I spent a couple of hours this morning at Falmer Pond. I wasn’t expecting much (I was really planning just to test out some new gear), but on arrival I spotted this beautiful cormorant perching on a rock at the edge of the water.

Cormorant at Falmer Pond, East Sussex

I think I may have been disturbing a private moment though…

Those were both taken with the 100-400 lens, but I was interested in getting familiar with my 500mm lens and a new tripod head (Flexline). The beauty of the Flexline is that you set it up so that the horizon is always level, even when you start moving the lens around. And even better, the lens doesn’t creep! This won’t mean much if you’ve not used tripods, but ‘creep’ is a big issue and means constant alignment and readjustment with most systems. Anyway, the remainder of the shots here were taken with the longer lens, from a tripod. Using the Flexline was a delight.

A couple more of the cormorant…

I did some gentle tracking (very easy and very smooth), including several shots of juvenile herring gulls.

Herring gull at Falmer Pond with fish

A bigger splash

The second species of gull at the pond is the black-headed gull, though most of them have now lost their chocolate brown breeding plumage and simply display a dark facial spot.

Black-headed gull at Falmer Pond, with fish

Back home the foxes were in and out of the garden this afternoon, including a visit by Pretty Vixen.

Pretty Vixen

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 1DX Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens or EF 500mm f/4 IS II USM lens.