Lackford Gulls

The light was great for bird watching at Lackford on Tuesday and I enjoyed photographing trying to make images using the contrasty light and shadows - generally not recommended for nature photography. Shooting at 1/3200th second with a 420mm lens on a micro 4/3rd body on high burst revealed a cycle of 4 wing positions as the gulls hovered looking down in the water for food.  I do like the patterns on the gull's breast in the 2nd and 3rd images.

Marsh Harriers and Cuckoo at Lackford

Ellie chose to visit Lackford with me today on her day off, hoping to see a Kingfisher - no luck with that wish but we did have great views of Marsh Harriers, Heron, Egret, Lapwing in the Irises etc and, best of all, a really good view of a male Cuckoo, who conveniently then landed in a tree and proceeded to call just to confirm the ID. A lot of Common Blue Damselflies and a quite late Orange-tailed Mining bee

Lackford Lakes at 30 Degrees

Like us the only insect life active at Lackford yesterday tended to be lurking in the shade and hence difficult to get quality photos but enjoyed the day hunting.

Cormorant Exiting Water

Taken at Lackford yesterday in poor light at 240 frames per second and slowed to 24 fps. Love the elegance shown when slowed down - my dance teacher would be pleased with those foot movements.
 

Heron and Dabchick at Lackford Lakes

A much-reduced party from CCC and the RPS Nature Group visited Lackford Lakes and enjoyed photographing Heron and Dabchicks in the pouring rain from a dry but drafty hide. I tried some slow shutterspeeds on the rain and was surprised to be able to handhold at 1/60th second (subsequent frames 1/250th, 1/1000th, 1/1000th and 1/2000th). A pair of Dabchicks kept us amused for a lot of the morning.

 

Lackford wide-angle Insects

The only insects that we photographed other than dragonflies at Lackford Lakes were very small insects in a patch of fleabane. No doubt if we had stopped and closely studied other areas, there would have been more small insects and spiders. These are taken with 23mm fixed lens on Fuji X100V with Raynox closeup lens - a lighting system would have been useful as the aperture used was too wide to get adequate depth of field so close.