Images

Goldfinch eating from fircone

I took an afternoon walk across Sopley Common this afternoon, keeping careful distance from the odd other person I came across. I managed to see several birds – most partly hidden or in the distance.  The most exciting distance one was this dartford warbler, that I got an “id” shot of. I did manage a reasonable shot of this stonechat, that was not as far away. As well as these

The Starling Slipper

In this post I will be posting my videos and occassional images of the Starling Murmurations I have seen at Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve for the 2018-19 season. First off a still image – I don’t often take these as I am normally filming videos.  It reminds me off a glass slipper from Cinderella for some reason. Below here are my videos.

Stonechat at Stanpit

I took a visit on a bright and cold February day to Stanpit in the hope of shooting some wild birds, especially the Stonechat’s which if you can find them there can be fairly co-operative.  The walk around was very bracing, and they were not in their normal spot near the playing fields, and it was only near the end of the walk around that I found some in the

Amongst the Trees

Failing to find inspiration on a dull October day at Anderwood, New Forest – I turned to fiddle with my Canon 5D mark iV.  There I noticed it could shoot in a multi-exposure mode ( with several settings and number of exposures ).  It bought back memories of doing this on my old film camera.  So with nothing normal inspiring me, I had a play.  The results are quite surreal

Walking in the Woods

I recently took a walk over Fleet Common, where I used to go as a child when visiting Grandparents.  As a child I would run and play, pretending to be a soldier with a stick for a gun.  On this walk I went armed with 1 lens ( my Canon 17-40mm L) and two camera bodies.  My Canon 5D Mark IV and 720nm Colour Infrared Converted 20D. I will start

Little Rabbit

I spent a couple of nice weekend in early May at Blashford Lakes Nature reserve, wandering around with my Canon 500mm lens and converters.   I saw a wide variety of birds and some bunny rabbits, as this post will hopefully show. First from the Tern Hide, and with a 2x Converter attached to the lens – a Little Ringed Plover. Reflections of a Black-headed gull and Redshank from the same

Get away from her!

Last Sunday I visited Testwood Lakes Wildlife Reserve.  The day was overcast and grey – and I’ve never seen much there before – so what could I find this time out. Well not a lot until I visited the first of the two bird hides there – where a Green Woodpecker was outside on the grass. There were some distant ducks outside this hide too – but even with my

Kestral flying off

Farlington Marshes was the destination on the 12th February,  the weather was not kind being overcast.  However the Kestrals were.  Showing well in the trees near the paths. This first one that I saw and photographed was balancing carefully on one leg. Later on another Kestral was spotted – again perched up high – before flying off when I pointed my Canon 100-400mm lens at it.  This is the sequence

Robin singing on a branch

There were two very different types of bird that I photographed on Saturday at Blashford Lakes. First, there was the posing and singing Robins.  They are plentiful at the reserve at the moment, and will tolerate the closeness of camera wielding humans like no other bird I know.  Which was good as I was trialing out a 2x converter and 300mm F4 IS combination for the first time.  The results