Feeding Jays

I have just updated my Jay images on my main website. I hadn't realised that I had such a backlog of them and have added 73 new shots. Here are a few including them taking acorns.

My Favourite Images (5)

Part 5 in the series of some of my favourites.

Leach's Storm Petrel.
I have many shots of these birds but I particularly like this one with the low sunlight illuminating the underparts.

Little Egrets.
Flocks of these Egrets come in over the estuary to roost each evening. This was a lucky shot with a whole line of over 20 which took the perfect route between the dark clouds with the setting sun behind them.

Little Egret.
This is another shot that benefits from the low angle of the sunlight.

Mistle Thrush.
This bird was guarding the berries of a Mountain Ash tree. I was photographing it from the car and it would occasionally drop to the ground to pick up the fallen berries.

Nuthatch.
A simple shot but I like the gnarled wood on this one.

Osprey.
I have spent quite a lot of time in Scotland photographing Ospreys. The next two shots are a couple that I particularly like.

Osprey

Red Deer Stags

A few weeks ago a friend and I had a day out in Lancashire hoping to photograph waders. When we arrived it was obvious that due to the high tides, the water levels were very deep on the lagoons and the birds were feeding distantly on the flooded fields. A change of plan and a walk around the reserve didn't really produce a great deal, other than a family of Otters that briefly came within photographic range. We decided to have some lunch and then spend the rest of the day in a hide waiting for the rutting Red Deer to hopefully show. Although we could hear the stags bellowing throughout the afternoon, it was quite a long wait before a couple showed towards the end of the day, but worth the wait.

Starling Close Ups

On my travels I recently saw a group of Starlings that hang around a car park, they wait for food scraps and I just happened to have a few slices of bread with me. As they were coming so near to the car I thought I would take some close-ups of the various plumages that they were showing. Being a common species I think they are quite overlooked and thought of as a drab black bird, these shots show how colourful they are with some lovely iridescent colours and the white spots of their winter plumage.

Dunlin

Continuing with the local waders I have recently been photographing, here are a few Dunlin. I have added many more to my main website.

Dotterel

I took a trip to North Wales yesterday to photograph a juvenile Dotterel which had been on the Great Orme for a week. As I was driving near I could see that it was quite windy, but when I arrived at the top of the mountain and got out of the car I could barely stand up in the gale conditions.
I had spent about half an hour looking for the bird when some movement caught my eye, it was the blowing feathers of the Dotterel which was keeping very low by some rocks. I settled down nearby and after a while it became obvious that I wasn't going to get many shots of it walking around, every time it stood up it was buffeted around in the wind and quickly settled down again. Under the circumstances I think I just about exhausted every angle and pose possible of this very approachable bird.

Reflected Ducks

With some good weather I have been very busy out with the camera over the last week. From local waders to Otters, Red Deer and a 14 hour day photographing Red Grouse. I even visited the nearby Hilbre Island for a day having not been there for over 15 years, which is terrible really as it is on my doorstep.
This post is of a few incidental Ducks that I photographed that caught my eye with their nice reflections.

Gadwall

Teal

Teal

Shoveler

Shoveler