Bird Snapping

Out yesterday on a macro photography trip, I came across this heron sitting and preening itself.

I switched lenses and moved in closer.

I approached closer to get better shots. It stayed for a while before taking flight. Here`s what I got:                            

Last week when I saw the dunlins I also spotted these plovers. I knew instantly that they were plovers, but I was not sure which species it was.

Later though I identified it as a ringed plover. Its distinctive features are the orange beak tipped with black and the orange legs.

In contrast, the Little ringed plover, which looks similar has a black bill and pale legs. Also the ringed plover displays a white wing bar in flight which is absent in the little ringed plover.

The birds are usually seen on tidal flats and fields where they feed insects, crustaceans and worms, relying on their sight.

They nest on the ground  with little or no plant cover. An interesting fact about the ringed plover is that when nesting, and if threatened by predators, the parent bird will draw attention away from the nest by walking away and feigning a broken wing.

Although this species is usually migratory, most of the birds in UK are resident throughout the year.

All these pictures were obtained with my Sony A200 camera + Minolta 500mm f8 reflex lens. Images were cropped later.

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For those interest in macro photography do visit my Macro Blog.

This picture was taken a couple of weeks back on a very sunny and blue sky day. The song thrush just sat in the bushes and sang away until it noticed me stalking it!

This weekend turned out to be sunny and hot again, and we decided to head out to Severn beach . Severn beach is known for its Dunlins and sure enough there was a flock hanging around.   

The last time I went there I still had my point and shoot bridge camera and as a result my pictures were blurred and noisy.

This time, armed with my Sony A200 dSLR and Minolta 500mm f8 lens, I was counting on getting much better images.

The Dunlins although looking very attractive in these images, are quite well camouflaged and hard to pick out amidst the rocks and mud.

The Dunlins are among the more common small waders found in England. In spring and summer, they have a dark patch on their bellies which is distinctive. Their slightly downturned beaks and fat shape are also worth noting.

In winter they lose all the streaks on their bellies and flanks and become harder to identify.

The bill length varies between sexes, with the females having longer bills than the males.

They have a characteristic "sewing machine" feeding action, by which they pick out small food items. Their feed includes small crustaceans, insects , molluscs and worms.

They are gregarious birds and can be seen in feeding flocks formed with other birds such as plovers as seen in the picture above.

Great sunshine last Sunday gave me an opportunity to aim my fixed aperture f8 Minolta 500mm lens at the sky and try photograph some birds in flight.

A few mallards flew past giving me some ok shots….

Some even came too close for my camera`s comfort!

However, my real target was the swifts which have been increasing in numbers over Blackberry hill.

as you can see from the image above, most of my shots were out of focus…..

The swifts were just too swift for my camera`s auto focus….

I tried shifting to manual focus and got a half decent shot…but with the success I was having, I decided that such fast birds were not for the current setup I had.

I was about to head off when I noticed a flash of white among the all black swifts. I also noticed that these birds were much slower in flight.

These slower birds turned out to be house martins.

I couldn’t get closer, but hopefully I`ll get some better shots soon. Last July I had also photographed swallows on Blackberry hill. I wonder if all three will stay together in a season.

The Wren has been another bird that I`ve never been able to capture a decent image of. I see them all the time when I`m in the woods or on a quiet evening. However, all that changed yesterday.

Although it is among the more widespread species in the country, normally the wrens are very shy. They prefer living among the undergrowth, and frittering about amidst the bushes.

They do come out into the open, but normally it is a glimpse , not long enough for the auto focus seed of my camera and lens.

I have thus had many a close encounter with wrens, ending up being frustratingly close to a great shot but coming up a cropper!

Yesterday though, was a perfect day. The sun was shining like it never does in the UK, and as I was stalking a Whitethroat, I was drawn to a bird sitting on a broken tree trunk and singing away. It was a young wren. I went berserk and clicked away.

It flew away after a minute but ended up sitting in a bush even closer to me, where it resumed its singing. I clicked away yet again (ending up with more than 400 snaps).

I guess this bird is a juvenile, given away by the above display, in which it appears to be readying itself for receiving from its parent.

Wrens are normally solitary birds. However, during winter they are known to form roosting packs.

Another interesting thing about wrens is that the male builds several nests. The female then chooses one amongst them and then prepares it for her eggs.

The wrens have an amazingly loud song and you are more likely to hear a wren before you see it. If not the musical song, its the constant “chit chit” call from among the bushes.

Anyway, I’m glad to finally have a wren among my photo collection. I wonder which difficult bird is going to model itself next.

I had written earlier about the Canada geese that were nesting on our university campus. I`m happy to say that they survived the nesting and are now the proud parents of four cute goslings.

As we were watching the new family, trouble loomed in the form of this crow:

The daring corvid, was getting a bit too close to the goslings for the parents comfort.

…trying to sneak its way past the watchful eyes …

…to try and sneak a meal. However, the mother goose`s patience soon ran thin….

…and she took a dart at the crow, who retreated for a bit…

before gathering up courage to ….

…make a daring attempt again from behind.

However, it wasnt getting anywhere near so it decided to hang around and wait for a better opportunity.

This time though, the geese seemed to have had enough and decided to teach the crow to keep off.

…and as soon as it got within reach the geese took a pre-emptive stike!

..sending the crow running for cover.

The parents then decided it was time to move on to safer waters….

…and the goslings tagged along obediently.

They let out a shout of joy on reaching the pond….possibly their first time since nest building.

..and take to the water.

…as for the crow….

…it sat in a corner sulking and looking lost…having to settle for stolen breadcrumbs for its meal.

All pictures taken with Sony A200 DSLR + Sony 50mm f1.4 lens with a Kenko teleplus MC7 2x teleconverter.