My Favourite Subjects have returned.............

I am pleased to say that the Kingfishers have returned to their 'spot', which is very close to where I live.

I am fortunate in that within 5 minutes of leaving my house, I can be observing these wonderful birds, and I see them most mornings whilst out walking my dog.

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours by the stream (without my dog !) - an hour waiting for them to come to where I was waiting and an hour observing.

At the moment, they are going through the mating rituals which involves lots of screeching, passing of fish 'gifts' from the male to the female and copulation. The picture above is of the female just after she's been on the receiving end of all of the aforementioned.

I have found that the Kingfishers, like all wildlife, will initially spook when approached but will, after a period of time, return to their favourite fishing spot and are quite tolerant provided you don't start waving your arms around and shouting 'Look at these'.




I took around 500 RAW's yesterday, so I've got my work cut out getting through this little lot.


I will continue my studies of these birds throughout the rest of the spring and summer and report back regulary on their progress.

Cheers for now.......

Local Patch - RSPB Rainham Marshes

Taking a leaf out of Dave and Martin's book, I've decided to write a few posts focusing on my local patch, which is Hornchurch in Essex, and the surrounding area.

Bearing in mind my location, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by country parks and green belt - such as remains in the South East - and I am 10 minutes drive from RSPB Rainham Marshes.

The reserve is a strange place, which can appear quite barren at first glance but I have to say that I have had some pretty reasonable results there, although as has been mentioned, it can be hit and miss.

This year for instance, I have had Penduline and Bearded Tit within 15 feet on the reed mace. And although I've not been quick enough, Water Rail literally right at my feet under the broadwalks. In spring and summer I've had Cuckoo, Little Grebe and various Warblers within a few feet, plus Reed Bunting and posing Stonechat too.

Kingfisher are resident and Water Vole if it's quiet enough. On the seawall, there are also Dartford Warbler resident, although I've not tried to capture those yet. The feeders also attact quite a few species. When you first arrive, the site can appear daunting - basically, it's a 2 mile circular walk - but take your time and talk to the wardens before you go out - they will tell you the best spots. I've had my best results by just standing in a spot and waiting rather than marching round as a lot do and missing everything.

Check out the RSPB site for Rainham - there is a Warden called Howard Vaugh, and he keeps the latest sightings updated very well.

Drop me a message if you'd like to know more.

Minsmere - 27 Feb

A friend of mine, Tony Coombs and I took a trip to Minsmere recently in the hope of seeing some Bittern activity and the Marsh Harriers.


Initially the day looked like it was going to be clear with good light, but after a very early start, a grey blanket of cloud moved over the reserve and stayed with us pretty much until we decided to leave (at which point the sun came out and shone all the way home !).


Our early start paid dividends though as the deer that usually are gone once visitors arrive in force, were showing well.


Having spent a fruitless couple of hours in the Bittern Hide (1 Bittern seen in the distance + 3 Marsh Harriers), we moved down to the Island Mere Hide. The Marsh Harriers were showing well, but only occasionally coming close enough to the hide for photo opportunities.










On the way back to the car, a Wren decided to appear, and posed well for the camera - a bird I'd not previously had in my library, so I was very happy to get some shots.










During a quiet moment, as Tony and I both have 1D MKIII's, with 500mm f4 attached and 1.4x converters we decided to test our kit.


On each shot, sitting next to each other and photographing the same goose using AV mode, Tony could only manage a shutter speed roughly 1/200 slower than my camera.

We continued to take shots of the same birds and again, Tony could not get the same shutter speed.We checked our basic settings - same mode, f stop, iso, focus point etc., but same result. We then went through all settings in the menu and Tony adjusted his to match my camera exactly. Again, the same result.The only difference between our gear was the 1.4x - Tony has the Canon version, mine is a Kenko.

This was interesting experiment, and possibly the difference between getting 'that sharp image', or not.

I appreciate that there are more precise tests that could be carried out - like swapping converters/lens etc., but this is food for thought for now.

Elmley Marsh 22 Feb (and thanks to DC)

This week I took another trip to Sheppey trying to see Golden and Grey Plovers and hopefully Short Eared Owls.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't manage to see any of the above, but I did get a rather nice image of a Stonechat.

Although I was dissappointed with not seeing my target species, I did get the chance to watch several Marsh Harriers that were hunting, but staying tantalisingly out of range of my camera (I really must bolt that 2x on at some point and get practising).

