Bird photography on Texel (Part 2)

The second installment of my trip for bird photography on Texel. These are just a random selection uploaded as I process my images so no real order to them but they give a flavour of the images I created. There are a lot more Sandwich terns to cone as I spent a really enjoyable couple of hours photographing them as they came in off the sea to the nesting colony on Lancaster Dike. Of course, when shooting white birds in bright sunshine against a dark background like this, manual exposure is mandatory to maintain detail in the highlights. I tend to shoot mostly in manual exposure anyway as I feel I get better control over the final image with less editing but, every now and then, aperture priorty exposure saves the day. I was pleased to get a grasshopper warbler out in the open ‘reeling’ his head off in the early morning light, but he was just down a sandy embankment and it wasn’t possible to get the car close enought to him, so I got out carefully and edged my way towards him while hand-holding the 200-500mm. Another 5yds closer and he’d have been a perfect size in the frame. As it was, he dropped into the bush soon after these shots and I had to make do with a more artistic composition to mask the small size of the bird in the frame. Still, I’ve not photographed this species before so I’m pleased to have him under my belt.