Swallows and Starlings

Another really late post of the photos I took earlier this month. There was a flock of about 20 Red-rumped Swallows (Hirundo daurica) flying around the Marushoku supermarket at Kita-shinden. Although it was a very dark overcast day, I couldn't resist taking photos of these since they were all flying really low catching some invisible insects in the car park. The result was awful. I still couldn't capture them successfully in flight even though I pushed my ISO to 800.

The starlings are still roosting near my place. During the last two weeks, the number of the Chestnut-cheeked Starlings seemed to increase. There should be around 100 birds and most of them were males and juveniles. I really want to get some decent shots of them, but they only show up after the sun set. The variation of the birds' chestnut cheeks is really interesting. Some of them has a really broad chestnut patch, some even has a chestnut collar, while some only has a faint chestnut patch. Don't know when will I be able to get a chance to photograph these birds properly.