It has been a weekend for reflection, for reasons I will mention in more detail next week.
There were two walks in nature. Saturday was mizzly at Welney bird reserve, where we walked around the fen rather than look at what was happening on the Ouse washes:
The best birds were two short-eared owls, but mammals were also good. There were brown hair:
And roe deer, who did what all roe deer do when seeing humans, and fled:
There were also at least a dozen cattle egret, which basically live off cow dung. They used to be very rare here. They are becoming more common:
This was taken with my phone in light rain. There are limits to what that can achieve.
Other highlights were meadow pipit, skylarks and tree sparrows, plus the first decent-sized formation whooper swans of the season, but there are no photos of them.
Today was at Lackford Lakes, just over the border in Suffolk. The weather was considerably brighter:
Egret was back on the menu, but this time, a little egret. I don't own a telephoto lens, so this was taken at 55mm. It's a lovely bird.
Perhaps, if I have more time, such a lens might be worth considering. I might also learn how to edit photos properly.
Other highlights were snipe, march tit and nuthatch. It's a great place for a walk.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Superb sun and tranquility on the Blackwater Estuary today.
🙂
“I might also learn how to edit photos properly.”
Unedited photos are much more interesting!
I’m so glad that you had some decent relaxation time! You work so hard, and though some of your posts are beyond my ability to understand them, gradually you’ve been educating me about both tax and other monetary matters. For which I thank you!
To my mind there’s nothing as good as watching birds (and the rest of nature if you have the chance) to be restful and recuperative from any problems one might have in daily life. They’ve saved my sanity this (so called) summer when I’ve been stuck in bed a lot of the time. I’ve seen lots of little birds coming to our feeder, and I’ve seen a sparrowhawk sit only about 10 foot away from me! He came back the next day and took one of the little birds. Eeek!
Very best wishes to you from Bwlchtocyn.
Thanks Maggie
A sparrow hawk took a starling in my garden this summer. The speed was shocking, but that’s how nature goes
Look after yourself
Nature is such wonderful way of putting life into perspective. An escape? Maybe. But definitely something to soothe the soul. We live north of Bury St Edmunds at Walsham Le Willows. We also have egrets. Quite a surprise when I first saw them. We often go to Chillesford near Orford in Suffolk. A wonderfully peaceful place until the owls decide to strike up! Little, tawny and barn.
I love Orford. Going there was a treat as a child – and I still feel the same way about it.
The shot of the hare is well accomplished. In broad daylight!! Wow! I have never been able to get close enough.
In Derbyshire, they are more wary – you hear them and feel them believe it or not as they run away and they are huge. The closest I have ever go to one is nearly treading on a leveret in a field near Hartington and it was none too pleased and quite aggressive too.
I am amazed in the flat landscape you are in that so much is visible – I’m used to more undulating countryside and things hiding.
The Egrets are a little blown in the highlights – post processing (if and when you have time) might help lowering the exposure a bit. I have a 70-300 lens and even then it is not long enough but you can spend hundreds – nay – thousands of pounds on the latest long lens to get pictures of the eyes of birds. A 70-300 zoom accomplishes a lot Richard – you can even do little macro (close up) with one of those and get more out of what you see when on walks.
But these days, digital is so sharp that you can crop and blow up parts of pictures, thus concentrating on the subject matter more – it is like making pictures within pictures. All you need is the time to do it ,it is quite therapeutic and the detail that can be revealed is stunning. The second hand market for a longer lens from a reputable dealer with a returns policy might be a way to go, if indeed you do go that way (try in person at the shop is my advice).
Your teaser about ‘what next’ is intriguing.
Thanks PSR
I would love the t8me to get better at this
If I ‘properly’ retired photography is what I would do.
Hares are part of life around here – this one ran at me. We followed another at 15m, it kept turning to see if we were keeping up.
This is a strange countryside – but I like it. No one else went on that walk we did yesterday while we were there and the birding and wildlife was brilliant – the short eared owls were great but I would have needed 600mm for that.
As I use an ASP-C (Sony A6700) lens length is actually multiplied by 1.5.
Even so, the egret this morning was pushing it….
But a gear bird
——
PS Tamron are doing a well, reviewed 28-300, which is 42 – 450 for me, but i can’t justify it as yet
My Dear Professor
You buy the lens and THEN the pictures will justify it.
That is what one tells oneself. And the wife.
Ahem, ahem.
🙂
I was surprised by your comment about the roe deer. Maybe the ones around me, living as they do well within the city boundary, are more conditioned to being around humans. I got within about 5 metres of a small group, just over a year ago.
