Siskins

A quick post of some of the 35 Siskin shots I have just added to my main site. They were taken last year in the Highlands. It was nice to get some shots of juvenile birds along with the adults.

Red Kites

Back in November my friend Rich and myself took a trip to mid Wales, to the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm, Rhayader. For this visit we decided to use the big tower hide for the first time. The beauty of being higher up gives you the ability to take shots with trees or grass as a background, rather than the sky. It does make it a bit trickier to lock the focus on the bird though, but I think the results are far better.

Winter Thrushes

I always enjoy photographing the overwintering Redwing and Fieldfare each year.  Already having a large selection of Fieldfare images, it was nice to get some in a different setting. Drinking from a puddle with a grassy bank behind gave the water a lovely green colour, all the more enhanced by the low winter sun.

Redwing

Redwing

Redwing

Redwing

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Burton Marsh Rarities

I don't really like photographing or I should say trying to photograph birds when there are large crowds of people present.  If there is a rare bird that I want to photograph I will usually wait a few days until the birders and twitchers have moved on to the next subject.  With two rare species on my doorstep at the moment, both at Burton Marsh, I thought I had given plenty of time for things to quieten down a little. I popped down for a couple of hours this morning to try for some shots of the Buff-bellied Pipit and Siberian Chiffchaff which have been there for several weeks now.  They are still very popular though with around 50 or 60 people there.  I was reasonably happy with the results but may make a return visit.

Buff-bellied Pipit

Buff-bellied Pipit

Siberian Chiffchaff

Siberian Chiffchaff

Siberian Chiffchaff

Milestone

A quick post to celebrate reaching over 10,000 images on my website, which has been up and running for 10 years now. Here's to the next 10,000.

My Website - Steven Round Bird Photography

Breeding Plumaged Dunlin

Another of the breeding waders from the Uists was the Dunlin. I seem to have gone a little overboard with them, with nearly a thousand images to sort through I finally narrowed them down to eighty six to add to my website. Here are a chosen few.

Glossy Ibis

Having not photographed a Glossy Ibis before I was keen to try and get some shots of one of the many in the country at the moment.  The weather forecast said sun but heavy cloud was outside, I was undecided whether to make the trip.  Late morning it started to brighten and I headed off to Horwich, near Bolton.  As I arrived the sun was just starting to break through the clouds, I parked the car and could immediately see two of the four birds, right next to the road in a field.  They carried on feeding, five or six metres away, regardless of the large group of birders and photographers looking over the wall.  Forty five minutes later they decided to fly off and the job was done.  One of the easiest photo sessions I have done, especially for a rarity and I achieved much better results than expected.