Great Northern Diver at West Kirby

With the first full day of sunshine for what must be months, I had to get out with the camera. I headed to West Kirby marine lake here on the Wirral, where a juvenile Great Northern Diver has been in residence for over a month. It's a large lake and from experience I know that a lot of walking and waiting for the bird to come close would be on the cards. It worked out well, with the bird coming into good range.

 

Foxes in the Garden

This post is a collection of some of the Fox images I took throughout early Summer. The cubs first appeared in the garden whilst I was in Iceland. By the time I was back they had grown quite a bit, so I missed the really "cute and cuddly" shots. Hopefully next year I will be able to photograph them at this stage. There were 5 cubs this year, from 2 broods and gave me lots of opportunities for photographs. I have added 40 new images of them to my main web site.

Sunbathing

Competing for the food by trying to push each other away.

Goosanders

Back in January I spent a few days photographing Goosanders in North Wales. I have plenty of shots of them but they are a great subject, especially in some good Winter light. It's always nice to try and get something a little different, this time I managed to get some close-up preening shots of the males. I have just added 44 of them to my main website making a total of 106. I'm sure I will be back this Winter to take some more though.

Iceland Trip - Great Northern Divers

Another post from the Iceland trip, a few more still to come.
The Great Northern Diver tends to prefer larger lakes, making it more difficult to photograph. Plenty of waiting for the bird to come close enough for a decent shot. We were lucky with one pair that were at the end of a very large lake. They were confined to the only part of the lake that wasn't frozen over. This made things easier, as they were at a good distance for shots. I never managed to get many photographs of this species in really good light on this trip. A black and white bird on white water isn't great, an exposure and processing nightmare, but I'm quite pleased with the results.... much better than I had expected before I processed them.

Red-throated Diver (Iceland, Summer plumage)

Following on from my previous post are the Summer plumaged Red-throated Divers from Iceland. A complete contrast to their Winter appearance, but just as stunning, in my opinion. With a good numbers of them in Iceland it was nice to get a varied range of backgrounds, with both calm and rough water. I have added a total of 95 new images of them to my website - Steven Round Bird Photography.com