Black Vultures

Another species from last April's trip to Extremadura, Spain is the Black Vulture. They were coming in to feed with the slightly more shy Griffon Vultures which seemed to hide behind them. They were all quite comical as they landed some distance away, before slowly moving in with a galloping waddle. Considering the distance they had travelled, it was interesting that some of them didn't feed, or seem to want to.
There was a carpet of flowering Lavender in front of the hide, it seemed strange to see these huge birds standing among the flowers, but made for some nice shots These and the Griffons are very impressive birds to see up close and it was a great memory for me.

Manx Shearwaters

Back in July last year I was a boat trip from Liverpool. This trip is chartered a couple of times a year (weather dependent) by my friend Richard Steel. With a small group of photographers and birders on board, we head out about 25 miles out of Liverpool Bay. The main species would be Gannets, which would be attracted by the chum and bait thrown overboard. These would be diving very close to the boat and are challenging to photograph. I will feature these in a future post.
A few other species usually turn up including kittiwakes, Fulmers, Great Skuas, a mixture of Gulls and Manx Shearwaters. On this particular trip I tried to concentrate on the latter, as they are a difficult species to photograph. It paid off with some reasonable images.

 

Black Kites

Another species from Spain. These opportunistic scavengers were taking the meat put out for the Griffon and Black Vultures that we were photographing. As were the White Storks in my previous post.

 

White Storks From Spain

With a big effort on clearing some of my backlog of images, I am now working my way through last years trip to Extremadura in Spain. Here's a few of the White Storks taken there.

With regular updates there are a lot more on my website: http://stevenround-birdphotography.com

Leach's Storm Petrels

Back in September last year, the conditions were right for Leach's Storm Petrels to come close to the shores around the coast of The Wirral, where I live. Strong north westerly winds over a few days would blow them off course, bringing them within photographic distance. It had been seven years since the timing of the winds had been right. Even the sun was out and shining in the right direction, for what was probably one of the best sessions I have had with these small birds.

They are always a challenge to photograph in the strong gales. Keeping the lens on the bird itself is difficult as the lens hood catches the wind. The birds appear and disappear in the waves, as they roll in. I usually get a good soaking from too. So I always feel a sense of achievement if I manage to get some decent shots.

Turtle Dove

During our trip to Extremadura in Spain, one the hides we had booked was for Hoopoe. This was a one person hide and Rich was the first to use it, one day before myself. I was quite jealous when he texted me to say he had just had a Turtle Dove in front of his lens. A very scarce bird in the UK nowadays. Later on Rich told the owner of the hides about the Dove, who was suprised and said he had never seen one there.
The next day it was my turn in the hide. Whilst photographing the Hoopoe I noticed a bird feeding on the ground. Yes, it was the Turtle Dove, too distant for any decent shots, but I hoped it would come closer. To be honest, I was more interested in the Dove than the Hoopoe. Anyway it did come closer, to perfect range. It even perched up on the tree that the Hoopoes were nesting in. It's not very often that such luck occurs like this and I was very pleased.
Funnily enough the Dove wasn't seen again. Here's a few images of it.

Black-winged Stilts

A few Black-winged Stilt images from my trip to Spain in April. The low sun and camera angle made for some great light and we were lucky enough to have a mating pair, right in front of us.