Bird in flight photos

It's only wagtails, but here's a few BIF shots. No sun on the birds which made for high ISO settings to avoid slow shutter speeds, but the colours do tend to look more natural with less shadow & highlight problems without the sun. Some of the shots are VERY sharp, but the birds were nearly always flying away from me so I deleted the vast majority of what I took.

Some good news, some pics and some birds at last!

Some new determination has recently come over me; every free second of daylight I've had lately has been spent out with the camera (doesn't equate to a lot of seconds, but at least it's some!!). I've spent the vast majority of this keeping an eye on how things are progressing with the River Coly. It looks as though all three of the Kingfisher pairs whose nests I discovered have moved elsewhere. Not entirely surprising given that all three nest sites fell into the river during last year's floods. There is still a male bird around, but I haven't seen the female since the recent flood (could be sitting at a new nest site, we should find out in the next 5 to 6 weeks).

However, it's not all bad; there is DEFINITELY a pair of Dippers on the River Coly. And neither of them are the ringed bird from last years breeding pair. Here's the evidence!

Poor pics but this was fantastic (and relieving) to see.

I headed out for an Otter watch a couple of evenings ago but with no luck in seeing one. The most interesting thing I saw was a Chiffchaff (yes, really). Here's a night (genuinely) shot:

There are also a few Treecreepers around the River Coly tree line:

And this evening I took this pic out of my bedroom window. Too dark and too distant for a good pic but I'm very pleased to see these in the middle of town!!

Blackcaps- quite an unusual sight in Colyton

The female soon moved off, as another male landed right by her!

There'll be another post from recent Coly birding soon; there's too much to fit in this post.

Let's hope this fall continues...

Ready to be amazed?

... by how thoroughly underwhelming after sunset bird pics are. I've been pretty ill for the last week or so, so I decided that some late fresh air would do me good. I headed to Black Hole Marsh in case the Barn Owl decided to show. It did, but not until around 20:00 which on a very overcast day, meant that it was dark (actually fairly dark rather than just dull). I took a couple of TERRIBLE pics of it at quite a distance. I certainly needed the f2.8 of my new lens even though the 200mm focal length at the long end was about 600mm too short... Nevermind though, at least I did see it so it could been worse. Slightly.

I took quite a few other pics for the hour or so I was there. I'm surprised by how 'okay' I can make some of the pics look in post production with saturation fiddling and noise reduction etc (colours 'appear' nearly B&W when it's dark, but RAW data from picture files can go a long way at making them look 'better').

Here's the shots; all taken after 7pm (some after 8pm). General ISO setting was 800 - 1600 (I DESPISE using ISO this high on my camera bodies. Any photographer who works on a budget of some kind will know why!), and shutter speeds were disgustingly low. Definitely beats staying in ill at home though! :)

More pics (and a little bit of good news regarding the River Coly...) from the weekend to follow soon.

More pics! Dipper and stunning male Pintail

I'm managing to get a fair bit of birding done! Unfortunately there wasn't a lot about today; the best I saw was the Dipper on the River Coly and the pair of Pintail on the lagoon at Seaton Marshes. 

Great birds, lots of pics (Axe Estuary)

I spent as much time I could out with the camera yesterday, making the most of a nearly free day. I was up early to see if the Marsh Harrier was about. Unfortunately it appeared in the 2 hour time slot that I couldn't be out birding. Grr. I managed a few more Stonechat pics, although I still haven't seen a male bird which is a shame. I took quite a few pics of some very approachable Chiffchaffs, and some pics of the Little Ringed Plovers and Ringed Plovers on Black Hole Marsh:

It's worth clicking on all of these pics to get an enlarged view.

I took my old camera arrangement (Canon 500D + 300mm F4 L IS USM lens + 1.4x extender) as well as my Canon 7D + 70-200 F2.8 L IS USM ii so I could choose whichever set-up best suited the distance of the birds. Unfortunately the Plovers weren't particularly close so I used my old gear with greater focal length. The results are okay I suppose. The Chiffchaff pics were taken with the 7D set-up, they were plenty close enough for the shorter focal length lens!

River Axe- Marsh Harrier. Osprey. 23 Little Ringed Plovers.

Needless to say I missed all of the species mentioned in the post title due to work. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I headed out as soon as I finished work but the Osprey had gone and the Marsh Harrier hadn't been seen for about an hour. I then got a text from Steve saying that Ian (W) had 23 LRPs on Coly Common! Blimey! I quickly motorbiked over and when I arrived, Ian dealt me the news that 21 of the 23 had just flown off. Absolutely... Terrific...
On the plus side, I did see my first Stonechat and Wheatear of the year. There were approx 10 Wheatear around the path leading to the Colyford Hide (mostly male). With the following pics, please be aware that they were taken at annoyingly long distance (30m?) and it was gone 18:00 so light was... not good (bloody awful). The other pics of Chiffchaff, Red Breasted Merganser, Black Tailed Godwit and Green Sandpiper were all taken after work yesterday.
Bank holiday tomorrow so I'll spend as much of it out with the camera as I can! Although I haven't got a totally free day, unfortunately. Alarm is set for 06:00 so fingers crossed it's worth the effort and discomfort...

Mega distant!

Big fall of migrants around the Axe Valley

Here's a few pics from the last few days. I headed out in the pouring rain on Friday to see the Sandwich Terns at Bridge Marsh. My camera and new lens got completely drenched. Here's a very distant pic of some of the Sandwich Terns through a lot of heavy rain:

MASSIVELY cropped pic

I also took a pic of a Buzzard which was struggling in the wind and rain. Shame I wasn't close to it as it would have made a nice shot. Again, this is massively cropped:

Like near the Axe, there's also a crazy amount of Chiffchaffs around the River Coly. Must have seen a good hundred or so over a 2 mile stretch of river, and that's without looking for them. Hopefully they get through the cold patch!

A good couple hundred of these in the fields by the River Coly

I missed both Ospreys due to work commitments... but at least I did get the Little Ringed Plovers yesterday evening. Yes, evening. I was out on a walk until 16:40 so then rushed to Black Hole Marsh and managed these lousy pics in ridiculous light (lack of) at gone 17:30. I think the new lens did a fairly good job considering the conditions. Definitely made use of the f2.8 even if the focal length is only a 1/3 of your average Bridge camera...

I really hope that the decent fall this 'Spring' continues. And also that it warms up soon!