The kestrel and a mouse - SEE THE AMAZING PICTURES!
Mariann is a hobby photographer who loves to be out taking nature photos, especially birds. Here she tells about a very special experience she had when she was out photographing.
It is an experience I will never forget!
- We like to photograph birds, but this time I only had one hour on me, says Mariann Olsen. -Then we see a kestrel standing still in the air and plunging down. No ... it had not caught prey and flew away. We'll wait a little longer… It's only half an hour until I have to move on.
Then I see a kestrel flying straight towards me. I shoot with burst and do not remember if the settings were correct. I quickly looked at the screen and saw that it has a mouse in its claws, and I told my friend. There is also another kestrel in the air at the same time, but I'm following the same one. It looks straight at me before it flies away. It is an experience I will never forget! I feel a little sorry for my friend who photographed the "wrong" kestrel. That's why I'm alone with these pictures. Many have thought they were manipulated, but they are not.
Nature photography is a hobby with many pleasures
I moved to Sandefjord, Norway in 2014. I had nature photography as a hobby. It started with me feeding the birds at home. But the rats ate a lot of the bird food, and since we live in housing associations, we had to stop feeding the birds.
In 2017, I had to go out into nature to take pictures of birds. I'm very grateful for that! There are an incredible number of beautiful birds that I would never have seen if I had not gotten out. I had never heard of a bearded tit, a black throat, or a common rosefinch.
I meet many with the same hobby, and it's so nice. Now I'm out every spare moment. At the moment it is a reed hawk pair that I follow. They have kids down in the reeds. I hope to see them when they are ready to leave the nest. It can happen at any time. This hobby enriches my life, says Mariann Olsen.
Thanks to Mariann Olsen for sharing this nature experience with me, and giving me permission to share it with you. It may be a bit brutal for some, but this is part of nature. Not many people get to experience this, so it was good that Mariann got such good pictures so that we also get an insight into what's going on in nature.
