Sunday 30 January 2011

Colyton birding (nothing special)

Seeing as though I had some free time and it was actually sunny today, I headed out with a camera to see what I could find in the way of wildlife. Unfortunately this was a fairly boring and fruitless exercise... Here are a few of todays pics, mostly boring subjects I'm afraid (the exception being a Goldcrest which proved even more timid than usual, apart from when it landed about 50cm away which was too close for the lens to focus..... GRR!!!!!!!). 

You know a desparate photographer when you see one photographing common birds like these...






Sunday 23 January 2011

Follow on...

After some mild success yesterday I headed out again after the patch Goldcrest. As with yesterday, conditions were dark and overcast (this was at 16:30!!) but a powerful flashgun managed to compensate enough to get some pics that aren't too offensively bad. There was also an uncharacteristically obliging Song Thrush there. Here are a few of todays shots:



The sky wasn't actually blue!! The flash just made it look like this.


Saturday 22 January 2011

Colyton birding (brief!!)

I had an unexpected hour to spare this afternoon so I headed out around Colyton with my camera gear. As per usual the weather was unfavourable. Cloudy, cold, dark and generally awful conditions for photography! I walked towards an area near the playing fields after receiving a tip off that a goldcrest was frequently present there (thanks Helga). Despite not being particularly rare I'd still only ever seen two of these birds before this one in my lifetime!!! So regardless of the weather I was pleased that a goldcrest turned up after about 20 minutes of waiting. Here are a few snaps that I managed to take. I apologise for poor image quality, conditions were bad and the bird never stayed still for more than half a second or so!! And it insisted on hiding behind vegetation. There are a couple of pics of other species too, all photographed in the same area:





Sunday 16 January 2011

Black Redstart

Having seen Karen's post about there being a Black Redstart at Seaton Hole, I thought I'd go and have a look. It only took about 5 minutes or so for the bird to show but it only landed on the rocks for a second or two before dropping down between them and out of sight! Highly frustrating as this rarely even gave me time to focus my camera on the thing! I did eventually manage to get a few shots. Please excuse the appauling image quality, it was raining as well as being dark.

Friday 7 January 2011

Colyton wildlife during the festive period

I apologise once again for not posting more often! Finding time is tough, especially when you get asked to work over the Christmas period instead of taking it as holiday... I did however find some time on Christmas day and Boxing Day to go for a walk with some camera gear (plus a new battery grip, thanks Dad!). There's nothing particularly interesting to report, here are a couple of recent pics:






As with the majority of my photographs of herons, this one was taken from Chantry Bridge, Colyton.

As I only started blogging recently (from September 2010) I haven't put many of my pics up on here. If you're interested in seeing more of my shots then there is a wider selection on my website at:

www.wix.com/timwhite111/wildlife

I plan on updating the content of that website soon.
Feel free to have a browse!