After yet another successful year on the Odds & Sods thread, initially started I think by Hazy, it might be wise to kickstart the 2023 thread off.
Thank you to those who have contributed to last years thread, and there has been very interesting odds and sods in "Odds & Sods 2022" that aren't enough to place into a dedicated thread, which you can look back on the following link:
https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/278729/odds-sods-2022/1417300?pifragment-4285=76#pifragment-4285=1
What better for me, and as yet, I've not ventured far, ewe know what I mean, with this lassie on Baddesley Clinton estate yesterday....
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
After a week or more of great sunshine, Tuesday dawned overcast (10:10 cloud cover), bright and humid, but at least warm. Not a huge amount going on at my local reserves.
These female Gadwalls came arrowing in. Practicing my newly discovered method of aiming my R7/Sigma combo at distant objects, I picked them up much quicker than normal i.e. basically I actually got them in frame rather than hunting around fruitlessly and missing them.
A problem with overcast days is that clouds are actually very bright. As we all know, photographing birds against bright clouds results in silhouettes. These Gadwalls dropped down low enough to have trees as a background. This simply brings the problem of background clutter making it difficult to focus on them. I was very impressed my R7 picked them out, and did a good job of tracking them. It was my wonky tracking that let the whole shebang down.
Cropping out. Not bad detail, considering the light conditions, limitations of my Sigma lens at 600mm and distance away from me the birds were. The birds were over exposed due to my default exposure I chose on the R7.
Bombs away! Cormorants on Tern island aren't overly impressed.
Last shot, heavily cropped, before I lost them behind trees.
Eclipse male Wigeon, at anchorage to the east of Tern island.
Cropping the trio on the right.
To be honest, I only discovered what an Eclipse male was when I used the RSPB pocket guide to try and identify these birds, then looked up the meaning of Eclipse male on t'internet. Picking out the one male, to reveal snazzy plumage. Hopefully, they'll come closer to me so I can take decent photos, rather than being about 100m away.
Letting the rush of new found knowledge go to my head...is this an Eclipse Shoveler? Doesn't quite look right to be a female - unless light conditions and a wet duck fooled me and camera.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Cormorant:
Common Merganser:
Little Grebe Chick being fed:
Jelly Ear Fungi:
juvenile cormorant