We had many days of snowing and freezing temperatures which was days on end of misery which ended up a day of getting some very sad and distressing news. It was pretty bad and still is .. something else for my corruption blog in time I guess?
I was about fit to burst .. or throw myself under a bus and had to get out. My brother said he wanted to go to a place where a Little Bunting had been spotted. He had also said there were reports of Scaup and Goldeneye ducks and at first I decided I was not going. But then I changed my mind ..
I did decide to only take my Nikon P900 .. but I am going back today with the Sony A99 II and a couple lenses and a monopod!
This is why ..
There was indeed a Scaup ..
You can see a higher resolution picture and others on my Flickr account..
There were also Linnets .. though when they flew away we could have sworn we see a greenish yellow colour and thought they were Siskins .. until we got back and took one look at the pictures ..
Well I have not published much but .. I have been out several times ..
I have been visiting a spot between Walthamstow and Hackney in East London where it technically borders a part of North London really considered to be East London .. lol.
Now I was told of three species of bird were seen here and these are Goldcrests, Kingfishers and Firecrests? I will tell you what I said to that .. "No fucking way!"
You see I frequented this areas as a kid and collected Common Newts and Palmate Newts from this site and .. no one was supposed to be in there. There used to be a hole in a wallk we used to get through.
I was a keen bird watcher when I was a kid and .. the very idea of even seeing something like Goldcrests there and anywhere else in this area was ludicrous and never happened. Ever!
But blow me down all three are indeed there as I now have photographic evidence of it .. despite killing my back with my very heavy photographic equipment. My Sony A99II is not particularly heavy but the Sony f2.8 70-200mm lens has crushed my vertebrae several times! Lol.
Photos not great but at least I know that these birds are there and now I can work on getting far better photos!!
Now let me see if I can link my photos in from FlickR .. umm .. NOPE ..
Just like Google and their Adsense crap, their Chrome Browser and now Google's Blogger .. nothing bloody works! LMAO! But they are alooof and refuse to talk to you because they think all their crap works!!
Oh well .. here are some pictures and links .. there are a lot more photos and will be more coming ..
Long way away butin the distance you will note a blob of orange .. a Kingfisher and it did land right underneath our noses just out of sight a few minutes later .. the good but washed out photo above .. which I got purely because I see the reeds bend a certain way .. stood up and there it was .. got a photo but it raced off before I could hit the video button on my DSLT.
If you freeze the last video at 4 seconds exactly you should see a Firecrest and it should be unmistakable as to what it is.
Well I am sort of back .. but not in the way that you might think.
I am going to be getting around doing some stuff over the coming days and weeks and with a little luck might actually be doing that which I planned to begin with many months ago?
I had something of a .. hiccup and did not acquire all the tools I needed due to an emergency situation that is about to unfold, or I hope so, in a big way.
However I am back near some old, but new for here, places that I certainly did not expect and .. momentarily.
I am going to be looking for Firecrests .. in fact I already did and spotted one but not managed to get one on film .. but I did get some Teal and Gadwalls .. oh and a Pochard .. and a Little Grebe. Oh and a pair of Stock Doves.
I have been a little busy .. and away for eight days.
I am still shopping but apart from some stuff inbound .. the main shopping has paused .. due to some unforeseen circumstances and a change in a particular .. destination.
A destination I have already been to once ..
But here are some pictures with my new camera ..
Bear with me as I am getting used to the controls and .. trying to remember to alter my settings, aperture and such, as the light changes.
Right then .. a few things to remember for viewers going forwards ..
These images are shot in RAW
Shock number 1: These are edited/processed in bad software (i.e. prob losing Image Quality)
Shock Number 2: These are then shrunk down to 30% their original size .. yup I do not care how many times you look and think rubbish .. they ARE shrunk down to 30% - 42 Mega Pixels
Shock Number 3: they are reduced in size in MS Paint .. yeah, yeah .. I know, I know
Serif Affinity Photo will be purchased very soon!
I will sort out my FLICKR account I never used .. much .. anyway
Sony A99 II DSLT
Sony G Series 70-200mm f2.8
Sony Zeiss 24-70mm f2.8
Sony 1.4x Teleconverter
Sigma 85mm f1.4 (Incoming .. soo .. no, none of the pictures are shot with anything other than the two f2.8 lenses .. some might be at f4 or higher if I used the teleconverter)
Two dozen 4K videos up on YouTube, see bottom
I was with four children that were hyped up some of the time .. so could not do everything .. plus the family was kinda .. threatened so had to focus on that .. kind of still am, bear with me a couple of weeks, lol
On one shoot I met a really nice guy, photographer, who loved nature and we chatted in the hide for 3 hours. Kinda reminded me of why I do some of the things and blogs that do .. people like him.
