TonyQ's Year (A beginner's tale)

[TonyQ]

93. Skylark Alauda arvensis

Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire 23.04.2016

(ebc)

[TonyQ]

94. Lesser Redpoll Carduelis cabaret

Sandwell Valley, West Midlands 22.05.2016

[TonyQ]

95 Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava

Brandon Marsh, nr Coventry 10.04.2016

ebc

[TonyQ]

96. House Martin Delichon urbica

Grimley, Worcestershire 23.05.2016

 

When we first saw the birds on the ground we thought they were catching insects

Grimley, Worcestershire 23.05.2016

But they were actually collecting mud - and later we saw why

Grimley, Worcestershire 23.05.2016

Nest building - it was fascinating to watch. I had tried (and failed) to get pictures of them in flight but we really enjoyed watching this behaviour.

[TonyQ]

Some more that don't add to the score....

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Crested Grebe

 

 

I enjoyed both of these sightings so much that I will post a few more pictures of the behaviour of both birds in another thread:

 

http://safaritalk.net/topic/3698-what-wildlife-is-in-your-woods-backyard/page-20

 

[TonyQ]

97. Ruff Philomachus pugnax

(f+m) Brandon Marsh, nr Coventry 28.05.2016

Male shows off his ruff - Brandon Marsh, nr Coventry 28.05.2016

[TonyQ]

98. Cetti's Warbler Cettia cetti

Upton Warren, Worcestershire 13.05.2016

(ebc) Apologies for quality of photo. This bird makes an incredibly loud noise - usually from within the depths of a bush. It then flies off very quickly to another bush - so this is the best I got!

[TonyQ]

99. Kingfisher Alcedo atthis

River Rea, Birmingham 17.05.2016

River Rea, Birmingham 17.05.2016

We were quite surprised that Kingfishers live in Birmingham, very close to the city centre. We have seen glimpses a few times, but spent a while on a stretch of river and briefly saw this one. We then heard that the Kingfishers are nesting here; we decided we wouldn't return to try to get better photos as we didn't want to disturb them while they are feeding young. We may try later in the year to get better photos!

[TonyQ]

When we left the Kingfisher, we saw these birds about 100m along the river

 

100. Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea

(f) River Rea, Birmingham 17.05.2016

(m) River Rea, Birmingham 17.05.2016

 

It was amazing watching them continue to catch insects even though their beak was full - how did they manage not to drop the ones they already had?

 

River Rea, Birmingham 17.05.2016

Heavy crop for those good at identifying arthropods - River Rea, Birmingham 17.05.2016

River Rea, Birmingham 17.05.2016

When I started in the BIg Year, one of my aims was to spend time looking at and photographing local birds, so I am pleased that I have managed to reach 100 birds from the UK. All of them so far are within a 20 mile (30km) radius of our home.

Edited June 4, 2016 by TonyQ

[Patty]

Congrats on reaching 100 and all so close to home!

[xelas]

Isn't it amazing, how many different birds are living nearby, and I have known only 2 species: LBB and LBB (Little Brown Bird and Large Black Bird) ! Great job, @@TonyQ reaching 100 with locally seen birds only!!

[Peter Connan]

Congratulations @@TonyQ!

 

That's a great haul for such a small area.

[Towlersonsafari]

OK stop this now. A Cetti's warbler open enough to photograph! Stop this at once @@TonyQ The ones on my local patch never come out and insist on singing it's explosive song every time I pass just to taunt me.

[michael-ibk]

Congratulations on your 100th, Tony! You are really lucky to have so many beautiful areas so close to home. Great to see a Kingfisher, such beautiful little colourwonders. The quality of your photos is really inspiring, so few "ebc" posts. ;-) All handheld? Would you mind talking a bit about your preferred settings for birds?

[Caracal]

Really enjoyed returning to this thread @@TonyQ - Congratulations - I would never have imagined such a large number of species.

 

Particularly like the Goldcrest - a bird I was always hoping but never managed to see in my childhood/youth.

 

Fascinating to see both Cetti's and Garden Warbler as the last couple of days I'd just been reading about them in The Sacred Combe by Simon Barnes.

Cetti's (which I'd never heard of) are in his garden in Norfolk. Barnes says: "They aren't climate change sceptics." and he goes on to explain that they used to be rarities in Britain but have expanded their way northwards to wet areas in the southern half of England.

 

Barnes proudly identifies the call of the Garden Warbler to his expert Luangwa guide in one of his many visits to South Luangwa. Amazing that such a small bird can travel so far to winter in Zambia during their Green Season.

[Geoff]

Wow, 100 birds, within 30 K's from home and all in 6 months. ....good going.

[TonyQ]

@@Patty

Thank you

@@xelas

Thank you - we used to have brown bird, blackbird, pigeon and duck. But there seem to be a lot more now

@@Peter Connan

Thankn you

@@Caracal

Thank you. I have never seen a Goldcrest before this year. Thank you for the book reference - it sounds interesting so I will look it up. I am amazed how far small birds travel - especially when I see the same species in Kenya and in Birmingham!

