Just got in from photographing some of the objects of the sky, and it wasn't birds this time! I seem to be making a habit of after-midnight photography... Unfortunately my 300mm lens is about 500mm too short for Moon shots, but I made do. Here's a pic of the Moon; one with the Moon and Jupiter to follow in another post. The pic may seem pixelated as it's been heavily compressed when transferring between camera and phone & converting to JPEG, it should still be worth clicking on to enlarge it though.
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Severe River Coly flood with pic
There'll be more to follow on this when I get time. I'm still blogging by phone as mentioned in my previous post. There were a surprising number of people out during the flooding considering the time of its occurrence. I could tell it was going to be bad when I saw it looking fierce at 19:00. I popped back later with a friend and went wading! Water nearly waist deep where I risked it. It was much deeper on another stretch of road but the fast current and collapsing fence deterred me from investigating that area. When I say later I mean 22:00, and the flooding continued to worsen until approx 01:30 when I eventually headed home. Here's a lame pic taken on my phone (very dark conditions obviously as it was well gone midnight).
Like I said, more to follow; I took my 7D despite the rain...
Pic taken from the shelter looking towards Umborne Bridge.
Saturday, 24 November 2012
Redwing are here
Just a brief post because I'm having to do everything by smartphone due to a pc problem (hopefully this'll work okay and you won't get any strange formatting)! There have been a group of Redwing near Colyton church for a week or two now. I managed a few (underwhelming) pics of them last weekend. There was also a nice Mistle and Song Thrush there.
Friday, 16 November 2012
Pics from a good afternoon birding on the Axe
In the latter half hour of the visit, there was a LOT of interest on the bird front. Two Knot were on the estuary, also a Med Gull and I spotted the Cattle Egret opposed the hide (but distant). One of the Kingfishers showed briefly, and also a lovely Sparrowhawk. Here's a few of the pics:
Little Grebe with a big meal. It later dropped the eel. |
Only the 2nd one I've ever seen landed. |
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Cattle Egret, Goosander and a performing Kingfisher
The bird was gradually working it's way towards me. I figured the best tactic for getting a close view would be to sit and wait rather than trying to move closer to it and risk scaring it off. This tactic was working well until another birder parked up VERY close to it and scared it off instantly. Nice one! Grrr, this hobby can be frustrating when careless people ruin it for you!
Next stop was Tower Hide to see if the Goosander had decided to show yet. It hadn't. But a nice juvenile female Kingfisher was performing well on the posts to the left of the hide. A heavy shower made the water on the Axe really muddy so I guess the still (and relatively clean) water on Black Hole Marsh became the next best fishing area. Here's a couple of the pics. I tried to take them in shadows as the occasional sunlight would only partially light up the bird, making for a very unattractive photo. I adjusted colour saturation etc in post production to make the scene look as though it was a bit more 'sunny' even though a lot of them were taken in the rain (Kingfisher pics 3, 5 & 6). I also took a pic of one of the Little Grebes:
Worth clicking on to get a larger view |
Worth clicking on to get a larger view |
Worth clicking on to get a larger view |
Just as I was packed up and ready to leave, I took one final look out over the estuary... and there was the Goosander!! It was distant (at least 150m) and dark, but it's the first one I've seen (ever, anywhere) so it'll do!
A couple of the Kingfisher pics are worth clicking on to get a larger view.