{Yorkshire wildlife photographer}: nuthatch nest building

A dull morning but I thought I ought to make a quick check of the nuthatch nest building in an old woodpecker hole in a large oak tree alongside the River Went. The birds were very busy closing down the hole with mud and leaves but the light mid morning was atrocious for photography, shooting directly into a milky sun/white sky which gave me a lot of flare on the lens. I swapped my old 500mm AF-S lens with it’s outrageously deep lens hood for a newer 500mm AF-S VR lens, which only has a shallow hood, and so I paid the price with some low contrast images. I think by late afternoon, especially on a good day, the sun will be cross lighting the nest hole and will be better for images. I will go back one evening this week and try and improve on these record shots.
nuthatch nest building

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Rook on fencepost

While cleaning out the hard drives, I came across this rook photo which reprocessed and rehashed and now I really like it. Rooks are difficult birds to do as they are so shy and nervous, it’s very difficult to get near them.Rook on fencepost

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Neolithic burial tomb in faux infra red

This is a shot of a prehistoric Neolithic burial tomb in faux infra red that I took a while ago in the Dordogne. I used a R72 deep red filter over the lens to capture the upper frequencies normally associated with the infra red spectrum. Using this method, one has to compose and set the focus then apply the filter because once it’s on, it’s impossible to see through the lens! It only works on cameras with a weak anti-alias filter which will otherwise kill the effect. One day I will get an old Nikon body converted to IR to try more of this technique.

As an aside, these are some serious bits of stone to move and then cover in soil! Very clever (and fit) those prehistoric guys!Neolithic tomb, Dordogne, France

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Showcase: Hoopoe Extremadura, Spain

hoopoe in Extremadura, Span

A couple of years back I was sitting in a small hide on the vast steppe area of Extremadura, Spain waiting and hoping to photograph great bustard when suddenly, onto the rock in front of the hide, dropped a hoopoe. Within minutes it was joined by a second bird and for around 15 minutes they preened, displayed and fed each other with large grubs all the while oblivious to the 500mm lens pointing right at them! Here are a few images I’ve re-edited and for info, they were taken with a Nikon D2H 4megapixel DSLR!

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hoopoe in Extremadura, Span

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Lapwings in the Yorkshire Dales

The lapwings are well and truly back on their breeding grounds in the Dales just now; their acrobatic display flight and wild calls are a great lift to the spirit. The lapwing, or green plover. is a familiar bird to us but stop and take time to look closely and it is immediately obvious this is no plain bird! Lapwings in the Yorkshire Dales are widespread nesting in the pastures amongst the sheep and spring lambs but they also nest on the moorland fringes too as this bird is doing.
Lapwing on moorland territory

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