Category Archives: Landscape

Up in the Sky

November 2, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

I’m still playing around with the 7D Mark II and spent some time today calibrating the 400mm lens, which had felt a bit soft. I’d had to do the same with the previous camera and my method of calibrating is none too exact, though making the in-camera adjustments is easy. It may take me a few attempts to get the lens working to its maximum capability. That said, the settings are not too far off.

The first sequence (with the uncalibrated 400mm lens) is a sparrowhawk flying over the garden this morning, startling (but not attacking) a small flock of starlings.

sparrowhawk and starlings

The sparrowhawk flies close to the starlings

The starlings wheeled away. The sparrowhawk was searching, but not hunting. It hung over the garden for a while longer.

sparrowhawk

sparrowhawk

sparrowhawk

The next shot, of a helicopter, was taken with the 100-400mm lens.

Helicopter

Now a herring gull (I’d calibrated the 400mm lens by this point and was using the 1.4 extender).

Herring gull

There’s one other regular feature in the sky that is hard to miss. It appeared mid to late afternoon.

Moon

Moon before nightfall – 400mm lens

And it was still there tonight.

Moon

Moon after dark – 400mm lens + 1.4x extender

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II. Lenses are the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM and Canon EF 1.4xIII extender as indicated.

Also posted in Bird of Prey, Helicopter, Moon, sparrowhawk, water birds, Wildlife Tagged , , , , , |

Back to the Routine

September 8, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

I’m back into the regular (working) routine again, which means more photos taken down at Falmer Pond. Nothing too exciting to report, though this young gull posed nicely for me.

herring gull

I will finish the long overdue ‘gull’ post at some point. It’s mostly written, but needs a couple more illustrations of one of the gull varieties. Meanwhile, instead of ‘Ratty’, here’s the slimmed-down version: a proper rat. this one looks quite young.

rat

The last shot (I’m keeping things relatively under control tonight) is a sunset taken this evening from the rear of our garden.

sunset

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.

Also posted in rats, Sunset, water birds Tagged , , |

Seven Sisters

September 4, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

After yesterday’s outstanding encounter with a great white egret, today was – as expected – somewhat calmer. We headed out to Seven Sisters Country Park and did the walk down to Cuckmere Haven. It’s a beautiful spot, but can get a little crowded at times which means that it isn’t always ideal for wildlife watching. The views are stunning though.

Seven Sisters Country Park

Seven Sisters Country Park

And as it turned out, the wildlife was quite good too. A couple of herons were among the early sightings. Nothing spectacular, but nice to see. The first good sighting was all too fleeting. A smallish bird zipped over, heading out to the cliffs. I was talking to another birder at the time, and the consensus was that it is a merlin, our smallest bird of prey. If we’re correct that’s a first for me. The photo is dire. It came in over my shoulder so I could only catch it heading away from the camera.

Merlin (unconfirmed)

I could be wrong about the i.d., but the conversation quickly turned to that other merlin (no, not the wizard), the engine of the Spitfire. And remarkably on cue, one flew over just to prove the point. It’s a 2-seater (converted apparently for training purposes) and there’s precious little data about it on the web, though it seems have been part of the Dutch airforce at one time. Its index is SM520.

Spitfire SM520

We have several airshows in the region at this time of year, so no doubt it’s been taking part in one or other of those.

There were two other notable sightings, the first coming at the far end of the bird of prey scale. Having seen the smallest (I think), this is one of the largest: an osprey.

Osprey

The second notable bird was a curlew. While not wholly unexpected, they are relatively uncommon and always a pleasure to see.

Curlew

Curlew

To close, a video clip of the egret from yesterday.

Camera note: all wildlife photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. The two landscapes were with the EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens.

Also posted in Bird of Prey, Birds, coastal, South Downs National Park, Spitfire, water birds Tagged , , , , , |