Matsushima Part 1 - The Birds!

I'll tell you all about how groovy Matsushima is in another post. However what I really had to mention were the amazing seagulls we saw on our cruise around the islands.

The gulls were obviously used to having people feed them - further encouraged by the people operating the boat as they sell seagull friendly snacks specifically for this. Watching the birds swoop down and snatch the food from people's fingers was amazing. So amazing I decided to give it a try myself... And since I was feeding them, may as well catch it on the camera.

So, the set-up:

1. Prawn flavoured snacks
2. Hungry seagulls
3. Camera able to take 6 photos per second
4. Person not afraid to loose one or more fingers.

The result - here in this photoset.

Check out the action though:


In all the shots the seagull would be just in frame, food snatched and back out again within 3 shots. So half a second to get in and get back out... Impressive!