Category Archives: Birds

Two Starlings and a Half Moon

I didn’t venture beyond the garden today. A small flock of starlings is making use of the trees at the rear of the garden and providing plenty of opportunities to practise photographing them in flight. Lots of erratic movement, which the 7D Mark II auto-focus copes with extremely well.

Starling

Starling coming in to land on the tree

Starling

Starling flying overhead

I did see a fox out there this evening, the one with the stumpy brush. No photos, but I did take a few shots of the moon which is waxing gibbous (great phrase) at 57% right now.

Moon

Waxing Gibbous

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

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Three of Two Kinds (Rat and Magpie)

Just some fairly standard photos today, of two local wildlife regulars. The first sequence (the rats over at Falmer Pond) were taken in the deep early morning gloom. I ramped the camera up to ISO 6400. The images have been very lightly processed through Digital Photo Pro, which is testament to the excellent noise control on the 7D Mark II. Noise reduction has been applied, but the photos have retained a good amount of detail. The three rat photos are cropped by about 50%.

Rats

Rats

Rats

The weather was a whole lot better by lunchtime. The sun was out, and skies clear. I didn’t get much at the pond, so popped back to the woods at the edge of the car park at work. The local magpie population was very active, and provided some nice opportunities in decent light. These shots were taken at between ISO 640 and 1000.

Magpie

Magpie

Magpie

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

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Goldcrest at Seven Sisters

The light was awful today, and the rain was light but more or less constant. Despite the gloom, I stopped off at Seven Sisters. A little egret was quietly hunting for tiddlers in the shallows.

little egret

Little egret (ISO 3200)

Several little grebe (dabchicks) were also out feeding.

little grebe (dabchick)

Little Grebe (ISO 2000)

A robin rested on a post.

robin

Robin (ISO 2000)

And a pigeon sheltered from the drizzle…

pigeon

Woodpigeon (ISO 2000)

Outshining all of these though was a tiny goldcrest, flitting in and out of the hedgerow. The goldcrest is the UK’s smallest bird (along with the firecrest). These were taken at ISO 1600.

goldcrest

goldcrest

goldcrest

goldcrest

goldcrest

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

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