I'm quite happy with this image and more particulary, the processing - having read Dave Courtney's piece on the adjustment brush on LR2, I used it for the first time today to selectively saturate, lighten and sharpen this image whilst in RAW. Normally I would do that to the .JPEG in CS3 after exporting, so I will certainly be using this as part of my process in future.

I could never get the layers and masks thing, and LR makes this so easy...........cheers Dave. Another thing learned !

Elmley Marshes on Sheppey

I took a trip to Elmley on Sunday as I had a free day - the forcast was not great, but a friend of mine had visited the day before and had seen 3 short eared owls, and so I thought I would take the camera down there and see what I could get.

RSPB Elmley is accessable via a long unmade road which crosses a large expanse of marsh that allows some of the best views of Lapwing, Egret and Heron that I've had in the UK- all very close up and all by using the car as your hide.

The Egret was no more than 20 ft from the car and happy to stand, even while I moved the car to get better position.

The Heron was actively hunting in the pools by the road, and pretty much stayed until he decided to move elsewhere to look for something else to eat.

Having got my pictures there, I moved off to another well known spot, Harty Ferry Road to wait for the SEO's to appear. Unfortunately, they didn't appear this time, but a Barn Owl did fly in front of the car, along with Partridge and a Stoat which was climbing some posts - I only managed to capture the Barn Owl, but will have to paost that later as it's not a great effort.

I'm off to Minsmere next week, so keep looking in updates and latest news.

Penduline Tits

Got 'em at last !

As this cold weather persists (showing -3 on my car temp gauge) a cold, misty visit to Rainham early Saturday morning beckoned. There had been a dusting of snow as well, which added to the winter scene.

As I arrived in the car park, my friend Tony Coombes was waiting and reports of the Penduline showing well had filtered through from the Wardens. They let us into the reserve early, and after a 20 minute walk, this is what we found -

A New Year and 2 new species so far - SEO's and Penduline.

Bearded Tits and Stonechat

I spent the first weekend of 2009 at RSPB Rainham Marshes looking for a rare winter visitor, the Penduline Tit.

They have been seen at Rainham for several years, and this year I set out determined to get some images.

Unfortunately, I failed as the Penduline did not show on either day however, on Saturday my friend, Tony Coombes, and I were consoled by some wonderful views of Bearded Tit.
















On Sunday, the birds that never fail to pose for a picture - the Stonechat, showed up and didn't fail to perform.

New Years Day

Happy New Year everyone.

Right - first New Years Resolution is that I will keep this blog up to date. We will see if I manage to do it.

First trip out of the year was on a freezing first day of January over to meet my friend Martin Dyer at Slimbridge. As it was very cold, most of Slimbridge was iced up, and so after a relatively fruitless morning, we moved to a site that Martin was familiar with to look for Short Eared Owls.

The light was grey and flat, but everything was covered in a thick frost which provided to the most wonderful backdrop to the farmland.

We spent 3 hours watching these wonderful birds who were joined by a Kestrel, Peregrine and a Barn Owl.

Rainham Marshes 6 February, 2008

Managed to grab a couple of hours at the Marshes reserve today. Plenty of Lapwing taking flight, plus several Pied Wagtails were working the margins of the lakes.


On the feed tables, there were a few of the usual Blue Tits and Great Tits, Gold and Green Finches, plus a solitary Reed Bunting who looked like he needed his spring plumage !







Saw an Egret too, which was a bonus:















Off to Fingringhoe Wick, Isle of Sheppey and Minsmere at the weekend, so keep watching for more images................

Rainham Marshes 6 January

Made it to Rainham Marshes (http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/r/rainhammarshes/index.asp) on what turned out to be a lovely, sunny morning. A chill in the air, but nice and bright. Goldfinches and green finches were showing well on the feeders near the vistor centre and on the start of the walk, a Stonechat was showing well and posing for the camera (picture to follow). Also saw a water vole, but didn't get a chance to get a snap of him as he made his way through the reed beds.

On the lagoons, saw a lone Godwit of some sort, but didn't get a firm identification. Lot's of lapwings, shellducks, some barnacle geese, widgeon and various other assorted wintering birds.














I will be back there this weekend for another photo session, weather permitting.

More photo's to follow shortly.

Looking forward to the weekend

Hoping to make it to the RSPB site at Rainham Marshes this weekend - weather permitting. I'll post up some piccies if I make it .................

















The Stonechat's show really well at Rainham.........