We went to Bempton Cliffs today.
It’s the first time I’ve found myself going through the motions. There are only so many Razorbills, Guillemots, Gannets, Kittiwakes and Tree Sparrows you can photograph before the novelty wears off. As for Jackdaws, I can see them any day of the week in Nottingham.
Tree Sparrow (Male)
I did get a photograph of a Whitethroat, so that cheered me up. I’ve not photographed one before, though it’s not exactly rare.
Whitethroat
There weren’t many Puffins about, but what’s new? There are rarely many Puffins about when you want them. At the moment they are mainly involved with feeding their young. I can identify with that.
It was a fairly dull day, and I couldn’t use the magic settings to liven the colour up as they limit the zoom to 40x, You need every bit of the 80x zoom to get a decent shot, and you also need steady hands, as any wavering is also magnified 80 times.
To make things worse, it was also windy.
The first Puffin shot was, I thought, only a shot of a half-hidden bird with bright orange feet. Imagine my surprise when, looking at the photos later, I found I’d been photobombed by another, much clearer bird. At 80x zoom, with a dull day and lots of concentration, I’d completely missed the obvious one!
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Those are wonderful bird shots, Simon. I was recently birding & was happy if a shot let me identify the bird at all. Birds are rough unless you have one of those 2 foot lenses people walk about with.
I was lucky to buy a good camera in a sale – it goes up to 80x zoom, which is the equivalent of one of those big lenses.
I also go to places where the birds are quite close. 🙂
Ah – that’s the difference then – your’s are fabulous.
Thank you. A lot of my success with photography is based on taking lots of shots to get one or two good ones – digital photography is great for that.
I enjoyed the photos of your day at Bempton, Quercus!
Thank you. I have a picture of fish and chips I haven’t used yet… 🙂
Those puffins are the cutest things, rivaling penguins in their cuteness. I hope to see some at some point (puffins, not penguins; I ain’t going to Antarctica).
Puffins are certainly more accessible than Penguins. 🙂
The problem is that they spend a lot of their time ashore nesting in burrows so they can be a bit tricky to see.
Congratulations on getting the Whitethroat!
Good work. Have you thought of a monopod?
It’s a good suggestion – it had never occurred to me. I must give it some thought.
A busy place!
Certainly is!
Fantastic puffin shot!
I have yet to visit Bempton Cliffs, though I’d be happy to go to see the sea. For bird entertainment, there seems to be no point in going further than my back garden. Besides, feeling they are my birds makes them even more captivating.
Yes, back garden birds are interesting, and good value. 🙂
Good value indeed 😊
Julia has managed three broods of blue tits in the Mencap garden nestboxes this year. I am now planning for our own garden next year.
Excellent! Good luck for next year
We will be putting more boxes up for next year. 🙂 They saw Bullfinches at the garden this morning.
That’s a good range of birds!
Bullfinches come with a price – they have been eating buds off the trees. 🙂
Oh!
Everything comes with a price! 🙂
They look good bigified.
I work on the basis of taking plenty of shots and hoping one will be OK. 🙂