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Otto said:
A second try on this group of birds. I think based on their look and my field guide, these are Cedar Waxwings.

They fit the description of being in groups and they have a bandit's mask like feature. Yellow tip tail.

These are a first for me, or at least the first time I'm able to at least get a semblance of what they look like. I'll have to wait for them with binoculars to be more precise..

Sony A74 with Sony FE 200-600mm at F8, 1/2500 sec, ISO 12800. Processed in DXOPureRaw 2.
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Nice catch. Didn't know these flocked together, only seen singles of Waxwings out west.
 
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I went looking for swallows this morning (5/19/2022) and encountered the White Tailed Kite. The second time I saw it, there was a mouse or other rodent in its grip. Here, definitely scoping the area for breakfast.

Sun was to my right and really bright so not much color to speak of but I thought this would work well for a High Key B&W.

Sony A74 with FE_200_600mm at F7.1 and while ISO was low 640, so was the shutter speed which I forgot to change from last night's low light endeavor. So 1/1250. Glad I realized that before continuing with the swallows. Cliff Swalllos that is.

A very important question coming up when I post those.
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Late sunset light, image of Cliff Swallow at ISO 8000 and 1/2000 of second F10. I went out again today to see the swallows but the 22 mph winds had everyone in hiding.

So I'll have to wait for another chance. I have a few more in the late sunset light which resolved better. Now I noticed that it seems the swallow, noticed me!

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The swallow experience, but you must answer two very important questions that will determine your photographic future. What kind of swallows are these? European or African Swallows? :)

10 frames per second but thousands of images for juts a few good ones :) By observing them I learned when they actually slow down. Going out for more of that.

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No matter what the swallows give you a run for your money. This images is from last night (5/23/2022) very near sunset. Four of these are slightly out of focus and this one the tip of the farthest wing is starting to go. Th background is all tall dried grass hit by the setting sun. This image was so close to the edge of the frame I extended the background to the left from our point of view to help with the composition.

Shot on a Sony A7IV at ISO 12800, F7.1 and 1/2000 of sec. I think F8 is probably better.
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There are 5 types of Swallow that can be found in North Carolina and, after practicing some 2 weekends ago, last weekend I decided to try to get pics of all 5 species.
The Barn Swallow was at wildlife refuge I frequent and the other 4 were all at a dam about 15 miles away.
All taken with Nikon Z9 + 500PF handheld, AFC - Wide Area L, 20fps, Lossless RAW, animal recognition on but human and auto recognition turned off. All at f5.6 and 1/2500sec. All at iso1250 except the Barn Swallow was iso2000
All accidentally shot with normal VR, not sport VR (lol...I was gutted when I noticed this but luckily still got some keepers)

In order:
Tree Swallow
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow

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