Think now that these are Cetti's Warblers as we heard one call .. unless my first hunch these are .. crap no my first hunch was Willow Warblers .. then I thought they were more like Reed Warblers .. but there are Willow Warblers because I got a video of a young one, complete with olive colouring .. but we heard Cetti's Warblers call.
ITS A WARBLER!! LMAO! FISHERS GREEN
Thought this was a rarer Blue Butterfly at first but soon realised it was a Common Blue Butterfly
Chub ..
More Chub ..
Gadwall
Unknown to me .. Hen Scaup?
The Duck Meet at Colwyn Bay
Yup siree! That is indeed a Kingfisher despite the bad photo .. IT WAS TOO QUICK AS WAS I ..
This is one of several species I have captured on my new camera I never got with my old one .. Inside of a month and I think the new species count is at least at FOUR?!
Common Darter?
Gadwall
Gadwall
The Rare Rough Robin LOL ..
Speckled Wood Butterfly ..
Autumn Sunsets ..
Probably a Yellow Eared Slider Terrapin? Fishers Green.
A duck curiously looking like a hen Scaup but .. cannot see it .. Rye Meads
Photos out of order .. this and the following Young Grey Wagtail pictures were shot at Colwyn Bay at an RSPB site ..
A young Willow Warbler .. Fishers Green ..
Now starting to think I have been filming Cetti's Warblers?
One called really loud and I am not familiar with their song my brother informs me they are loud and a man I met their, keen birder, told me they were Cetti's Warblers calling.
Colwyn Bay and I think these were young Grey Wagtails?
Well here is another blog I forgot to post and update on!
Yeah .. once before I had these big plans where everything was going to change but it never panned out and I never gt t the bottom of it or the reasons?
Yeeah .. this wasn't that.
But as it turns out the 'that' has returned from the proverbial grave and in a week from now I should have the answers I sought for so long.
Also the issue I had has been completed for the most part. Enough for e to make the radical changes I sought just over a year ago. Or was it two?
Did I ever mention that I live with various pains, a number of things that cause discomfort and anxiety and sometimes literally and I have short term memory issues. Did I mention that I have short term memory issues?! I apologise .. I could not resist that last line.
Sooo then?
Up until now my sessions have included only local areas I reach on my mountain bike? Yeah .. not any longer ..
Soo my cameras have only been classed as enthusiast as best and far from being professional tools? I once again say ... yeeeaaaahhh .. not any longer ..
How about 42 Mega Pixels, effing fast auto focus and 12 frames per second in full 42 Mega Pixels?
..
How about a fast zoom lens at f2.8 and a 1.4x teeconvrter that is not supposed to negatively effect image quality at all but then at £450 odd it better not!
..
How about a nice wide angle zoom for landscapes of my travels and some night time stuff?
Say a 24-70mm f2.8?
A Gimbal? Well there were .. two .. but one was an electric one and had two score marks on the handle and did not work .. yeah £650 pile of Zhiyun Crane junk!
Got a Benro though and there was a Spider in the box ..
Yeah the photo editing is ... slooooooow .. need an new PC but then I kinda knew that ..
Now you have to compare this post to the last one for what was the whole of July.
Not only was this over just a few days and in a great many different locations but I am also ... re-familiarising myself with .. DRIVING!
I have not driven for a number of years so it has been not only strange but I am in a rather big car. As I was a good driver and worked within the car industry in the past, including Land Rover, it has always been a habit of mine to take things slow with any new car I drive until I familiarise myself with it, its handling and other things.
Due to the time since I last drove I have expanded this so that it is about 6 weeks. Soo .. the further afield, ahem field, trips will come later.
A shame that this has occurred now as it is very lat in the year. Many butterflies have long since finished or at their very taty ends.
We are mere weeks away from Autumn but I even have a plan for that period and .. another blog that I have that has been .. somewhat neglected.
Due to the fact I have so many blogs on so many subjects I have to start planning .. to get the most out of any trips I make.
However to achieve this I will require my next lot of .. items that should be acquired over the next week .. if I can shake this very silly psychological issue, or block, that I seem to have developed? I have to .. well .. force myself presently. Lol.
Very bizarrely in one car park I bumped into an old friend who used to work with animals but is a Policeman these days. As I was about to figure out why my GPS had taken me to the wrong car park upon getting back to my car I heard someone shout "What are you here for?!" and I turned to answer only to see this old friend smiling back at me, with his head on upside down. Long beard and no hair if you did not pick up on that, lol.
He used to own a Land Rover and he spotted mine and we chatted about the roman history of the woods, the wildlife and of course . Land Rovers.
Here are some photos and videos of the last few days ...
