Skomer Puffins

I made a trip to the island of Skomer, off the Pembrokeshire coast in south Wales last week. It was getting a little late in the season but I knew there were still plenty of Puffins there. They are a couple of weeks later than usual with breeding and are still feeding young in the burrows.

Arriving on the island before lunchtime, it wasn't going to be the best time for photography in the scorching overhead sun. I tried a few flight shots but the heat distortion didn't help in trying to get sharp images,  so close-ups would be the order of the day.

Ringed Plovers

More images from the Outer Hebrides. I spent a considerable part of my trip photographing waders. I was keen to get a good number of shots of them in breeding plumage, a complete contrast to the overwintering birds we have here locally on the Wirral. The other reason is that they are very approachable. Once you have settled down they will literally run around within a couple of meters, oblivious to your presence.

Ringed Plovers do breed locally to the Wirral, so I wasn't intending to take many shots of these. The white sandy beaches made for some nice low level shots though.

Lapwings

With such a prolonged cold winter, everything is very late this year by several weeks. So, I was surprised to see that this hadn't affected the Lapwings on The Outer Hebrides. Most of them had bred and had numbers of chicks running around. It's amazing how independent these chicks are as they wander well away from their parents, who do a great job of guarding them. Any potential predator is quickly spotted and relentlessly chased away. The iridescent colours on the adults are stunning at this time of year.

Skuas in the Wind

I had mentioned in a previous post about the strong 40mph winds, whilst I was on the Outer Hebrides. These winds did have their benefits in the form of migrating Skuas being blown very close to shore. Literally thousands of them came past, sometimes in large flocks of hundreds. They would terrorise the flocks of waders as they passed through, they worked together like an organized gang, trying to isolate a Dunlin from the tightly packed flock. You knew when they were approaching as all the waders would take to the air in fear.

It was difficult to get shots of them, as they moved very quickly. They disappeared as quickly as they arrived. I managed to get a few reasonable photographs of the three species - Arctic, Pomarine and the scarcer Long-tailed.

Arctic Skua

Arctic Skua

Arctic Skua

Long-tailed Skua

Pomarine Skua

Pomarine Skua

A Quick Session with the Buzzards

I had time for half an hour in my hide yesterday to photograph the Buzzards. I am working on getting some close up flight shots, which will be an on-going project. For now though, I have to make do with one landing.

TV Programme

Since I returned from Scotland I have been very busy with various projects and haven't really progressed as well as I would have liked with processing images. The next few weeks should see a lot of images added to my site and a few more blog posts.

One project I have been involved with is working on a BBC TV programme called Urban Jungle. This is one of a three part series of half hour programmes which will be shown later in the year. It's aimed at getting people more involved in the wildlife on their doorstep. I spent a day showing presenter Rani Price how to take photographs of urban wildlife.

Having not done any TV work before, I was a little nervous at first, but was soon put at ease by Rani and the team, headed by producer Ged Clarke. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day with plenty of pictures taken and plenty of sunshine for a change. I'm not sure whether I am looking forward to seeing myself on television, but I think I did okay. Many thanks go to Ged for the opportunity to do the programme.

This was the last shot at the end of the day. Rani had rushed off to catch her train, so here's sound man Rob, Producer Ged and cameraman Paul.

 

Corncrakes

For any wildlife photographer visiting the Outer Hebrides in late spring, one of their target species would undoubtedly be the Corncrake. A small migrant that is only found in this part of Britain throughout the summer, where it breeds.

Probably due to the very cold spring, the Corncrakes seemed to be very late displaying and in the first week of my trip I only heard the occasional one calling. Usually by the middle of May they should be heard in abundance. The fact that the vegetation hadn't really started to grow was possibly another factor, giving them little cover and making them vulnerable to predators.

With temperatures down to 3 degrees centigrade and a wind that was regularly over 40mph, it wasn't the ideal conditions to be trying to photograph Corncrakes. I had almost given up the idea of getting any shots of them at all. Then, towards the end of my second week, there was a warmer, calm day and by chance I came across a bird that was showing well alongside the road. A good hour was spent contorting out of the car window with the camera as it moved around, occasionally calling it's unique "crex crex" call. It just shows what a decent bit of weather can do, as there were many more heard calling that day.

More images on my website - Steven Round Bird photography