Tag Archives: herring gull

Cool Day for Coots

November 5, 2014 by Words | Comments Off

After yesterday’s deluge, some welcome sunshine. True, the ground was sodden, but it made a change to have blue skies. Still playing with the camera and trying things out, but there was no need to push ISO settings today so I just concentrated on taking pictures. Of coots.

Coot

There’s a small group of them on the pond, which is in itself slightly unusual. This isn’t one of their usual haunts, but they seem to be fitting in well with the ducks, gulls and moorhens. Like the slightly smaller moorhen, the coot is a member of the rail family and shares a number of characteristics, including absurd feet (though those were kept well out of sight today).

coot

“Smile for the camera”

Coot

Those are all early morning shots. There was more variety at lunchtime, and it was brighter.

There were ducks, dabbling…

ducks

Moorhens calling…

Moorhens

A herring gull splashing…

herring gull

And still there were coots, calmly patrolling the pond.

Coot

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. I added the
Canon EF 1.4xIII extender for the final shot of the gull.

Posted in water birds, Wildlife Also tagged , , |

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.

Posted in Bird of Prey, Helicopter, Moon, sparrowhawk, water birds, Wildlife Also tagged , , , , |

Another Bird Post

October 7, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

Three more birds to start the week. Yesterday’s rain and gloom eased slightly today and between some very heavy showers there were brief periods of sunshine. The day started well enough, and the little wren ventured out on to the grass bank at the edge of Falmer Pond.

wren

Wren in early morning sunshine

Lots of herring gulls around as well. This is a juvenile. Nothing very special about it, but a crisp shot and decent light.

Juvenile herring gull

Juvenile herring gull

After that the weather deteriorated, and most of the day was wet. Most, but not all. There was a brief break in the weather when I drove through Seven Sisters at lunchtime and grabbed a couple of photos of a passing little egret.

Little egret

Little egret flying over the South Downs at Seven Sisters.

Little egret

Blue sky, clouds and a little egret

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

Posted in Birds, water birds Also tagged , |