Oenanthe-ville

Cyprus at the end of March and early April is prime time for migrating wheatears. Every suitable habitat holds them. Isabellines and Black-eareds were most common followed by Northern. We were lucky to find a pair of Finsch's Wheatears on passage, although they do winter in Cyprus. Females are more tricky to identify and pose plenty of discussion. Below is a sample of some of the images.

Above and below: Female Desert Wheatear, the only one seen on this trip.

Below: Male Isabelline Wheatear. These were numerous.

Isabelline Wheatears with a Trumpeter Finch on the same rock. Apologies for this one being slightly soft... but the Trumpeter Finch is the 11th record for Cyprus and given the long distance, and low light, was the best I could manage.

Isabelline Wheatear - this image was taken by Pete Maker. I passed my camera to him because this individual was on his side of the car! Perhaps he should keep it!

Female Isabelline - same individual as above.

Male Cyprus Pied Wheatear - one of two endemic species on the island. They can be found in any habitat on the island and are common.

Summer Plumage Water Pipit

We saw several Water Pipits during our stay on Cyprus, all of which were in similar full summer plumage...quite spectacular birds and not often encountered like this.

EXIF Detail. F/8. Shutter 1/250s ISO 200. 0.0 EV. Focal length 500mm. Centre weighted metering. Taken from car window.

An attempt at macro photography

Below are some images of 1:1 ratio macro photgraphy which I attempted at the weekend. It's not easy and hats off to those photographers who turn out the results. I'm preparing to have a go at dragonfly and butterfly macro photography this year, so any tips are welcome. I took the three below with a Nikon 105mm Micro Nikkor lens at a distance of just a few inches.

EXIF Detail: Aperture Priority. F/16. Shutter 1/80s. ISO 200. +0.3 EV. WB Cloudy. Focal length 105mm. Handheld.

Kentish Plovers on Hayle Estuary

These two shots were the best I could get of this male and female Kentish Plover today. They were taken looking into the sun and at a distance of 50 yards. Cornwall averages a couple records annually. KP's are normally recorded at Marazion beach and are unusual on estuaries. Exposure was increased to +0.7EV. Aperture Priority F/7.1. ISO 200. Shutter 1/1250s. Focal Length 1000mm (600mm plus 1.7xTC.)

Woodchat Shrike

This male Woodchat posed for some time in the early morning sunshine giving me enough time to compose the image. I have cropped in about 20%, mainly to remove some blurred white thorn branches.

EXIF Detail: Aperture Priority. Ap F/4.8. Shutter 1/1250s. ISO 100. -1.0 EV. Centre weighted metering. WB Cloudy.

Hoopoe gets the bug

EXIF Detail: Aperture Priority. Ap F/8. Shutter 1/640s. -1.0 EV. ISO320. Centre weighted metering. WB Cloudy.

This is one of my favourite shots as the bug is tossed up and then swallowed.

Wood Warblers on passage

On the 5th April we experienced a small fall of Wood Warblers. Normally a bird found in the cover of tree foliage, passage birds can find themselves in exposed situations, just like these birds on open rocks. A perfect place for photography of a perfect subject.

EXIF Detail: Aperture Priority. Ap F/8. Shutter 1/1250s. ISO 320. -0.7 EV. White Balance Cloudy. Centre weighted metering.

Corn Bunting

Not a major rarity but quite a nice pose. Corn Buntings are common in Cyprus but quite difficult to get close to. This individual sat up nicely. The background is actually the side of a derelict barn blurred out in the low depth of field.

Exhausted Wryneck

I stumbled upon this Wryneck with its' back to me in the fir tree near the headland. My first impression was a Scop's Owl as all I could see was the grey mantle. It then turned and looked at me directly in the eye and stayed motionless for about five minutes before disappearing into the foliage. It was obviously a tired migrant and was quite fearless. The image is the original size but with some colour saturation applied in Photoshop.

Rock Thrush stands proud

We saw four Rock Thrushes during the week, the most that we have ever seen. This male was the most confiding, although these images were taken from the car window. As such, his confidence was high and didn't show the Rock Thrush's naturally shy character. This male was also the brightest of the four seen, as can be seen here. What a stunner!

EXIF Detail. Aperture Priority. Ap F/8. Shutter 1/1000s. ISO 320. -0.3 EV. Centre weighted metering.

A splash of Greater Sand Plovers

These two Greater Sand Plovers were quite content to rest on the rocks while the waves broke behind them. The sea was hardly rough but every couple minutes a small wave would crash behind the birds.

I used a polariser filter to gain some extra contrast and the images have been sharpened and saturated a little to give some extra colour contrast between the sea, waves and bird.

EXIF Detail: Aperture Priority. Ap F/9. Shutter 1/200s. ISO 250. -0.7 EV. WB Cloudy.

Female Kentish Plover

This tame female Kentish Plover allowed approach to about 10 yards. Quite content to stay on the rock, more interest was paid to the almost constant raptor activity overhead. All of the birds seen in Cyprus were constantly looking upwards and sideways, as shown in the image below. The skyward pointing was always a useful indicator and we often used this to find raptors at extreme heights. A birds' eye sight must be incredibly keen and much stronger than ours.

EXIF Detail: Aperture Priority. Ap F/7.1 Shutter 1/1000s. -0.3 EV. Centre weighted Metering. ISO 320. WB: Cloudy (to give more warmth to the overall image).

The image below is the same bird but simply taken from a different location and with the sun at a different angle. It's surprising what a simple change of position can do to the final image.