RSPB Middleton Lakes 19 May 2019

The day started nice and sunny, showing signs it would stay that way, and I had been seeing reports of avocet young at various reserves, but not Middleton. So, armed with camera, I set out to see if the avocets had any young yet, along with whatever else I would see.

Unfortunately no avocet young, and while the reserve was generally quiet, there was more than enough for anyone keen enough to seek out.

I was going to upload them to Flickr today, but it seems Flickr is down for major maintenance but they'll be up soon enough.

So here goes.

A coot chick, not cute, in my personal opinion, probably the true ugly duckling...

Little Ringed Plover

Common Sandpiper

Common Blue Damselfly

Gadwall duckling, that was following adult gadwall ducks, which helped, or certainly gave a good indication of being gadwall

Oyster Catcher

Redshank

A pair of Avocets

Banded Damselfly

Mute swan incubating. I did watch it for a good while, just in case any cygnet activity was to be observed, but when the swan arose from the nest and sorted the immediate nest material around, nothing was observed.

Quite a lucky shot, I was about to pack the camera away when the heron flew right over.

At the end of the day, one of the volunteers at the reserve pointed out the cuckoo that everyone could here, and I managed to get a half decent photo.

Did I say a quiet day?

Well, possibly it was, but there's always something to see, you just need to keep your eyes and ears open. Wink

  • A lovely series of photos and species Mike and what a bonus to see a Cuckoo - fabulous set and glad you had a good day.
  • Great photos Mike, I like the Redshank very much and also the two Avocets taking a relaxing walk and hoping for a meal at the same time. The banded Damselfly is a stunner. Thanks for letting us share in your day.
  • Unknown said:
    A lovely series of photos and species Mike and what a bonus to see a Cuckoo - fabulous set and glad you had a good day.

    Thank you Hazel.

    The cuckoo was a bonus to what was a good day, even if things were a little on the quiet side.

  • gaynorsl said:
    Great photos Mike, I like the Redshank very much and also the two Avocets taking a relaxing walk and hoping for a meal at the same time. The banded Damselfly is a stunner. Thanks for letting us share in your day.

    Thank you Gaynor.

    I hadn't seen avocets until last year, but then to be fair, I hadn't really been anywhere near the sort of environment they' inhabit, so I'm a little fascinated by them at the moment.

    I was hoping to see young very avocets, but alas, not this year, I'll not be back to see them for a few weeks, so I'll have to wait until next year.

    The banded damselfly is another species I hadn't seen until last year, though where I am seeing them are areas I frequent, so no excuses, and the redshank, another not seen until this year for the first time, though I have visited places where the inhabit, but not at the right time.

  • Hi Mike, nice shots. Can I ask, how you manage to get a number of pictures of a sensible size into one post? All mine seem to have to be made almost thumbnail size and can only get 2 or 3 pics per post in? Thanks in advance.
  • PimperneBloke said:
    Hi Mike, nice shots. Can I ask, how you manage to get a number of pictures of a sensible size into one post? All mine seem to have to be made almost thumbnail size and can only get 2 or 3 pics per post in? Thanks in advance.

    You certainly can ask.

    Though the process I'm sharing with you may seem back to front, it is, but it will enable you to get the results you desire without too much faffing around.

    When you open the "Insert image/video file" look for the "Dimensions" box, double click the mouse over the first box and change to 1024.

    You will need to do the same with the second box, now here comes the fun bit, depending on what ratio you're using for the pictures. I use 1024 x 683 for most of my photos, its small enough but large enough to give clear images.

    However, that is set around the image ratio of 3:2 used by most DSLR's and the old 35 mm film cameras. You can go bigger, but for a starter, I think that is more than enough to get to where you desire to be.

    Using the table below will help, I've listed the common picture ratios and basically which type of equipment uses what.

    Using the old fashioned image width of 1024 in the first box followed by the number in red against the yellow background will help to get a somewhat sensible image size.

    Image Source Image
    Ratio
    Width Height
    Standard DSLR & 35mm film cameras 3 : 2 1024 683
    Modern Mobile Phones and many compacts 16 : 9 1024 576
    Newer compacts and mobile phones 18 : 5 1024 284
    Older compacts 4 : 3 1024 768
    Standard computer monitor screens 5 : 4 1024 819


    Once you selected the dimensions, then select your photo to upload

    I hope that helps you.

    If you've any doubt what the dimensions of your photography device/camera are, I'm happy to search the web and let you know what the options are.

  • PimperneBloke said:
    That's brilliant, thank you

    You're welcome

  • Excellent shots Mike. I've heard a few Cuckoos this year, but haven't managed to lay eyes on one.
    I would like to add something for the photo upload, which should simplify things if only a little. Just delete the contents of the Height box and leave them blank. As long as you set the width you want, it will then set the height according to the ratio of the photo and you do not need to do the calculation. Alternately, for photos in portrait mode, leave Width blank and type in the desired Height.
  • Thanks Nigel, i'll definitely give it a go. I take it I still have to make my source pictures smaller, as on the pc they are anything from 4-7mb, but the post limit is 5mb?