Simply Gulls

With the January weather continuing to be a disappointment from a photography perspective, I thought I would turn the clock back a few weeks. Living by the seaside I am surrounded by gulls and so it is inevitable the some should find their way in front of the lens. I must admit I do enjoy photographing them as they are always entertaining and if you have a loaf of bread instantly become your new best 'friends'. So here is a compilation of some photos taken towards the back end of last year that I did not get an opportunity to show. I will start with the most common species the Black-headed Gull which is probably the most likely to be ignored by the photographer. The first was taken against storm clouds in the last light of the day and for a few fleeting moments the sky was filled with swirling golden arc of gulls, a memorable sight.

While on the topic of great light, while the ground covered in snow there was some superb up lighting on the birds.

The local raised Model Boating Lake always offers some good opportunities at high tide for bathing birds. Water level photos are achieved in relative comfort and without the need for scrabbling around on the floor.

and a young bird undertaking a bit of feather maintenance.

There are also good numbers of Common Gull or as they seem to becoming more frequently labelled Mew Gull.

Lurking in the unusually deep snow we experienced this winter.

Herring Gull are common and its is quite easy to see how a whole herring could easily slip down that gaping void.

A young bird undergoing some acrobatic manoeuvres on the local boating lake.

I think the manufacturer of the local seaside telescopes show change their name to 'Gull Scopes'. A Lesser Black-backed Gull on watch duty.

To finish off the scarce Mediterranean Gull which has been lurking in amongst the Black-headed Gulls all winter. It usually takes a bit of finding due to the similarity in looks, particularly when the whole flock takes flight. I am hoping this one will stay around long enough this year to transform in to their wonderful summer plumage. This first photograph was taken again when snow was on the ground on a beautiful crisp clear day.

As I have said many times before and no doubt will do so again the future, never ignore the common birds around you :)

End of the Year

As the weather, but more importantly the light, has been so grim over the last week I have been busy wading through my backlog of images. It is good to have got this finally finished before the end of the year and the double hard drive back-up is whirring away beside me as I type this.

I thought I would use this post to give a quick overview of my year and post a selection of images processed from the backlog. For me it has been a productive photography year with 118 bird species and 5 mammal species photographed including 17 species that have not been in front of the lens previously.

There have been so many wonderful moments shared with wildlife that its hard to pick out some highlights but the three that stand out are:

• The entire trip to Norway in the summer. Wonderful birds, landscapes and people;
• A very early morning in Spring, during a visit to Hampshire, which produced three new species in the space of a few hours including an unforgettable encounter with a Dartford Warbler;
• Photographing Leach's Petrels in severe onshore winds with my friend Steve. Such a privilege to see so many of this ocean wander at such close quarters.

Before posting the last images of 2010, I would like to send the warmest thanks to all those that have taken the time to read the blog and provide feedback. 2011? who knows what may appear in front of the camera but I am looking forward to it already :). So I will wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year.

Fieldfare listening for worms below.

Mediterranean Gull in flight

Young Green Woodpecker on a gravestone. These are such a tricky species to photograph and hopefully I will do better with them in 2011.

Common Buzzard photographed by my office during a lunch hour.

Female kestrel who is a regular visitor at one of my sites.

Mute swan

It is amazing how much fun you can have with a large puddle and a flock of starlings.

To finish of some rooks and jackdaw.

I have been putting nuts out for these birds to help through the recent cold weather. I think this photo shows how hungry the birds have become.

Please remember just because the snow may have gone, if you have been feeding the birds, then please continue as they need to rebuild up fat reserves and I am sure we have not seen the last of the cold weather this winter.

Rain and Flu

My photos activities during the last couple of weeks have been curtailed by a bad dose of flu and some grim autumnal weather. Unfortunately the brief appearances of sunshine do not seem to coincide with my moments of free time. I have managed a few grabbed photos here and there but could do with a good productive session somewhere.

The following photos have been taken in my local area. The Wirral is a wonderful place to live for a bird photographer as there are so many different birds available to photograph. Winter is my favourite time at least when the weather is kind.

For those interested in camera bodies the following photos were taken with the Canon 7D.

When times are tough the local sea gulls always provide good practice for flight photography.

Knot are obviously at their most spectacular in a large swirling flock but I think that the individual birds also have a certain appeal.

There are plenty of Oystercatchers around at the moment but mainly on the fields digging up earthworms.

The local model boating lake is full of Mute Swans, with this one taken as the sun had just disappeared at the end of the day.

A Barn Owl hunting voles out on the local salt marshes

To finish off this rather mixed post my local nemesis the Green Woodpecker. We don't have many of these birds locally and I have tried and failed on numerous occasions to photograph this particular bird but its extremely difficult to get anywhere close to it. This day I managed to catch it but still have not achieved what I am after with it. One day my perseverance will be rewarded!

Simply Gulls

Many people ignore the common species in their wildlife photography and are always on the look out for the rare. How many people ignore the technicolour starling or the 'humble' house sparrow (a bird I don't view as humble at all) or in this case sea gulls. Personally I think this is a mistake and they are missing out on a great deal as these are some beautiful photographs to be taken in the right light conditions. Sea gulls are generally easy to photograph especially in you have a loaf of bread to hand.

A good example is this herring gull. Firstly taken in some dull conditions

and then transformed by some late afternoon sun

Black-headed gulls also make great photographic subjects and a selection of recent images can be found below. These birds are also could for practising your flight photography technique.

If you watch bathing birds, they will often leap up after a short while washing to shake excess water from their feathers

or some fun can be had with flight photos

Testing the Canon 50D

I decided to take the plunge and pick up a Canon 50D body which I thought would provide a useful back up body. It certainly on paper has some advantages for bird photography 1.6x sensor, 15 megapixels (useful for cropping) and a reasonable frame rate at 6.5 fps. It comes with a host of other features. most of which I disabled before use except tuning it in with my long lens using the autofocus micro-adjust. So off I went to find some birds to photograph. The first session was in some very windy conditions on the local shore.

A purple sandpiper in some late afternoon light

...and a passing herring gull. The first thing I noticed is that the autofocus is very fast and quickly locks on to target.The next session was under much calmer conditions and the first test subject was some mallard.

My inital thoughts from these shots were:

• The files are huge and you only get about 178 images on a 4 gig card
  
• The images had more noise than my mk3 but it seemed to clean up well in a noise reduction program.
  
• The main issue was that the only RAW software that I have which will open the files is DPP supplied with the camera which has to be near the bottom of my personal list when it comes to RAW convertors.

Back out for another session on the local coast.

Common gull in flight

and then a test on the local Egrets in some end of the day light

My verdict from the inital tests are that the camera performs reasonably well although I would not say the image is quality is as a good as the mk3, but then again the 50D is a 1/3 of the cost. Obviously I need to give it some more testing and it usually take me a while to settle in with a new camera body. I will probably also feel more settled with it once I can load the raw files into my usual Capture One raw software.

Bathing Gulls

There are times when, despite being presented with a common species, the light is so beautiful you just have to reach for the camera. There were some black-headed gulls bathing on the local boating lake in some late afternoon sun (a rare event in the UK during a very wet August!!).Larger birds after bathing will often jump up to shake the excess water from their wings which provides a good moment to get some photos even if they do look a bit soggy.

Running for lift-offand coming in to land
A young Herring gull joined in and kept jumping up and just sticking its head under the water but don't ask me why. Gulls are always such good value for some action photos.