Tag Archives: bird

Jackdaws Searching for Snacks

We stopped for a small snack at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park after our walk. We were heading to lunch later, but you don’t want your energy to drop so a cake of some sort is a necessity. The tables around the café provided plenty of food for the local jackdaw population and they were very keen to get whatever fell from the plates of the customers. With the sun on them, they looked really cool. I didn’t know what they were at the time, but the grey heads were quite distinctive, and I did a search later on t identify them. Funny to learn these things so long after I had lived in the UK.

River Test at a High Level

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The River Test really should be considered multiple rivers because it splits and rejoins as it moves across the Hampshire countryside. You can cross all sorts of minor streams, but you do also get some larger crossings where the river is well defined. One of these is the road to Longstock. There is a weir across the river just upstream of the bridge and it seemed to be flowing pretty well when we were there. We had experienced lovely weather, but I guess quite a bit of rain had preceded our arrival. There was a single swan on the river, and it seemed to be making some effort to move upstream.

Another Robin Comes Out to Play

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We had the robins visiting the garden when we stayed in Stockbridge, but they were rather reticent about being around when we were there. They tended to disappear whenever they realized we were watching them. During our visit to Hinton Ampner, we came across a rather more bold member of the family. This one was sitting in a hedge right next to us when I realized it was there. I got a shot before it moved but it only repositioned to a perch close to us. A brave little fella and very cute.

Family of Blackbirds Out for a Meal

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A family of blackbirds was a regular sight in the front garden of the place we rented in Stockbridge. They were happily finding whatever they could eat in the grass. There appeared to be two parents with some youngsters in tow. The chicks were now pretty fully grown and seemed to have their feathers, but they were less interested in finding food than they were in having their parents do the work. I will let those of you with children make your own comments. The chicks actually looked a little larger than their parents, so they are probably eating well.

Cormorants Aplenty on a Ferry Trip

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Time for another cormorant related post today. When taking the ferries on the various routes around Puget Sound, the infrastructure at the terminals is often popular with the cormorants. This can mean that you can get quite close to them while on the ferry without them getting spooked. They are also coming and going with some frequency so takeoffs and landings are common, and they will often fly quite close to the ferry.

On this trip, the angle of the light to the terminal was in my favor and I was able to get a few close-up views of the birds. There was still some ironwork in the way of a totally clean shot, but not enough to ruin the images. They also obliged by flying around at convenient times when I was ready to get an image and I got some of the better shots that I have taken of cormorants in recent years.

Crow and Gull Combat

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When in the wild, you have two options for food. First, you can find and catch your own. Second, you can find someone else that has already found and caught some food, and you can steal it from them. The latter is way easier than the former, provided you have the ability to relieve the owner of their meal. I was walking alongside the water at the locks in Ballard one weekend and a crow was attempting to help a gull lose weight by taking its meal. What followed was quite some aerial ballet and they twisted and turned with the gull trying to make sure it kept a good hold on its food while maneuvering hard to prevent the crow from taking anything. The gull was ultimately successful in this case.

How Low Will the Light Be for My Robin?

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The Airbnb that we rented in Stockbridge had a grass area out front that had a steady stream of birds in and out. That included some robins that would show up under the bushes and find themselves some food. They clearly liked the shade because they would either be under the bush or come on to the grass in the areas shaded by the bushes. Never in the sunlight on the grass.

The evening improved things a lot. The shade was now over the whole of the lawn and they would hop about finding their latest meal. However, if I wasn’t already by the window, moving into position would spook them and they would be gone. I consequently spent a bit of time sitting by the window with the camera in position waiting for another one to appear. When they did, it was getting pretty dim. However, high ISO is worth a go these days and there are going to be good options in post so why not? I used the tilt screen to frame the shot to avoid moving the camera much and scaring them off. It also provided a lower angle which helps. Much hopping around and then eventually it was right in front of me. How cute European robins are!

Pigeon Dynamics

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Walking along the shore, someone had been feeding the pigeons. The term rats with wings is often applied to pigeons and you can see why. (I think rats are amazing creatures so it might be a compliment to draw the analogy.) While pigeons might not be too popular, they are incredible flyers and I find their flight and, specifically, their wings, to be amazing. As we watched from a distance, they got spooked by a dog and all flew off. However, they only circled for a short while before landing on a nearby roof. Soon, they swooped down to the railings and then back to the ground where the food still was.

They repeated the process shortly afterwards and this got me interested. Photographing wildlife can be tricky since you never know what they will do next. Having some predictability can give you better options. I decided to get around to the other side of them and wait for them to get spooked again. With so many people walking dogs in the area, it couldn’t take too long! Sure enough, they were soon back up on the roof.

I didn’t try to get any one bird. That would be very tough to do. Instead, I shot wider and with a higher shutter speed to freeze the action and waited for them all to return. They kindly performed exactly as they had done before so it was a case of waiting and shooting as they all gradually made their way back down. Some of them had really amazing poses as their wings flexed and folded as they flew to the food. What amazing creatures they are.

Back to Some Old Cormorant Shots

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Regular readers will be shocked to see more cormorants showing up on the blog. These aren’t even recent shots. I can’t recall why I was running through old images, but it matters not. All that is relevant is that I came across some older shots I have of cormorants sunning themselves which I had forgotten I had. This got me looking for others. The result is a few new shots of my favorite birds to share on the blog.

Flicker in the Backyard

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I have mentioned before the difficulty I have had when trying to photograph flickers. They are so easily spooked. When one showed up in the back yard recently, I knew there was no way I would be able to go outside and try for a shot. Through the windows was my only option. Two layers of glass are not ideal for photographic clarity, but it is better than nothing. Even then I have to be cautious since even the movement within the house is enough to scare them off. Some careful positioning and very slow movements meant I was able to get a few reasonable shots. It wasn’t long before they were off, though. Whether it was me or just time to go to the next spot, I don’t know.