A day on Skomer Island

The easiest bird to photograph on the island is the puffin - as long as you are not trying to photograph it in flight. Then it becomes the most difficult - I did not manage one decent flight shot of a puffin on this occasion:

All taken with my Canon 400mm f5.6  lens - the 500 with tripod was too heavy to carry all day. ISO1000 f8 @ 1/2500sec.

The other 'easy' birds are the razorbills & guillemots just off the landing stage at Skomer:



The one flight image I managed was of a curlew:

The image below of a pair of swallows was taken at Martin's Haven - the road leading down to the slipway for the boat to Skomer:

 After our day in Skomer we called back in Marloes Mere to see if we could find the Glossy Ibis but all I managed was this image of a House Sparrow:

The more I look at it the more I think that I should crop off part of the left side of the image and give more space on the right - so that the sparrow is looking in on the image not out! It is cropped so I do have the image on the right.

Nice little wren

Walking along the path from the car park (at the Teifi Marshes Reserve) towards Cardigan we saw this little wren in the hedge:

Taken with 500mm lens with 1.4 extender, ISO1000 f8 @ 1/320sec. - hand held!

Teifi Marshes reserve on Wed. 9th. May

Heavy rain promised so went for a walk at about 10 in the morning. Did not see much from the hides but warblers active in the reeds alongside the path. Took a photograph of this sedge warbler:

Taken with 500mm lens & 1.4 extender, ISO1000 f8 @ 1/1250sec.

Also saw this reed warbler:

Same kit & settings except that it was f8 @ 1/500sec. - hand held.

A day out at Penclacwydd (WWT Llanelli)

Rare Bird Alert had a report of avocet at Llanelli so we decided to have a look. Unfortunately the avocet had moved on but still we had a very good time in the British Steel Hide. First of all a Common Sandpiper:

A distant view, so I used the 1.4 extender on the 500mm lens, ISO1000 f8 @ 1/1250sec.

Then from the front of the hide there was a shout that there were blackcaps about. I did not catch up with those but manages this shot of a whitethroat:

Same kit, ISO1000 f8 @ 1/4000sec.

To the back again and there was a flock of 50 to 60 black tailed godwit - this is one of them:

And amongst them I noticed 5 knot:

Grey Heron at the Kingfisher Hide

Bird activity rather quiet about Teifi Marshes reserve but Grey Herons are becoming more regular at the Kingfisher hide. Here are two images from Monday:

500mm lens, 1000ISO f8 @ 1/640sec.

Same kit ISO1000 f8 @ 1/3200sec.

Red Kites at Gigrin Farm

Had a wonderful afternoon on Saturday at Gigrin Farm. Booked the Big Tower Hide - well worth £20. Took over 800 images - about 80 usable images and 5 wow images. Here is one of them:

Taken with my Canon 400mm f5.6 lens - very good for birds in flight though I did get some great images with the 500 as well. ISO 1000 f8 @ 1/1250sec.

Grey Heron at the Kingfisher Hide

This photograph was taken of a Grey Heron flying in front of the Kingfisher Hide at the Teifi Marshes Reserve. Funny how frontal images of herons make them look like leggy un-coordinated birds but the side view makes them look like something out of Jurassic Park!

Taken with my usual kit (but no converter on the lens) ISO1000 f8 @ 1/6400sec.