I have long said that my bird photography obsession is a genetic illness inherited from my father and passed on to my daughter. Technology has caught up with me and my Apple Watch recently triggered a health warning related to bird photography!

By way of background, I had just done a rapid hike up into the mountains looking for Rockwren and trying to beat an incoming weather system. Unsuccessful with the Rockwren I had dropped back down and headed into an easy beech forest walk where we had previously photographed Rifleman and Brown Creeper. While walking slowing along the track I spotted a perched New Zealand Falcon/Kārearea as shown in this next photo.

These are always excising sightings and so can get the pulse rate quickening as on any hunt with the quarry in sight. Proceeding quietly and slowly I began to look for a decent view of the bird through the bush (an alternate name of Bush Falcon is not entirely inappropriate). This involved holding awkward positions while trying to get a view with a reasonable composition through a thicket of branches and leaves. I had been walking with my Nikkor Z 100-400mm so began shooting with this and achieved some images.

It just was not possible to get a clear view of the bird in a decent composition without intervening foliage and branches so I changed up to my Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S to photograph from further away and gain more blurring of the intervening vegetation.

The contortions of handholding a large lens in a sustained contorted pose while excited and breathing holding to minimise shake in the dim light while waiting for a good pose from the bird was when my watch decided I was in need of a warning. An elevated heart rate while clearly not moving along the path was obviously the sign of a potential medical event. My previous exertions and a cup of coffee obviously were contributory but there may have to be a software update from Apple to factor bird photography into my profile to avoid similar warnings in future!

I spent a fair bit of time with this bird and will write a bit more about it in a further blog post. While a difficult environment, I tried a number of approaches and achieved some images I am satisfied with. A bird in the bush is not always a lost cause.

Photos with Nikon Z9, Nikon Z 100-400 f4.5-5.6 VR S or Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S