Tuesday 13th February 2007
Had an hour to spare this afternoon so went my local patch, Pugneys Country Park. Bitterns showed briefly from the hide but my favourite duck of all time, the Red-Crested Pochard was primping himself up on the main lake. I've never seen a duck spend so much time bathing and preening. He's learnt to move the swans out of the way by nipping at their tail feathers. The swans do not like that and get out of the way quick. The local lifeguards then decided to do some work and remove part of the floating jetty I was using to take my photos. Typical.
Used my usual combination of Nikon D2Xs/ 600mmf5.6 manual lens and for those technically minded the settings were RAW, ISO 200, 1/320sec f5.6.
I still love using my old long lens. Although its a manual focus, its crisp and a delight to handle. No one seems to want manual lenses any more and they are going or a song on e-bay. It's a real challenge keeping a moving bird in focus!!
