11th Sept Ferrybridge (Portland Causeway Lagoon)

I said about a couple of Ferrybridge trips to post about, well there's this one, in grey and murk and gloom, and there was another one, in lovely sunshine, with Wheatears, a swallow or two, and my only ever Little Terns...including feeding a youngster.... but bleedin Lightroom ate it. Gutted doesn't come close... yet another reason why I hate editing and editing software!

Anyhow, back to the murk and another opportunity to experiment with new lens and camera.... in the car park, mewing Herring Gull

Chattering Sparrow flock

To the waters edge, and lots of Dunlin about

Almost always head down until they catch something

Ringed Plovers abounded

Along with Turnstones. I think all three species outnumbered even the gulls

Narcissus Dunlin

What's going on then?

I'm gonna 'ave you if you don't naff orf

What I want to know is..... who did the Plover nick that gigantic wing off?

Oiii... I told ya once....

Guess Who?

I managed a couple of nice sequences of flight shots

As I was walking around the edge of the tidal area I was slowly making my way closer to the birds. The image quality certainly improved with less murk between me and the subjects

Remember Guess Who.... well Ta-Daaaaah

One of several Pied Wagtails, including a still yellowy faced youngster (which somehow I managed not to get in focus!)

Another mini quiz... who else is in the pic, aside from the Bar Tailed Godwits? Don't scroll too fast coz the answer is the next picture!

That's right you clever old sticks... Sandwich Tern

There were 3 distant, widely spaced Carrotbills

I was still edging closer by my circuitous route

Suddenly a ways in front of me a Little Egret plopped itself down

And then promptly went again.

There were a number of this type of plumaged gulls... don't know the aging process I'm afraid... but always think they look proper dapper!

Higher up another Sandwich Tern was on the wing... look at that glorious late summer heatwave blue sky!!

And when it came in to land it was apparent there were 4 Terns

A closer Oystercatcher

Overhead a couple of Herring Gulls glided effortlessly by (I forgot I could have taken the lens down from 600mm... uncropped lol)

Nearly got it all in

I thought I'd try some eye level to the wader shots

Luckily the camera has a pull out and twist LCD screen, or I'd still be wallowing in the seaweed like a giant walrus!

And as I was crouched some of the local feral pigeons popped in to say hello... I'd never notice their eye clolour before

I caught up with one of my old mates before crossing the road to investigate the harbour side of the causeway

On the scrubby bit of land by the boat sheds, young goldfinch

And then Google Lens insists the next 2 images are Greenfinch, but I was sure they are Siskin

And Google Lens agreed with me on this third image.... they are all of the same bird!

Another Waggie

And finally, a clicking churring Starling

I hope you enjoyed my grey day, and I'll keep searching for the missing trip but don't hold out much hope.

Stay Safe All

  • Lovely set, PimperneBloke. So sorry about the little terns - I'll confess I never edit original photos of mine, I always take a copy and edit that. I hope they pop up somewhere.

    Oh, yeah, definitely a greenfinch.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Lovely PB, a good day out you had.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  • Well done PB, I am sure that took a while to put together the photo's and narrative :)

    Great photo's, I particularly liked the Ringed Plover :)
  • Well that was a pleasure to view and read with my morning coffee...been a while since you had a busy day out PB...thanks for sharing...oh and nice to see you caught up with your old pal ;-)

    (Pardon the Scottish Accent)

  • Thanks all... Still reckon it's a siskin lol
    I've had a few trips out Linda, just been too lazy to sort the photos. Weather hasn't helped, dull, windy, too hot etc etc... plus general idleness Grin
  • Too beefy for siskins..

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • It may have been a dull day, but the photos were far from dull.

    I used to use Photoshop, though in recent years, that too seems to have lost its edge, becoming too social media oriented and less of a professional photosuite.

    I presume Nikon still provide editing software, if they do, have you tried the Nikon editing software?

    regards

    John

  • Hi John
    Thanks. Yes, I have used the Nikon software a couple of times, but generally shoot JPEG so the Panasonic software I got with my first camera is ideal for my level of editing....crop, and lighten or darken as required. When I get more free time I'll dig deeper in to PS and LR and potentially rescue more images. TBH, the Z8 is a stonking bit of kit and I'm already at the limit of number of pics I want to sort through before boredom makes my eyes bleed lol
  • Hi PB,
    Good to see you're putting the new kit to good use and getting some excellent captures.
    I always shoot RAW and jpeg these days and shoot away happily when out, but because of the increasing amount of images I'm becoming very selective about what I keep. When I come home I view the days images and copy the very best highlights into a separate file and process the RAW files in DXO Photolab 6, my preferred editing software (available as a one off purchase), most images benefit from some editing and DXO does a lot of it automatically for your camera and lens combination once set up. Even this is quite time consuming but much quicker that I used to be, and I don't get the time to keep up with things on line like I used too.
    Keep up the good work,
    Trevor
  • PimperneBloke said:
    Hi John
    Thanks. Yes, I have used the Nikon software a couple of times, but generally shoot JPEG so the Panasonic software I got with my first camera is ideal for my level of editing....crop, and lighten or darken as required. When I get more free time I'll dig deeper in to PS and LR and potentially rescue more images. TBH, the Z8 is a stonking bit of kit and I'm already at the limit of number of pics I want to sort through before boredom makes my eyes bleed lol

    Not a problem. I'm sorry for the late reply, I've been very busy here.

    To see the clarity of the photos you're posting, the Z8 it is stonking piece of kit.

    regards

    John