After yesterday's success with the kestrels, I headed down to Rottingdean this afternoon. The light was poor, but the sun (such as it is) sits over the sea and reflects off the cliff faces so that even on 'bad' days you get workable conditions. Of course the fulmars were about, as raucous as ever.
Fulmars
But they weren't the only bird that caught my eye. Among the guttural calls of the sea birds, there was a more delicate song. Tiny rock pipits were flitting along the cliff face, quite oblivious to the rest of the activity around them.
Rock pipit
Preening
Those were the main focus of the afternoon, but I do occasionally turn the camera to the sea and I had a couple of long distant surprises when I did. I tend to pick and choose whether I take shots of cormorants when I see them. I'm nearly always too far away and sometimes take a reference shot, but all too often don't bother. However, when I processed this one I was pleased I'd grabbed the shot. It's the nearest to a piebald cormorant that I've come across.
Piebald cormorant
And to cap it off, a little later I glanced out to sea and saw what I thought were four cormorants skimming the surface. I took another reference shot (seeing four together is unusual, at least in this location where they are more generally flying solo or in pairs). When I looked through the lens this is what I saw. Not cormorants at all!
A small flock of brent geese!
No sign of the fox tonight (yet), but the pond is livening up. I saw my first frog of the year, and a pair of adult newts. Spring is most certainly on its way.
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
gdare
16 Feb 2009Argh, she is yelling at him to go to get some food :insane: 😛
Spring….
*checking on thermometer*
-4C No, not yet, here :left:
SittingFox
16 Feb 2009Wow, what a mouth! :yikes:
I like the preening pipit and the piebald cormorant too :up: As for spring…well, if it's reached the South Downs, I guess it'll get up here eventually!
Ukwildlife
16 Feb 2009great pics as ever words. The pipts and brent geese were a nice extra 🙂
Words
17 Feb 2009Darko, they certainly don't believe in speaking quietly to each other!
Words
17 Feb 2009Neil, the geese were totally unexpected. It's a lovely spot to visit. Always something happening.
Words
17 Feb 2009Adele, isn't it just! I love watching them, especially the ones trying to get a perch and repeatedly getting blasted away by the resident sitter. The pipits were a delight. I occasionally see one or two, but on Sunday they were scattered all over the cliff.
chthoniid
22 Feb 2009That's a nice variety of bird shots- how loud are the fulmars? It doesn't look like they were holding back!
Words
22 Feb 2009Brendan, the fulmars aren't as loud as gulls. It's something like a throaty ha-ha-ha sound, but persistent. You see people stopping to see where it is coming from (they can be quite hard to spot nestled in the cliff face).