Return to the Redstarts

I recently decided to have one more session with redstarts. As usual the male quickly put in an appearance. He really is a beautiful bird in prime condition.

He was closely followed by the female.

On this particular session I decided to play around with a 25mm extension tube which has been rattling around neglected in the bottom of my camera bag. The extension tube gives some magnification effect to the lens. The longer the lens the less the magnifying effect but it is still noticeable on the 500mm. This effectively leads to the bird appearing larger within the fame and so the bird occupies a greater number of pixels and as such detail should be improved. The real benefit of the extension tube is that unlike a teleconvertor they contain no glass so there is nothing to reduce image quality, although you do lose a little light with their use.
The real joy of the session was the appearance of three recently fledged young which I have not really had opportunity to photograph properly before and it was great to see the adults had a successful brood. The young redstarts are virtually identical to a young robin except they have a red tail.

They were certainly looking healthy and very active

So I suppose its time to bring the redstart story to close for another year and I will finish off with one last photo of each of the adults.

They all have a long journey ahead of them soon with their trip back to Africa for the winter so here's to wishing them good luck on their voyage.

Swallowing Swallows

I have not had much time with the camera lately as I have been very busy in work. As I pulled in to my office car park yesterday, I noticed a row of recently fledged swallows lined on along the fence of the adjacent field. I had about 20 minutes left of my lunch hour so decided to put it to some use.

Adult swallows feeding their young is great fun to watch as the usually do it on the wing, swooping in and dropping off the food before carrying on their hunt for more. In terms of photography you are provided with an early warning of an approaching adult by the young birds.

The fluttering wings and gaping mouth a sure sign that food is en route and its time to get ready with the shutter finger.

The flying skills of the adults to deliver their food payload with such accuracy has to be admired.

However, this adult landed next to the young bird and released a live fly which was then watched flying off by the fledgling whose reactions where too slow.

Precision hovering in front of the young one

Is this why they are called swallows?

The fifteen minutes was over all to quickly and I returned back in to the office to carry on working through some spreadsheets. I had a quick scan through the photographs and did not get the image in my head that I wanted to capture so thought I would give it an hour when work had finished. Unfortunately during the course of the afternoon the clouds gathered overhead which by the end of work had turned into a steady downpour of rain.

Flycatchers

What better way to celebrate the 300th post on this Blog than with some flycatchers. These are very endearing little birds with their large eyes which always have a slight air of mystery to me. They are great birds just to sit and watch with their energetic and acrobatic displays catching insects. I am always amazed that such tiny birds can make that epic voyage up from Africa each spring and and then mysteriously apparently completely disappear into the woods for a couple of months after their young have fledged, before returning back south. Timing is crucial here for a delayed visit to a woodland, that was alive with birds the previous week, can suddenly appear completed deserted.

I headed over to my favourite site in North Wales to photograph some Pied flycatcher. I sat very quietly and patiently for some birds to appear and it was probably a 2 hour wait before I started getting some opportunities to take some photographs, during which I kept the voracious local midge population fed.

The female was first on the scene and always with beaks full of insects for her brood.

Photographing Pied flycatchers is a real photographic exposure challenge as the woodland light is constantly changing as the sun arcs around and branches above gently sway in the breeze. These conditions often create almost spotlight lighting.

It is however the exposure on the pied males birds when the fun really starts. The challenge is trying to balance retention of photographic detail in both the black and white areas of the bird without over or under exposure. You certainly have to know your way round the camera settings and use some nimble finger work to adjust them to allow for the lighting wherever the bird lands.

One the great features of the damp western oak woods which the birds prefer, is that most of the branches they perch upon provide some attractive setting for the photographs, especially those covered in moss or lichens.

To finish this post off I was also f recently fortunate to put a Spotted Flycatcher, a species that has sadly plummeted in numbers, in front of the camera for the first time. A bird I would certainly like to photograph some more but that will have to be a project for next year now as some sea birds are 'calling' for my attention.

