Category Archives: Landscape

A Swift

July 14, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

Just two photos today. The first to set the scene. This is the view of farmland seen from Seven Sisters, near Eastbourne. It’s part of the beautiful South Downs National Park.

farmland

It was relatively quiet when I was there this morning (on my way to a 7 hour meeting), but I did take a few photos of the swifts (Apus apus) as they criss-crossed the sky in search of insects. This is the best of the crop (and yes, it is a crop).

Swift in flight

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

Also posted in Birds, South Downs National Park Tagged , |

Honey Moon?

June 13, 2014 by Words | 6 Comments

Tonight we are supposedly seeing a very rare moon as it passes low in the sky. I doubt very much that Southern England is the best place to see anything and to be honest the moon looks very much as it usually does. It is low (well I photographed soon after moon rise so it would be low), but because of this it does pick up a good reddish-orange glow from the atmosphere. Both these shots will expand quite a bit if you click on them.

Honey moon

Honey moon

As for the day, the mini heatwave is continuing. There are swifts overhead and they always present a nice challenge in rapid contortionism as you follow them through the lens on their fast and erratic flight. A couple of shots from yesterday.

Swift in flight

Swift in flight

And one from today.

Swift in flight

The final shot is a cute one of two sleepy herring gull chicks settling down for a nap.

Herring gull chick

Camera note: Wildlife photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. The honey moon taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

Also posted in Birds, Moon, water birds Tagged , , , |

Great Spotted Chicks! (plus some Brighton oddities)

June 6, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

I’m going to start with the photos taken towards the end of the day. I mentioned a couple of days ago that I’d tried and failed to spot the young great spotted woodpeckers high in the tree at the edge of our works car park. Well I was back there at the end of the day today and to my delight the youngsters broke cover.

They are slightly higher up the tree than I’d orginally thought, and seem to have two locations (one of which offers just enough of angle for the camera to cut through the foliage to the nest hole). So here are my first photos of the young great spotteds, looking very scrawny but clearly with plenty of energy to harangue their diligent parents.

Great spotted woodpecker chick

Great spotted woodpecker chick

And one with the adult feeding the chick in the higher of the two nest holes.

Great spotted woodpecker chicks and adult

As for the oddities in the title, I spent 20 minutes on Brighton seafront at lunchtime today and among the various so-so photos of herring gulls (nothing interesting) took these photos of various pieces of street furniture. They each amused me for their natural (manufactured?) oddness. The first is a CCTV camera which was perched high above the pavements but looks more like one of those little plastic toys posed as a weightlifter.

A CCTV camera posing as a weightlifter

A little further along the front I came across a disco ball out in the sunshine. It was at about street level, above a beachfront cafe. The reflections offer a lo-tech pixelated view of Brighton.

Pixelated view of Brighton seafront

The final shot is nothing less than a giant watchstrap, masquerading as a seaside Big Wheel ride. Not quite the London Eye, but startling for its lack of visual appeal.

Big Wheel on Brighton seafront looking like a wristwatch strap

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

Also posted in Birds, coastal, Seaside Views, Uncategorized Tagged , , , , |