Brown Argus Butterfly ..
Small White Butterfly ..
Meadow Brown Butterfly ..
A Flying Beetle incoming ..
A Hoverfly chasing off a Small White Butterfly ..
Friday, 13 July 2018
A FEW BUTTERFLIES
Managed to force myself four days late to go through and post-process a few more photographs I took over a four day period ..
Thursday, 28 June 2018
KENT'S RAPTOR POINT, FROGS & FINCHES
Well .. it was actually good and very, very .. cool!
But it was .. tough!
My health condition is doing its best to try and kill me .. one way it lets me know this, though it did not yesterday when I went on this trip, and another way has no damn warning.
Plus it likes to throw me some curve-balls and often two ore more at once.
I was in a .. very nice bed and breakfast with a very nice owner down in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
Brother suggested we do this, the one I can talk to, has a car and does not perform like a child depending on the conversation topic. Lol. We went down with two nephews I had not seen in a while, one almost 18 while the other .. umm .. very young? Lol, I have a terrible memory but I would suggest he is three .. give or take a couple of months. Probably less.
Yeah on the evening I had a nerve wracking drive down, a panic attack once there and extremely uncomfortable feeling. This led to some trouble sleeping but I got there in the end.
The feeling persisted in a weaker form the next day .. finally disappeared after a pint of shandy and a couple of extra pills after my thighs started to ache. Up until this point I have only used my jpeg only Nikon P900 and had neglected the Sony A99II as I was not feeling particularly artistic ..
Also noticed just as I was about to post that the Nikon pics are bad .. not sure why this is .. did notice some dust on the lens at one point and cleaned it off .. also not sure if the exceptionally bright sunlight had an effect?
But it was .. tough!
My health condition is doing its best to try and kill me .. one way it lets me know this, though it did not yesterday when I went on this trip, and another way has no damn warning.
Plus it likes to throw me some curve-balls and often two ore more at once.
I was in a .. very nice bed and breakfast with a very nice owner down in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
Brother suggested we do this, the one I can talk to, has a car and does not perform like a child depending on the conversation topic. Lol. We went down with two nephews I had not seen in a while, one almost 18 while the other .. umm .. very young? Lol, I have a terrible memory but I would suggest he is three .. give or take a couple of months. Probably less.
Yeah on the evening I had a nerve wracking drive down, a panic attack once there and extremely uncomfortable feeling. This led to some trouble sleeping but I got there in the end.
The feeling persisted in a weaker form the next day .. finally disappeared after a pint of shandy and a couple of extra pills after my thighs started to ache. Up until this point I have only used my jpeg only Nikon P900 and had neglected the Sony A99II as I was not feeling particularly artistic ..
Also noticed just as I was about to post that the Nikon pics are bad .. not sure why this is .. did notice some dust on the lens at one point and cleaned it off .. also not sure if the exceptionally bright sunlight had an effect?
Kestrel ..
(Taken around 9.30pm)
Merlin ..
Linnets ..
Swallows ..
Marsh Frog ..
Goldfinch Singing
Kestrel Hovering
That Marsh Frog again
Friday, 11 May 2018
THE SECOND CHANCE SEDGE
Well this was lucky ..
I cold only stand there and watch these the day before and had decided I was going to be in too much pain to go back and film them. My camera equipment was also buried .. deep.
But I dragged out my .. Nikon P900 after I realised I was being .. forced outside once again and I managed to get lucky ..
And film and photograph that Sedge Warbler ..
I cold only stand there and watch these the day before and had decided I was going to be in too much pain to go back and film them. My camera equipment was also buried .. deep.
But I dragged out my .. Nikon P900 after I realised I was being .. forced outside once again and I managed to get lucky ..
And film and photograph that Sedge Warbler ..
EDIT:
I forgot to add that just prior to seeing this Sedge Warbler I heard what I thought sounded like a loud .. grasshopper. I then thought "Wait a minute? That is not a Grasshopper Warbler is it?" and then a warbler appears. There had been a rumour of one being seen or heard and I thought this is what this bird was.
I have not been an avid bird watcher since I was a child, concentrating more on other animals like exotic finches, reptiles, amphibians and fish over the years. As soon as I saw the pictures in a book I remembered what a Grasshopper Warbler looked like and could not believe that I did not remember its pattern and colour ..
But then I do have this memory issue which I have had a number of years that has progressively gotten worse over a long period of time.
Monday, 23 April 2018
SHELLS, OYSTERS & ALDERS
A bit late uploading these .. and the videos but .. that is because of my memory issues and I have two cameras, or had that day, to deal with.
I forgot about this non-professional camera!
Anyhoo .. we went out on a warm but very windy day .. which blew me about while I was filming with the zoom at full .. win .. chat! Lol.
This was on Walthamstow Wetlands .. or opposite Walthamstow Wetlands .. not sure if it is all the same place. Another place is called The Paddocks .. no .. just don't! It is on Ferry Lane in Walthamstow not far from Tottenham Hale.
While out we saw Shelducks, Oystercatchers and some Alder Flies, the latter I do not ever recall seeing before that day. Caddis Flies, yes. Alder Flies not so sure ..
I forgot about this non-professional camera!
Anyhoo .. we went out on a warm but very windy day .. which blew me about while I was filming with the zoom at full .. win .. chat! Lol.
