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.

Panning for Waders

I decided it was about time to start the winter wader campaign. Having played around a little last year with getting some low level photos, this winter I intend to put a good deal of effort in with my main target species being Bar-tailed Godwit. So before heading forth in to the estuary muds I thought it was time to get properly kitted out and invested in a good pair of chest waders. Of course the other essential piece of kit was the modified fry pan!. If your wondering what I am on about then check this previous post http://wildlifephotographic.blogspot.com/search?q=the+low+down.

The first trip out was less than ideal with a very small tide, poor light and a Sunday beach full of dog walkers. As I had no tide to bring the birds towards me, it was a case of going commando in the mud and crawling a long distance, which I certainly felt with some aching muscles the following day. I just had a bit of experiment with some sanderling that afteroon.

Despite the conditions I liked what I was seeing through the lens from my very low angle which brings a degree of intimacy with the subject.
The next session was under better conditions.

Along with the Sanderling scurrying around the beach there were around 3000 knot and 5 Bar-tailed Godswits. The Godwits were playing hard to get and stayed on the seaward side of the knot flock making any approach difficult and spent most of the time asleep.

The session was useful though as I am now confident with the approach for the bar-tails and just need to wait for the right combination of sun and tides.

'Barwits' and Plovers

During certain tides, good numbers of Bar tailed Godwits ('Barwit')gather up briefly on one the local beaches. I have watched them for a while but never got down to actually having a proper attempt at photographing them. A plan was formulated to attempt to get close enough to this nervous flock to try and photograph them. The was going to involve getting covered in mud and getting the timing just right.

First birds to fall in the camera viewfinder were some grey plover which kept their distance but I thought I would take some 'environment' shots anyway as the winter sea provided a good background and this is a species I have not photogrtaphed before.

The Bar-tailed Godwit plan worked quite well (at least until the first beach dog walkers appeared)and I was pleased with the results from this first attempt.

The early morning light combined with the wet sand created some interesting lighting conditions. I must admit being embedded in amongst a feeding Bar Tail flock was great fun and an experience I hope to repeat in the not too distant future.

Staying local

Just a couple of shots of some local birds of the Wirral pennisula for this post.

I spotted this Bar-tailed Godwit already in some unseasonal summer plummage amongst a big flock on New Brighton shore.

Decided to pay a brief visit to the Curlews on the way home one day as I have nottaken any shots of them for a while.

Its always easy to overlook the common when you are taking bird photographs but couldn't resist taking a shot of this cooperative Carrion crow

and to finish off I found another Mediterranean Gull, know that I have my 'eye-in' for them, last night on the way home from work..

There have been three Shag that have taken residence up on the local Marine Lake and but conditions have created some difficult shooting. The rough water added some mood to the shots though.

On the local beach there have been some impressive gatherings of Knot and BLack and Bar tailed Godwits.

I am working on a plan for getting close to the Godwits but at the moment have just settled for shots off the seawall as I arrived a little too late on the receding tide.

Sanderling are always fun to photograph as the scurry around the tide line.