Snow Bunting - Poser!

Another rather nice bird to distract from other things going on at the moment. More pics to come!

Whooper Swans a Devon tick

With lots of commitments to attend to today, I took a brief opportunity to go out with the camera. I went to Exminster Marshes and was pleased to see two Whooper Swans in a field near the main car park. I checked BirdGuides and they had already been reported but as Bewicks, so I got them to correct it. Great to see and rather unexpected for a trip which was intended just as a distraction from the rest of my day.

Better Penduline Tit pic

I'm still midway through sorting out my Penduline Tit pics from Sunday so there may be better shots to put up soon...

Some lovely Tits!! (Penduline, obviously)

With some good pics of the RSPB Darts Farm Penduline Tits emerging on the internet over the last couple of days, I thought I'd better make an effort to go and see them myself. My plan was to go to Darts Farm, see the Tits, take some recognisable photos then head back and get the Great Grey Shrike at Aylesbeare Common on the way home. There were no reports of the GGShrike at all today, but the first half of my plan was rather more successful. Three Penduline Tits were showing well upon my arrival. Showing well, but far from easy to photograph due to the vegetation and cluttered background etc. Here's a few pics:

The Black Brant was also showing well. Bit of a bully as is often the case with this species:

GOOSANDER on the River Coly

So it went something like this... My Canon 24 - 70 mm f/4 L IS USM finally arrived today (after Parcelforce temporarily misplaced it) so I headed out for a few shots after work. It was already fairly dark but fast shutter speeds aren't necessarily particularly important when shooting with wide angle lenses. Whilst taking some photos of a bridge in Colyton the usual mallard group swam by but there was an unexpected guest! My first thoughts were along the lines of *!%&!*!%!!*. I know I shouldn't get excited over a duck, but this was only my second ever patch Goosander, it was just typical that I had a WIDE ANGLE lens on for testing. Brilliant. I tried my best at a few pics but with 70mm this is not an easy task... So I hastily jogged home, grabbed the 600mm and drove back down. It was still there although the light by now was very poor for photography. Here's a few of the least bad pics; they're cropped and all taken at ISO 2500 so graining is evident:

Wildlife photographs

Well, and some landscapes too.
Apologies for how quiet this page has been in recent weeks, I simply haven't been able to get out at all and birding potential from my office(s) is very limited! As well as my normal day jobs I've also had a lot of photography work come my way lately. As my location of work for next year is still unconfirmed, I'm clearing some of my stock of mounted wildlife photographs and greeting cards. As such the pricing will be incredibly low; I'd rather people have them cheaply than for the products to sit in a box for months on end! Pics are available in 12 x 10 inch and 10 x 8 inch mounts. There's also a choice of mount colour as shown in the images below. I've been browsing for pricing by other photographers and they charge on average 220% of my price. Feel free to ask for a quote. You can also request specific photos from this blog if there's something in particular that you would like.

Posing GWE & Colyton fireworks

More of the Shapwick Heath GWE and a few firework pics from the Colyton firework display (in the rain):