Sand Martins streaming past
I bump the car down the track to Grobust, just one of the idyllic beaches on Westray. It’s glorious evening light and I want to clamber on the rocks to a small Sand Martin colony and get some photographs of them. I’m far enough away from their nests so I don’t disturb them.
Here’s one incoming, showing how long their wings are compared with their body:
And here’s one with glorious side lighting, and a very full crop of tiny insects for its chicks which are hidden deep within a sand burrow on the tiny sandbanks of the beach.
These were taken using an 800mm lens with a tiny field of view. I can only see approximately the same field of view as my big thumbnail at arms-length through the lens. I used an exposure length of 1/4000th of a second to freeze the action. I relied upon my camera’s autofocus to get the hurtling bird in focus. All modern cameras are science fiction and I’m living in the far distant future every time I use them.
I love the silkiness of the wing feathers and their fluffy underarms. Sand Martins are an evolutionary marvel.
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