I’d spotted them through a break in the scrub cum hedgerow, at the northern boundary of Silverknowes golf course (Edinburgh). As soon as I saw them, I stopped dead, watched for a few minutes, then moved very slowly and very quietly to a better vantage point. They knew I was there, because they were looking directly at me for a couple of minutes. After establishing I wasn’t a threat, they simply went back to their browsing.
I’ve seen them, from a distance, closer to the city centre. I haven’t personally seen them in Forthquarter park (part of the former Granton gasworks site); but there have been sightings reported there. That’s only 3 miles from Princes Street and, perhaps, only a mile or so from sime heavily urbanised areas.
I guess my experience is with those in the deep countryside – and they usually run, especially if the lice up a scent and so can smell you
I am not complaining. They are culled, after all.
As a mere sheep farmer I am extremely discouraged by the negative perceptions I can see from many of your followers. I see hares, badgers, foxes every day as I do my rounds- ok on a quad bike , at least their droppings, also many , many Red kites….I have seen more in High Wycombe than in Tregaron! Actually, we don’t have any deer here because most of the land is owned/farmed by ordinary farmers, not the Crown Estate et al, so we do try and keep to our old way of doing things!
Most badgers and foxes I see are dead – I must go ut more late in the day…
Deer are common because iof our landscape and the agriculture – it suits them
And red kite happen – but I would still rate them as quite unuusal sightings here
40 miles away they are common
I cannot explain that, but we win with buzzards and kestrels – especially the latter – and peregrines plus virtually redient marsh harrier and summer vistors like hobbys.
In Derbyshire Ann we have been spoilt rotten since living here from 2000 coming up from London – although the stories I could tell you about foxes – living ones, the ‘London fox’ – are legion – so many memories, so abundant.
Where we live now, I’ve had close encounters with most of the animals you mention in some way – hares being the most skittish. A clue if you want to see deer is to go out when it is misty – they seem to get more adventurous and emerge from the undergrowth. I remember driving home one misty evening to be confronted by this superb antlered roe buck stood majestically in the middle of the road who just stood there for a moment looking right at me and then sauntered off into a garden.
Another day, in broad daylight at a well known local cross roads, a family of weasels shot across the road led by the matriarch – the three behind her/him holding on to each others tails. Around my way we get buzzards and they are quite big ‘cawing’ over the town and predating over the local rugby field. We had a falcon hit a living room window once and watched its regain it composure in the garden.
We’ve got the lot here, but the one animal that continues to elude me is the Adder. We’ve seen loads of slow worms though.
The thing is, we like many, have seen fewer insects, bees (we used get miner bees in the garden – not anymore) moths, butterflies and bats were abundant two years ago and we’ve not seen any around the house this year in the twilight. Something is going on.
Your conclusion is correct
That’s also why the egrets are now here
I also live near Edinburgh, and have managed to walk round our local roe deer family at no great distance several times.
I use a Panasonic bridge camera with 24-600 zoom range.
Their latest does 20-1200 and still costs only around 4 to 500 £s
(caution: I haven’t done the research to check whether I’d buy another Panasonic if I needed to replace mine today).
I’ve been using mine and its predecessor since 2006, and my only grumble is that the more recent ones are slightly larger – too large even for my jacket’s large pockets.
Unless you have good light the results at the extreme zoom can be disappointing, but that holds to some extent for all cameras. I find that taking short videos gets more satisfactory results at extreme zoom, especially with birds. I took some good pictures of damselflies and moorhens at Wicken Fen in August, though I’m more often out on the beaches of the far northwest – see mollison.org/patchwork/
We all need some nature to get absorbed in in these hard times!
I have used Sony cameras for a while
If I get more time, and poalns succeed, maybe I’ll go for the telephoto
And maybe I will just learn to take photos really well at 50mm or so
There are benefits to both
Thanks or your comment
I was out in the garden yesterday tidying up the veg patch for winter.
Followed by a Robin looking to see what I disturbed
Of course….always on the lookout
The Robins in our garden have taken to coming right into my workshop to “shout” at me if I forget to put out some mealworms. They do reward me with a glorious song though. Richard glad to see you are taking time out for some relaxation, it’s more important than a lot of us realise. Thanks.
Robin’s have a confusing song – sometimes obvious, sometimes very wren like
But wrens are also confusing – warbler like in the summer
I love your your nature ramblings. I’m sure nature never disappoints, as so much of our political scene and world events do.
It’s good to keep grounded in nature and always so worthwhile. Thank you for sharing these moments.
Thanks
At first glance I really thought that it was a bottle of milk positioned between those two cows! An artistic statement…
I always want to know how egrets stay so clean
It is ridiculous that they do that
And those are bulls….