This was on Walthamstow Wetlands .. or opposite Walthamstow Wetlands .. not sure if it is all the same place. Another place is called The Paddocks .. no .. just don't! It is on Ferry Lane in Walthamstow not far from Tottenham Hale.
While out we saw Shelducks, Oystercatchers and some Alder Flies, the latter I do not ever recall seeing before that day. Caddis Flies, yes. Alder Flies not so sure ..
Saturday, 17 March 2018
THE RED CRESTED SOLDIERS
I title it that because watching the Red Crested Pochards put me in mind of a load of soldiers on parade. In one video below the males are all bobbing their beaks in what must be some kind of mating courtship .. thing?
I was not expecting to see these and annoyingly and due to the pain and my health condition I went out without my very best lens.
I had gone out because it was supposed to be sunny all afternoon. It was sunny for about three minutes in total .. thank you yet again, weather people! I had intended to got artistic and bokeh shots of flowers for my other digital photography blog, as I had the day before. Though admittedly it is somewhat early in the year and there is not a lot about. Some wild violets were seen but not very good condition and there were some Daffodils, Hyacinths and some trees with white blossom. But the weather was shit and dull and I stumbled across these Red Crested Pochards.
I need to open up the aperture a little with this lens in future for birds.. an f1.4. This was also at Finsbury Park in London.
Here are some photos and videos ..
I was not expecting to see these and annoyingly and due to the pain and my health condition I went out without my very best lens.
I had gone out because it was supposed to be sunny all afternoon. It was sunny for about three minutes in total .. thank you yet again, weather people! I had intended to got artistic and bokeh shots of flowers for my other digital photography blog, as I had the day before. Though admittedly it is somewhat early in the year and there is not a lot about. Some wild violets were seen but not very good condition and there were some Daffodils, Hyacinths and some trees with white blossom. But the weather was shit and dull and I stumbled across these Red Crested Pochards.
I need to open up the aperture a little with this lens in future for birds.. an f1.4. This was also at Finsbury Park in London.
Here are some photos and videos ..
Got some close ups of Common Pochards too ..
Videos ..
Wednesday, 7 March 2018
THE REEDS & THE LITTLE BUNTING
For two days in a row I visited the Walthamstow Wetlands. I was there yesterday.
Well what a day?!
The weather men got it wrong for the umpteenth time recently for London, no snow the other Thursday after they said it was. The day before this day it was supposed to rain around 3pm to 4pm and barely spat. This day was supposed to be partly sunny fro midday to 5pm with no rai at all! Take a wild guess at what happened?! It rained and transitioned from fairly heavy to light and the sun did come out .. eventually. Around the closing time of the place we were in which is 4pm.
Tens of millions on a weather computer a couple years back? Stop .. just stop.
Anyhoo we waited by the section which was said to have Reed Buntings and a Little Bunting among them. Got hatting to e nice bunch of chaps while there, one dedicated soul was a Scot who had come down from Warrington of all places.
Now I was convinced I had the Little Bunting on film and pictures a dozen times .. but ..
I was not familiar with what young and hen Reed Buntings looked like nor familiar with the same for the Little Bunting. A chestnut coloured face was all I had to go on.
I also still do not possess my birding lens, the 70-400mm Sony f4!
At the end someone pointed out the Little Bunting while it was close to us and feeding. I spotted what they were referring to and though 'oh .. I have filmed that several ties' and was happy. Well as it turns out it was not the Little Bunting and an immature male Reed Bunting.
After going through the videos and the photos I had managed to get one of each of the Little Bunting so was not a complete disaster. Nor did the Sony A99 II and its 70-2mm f2.8 and 1.4 Teleconverter get wet for nothing.
Well what a day?!
The weather men got it wrong for the umpteenth time recently for London, no snow the other Thursday after they said it was. The day before this day it was supposed to rain around 3pm to 4pm and barely spat. This day was supposed to be partly sunny fro midday to 5pm with no rai at all! Take a wild guess at what happened?! It rained and transitioned from fairly heavy to light and the sun did come out .. eventually. Around the closing time of the place we were in which is 4pm.
Tens of millions on a weather computer a couple years back? Stop .. just stop.
Anyhoo we waited by the section which was said to have Reed Buntings and a Little Bunting among them. Got hatting to e nice bunch of chaps while there, one dedicated soul was a Scot who had come down from Warrington of all places.
Now I was convinced I had the Little Bunting on film and pictures a dozen times .. but ..
I was not familiar with what young and hen Reed Buntings looked like nor familiar with the same for the Little Bunting. A chestnut coloured face was all I had to go on.
I also still do not possess my birding lens, the 70-400mm Sony f4!
At the end someone pointed out the Little Bunting while it was close to us and feeding. I spotted what they were referring to and though 'oh .. I have filmed that several ties' and was happy. Well as it turns out it was not the Little Bunting and an immature male Reed Bunting.
After going through the videos and the photos I had managed to get one of each of the Little Bunting so was not a complete disaster. Nor did the Sony A99 II and its 70-2mm f2.8 and 1.4 Teleconverter get wet for nothing.
Little Bunting in the video below on the right
What I believe to be an immature Male Reed Bunting ..
Reed Bunting ..
Another Reed Bunting ..
Four Reed Buntings Feeding..
Reed Bunting Closer In
Scaup
Goldeneye Preening
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