Black Necks and Red Eyes

I recently heard about some Black-necked Grebes being present on a local lake which is a species I have never seen let alone photographed so decided to go and check them out a couple of weekends back. The first thing that struck me, having located the birds, was how small they were seeming to be just slightly larger than a Little Grebe. There were five birds present on the large lake and it was a question of waiting in one of the public hides and waiting for them to come in close. They were fairly active and it was not too long a wait before a pair of birds appeared right in front of the hide where I was sitting. They were just swimming and diving down for invertebrates and unfortunately not showing any of their tail walking display behaviour. However, always good to get a new species in the library.

Its quite surprising how long their necks are when stretched upwards.

Apart from being very beautiful birds one of their really noticeable features, similar to a Slavonian grebes, is their very bright red eyes.

As you can see from the last couple of photographs the blue reflection on the water off the sky was starting to go as the clouds gathered overhead and the light quickly went down hill so the short but satisfying session was brought to a rapid end.

Redstarts

After taking wildlife photographs for a couple of years you start been up a mental calender of which species can be found at different sites throughout the year. The period at the end of May running into June always signals to me it time to try and get some Common Redstart photographs. Despite having a large library of redstart photos I was drawn back once more to having another try for them this year as they are such beautiful and charismatic birds.

As I walked up to the site various thoughts were running through my head as whether it would be the same male bird as last year which had a drooping wing and wondering if he had survived the long autumn migration to Africa and back again. A pair of birds were quickly located and it turned out to be a different male but I could hear two other calling close by so one may be 'floppy wing'. I have a couple more sessions planned with them in the near future so it will be interesting to see if that particular birds puts in an appearance.

Starting off with the female.

A very busy bird which was constantly looking for food to feed her brood in a nearby nest.






The male bird this year is a real stunner in excellent condition.


The males are actually quite difficult to photograph and get a correct exposure on with their black head and gleaming white forehead. and its a balancing act with the camera settings trying to achieve detail in both.









There will hopefully be some more photographs of these birds, and possibly with some fledglings, being posted in a couple of weeks. I was going to head back out to them this morning but the weather seems to have fallen back in to its usual UK summer conditions of rain!

Edinburgh Zoo

I just took a short holiday up in Edinburgh and while there decided to pop in to the zoo. The weather was unexpectedly good for Scotland but by middle of the day visit created some problems with some harsh lighting to content with together with usual problems of getting around the constraints of the enclosures.

Starting off with a few birds. The zoo has an impressive collection of penguins including the large King Penguin.

A Gentoo penguin swimming across the pool

They do not come much brighter in colour than the Scarlet Ibis

The delicate head dress of a Victoria Crowned Pigeon

The Stellar Sea Eagle is a very impressive and majestic bird.

On to the mammals which proved all together more tricky.
Another fish disappears down the throat of a Patagonian Sea Lion

The tiny and hyperactive Squirrel Monkey

and Golden Lion Tamarin

To finish off, a couple of photos of the Sumatran Tiger

Worryingly licking it lips, and probably thinking about photographer for lunch.

It is always good to get some eye contact in a photo.

Summer Sanderling

I normally spend my time in the winter photographing waders when there are large numbers around on the local beaches but it is not something that I have really bothered with much at this time of the year as there are too many other distractions in the shape of summer visiting birds. After a very unsuccessful morning the other day travelling around various places and with not a single photo for my efforts, I decided to check the local beach as the tide was on it way in. To my surprise there was a small group of Sanderling which I can only assume were migrant birds heading northward to their breeding areas, which had stopped off for a refuel. I have not photographed Sanderling in their summer colours before so it was an enjoyable first.

As a quick reminder I have posted a Sanderling in its stark white and grey winter plumage for comparison.

The summer birds are much more colourful with their mottled brown, rust and black coloured feathers.

and of course still behaviour the same with their scurrying antics along the edge of the advancing tide line.

Wading through the shallow water of a receding wave.

This brief little session is a good reminder to make me keep an eye on the local beach a bit more over the next couple of weeks to see if I can find any other summer plumage waders passing through. Certainly easier than taking a trip to Iceland or Greenland!