White-tailed kite in flight

Here was a real test of the new camera’s abilities: I saw a bird hovering in the far distance, so I was fairly sure it was a white-tailed kite (Hayward Regional Shoreline is a great place to see them). I had (and have) very, very little hope for ever capturing a bird in flight with this camera, but a hovering bird might be easier than a flying bird, right? And I guess it was because these pictures are actually okay. They are not DSLR quality, but then again this bird was far enough away I’d likely not have gotten ANY shots of him with the DSLR. They are not very sharp at all and would certainly never go in my portfolio nor will I ever show them off as favorites, but considering how away the bird was, and I wasn’t using a tripod, and it was my first real day using the camera, I was actually kind of impressed that you can even make out what species it is. These pictures are clearer than I ever hoped to get under the circumstances.