Red Kites at the Gigrin Farm
Yeah! Let's rock the european forum :D!
First Question goes to the british people:
I will go to Great Britain in June and I am planning to visit the Gigrin Farm in Wales to photograph the Red Kites that come to the farm due to the daily feeding.
I want to stay for three days there.
Is anyone here in the forum that can tell me, if the photographic opportunities are worth a "three-day-visit"?
Any pictures to show here, which are made at the Gigrin Farm?
Any good advice for me?
I would also love to test my 200-400 on a banking Red Kite :)
Looking forward to read more about it :)
Come on Friends over there :D
Szimi
Hmmmm.... That is one of the places to visit in my checklist too;)
I would say yes to do the location justice 2-3 days is good. Feeding is restricted to certain times and our weather is not the most predictable. I am planning a trip very soon so will let you all know.
The area is stunning so will keep you busy.
Thank you Steve for answering.
Would be nice to get some informations, when you have been there.
Do you know any other good opportunities in the surrounding there? Mostly for bird photography....
Don't forget to post some images :)Originally Posted by Steve Ashton
Szimi
Rosi... I will be doing some planning for my trip in the next few days, will be happy to share with you.
Gigrin farm is good and they have a number of hides that the kites fly close to. Great views and opportunities for photography.
Another great place to watch and photograph these birds is in the area of Watlington just off the M40 in Buckingham. An artical in the January 08 edition of Birdwatch magazine gives details of where and when is best to see them. It is really strange to watch them circling over the town - I have seen up to 20 at a time gliding over the roofs.
I hope this alternative site is useful to you.
David
Welcome David to the european forum!!!
Not been myself yet but is on my to do list
Here is a link to some pics taken by Martin Dyer from on here, madwun on eos-forums
http://www.eos-forums.com/index.php?topic=14876.0
some other info
Location: Gigrin Farm, Rhayader, Mid Wales
Where: http://www.gigrin.co.uk/maps.html
Website: http://www.gigrin.co.uk/index.html
I have been to Gigrin and in tend to return when my 500mm f4 arrives. I previously used a 100-400 f5.6 L IS. I found it a little short at the time. I understand now that there is a tower hide and this means you will get BIF shots with a better background. The light is a key factor and going in dull weather with a camera and lens configuration that will not give fast shutter speeds is in general a waste of time. Feeding time is in the early afternoon but Google Gigrin to be sure. I have read that it is often worth while to wait until most of the visitors leave, i.e. after the majority of the food is gone, at this point the the birds come in closer. You will also have the opportunity to get shots of buzzard and ravens. Make sure you have plenty f flash cards and whatever you do make sure you go to the local pubs and have a typical English lunch and a pint. I did say pint not pints - don't forget the alcohol limit when driving!! Don't forget that you can take shots outside the hide (or blind) as well as inside and also to remember to add a little light when photographing with the sky as background. I hope you have a ball and PM me if you wish.
Jon
I visited twice many years ago when I traveled around Britain and Scotland with David Tipling. It was great for the birds however it was so foggy each time that you could barely see 20 feet....
On his next visit two weeks later David had perfect weather... If anyone has an e-mail address for David, it would be a good plan to get in touch with him.
later and love, artie
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Thanks for your advice.
An email adress from David Tipling would be really great idea! I would love to get in touch with him!
When I lived in the UK, I visited the RSPB site at Ceredigion in Wales (website here http://www.rspb.org.uk/brilliant/sit...gion/index.asp).
They feed the kites at 3pm each day, one moment there is nothing, then the sky is full of them.
I was there in September, blue skies, pity my photography skills were not up to it!!
Posted a few images from the day at http://gallery.mac.com/john.ahern#100103
John
Hi John,welcome to european forum!!!
Thanks for the welcome Manos, looking forward to spending some time here.
One thing to watch out for when photographing Red Kites in Britain is that away from the core area in Wales most of the birds come from reintroduction schemes. This means that they have quite large wing tags with numbers on. Not at all pretty. Most of the birds at Gigrin are from the "survivor" population which had its stronghold inthe hills of central and northern Wales. This means that most of them have no tags. I could go to a feeding station about 90 minutes drive from home in Scotland. However, almost all of the birds there are tagged. The M40 birds will be the same. Ditto the other Scottish feeding station.
That is why when I wanted to get Kite photos, I took the family off to Wales for a few days. Had two days at Gigrin. There is a small motorhome park on site which was very handy for us. That way you can have more than one pint in the hotel which is a five minute walk away.
