Odds & Sods 2022

Thanks :) My bucket list would just have one thing on it, to catch a hovering kestrel. Possibly have the camera to do it it now, just need the know how and luck I think.

Thanks. It's great. I went back and forth but eventually went for the R5. It took me half an hour to come to get to grips with the shoulder harness which didn't bode well. Only my third time out with it and the other 2 times were during the local snow with nothing to photograph. A huge amount to learn which I'm sure others have mastered but at least the shoulder strap is well and truly sorted.

Cheers BD. These were close to Curbar Edge, next to the old Barbrook reservoir on Big Moor. The white fallow doe was the highlight really, she hit the news a few years back when she appeared up there. Sticks with the red deer stags for protection and they seem to fit the bill and do exactly that. For a white deer though she is very elusive, probably only the 4th or 5th time I have seen her. Just after taking the photos of her she boinged away and totally disappeared in the undergrowth.

From Bob's stunning shots, to something a little more  prosaic...Barnacle Geese, feeding on nascent Longwater Road nature reserve, photographed this morning. Stupidly, I took my bridge camera. I didn't feel like lugging my long lens - especially as it was murky at the start of my stomp.

These geese were feeding here...

If you squint, you can just make out some yellow hand rails. They are part of a bridge that was used by lorries to get over a conveyor belt that ran through the middle of the ex-quarry.  It has been repurposed by burying it to ground level to allow a stream to run under it.

This is what the area looked like in April 2018, before it was filled in.

The lake has been pumped to reduce water levels.

Bob, to get your photo of a hovering Kestrel, all I can offer in terms of advice is point camera at beastie and press shutter. I'm afraid that's all I do - plus being lucky to have a resident Kestrel.

This image has been heavily cropped as the bird was some way away.

The next set taken on a dull morning. Again, the bird was some distance from me.

I'm afraid I am a very, very, very lazy photographer. I leave my camera on P (Shutter priority, I think), and have centre point or centre area (grid of 9 dots) for focusing. I just point the camera in the general direction of the bird, and leave the camera to do its own thing.

Fantastic photos Bob, the new camera and the user make a great combination. I love the stag and Squirrel photos, keep snapping, thanks

Very nice shots. Kestrels are my favourite and quite a few in the local valley, especially around the farms.

Thanks Catlady :)

Well Angus, for being a "lazy" photographer, you have caught some stunning shots of the kestrel! I think your photos are beautiful (though that might be the kestrel I'm talking about lol). No, seriously, I do love your photos

I was texting my nephew at university about photographing another sort of bird...aeroplanes.  This jogged my memory, and I remembered I photographed this Teal, landing on Colebrook lake in the Moor Green Lakes nature reserve,  earlier in the year.

This is a shot after the bird had landed, and was making a stately pass some 50 yds from me. The weather gods were kind, the sun was shining brightly

Now the landing sequence. I picked up the bird when it was about 100yds or so from me.

Autofocus was zinging like mad

I was clicking away equally like crazy, trying to track the thing. Arghhh, camera didn't quite focus on the bird.

Slightly better tracking on my part

Slowing down even further

My camera was resting on a wooden wall, part of some viewing screens placed around the lake. All I had to do was squint down the view finder and swivel camera.

I don't actually breath, while photographing. I'm gasping for breath when I'm done. It feels like I've sprint 100m.