Ullswater diaries. Day 2. Part 4. RSPB St Bees head. Flying Common Guillemots

With a fair sized colony of sea birds nesting on the cliffs around St Bees head, you would expect to see a lot of them flying. Which we did. You never really knew where to look, as there was so much activity going on.

Getting a bead on a small bird moving arrow like fast across a cluttered seascape isn't easy. Getting it in focus is even harder, except when you have AI tracking. Although easy to fool, it did, nevertheless, do a sterling job of locking onto a bird. All I had to do was follow the thing. Hah! Easier said then done.

The Common Guillemots made life slightly easier for me as a lot did not fly directly at the cliffs. Instead, they flew in an arc - firstly parallel to the cliffs, before banking round to finally head towards the cliffs.

Here we go, Common Guillemot (I hope) flying parallel to the cliffs.

Now commencing its turn

Banking round more

Beginning to straighten out

Now it arrows straight in. Unfortunately the cliffs got in the way after this shot. The footpath was set some distance back from the cliff's edge.

Some birds are just plain messy fliers.

Air brakes on?

And cropping out

I probably mis-tracked and lost the bird after the next shot.

I was torn between photographing lots of flying birds, but as I didn't know what I was photographing exactly and I didn't want to be too greedy, I didn't photograph as many as perhaps I should have. My other half was happy to indulge me, as it gave her the opportunity to grab a rest.