There is a good website at www.gigrin.co.uk with lots of information about the farm.
As well as the Kites, this site offers some of the best Common Buzzard photography that I know and is the very best place for Ravens. Peregrine Falcon are there quite often. Goshawk are there very rarely.
The hides tend to fill up well before the feeding starts. It is worthwhile getting in and set up an hour before. Take a book to pass the time, as the sky will be empty until it suddenly fills with Kites. Sometimes several hundred kites.
Best to take a range of lenses. The feeding is far enough out that you will want to use your longest lens, often with a converter, if you want to get close to filling the frame. Also, a lens of about 300 is good for taking groups of birds.
In two afternoon feeding sessions, only one Kite actually landed, and that was only for about 3 seconds. A few perched in the nearby trees. They were really too far off for good perched portraits.
To get an idea of what a range of photographic abilities can produce at Gigrin, go to www.birdguides.com/pictures/default.asp and search for Red Kite under species and Powys under area.
2 or 3 days should give you a chance of at least one good day with nice blue skies and plenty of light for fast shutter speeds.
Hope this helps.
Peter Macdonald
I've been to the M40 area (Stokenchurch and Christmas Common) several times and seen many Red Kites, not one of them had tags on.
That is a very good comment about the tags, at Ceredigion a lot of the Kites had tags which although the RSPB are interested in (for tracking movements) it does not make for nice photos.
I think you can tell where the Kite is originally from by the color of the tag, can't remember what it is again.
Thanx to all of you for your good advice.
I came in touch with David Tipling and he gave me some good informations.
I am very happy, that I made the decision to go to Gigrin Farm. Now I hope, the wheather will be fine at least for one of the days....
I will take my new toy ( the 500 / 4 IS ), some Converters and my 100 - 400mm with me.
Anyone in the forum who wants to share the time at Gigrin Farm with me?
When do you intend to go Rosl? I have a 500mm lens on order and when it arrives I intend to go to Gigrin myself
Jon
Hi Jon,
I'll be there from the 17th to the 20th of June.
Would be fine to meet you!
Hi Rosl
Myself and a group of fellow photographers made the trip to Gigrin Farm yesterday one had been before but for myself and 2 others it was our 1st visit. It was a long journey to get there ( 4 hour drive each way) but i think we all agreed was well worth it.
They feed the birds each day and, in the summer its at 3.00pm Not much point in getting there before 1.00pm as this is when it opens, and most of the birds have gone by about 5-30 - 6-00pm. So its a ½ day visit really.
There are various hides that you can shoot from, but 2 specifically setup for photography. We shot from the Gateway hide, which can hold six photographers ( 5 if you are using Tripods) but is best to be pre booked and costs £10 per person. There is also a slighly higher hide which can be booked for £15 per person but only holds 4 and was booked at the time of our visit and you are slightly further away from the birds.
The number of kites varies depending on time of year, from maybe 50 to over 400. They tend to come in a waves so you have about 30mins of quite frenzied activity and then a lull and then another wave of birds will come in.
Take plenty of memory cards with you as there will be lots of opportunities for photos. I was shooting pretty much exclusively with the 500mm on a MKIII. Shots in the sky were fine but it was having problems locking onto and following the birds as they dived down in front of high contrast busy backgrounds (trees in the background with no leaves on).
If you didn't nail the focus at the start of the stoop it was not going to reacquire the bird in the time it takes them to drop, grab food and fly off.
I did get some shots of the stooping and grabbing food but they were the exception rather than the rule.
Just another note we started off with the tripod and wimberley approach, but after 10 minutes abandoned those and shot handheld. It was much easier to follow the action.
I will post a some shots over the next couple of days but I would certainly recommend it as well worth a visit.
John Harper
EOS 1DMKIII
EF 500 F4L
ISO 500
1/1600 @ F4
Last edited by John Harper; 04-06-2008 at 03:35 AM. Reason: Missed shooting data out
Thank you for all the information.
I will pre-book the hide, that's a good idea!
I hope, I'll be fast enough to capture the action! Yesterday I tried to make images of small swallows feeding on small flies over a lake. It was near to a catastrophe! They were so fast and turning around so quickly and they are so tiny..... Oh my god.....
I'll be at the Gigrin farm next week from Tuesday till Friday.
Onyone here, who wants to share some time looking for birds? At Gigrin farm and around there?
Would love to meet other crazy bird-photographers....
Rose
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