Chiffchaffs at Carnon Downs SF

Sewage Farms are well known sites for wintering phyloscs in Cornwall and Carnon Downs is a regular site for Chiffchaffs. The four images below show two darker nominate individuals and a noticeably paler bird showing characteristics of the eastern form abietinus. They were taken on Sunday afternoon with the 600mm F/4 at a range of about 8 yards. If the cold spell in the north of the UK continues this week, more phyloscopus warblers should appear here.

Cold weather brings more thrushes

The colder weather this weekend has pushed more thrushes into the county. With strong south-easterlies blowing all weekend, Fieldfare and Redwing are appearing everywhere. I took the Fieldfare shots yesterday and the Redwing shots this morning walking to work through the local park. I used the 300mm F/2.8 with 1.4x TC, handheld. It felt strange not having to use a tripod! The end result though is many more shots appearing out of focus. I was delighted with the images below though and have been waiting for ages to get a chaqnce to photo these stunning birds. Focal length: 420mm. Aperture: F/4.5 WB Cloudy. ISO 640. Exp 0.0.

Cold weather brings winter thrushes

The colder weather this weekend has pushed more thrushes into the county. With strong south-easterlies blowing all weekend, Fieldfare and Redwing are appearing everywhere. I took the Fieldfare shots yesterday and the Redwing shots this morning walking to work through the local park. I used the 300mm F/2.8 with 1.4x TC, handheld. It felt strange not having to use a tripod! The end result though is many more shots appearing out of focus. I was delighted with the images below though and have been waiting for ages to get a chaqnce to photo these stunning birds. Focal length: 420mm. Aperture: F/4.5 WB Cloudy. ISO 640. Exp 0.0.

Winter visitors in the garden

Below are some images from today of Redwing, Dunnock and Robin in and around the garden in Truro. The light this morning was dull but by afternoon, had improved and gave shutter speeds of up to 1000th second. ISO 640. WB Cloudy. Exposure -0.3. All the images have been cropped and sharpened with the unsharp mask in Adobe.

The best Christmas present

News broke late yesterday (Sunday) of a first year Snowy Owl on the moors near Eagle's Nest, near Zennor. The bird was stumbled upon after a birder was carrying out a census on wintering Hen Harriers. The news was later put out by Richard Menari. Luckily for everyone, it was refound again this morning, fairly static on a fence post. This is the first record for mainland Cornwall since 1948 and prior to that 1942, which means that every living birder will have a county tick this Christmas. I will admit right now before people let me know, that the images are a bit grainy. Another mess up. On the previous day I was doing my sport photography and forgot to re adjust one crucial camera setting, that from Small file to Large, a small matter of 10 mega bytes less resolution....doh. Focal length 840mm. ISO 640. Exposure -0.3 WB Cloudy.

Winter thrushes

Below is the best image from yesterday taken in poor light at a very high 1600 ISO. Not an ideal situation but the best on offer. The Blackbird is a first year male bird with dark bill and hints of new black adult feathers appearing.

Best of the rest at the res today

For the first time ever I ran out of memory - gigabytes of memory that is. Some 550 plus shots at full resolution today drained the memory cards. The shots below were the end result of a day of very changable weather and light conditions. Dawn started at 0 degrees, ice and frost on the ground, sleet, snow, rain and bright sunshine, all contributing to demanding photographic conditions. For the best part of the day, the ISO has been set at 800 to 1000 - fortunatly, the Nikon D3 works well at high ISO and I have now forgotten what grain is. The aperture has been wide open at F/4 and F/6.7 to push that all important shutter speed up. All of the images below have been cropped and adjusted in Adobe CS3 and are low resolution to aid faster download speed.

Slavonian Grebe at Stithians Reservoir

Tempted by some stunning photos of Jack Snipe at the southern hide the previous day, I decided to take a look at Stithians Res this morning. With no luck from dawn this morning, I decided to look at the main reservoir. Within five minutes, this stunning Slavonian Grebe showed itself no more than 30 yards from the hide. A nice consolation. I quickly put the 1.7x TC on and managed about 25 shots before it drifted away, as fast as it arrived. ISO was 1000 and shutter speed varied between 400 and 500th sec. Aperture f/6.7. WB Cloudy. Exposure -0.3. I believe this is the first record at the res for ten years. I will have to wait for the next Jack Snipe!

Goldcrest at Helston Lake

These four shots of Goldcrest were the best I could get today. I was intending to see the first year Ring-billed Gull but for the first time in a month, it didn't show! The light was poor and initially, the camera was registering just 25th second wide open at f/4 and ISO set at 1000 ! The four shots below were taken at 125th second so I was quite lucky to get anything. If you ever wonder what a Goldy eats during the day, take a close look at the third image and there is a miniscule caterpillar on the end of its bill.