Some Arty Macro Shots

A few close up arty shots shots taken recently.

Firstly a Five-spot Burnet Moth, I hadn't photographed one of these day flying moths before, a new species is always nice to find.

Secondly a ladybird. I wanted to include the patterns of the fern to give the images more interest, rather than it just sat on a leaf.

My Favourite Images (2)

The second in the series of some of my favourite images.

Brahminy Kite
Photographed in Goa, India. One of two wild birds that were very tame due to being fed fish scraps since they were young. This is a full frame image taken with a 300mm lens.

Corncrake
A bit of time and patience was rewarded with close views of these birds on the Outer Hebrides in Scotland.

Cuckoo
This juvenile bird was here locally a few years ago. It was late summer and very overdue for its migratory trip south. It gave a week of photo opportunities which I made the most of. I believe these wing stretches were part of it's final preparation for it's long journey ahead, this was the last day it was seen here.

Dipper
I was set up in a hide on a private stretch of river for this shot. After several days without a Dipper coming close, one eventually performed for over an hour right in front of me.

Dotterel
Taken on the same trip as the Corncrake. A group of these birds were very approachable, as I crawled on my stomach to get within 20ft of them.

Dunlin
Taken locally at a high tide winter roost.

Red Heads

Two more species that have sucessfully been re-introduced to the Mallorcan reserve at S'Albufera are the Red-knobbed or Crested Coot and the Red-crested Pochard.
Re-introduced in the early nineties they are now in abundance at the reserve. I remember that when I previously visited in 2005, the few Coots I saw all had large white identification collars around their necks, not very photogenic. It was good to see now that the majority don't have them.


Red-knobbed Coot

Red-crested pochard (male)

Red-crested pochard (female)

Tortoises

We came across a number of these in Mallorca and spent a little time getting some shots. It's a Hermann's Tortoise,  one of two species that live on the island, the Hermann's are found on the east side and inhabit the rough scrub areas known as the garigue. They were smaller than I thought they would be, the ones photographed here were about 10-12cm long.

In Flight

Whilst I'm out working on certain subjects, I try never to miss the opportunity to grab some flight shots of any incidental species that might pass by. These images are some I have taken over the last couple of months.

Lapwing

Raven

Grey Heron

Shelduck

Magpie

Cormorant

Common Terns

A few images of Common Terns from a recent session.

More Purple

Carrying on with the purple theme from Mallorca, this is the Purple Heron. We only managed to get flight shots of these, which was a little disappointing. It would have been nice to get some of them wading through the shallows stalking prey. They are a little more shy than their grey cousins though and don't usually come too close to public hides.