assume they might have taken a Grouse given the opportunity.