Today didn't start very promisingly. The fog lay heavy over the South Downs, and persisted through the morning. These first shots, of little egrets, were taken a little after 8.00am at Seven Sisters, near Eastbourne.
The fog was still hanging on my return, but a fortuitous micro-climate allowed the sun through just long enough for one my best sightings of a kingfisher. The distance was too great for anything spectacular, but I was quite pleased with these (all cropped to varying degrees).
And then it was back into the mists, which are still shrouding the garden late into the night. It hasn't put off the badgers though. 😉
Camera note: all bird shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The badger was taken from fairly close range with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.
derWandersmann
23 Oct 2012A good day, for all the fog, Words … especially that first shot.
gdare
23 Oct 2012Congrats on kingfisher, this is not something one would see every day :yes:
anonymous
23 Oct 2012Anonymous writes:
Wow, that kingfisher is so colourful!! Ours in Canada is rather dull in comparison (although still nice).
Nice captures with that and the egret!!
Marilyn
SittingFox
24 Oct 2012Lovely kingfisher! I miss them :right:
Visibility is still pretty bad here. I went into London on Monday, and all I could see of the Shard was its base!
Wulpen
24 Oct 2012Beautiful Shots
Words
24 Oct 2012Erwin, thanks!
Words
24 Oct 2012dW, the mists certainly add to the atmosphere, but it would be so much better with some sun breaking through. Given the conditions the egret provided some really nice opportunities.
Words
24 Oct 2012Darko, thanks! Kingfishers are one of the birds that still provide a thrill when I see one.
Words
24 Oct 2012Marilyn, thanks. Kingfishers have such brilliant colours, and the light was close to perfect which helps.
Words
24 Oct 2012Adele, yes you had some great kingfishers sightings earlier in the year. As for the Shard, it must be pretty odd to live/work near the top when the weather is like this. I wouldn't fancy it at all.
derWandersmann
25 Oct 2012Originally posted by Words:
There is a relatively new highrise near the Lake in Chicago called the John Hancock building. The lower floors are devoted to office space, as one might expect, but the top floors are given over to very pricey residence flats. It has been found that on days of relatively heavy pollution (which are not, unfortunately, rare), the residents can look down on the top of the pollution layer, and many refuse to go down into it to go to work. The Shard may similarly rise above the fog. I have been in fogs in my island home on the Ste. Claire River which were dense enough to cause the freighter captains to give out many warning blasts on the ship's horn, and indeed were dense enough that one had difficulty seeing across the road, yet the stars wire perfectly clear overhead. The fog was a layer on the ground no more than 50 feet thick, if that.
Words
26 Oct 2012dW, I love early morning low-lying mists. We're some 500 feet up in the hills so are often shrouded in mists (low cloud), but my route to work is along a ridge between two valleys and if the conditions are right the view of the mists can be stunning.
derWandersmann
27 Oct 2012We've just had a few foggy days 'round here (Autumn, and that huge heat-sink of a Lake, you know), too … I've put up a little album. Devilish difficult stuff to photograph, fog.