Black-headed Gulls in flight

Adult Black-headed Gulls at Swanpool

Flight-shot target practice

These Black-headed Gulls images were taken this afternoon from the Golden Lion hide at Stithians.  The light was very poor, as it has been for the last few weeks.  The aperture was wide open at F/2.8 using a 300mm Nikon lens.  The shutter speed barely reached 1/250s.  Exposure was -0.3 EV though I have increased the EV to +0.15 in CaptureNX post-processing software.  The ISO was set to 800.

About 20 gulls were flying around the hide at about ten yards distance.  There's not a lot of birds around at the moment so these flight shots were ideal target practice.  I used the camera's matrix metering and 11 point focus, allowing the focus point to lock on to the nearest point.  This function seemed to work today on close subjects though generally on more distant birds, I find this function temperamental.

Cornish storm delights the gulls and the paparazzi

These shots of Black-headed Gulls and a Little Gull were taken on Sunday immediately after the big storm of the weekend was abating.  The waves were still massive and hugely impressive as they crashed in front of me on the beach at Long Rock.  The light was changeable and angled towards me, creating some interesting perspectives.  Why paparazzi?  Most of the photographers were papping away at Porthleven - I wish I was there too but the gulls were more appealing.  Check out Keith Hargreave's images via this link: http://keithhargreaves.blogspot.com/ and also Bobbsters images : here

St Ives and Zennor

A day out in West Penwith was probably the warmest day of the year so far - 10 degrees in fact! It almost felt like Spring. Sadly, few birds were on offer though the mild climate compensated. Best image today goes to a Turnstone feeding in the harbour at St Ives whilst some rugged Cornish scenery provides a backdrop for a Hen Harrier at Zennor. A Black-headed Gull adds to the tranquility today.