Monday, May 04, 2009

Park Life

Urban parks offer an oasis for wildlife amongst the concrete sprawl of the town and cities. There is a further advantage for the wildlife photographer in that many of birds and mammals are accustomed to people and can therefore be approached relatively easily. I often take a short walk in the early evening, without the camera, through my local park. Often I have watched various birds as I have wandered through but until recently have not visited with camera. To all those thinking of dashing over to the local park with the camera, please consider a couple of points. Some parks may have restrictions on photography and others may not be safe to walk around with a camera! Also when taking photos in a public space, people may take offence to a long lens appearing to point in their direction. So an approach that is sensitive to others and my subject is always the order of day. I always adopt a very early start when the park is quiet but busy with wildlife.

In my local park there are a good number of our largest song bird, the Mistle Thrush. Often difficult to approach, these park birds are relatively confiding.
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It is great to watch their 'concentration' as they listen for worms...
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and which rarely fails.
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The must have bred very early this year as the first brood had already fledged.
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Collared Doves are common in the park and no doubt some of the same birds that visit my back garden occasionally.
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A bonus in the shape of Great Spotted Woodpecker nest. This is the female bringing back a beakful of aphids to feed the recently hatched young.
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5 comments:

FAB said...

Some good tips for shooting in public spaces Rich (also applies to carrying birding equipment) and excellent captures particularly the young MT.

Ginnymo said...

Wow! Awesome photos Richard!!

Dale Forbes said...

wow, our thrushes have only really just started getting frisky

Dale
http://alpinebirds.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

I completely agree with you on the tips when going to a public park. This also means you can't visit parks in evening during sunset for wildlife images though lighting is good.

And those images of the mistle thrush are some of the vest I have seen online Rich.

Rich Steel said...

Thanks for your comments which are appreciated as always. Unfortunately the woodpeckers seemed to desert the nest shortly after I saw a male departing with a dead chick one day. It was not clear if this was the male removing a casualty or a rival male up to no good!

Cheers

Rich

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