Wildlife Photographic Journals

Glimpses of Light

Many of you will have probably guessed from my recent posts that the light, which is the essence of photography, has been in drastically short supply over the past few weeks. There have been the occasional bright days and moments but typically they have coincided with me being otherwise occupied with work. There are few things more frustrating than looking at the sunlight pouring through the office window on a week day only to see the weather suddenly flick to dark grey gloom for the following entire weekend. To try and overcome these light issues and get some photographs taken, I have tried to keep my camera with me as much as possible. This has been mainly to try and stack the odds in my favour when those glimpses of better light do occasionally show. So this Blog post is a compilation of species arising from snatched moments of light since the beginning of the year.

I managed to find a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits at the edge of the ebbing tide at the end of the road where I live. A quick dash down the hill was made as the sun briefly appeared.

A large flock of Bewick's Swans, which are unusual for my local area, gathered on some flooded agricultural fields. These wild swans are a very different proposition for photography than the loaf munching variety on the local park lake. They are very nervous birds and required a careful approach.

While on the topic of swans I stopped briefly on the way home from work last week to find this Mute Swan in the fading embers of sunset. Its good to see the day lengths are slowly starting to draw outwards.

I caught up with one of the Common Buzzards that lurks near the office. Perched in its regular location during a lunch hour last week. They are certainly a species of habit and routine.

I have been keeping up with the various Corvids that I love to photograph and kept my couple of feeding sites going. This has the benefit that the birds quickly appear, after I do, which is ideal for my often very brief visits.
A Jay taking an apparently perilous dive towards the ground.

A rather tatty looking Magpie coming in to land. I suspect this one has had a few run-ins with the local crows. It is interesting at these corvid feeding sites to watch the pecking order between species. At this particular site the order of dominance is crow, magpie and then jay.

A gentle touch-down by a Rook.

There has been an increasing presence of Wood Pigeon at one of the feeding sites. Some of which are starting to look very well fed!

To finish off this post of making the most of limited moments of light, an early morning encounter with a Meadow Pipit on the beach.

The signs of Spring are on the way with the first migrants in the form of Northern Wheatear arriving in the south of the UK heralding the sign of an exciting bird photography days ahead over the next 3 months.