Being confronted by a massed flock of flying shorebirds can be an overwhelming sensory overload. Unlike penguins and shags, the overload is not olfactory, only visual and auditory. Photographically, the challenge is to try and isolate a subject or group of subjects from the chaos.

Using a slow shutter speed to pan blur an individual or group of birds can help achieve some isolation. As always this is a high risk/low reward strategy that wears out the X key and fills the trash can while delivering the occasional nugget.

Pan blurs work best when there is a background with some detail that can be smeared by the slow shutter thus generating a sense of movement. The challenge with the Pūkorokoro/Miranda migrants is that they are flying overhead so sky is the often the only background.

Despite this I find it worth exploring slow shutter options to try and achieve something different from the sharp in flight images on offer. The things that impress me are the huge flocks with the sound of the wind through their wings so it is nice to try and capture a sense of dynamism in the images.

With my Nikon Z9 and Z8 I find it quick and easy to switch between high and slow shutter captures using the recall settings function. This lets me switch modes during the pass of a single bird by simply tapping one button near the shutter and continuing to track the sequence.

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S