Going through the archives cataloging my images using Lightroom 5 and I have just reprocessed some old images of European kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). This is a male bird resting on hawthorn in early autumn.
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West Yorkshire wildlife photographer: Back in the hide today with kingfisher being the target species but as usual, the water rails performed superbly and so we changed our set-up and focussed on getting some water rail images in the warm October sunshine. There were at least three birds present and at one point we had two birds out together, but the highlight was when one of the birds suddenly stopped feeding, stood upright and let out a very loud pig-like squeal! This sound is so characteristic of reedbeds but mostly, the birds are just heard and not seen so it was a treat to see the bird deliver its loud and raucous call. The soft autumn sunshine was superb for the rails and as the sun went round the site, the water took on a lovely golden glow. In the end, we spent so much time on the water rails, we never actually got round to shooting the wide-angle kingfisher shots we’d set out to do. Oh well, an excuse to get back in the hide :¬)
If you would like to photograph kingfishers and water rails, just contact my friend Alan at Scottish Photography Hides to book a place – quote ‘Wildscenes’ for a £10 discount on your booking!
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Still editing images from the summer as and when I get time and here is one I like from a session with great crested grebe in York in the spring. This shot was taken just as the sun came up and the bird was lit by some nice low cross lighting which gives a spotlight effect. The bird was good enough to give a wing stretch as it drifted past my lens.
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I had a good session in the hide today photographing kingfishers and also the water rails put in an appearance too. The weather was quite bright and sunny which was excellent for the water rail but less so for the kingfishers which, being a bright bird, look better in overcast conditions. Kingfishers are amazingly beautiful birds and lightning quick at diving into the water: I had no chance of catching the action while using the 500mm lens but it did allow me to get some nice portrait shots of these birds. Kingfishers are amazingly confiding birds and don’t seem to be phased by any amount of shutter sounds or even movement of the camera lens so there’s always plenty of opportunity to get lots of shots once they perch up. There’s a pretty good chance I’ll be photographing kingfishers again soon as I have some ideas for different perches I’d like to use. All the images were taken using a Nikon D4 and Nikkor 500mm f/4 AF-S VR lens.
For your chance at photographing kingfisher, just contact my friend Alan at Scottish Photography Hides to book a place – quote ‘Wildscenes’ for a £10 discount on your booking!
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In the hide for around 7hrs today hoping to do kingfisher but for one reason or another, they never showed up! However, despite the no-show by the kingfishers, the day wasn’t entirely wasted as three water rails put on a great floor show in front of the hide. These normally shy birds were fairly bold today and enabled me to get some great images to add to the few water rail images I have on file. The birds were feeding in a narrow channel that ran into an estuary and, although they mainly stayed in cover, every now and again they would sally forth into open water. I was lucky enough to get a series of images of a juvenile bird picking up stones and moving them so that it could feed on larvae beneath the rocks. So, all’s well that ends well and the kingfisher photography turned into water rail photography :¬)
If you’d like to photograph these elusive birds, contact Alan McFayden at Scottish Wildlife Photography Hides to book a session and if you quote ‘Wildscenes’ there’s a £10 discount off your rental charges.
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