Thanks Matt, Steve and Dave, I’m glad you enjoyed this amazing spectacle too, and I have my wife to thank for bringing the little fella into the house and insisting I take a few photos.
It was quite extraordinary seeing the changes in real time. Initially, he tried flapping his tiny wings and gradually they began to unfurl and pump up, both layers. All the time, he was motoring along at a fair rate of knots so it was hard to keep him in frame and focus. I was so excited I forgot to stop down to give some extra depth of field.
He kept on wanting to go in one direction, as if he had a built in compass and when he had completely unfurled both sets of wings, he toppled over a couple of times as maybe he wasn’t used to the weight/moment on his back? It’s funny, but one expects them to be competent “out of the box” but we have seen young bird’s crash land so they too have a learning curve it seems.
There also seemed to be a scattering of glossy beads on his wings, maybe the hydraulics as he pumped them up?
After he had completed the physical process, my wife took him outside and put him deep inside a bush so hopefully, he had a chance to practice his new found skills.
I’ve included 4 larger frames that aren’t too affected by DOF issues.
Cheers
Dennis