Mallorca, Cattle Egret

The Cattle Egret in the S'albufera are numerous, the Egret's breeding site can be seen when approaching the centre of the reserve on the far river bank, in the trees. However, the hide is sited near the Egrets location, but on the blind side of the tree line where they nested . They would fly from the nest site on a route in front of the hide which meant it was brilliant for capturing flight shots , the centre image is virtually full frame. The first image I captured when exiting the hide, the weather had became inclement once again forcing this adult and its young over the tree line looking for shelter, the leaden sky adds atmosphere and provides a brilliant background for this species. Please click on the image to enlarge

The back drop on this image was the distant mountain range shrouded in mist. Doesn't sound like Mallorca does it

Cattle Egret 2

I hope the repeat isn't boring but I had to revisit the Egrets with my DSLR, the weather was better this time. The first image I have called the Udder one is the Cattle Egret or pull the Udder One.

Coolpixed Cattle Egrets

The images below of the Brew Farm Cattle Egrets are all from the Coolpix P90. Low light conditions with fog and at four to four thirty in the afternoon made life difficult, as on full magnification the camera gave me shutter speeds of 1/60th and 1/100th of a second with the aperture fully open. These shutter speeds make hand held photography difficult to say the least and compounding the matter I try to keep the ISO as low as possible to reduce grain so I adjusted the ISO switching between 200 and 400 ISO.The other item I use to stabilise a camera is a sandbag. I find this tool excellent, stabilising the camera enough for effective photography at low shutter speeds. Finally the Cattle Egrets were obliging enough to momentarily freeze.

The camera used on the previous post was my Nikon D300 DSLR

Ten out of ten to Bob Sharples for spotting my botched attempt at cloning away a small part of a Canada Goose in the second image of the previous blog. I only use cloning to erase distracting bits and not add items.

Cattle Egret,Cormorant and Black Headed Gull At Hayle Estuary

On Saturday the 28th February 2009 I didn't start bird watching until mid afternoon. I suppose my aim was to have a go with my new Nikon Lens.I started by trying to photograph a black headed gull feeding in Ryan's field at Hayle, the shot I wanted was the moment the gull dipped its beak into the water whilst on the wing, as you will see below I was unsuccessful although not a bad flight shot.

Whilst scanning the reserve I found a Little Egret injured with a broken wing, that is when the wife got involved. On the phone to the RSPCA, I then spent the next three quarters of an hour assisting a reluctant RSPCA officer to capture the injured bird.

The following photograph is a Cormorant in its full breeding colours.I always thought of Cormorants as a dull coloured bird but this photo shows different and we should not take any bird for granted.