Swallows Fledging

Yesterday morning our telephone wire to the house was suddenly occupied by a dozen or so Swallows, many of them young fledglings calling to be fed. I found the second image in my archives; it  was taken on August 5th 2008 and I thought about all the generations that would have visited Toft since Swallows used to nest in our garage (now our bedroom!!). They nested in the garage every year from when we moved 'up the road' in 2000 till the garage was converted in 2013. Since then, there have always been Swallows in the small holding up Mill Lane. After about an hour, they all flew off going south so I guess are starting the long migration.

In Flight at RSPB Sandy

Bright sunny day - ideal for attempting to capture insects in flight and RSPB Sandy had a plethora of wonderful subjects to practise on including  the aggressive-looking Bee-wolf Wasps, the 'cuddly, Green-eyed bees, athletic Hummingbird Hawkmoths, feeding Carder bees and the very long legged Sand Wasp

RSPB Bempton Exploratory Visit

My last visit to Bempton was 13 years ago in 2013 so there are quite a lot of changes in terms of Visitor centre, car parking and the provision of railed viewing areas. It was very busy yesterday but it did not seem crowded and I chatted to bird watchers from many different countries as we tried to spot the Puffins!!. Here just a set of introductory shots to help me plan photography for the subsequent visits though, from experience, the joy of capturing such graceful Gannets and Kittiwakes in flight will still override any other plans.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth and Painted Lady

Arrived out of nowhere and gone in a minute or two but great to have Hummingbird Hawkmoth visit the garden along with a couple of Painted Ladies. Initial shutterspeed 1/250th increased to 1/4000th - probably somewhere in between would give enough movement to give a feel of hovering. Painted Ladieswere very confiding.

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.