Iceland Trip - Common Snipe

At the end of May I spent 10 days in Iceland with my friend Richard Steel, photographing birds.  It had been the coldest spring for many years there, up until a week before we went there was still lots of snow around. It was a little warmer while we were there, on average, around 4.5 degrees, but with a constant strong wind (usually northerly) it did feel cold. Richard will be doing blog posts on the daily experiences, whereas I will be be posting here by species, as I add them to my website.  This may take a few months as I came back with 6000 images, this is a lot for me as I am very selective when taking shots.
The first species is the Common Snipe.  Almost everywhere we went their calls and sound of their display flight could be heard, they were possibly the most common bird of the trip.  We even had to avoid running over them on the roads.  They pose singing from posts, giving great photo opportunities. Here's a selection of them. 

Whinchat

Back in April I had the pleasure of spending an hour or so photographing a male Whinchat. A moorland breeding species that is not usually an easy bird to photograph. Like the Willow Warblers in my previous post, this was another good result for this years spring photography. A few here of the 25 added to my main web site.

Willow Warblers

Earlier this year I realised that I didn't have many Willow Warbler images. This would be a target species for the spring. Things don't always go to plan but in April I had a few good sessions with them and now have an additional 25 images on my web site. Here are a few of them.

Skylarks

One of my projects through April was to photograph Skylarks. My main aim was to try and get some good shots of them in flight, something I hadn't done properly before. Although tricky, I managed to do quite well with them and was really pleased with the results. Here are a few of the 25 I have uploaded to my main website.

Moorland Species

Back in March I spent a long day up on the Yorkshire moors. My target bird was Golden Plover, which, in my experience is a difficult species to photograph. My luck was in this time, with a pair coming very close and giving me plenty of time to get some decent shots.
A day on the moors wouldn't be complete without getting a few photographs of the resident Red Grouse. They were in prime plumage, as they displayed and called from the highest points they could find. I have also included some Curlew shots, taken locally, to add to the theme.

Golden Plover

Golden Plover

Golden Plover

Golden Plover

Red Grouse

Red Grouse

Red Grouse

Red Grouse

Red Grouse

Curlew

Curlew

Curlew

Curlew

Brown Hares Getting Frisky

I have been photographing these Brown Hares for over 12 years now. I have shots of them in most poses, from running, chasing each other, resting, some boxing and a few of the very cute leverets. With each visit it gets harder to find something different to capture of them. It would be nice to have more shots of them boxing, but it is very difficult to be in the right place at the right time and often this is over in seconds.

Having spent so much time with them over the years, you learn the signs of a possible action shot. A few weeks ago, a male was giving a female a lot of attention. He was following her around closely, at first she kept running away a little and I thought I might be in with a chance of some boxing shots, as she fended him off. This didn't happen, she accepted his advances and I was rewarded with my first photographs of a pair mating.

I now have 140 Brown Hare images on my main website -  Steven Round Bird photography