Tuesday 27 January 2015

Wonderful afternoon on the Exe

Well another blog so soon!  Maybe things are getting back to normality.  Stuart line Cruises gave us yet another superb trip on the Exe last wednesday afternoon when Ian Waite was kind enough to let me be his spotter yet again.  The weather and forecast had been a bit dodgy but as it turned out a small area of  blue sky and sun appeared just over the boat almost the entire trip.  The water was so still and the light, although late in the day was wonderful.  The first of the highlights was this seal on the mud banks not far up the river where it stayed 'smiling' close to the boat as we passed it by.




 The avocets looked stunning as usual and as you can see the sun was very low by the time we got up  towards Topsham but it just made them even more stunning




The main highlight had to be 2 beautiful male golden eye swimming close to the boat.  We had wonderful views of both and am ashamed to say the avocets got forgotten on the other side of the boat.







There were plenty of mergansers and the 2nd one looks to me like he has had his hair styled



On the way back by Powderham it was nearly dark but the sky was superb as you can see


It was dark by the time we got back as the trip overran a little but (as I already said) yet another wonderful trip provided by Stuart Line. 

Then last Friday another trip to Darts farm where yet again the penduline tits were showing well when we got there.  It was minus 3 as you can see from the frost.  All the photos on this posting were again taken with my nikon V2 combination for those of you that are interested.








Tuesday 20 January 2015

Making up for lost time!

I apologise to those of you that been asking for updates to my blog over the last couple of months but as you can see I have finally got around to doing so.  There have been many reasons one being that I have not found anything different to photograph of late.  I have however been out and about with my V2 and the new nikon CX 300mm lens of which I know many of you have been keen to see the results it can give.  So far I have found it to give excellent results and so easy to carry with it being so small and light.  The following were all taken with the above set up.


This pair of stonechats have become reasonably tolerant of people along the sea front.




Here is one of our residents fishing near the study centre


and a heron not being quite so successful on Black Hole Marsh


A cormorant washing on the river




This egret was up the tree by the study centre 


and this robin was taken hand held at 1/40th of a second which I found very impressive.  The VR is excellent on this little system;  I would not have been able to achieve that hand held with my normal D7100 set up.


The next 2 were taken in very poor light and although not renowned for its low light performance I still think it performed reasonably well.


The light could not have been much worse for this cormorant and it was fairly distant.  Would love to have got this photo in good light.


And now here are a few in flight photos 








and of course I have to include this resident favourite




A nice bit of colour here


and now something a bit different




All the above were taken with the V2 so it gives some idea of its capabilities. The following off patch photos were taken with my usual set up nearly 3 weeks ago now at Aylesbeare and Darts Farm.


These must be the most photographed birds in Devon at the moment.