Grey Heron caught fishing

I took these shots today and managed to get a lucky sequence of a Grey Heron catching a tiddler.  I locked the focus on the bird and then put the lens into manual focus.  This ensures the camera focus doesn't stray away from the subject.

Grey Heron flight shots

These three flight shots were taken today from the small hide at Walmsley Sanctuary. For some unknown reason this individual kept flying around the pool in front of the hide, making it ideal to test my camera skills on flight shots.

The most tricky aspect is getting the auto focus onto the eye - with such huge wings the auto focus naturally locks on to the largest mass at the closest point. If you take enough shots, with a bit of luck one or two come good! The shot below is my favourite as the angle of the head is looking into the picture.

EXIF: Ap Priority, F/7.1 ISO 200. Shutter 1/250s, Exposure -0.3EV. Focal length 500mm. Hand held.

Grass roots photography

Why grass roots? Well, I spoke to John Swann today at Nanquidno. He said he knew there were few migrants around as my photo blog had gone quiet ! How true that is. Apart from a handful of common waders and and a few Northern Wheatears, there is precious little to watch at the moment. It's time to get back to "grass roots" and start photographing the commoner birds - so here they are: a nice male Northern Wheatear at St Gothian Sands NR today and a plump Woodpigeon and Grey Heron, all with a bright green grass background.

Walmsley attracts the birds and birders

A warm Spring day filled both the Tower Hide and mini hide with birders today at this stunning CBWPS reserve. Following a bitterly cold Saturday, today was the opposite. And the birders present could not have been disappointed. A pair of Merlins, 30 Black-tailed Godwit, several Little Egrets, Water Rail, Snipe, Barn Owl, Shovelers, Gadwalls, Teals, Pochard, migrant Swallows and Sand Martins and aggressive swans and geese all added to the entertainment. Below are a selection of shots taken today.

Male Merlin photographed at about 150 metres. This was the best I could get given the distance and heat haze. The visisble spots around this tiny raptor are midges !

About 30 Black-tailed Godwits were flying round the reserve. The middle bird was well advanced into breeding dress.

X Rated Grey Heron Display

Stunningly bright, low sunlight over Marazion Marsh tonight probably tempted this pair of Grey Herons to perform in front of the cameras. I say cameras because Bob Sharples was also pointing his 600mm lens towards the marsh as well! The mating display lasted about a minute, enough time to catch all of the close up action. The male bird then flew off and circled round the marsh in a gesture of contentment. I used the 1.4x TC. Shutter speed was 800th second, Aperture F/7.1, EV -0.3 , White Balance Cloudy (forgot to change it in all the excitement) and I earlier set the Colour Tone a couple shades towards amber, hence the strong colouring of the reedbed.