One Flash Good, Two Can be Better

I've been experimenting with flight shots this winter and as the light is so poor I've used balanced fill-flash to improve things. This shot used a Nikon D3 with 600mm f4 lens and two Nikon SB800's with the main flash to the Left of the bird and the fill flash on the camera. Getting the right balance of flash to background light was interesting and seems to have worked. Photographing birds in flight is not easy. Wait untill the Swifts arrive!!!

Feed me Mummy

A late Great Crested Grebe chick was ravenous today at Bretton Park. The parents could not catch fish fast enough.

Dipper Delight

Went up the Calder Valley today in search of Dippers. They took a couple of hours to find but after much walking found a couple feeding on Caddis Fly. They caught the caddis and then thumped the case on a stone or piece of wood to dislodge the grub from the case. They seemed to be getting a lot of food. Stunning birds.

One Good Tern deserves a Slavonian Grebe

Anglers Country Park near Wakefield has a superb juvenile Arctic Tern flying around today. Spent an hour getting a good flight shot of it as it flew over the shallows.

There were two Slavonian grebe also on the lake but the dog-walkers dogs made its life a misery as it tried to find food in the shallows. Lots of Blue-green algae in the water. Wonder if it affects dogs? I managed to get a photo of one the grebes by sitting quietly under a bag-hide by the side of the lake and waiting for the grebe to come to me. Good job I'd taken a flask of coffee with me.

Strange looking Canada Goose with the semi-resident flock. A rather leucistic individual.

Life in the Lakes

Had a few days in the Lake district recently. It rained evvvvvery day. Took a few photos of birds coming to the feeders at the house I was staying at. The Nuthatch was the bully, the Coal Tit the victim who was always getting pushed off the food. The Willow Tit was the opportunist who was hooked on sunflower seeds. Camera wet, me wet - situation normal for the Lakes then!

Bittern encounters -Part 1

Tuesday 6th February

Spent a while in the hide at Pugneys country Park in Wakefield, my local patch. 2 bitterns came out to play on the iced-up water. One (Laurel) tried to walk on the ice and kept falling through. The other (Hardy) looked on from above. They seemed to like the sunshine. They were a long way away for photography, even with a 600mm prime lens +1.4x converter.

Also present was a Red-Crested Pochard, by the jetty on the main lake. Posed for photos whilst having a wash and brush up. I love action photos but they are so hard to get!