Author Archives: Words

Stonechat Special

January 24, 2015 by Words | 4 Comments

We had some steady wintry sunshine today. All day. It was cold, but certainly a very welcome change, and I headed over to Sheepcote Valley which is where I generally go in search of kestrels. There weren’t any around today, but the scrub clearers were back. Yes, the sheep at Sheepcote are ‘workers’. They get brought in every few months to eat back the undergrowth, and then are moved on to another site.

Sheep

It was while I was sheep watching that I spotted several little stonechats. These are small meadow birds, with a distinctive call (which gives them their name). They like to perch on low shrubs, and a prone to offer little wing flicks.

Stonechat

Stonechat flitting out a wing

Stonechat

Let’s give both wings a go!

The merest hint of a branch was sufficient for this male stonechat on lookout duty.

Male stonechat on lookout.

And what goes up a perch, must come down. I have to say I was quite pleased with this little sequence, not least because I had deliberately left room for the flight when I lined up the first shot. The stonechat helped things by staying in the same plane as it dove down.

Stonechat flying down from its perch

Stonechat flying down from its perch

Stonechat flying down from its perch

Stonechat flying down from its perch

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

Posted in Birds Tagged , , |

It’s Colder than it Looks

January 23, 2015 by Words | 2 Comments

You could be forgiven for thinking there’s a nice log fire burning in the distance. You’d be wrong. The warm colours belie the reality. The small group of black-headed gulls are shivering on a frozen pond (as was the photographer on the bank). It was sub-zero and the light is the first glimpse of the sun coming up over the South Downs at Falmer. Cold it may have been, but the beautiful light made it worth the discomfort.

gulls on frozen pond at sunrise

That rich glow doesn’t last long, and just 10 minutes later the light was already calming down. Not that these ducks seemed to care as they marched across the ice.

ducks marching on frozen pond

The final shot today was taken at lunchtime, but I can just about manage to hang on to the ‘red’ theme. It’s a robin of course, grappling with its lunch.

robin catching a worm

Not quite the early bird, but it still caught the worm

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

Posted in Behaviour, Birds, water birds, Weather Tagged , , , , |

Nice Shots of a Herring Gull

January 22, 2015 by Words | 5 Comments

Another fairly patchy day. The forecast was good, but the proper winter sun never quite made it through the clouds. Some quite odd light by lunchtime though, as you can see in these shots of one of our resident herring gulls walking along a flat roof at work. This is one half of the pair that will produce a clutch of chicks later on in the year.

herring gull

Herring gull

That’s it for today. More promise of sun tomorrow, but whether it appears is entirely another matter.

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

Posted in water birds Tagged |