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!
Kingfisher, 20 December 2019
The resident kingfisher at the Botanics was active and giving the sticklebacks a good doing! The dull conditions and it being the shortest day made a monkey of things like shutter speeds and ISO levels, especially shooting with the 100-400 mm lens with the x1.4 TC on. A 560 mm lens gives a decent length,…
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!