Flying Swifts

Following on from my last post, I spent a bit of time making the most of some low flying Swifts. Although fast, they have a reasonably predictive flight path, making them a little easier to photograph compared to the Swallows and Martins which are more erratic. Still a challenge though and there are always plenty of blurred images to delete.

Kings of the Air

I never really go out with the intention of specifically photographing Swallows, Martins and Swifts in flight, they just usually happen to be around where I am concentrating on other species and a few chance shots are taken. This week has been good for encountering them and I have managed a few reasonable images. It has got me thinking that I really need to dedicate some proper sessions to them. Here are a few from this week.

Swallow

House Martin

 Swift

A Bit Busy

I've not been able to update the blog for a while, the reason being that I have been busy editing images for a project that a company are working on. I have just about finished, for now. So to get back into the swing, here is a quick post of some Goosander shots, taken back in February.

Spring Song

As Spring seems to finally be here, I thought I would show a selection of singing bird images that I have taken over the last few weeks.  I'll start off with a Goldcrest, this is one of a pair that have built a nest in my garden, hopefully there will be more photographs to come of them as they start to feed their young.

Dunnock

I spent many hours waiting for this Wren to sing from the top of a pile of logs.  I knew he sang from there as I'd seen him previously but never when I had the camera in hand or when the light was good.  He finally performed and amusingly had a fly on his tongue while he was singing, which you can see on the large cropped version of the image below.

Robin

My Garden

I have a number of feeding stations and areas set up for photography in my woodland garden. Over the past couple of weeks the sun has begun to get high enough to start photographing the good variety of species that visit the feeders. One of my favourites is the Bullfinch and I'm lucky to have three pairs here at the moment. Long-tailed Tits nest in the garden and a couple of years ago I had a large family flock of over thirty. They were mainly juveniles and spent most of the Summer at the fatball feeders and were getting through over fifty fatballs a week! As my blog develops I will talk about some of my projects here and other species that live in my garden.
   
Long-tailed Tit

Blue Tit

Bullfinch (male)

Bullfinch (female)

Goldfinch

Nuthatch

Marsh Tits

This is another species that has been on my want list for some time. Like the Willow Tit they are quite difficult to photograph, they never keep still for more than a second and always seem to have their heads angled away from the camera. A real challenge but all the more rewarding when you get some decent results.

 

Building up my Stock

At the beginning of every year I make a list of bird species to target, usually the reason being that I don't have a great number of their images and need to build up my collection. It doesn't always go to plan as it is easy to get sidetracked, especially as Spring arrives bringing migrants and rarities to distract me. This year I am determined to stay focused and up to now it has gone to plan.
The next couple of posts will show a few images from my results so far. First on the list were Yellowhammer and Willow Tit, two species that I have never had much luck with.

Yellowhammer

Willow Tit