I’m not a birder or a twitcher or anything, but I like birds, and have taken a passing interest in them ever since getting drawn into the expensive habit of feeding wild birds. My favourites are the raptors and I can thoroughly recommend a day out doing the falconry experience at one of the various bird of prey centres around the country. Birds make good targets for the camera and they certainly help to hone the skills. A big lens helps!
Crossbill Crow
Spotted this guy along the cycle path at the Warriston Crematorium area. As well as being partly leucistic (as many Edinburgh crows are), he has a more significant mutation, which is referred to as ‘crossed-bill syndrome‘. It seems to be quite common in birds, and I would be inclined to suspect it was the origin…
Magpies nest-building, 21 March 2018
A pair of magpies have been busy, buliding their nest in the top of a tall shrub in the back-garden. The shrub is all upright stems, and magpie beaks naturally hold sticks horizontally! They insist on using sticks 2-3 feet long, and then struggle to get them in past the uprights. It’s a shaded spot…
Musselburgh Scrapes 02 February 2018
Redshanks, Teal, Oystercatchers, Godwits… and a pheasant!
Osprey diving sequence, 15 April 2017
Shot at Carron Valley Reservoir, while fishing. Camera settings not ideal – just had to go with what it was set for when I saw the chance (which was trout in play action). Main issue was the autofocus, as it was set to change quickly for new subjects entering the frame, and got fooled by…
Using Wi-Fi 12 March 2017
A first attempt to use Wi-Fi to photograph birds, rather than a long lens. I set up the camera on a tripod with a 100 mm f2.8 macro lens and pointed it at a feeder that was getting plenty action (there were many feeders in place). I then retired to a distance the birds were…
Waxwings
A tip-off that there was a flock of more than 100 settled in Gullane resulted in a trip down there ot have a go. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I set out, but by the time I got there, it was densely overcast, and by half way through getting a shoot in,…