@@Geoff

Thank you - I am pleased to see so many close to home - it is more than I expected when I started this!

 

@@michael-ibk

Thank you. Many people in the UK wouldn't think of the area around Birmingham as beautiful compared to more scenic parts of the country - but there are many beautiful birds either in or close to a big city.

 

Your comments about the photos are very flattering. I am very much still learning about photographing birds - I have thousands of "ebc" photos that get deleted - but I have had to post a few!

Settings

I am still experimenting with these and trying to learn from what I see on Safaritalk and from my own mistakes (so lots of chances to learn). So what I am putting down doesn't mean I think I know how to do it - it is just where my learning is at the moment!. The camera is a Canon 70D and the lens for all of the photos so far is the Canon 100-400ii.

 

I shoot in RAW and process in Lightroom. I almost always use "Evaluative" exposure and then Compensate if the bird is against the sky or water for example. I very occasionially use "Spot" metering -but not very often. Almost everything is hand held, but I sometimes use a bean bag in a hide (and did in Kenya on Safari vehicles)

 

Until recently I almost always used Aperture Priority (Av) - right back to film days. I like to be able to control the Depth of FIeld. However I have found that small birds move faster than I thought and I was getting shots with movement blur because the shutter speed wasn't fast enough. So I have been experimenting with Shutter Priority (Tv) and combining it with Automatic ISO (I have always used Manual ISO before this ). I use this now when wandering about so that if we come across something unexpectedly then the shutter speed will be OK. If I have more time to think about settings (the bird doesn't fly off, or we are in a hide) then I will switch back to Aperture Priority and try different settings. I think I still sometimes need to use higher shutter speeds and have more confidence in the Higher ISO. I am beginning to like Auto ISO.

 

I have learned that the Depth of Field with the 400mm lens can be very narrow (I have only had 300mm before this lens) so f5.6 (my max aperture) doesn't always give enough - so I experiment if time. With bird photos, almost all are cropped to some degree - often a lot - so I like to get some at lower ISO if possible as I know these will crop better.

 

For focusing I use "Back Button" focus - it takes some getting used to but I am glad I switched (though it does cause confusion if you ask someone else to take a picture with your camera )

Except in particular circumstances I always use a Single Focus Point - which I select - although I almost always select the centre point with birds. The only situation where I use a group of points is for BIrds in Flight where with a "clean" background it will more likely focus on what I want it to focus on. I almost always have the camera set to A1 servo - I think it works well with Back Button focussing as you can take your thumb off the focus to keep focus if you choose.

 

I think that is probably everything - but I still have lots to learn about birds and about photographing them - but I am enjoying both!

Edited June 6, 2016 by TonyQ

[michael-ibk]

Thanks, Tony, very helpful - which shutter speed do you use in your "default mode"? (I am mostly using AV, perhaps I should switch, too.)

[Peter Connan]

I was taught to use Av if a high shutter speed is a requirement, because effectively your widest aperure automaticaly results in the highest shutter speeds, whereas using Tv might result in under-exposed photos if there is not enough light to "carry" the selected shutter speed.

 

This is one area where Nikon has until recently been slightly ahead of Canon: they have realized more fully the amazing advantages that shot-to-shot ISO variation brings. Thus with most Nikons of "enthusiast" level and above, you can select Manual mode but with Auto-ISO enabled, and still be able to use the exposure compensation system. By doing this, you have effectively created another "Priority mode".

 

@@Morkel Erasmus calls this "ISO Priority", and while this is perhaps technically not accurate, I know of no better name. It seems as if the majority of Nikon action photographers use this now.

 

As far as I know, only the 1Dx, 1Dx2 and 7D2 can do this (I don't know about the 750D).

[Kitsafari]

just as your grey wagtail succeeded in catching a great harvest, so did you in your Great year (to date!).

 

Love the babies safe and warm in the parent's feathers!

[JohnR]

@@TonyQ thanks for the technical info. I need to rethink my method too. I'll probably switch to auto-iso for garden birds with manual speed and aperture at least when hand holding. I don't mind a bit of noise but I do mind camera shake.

[TonyQ]

@@michael-ibk

I have been trying 1/640 as a walk about speed (also experimented with 1/500 and 1/800 but not decided yet). Using Av priority still comes more naturally and I think I prefer it, but trying different settings has led to fewer failures due to too slow a shutter speed (though there are still lots of other reasons for the failures ) What settings are you using?

 

@@Peter Connan

Thank you for that - much to think about. As mentioned aboveI still prefer Av, and used it almost all the time when in Kenya. For my photography before this Big Year, this worked fairly well, but the issue arose with small birds, especially in woods where the bird could move from very bright to very shady conditions very quickly - so I experimented.

I have looked at my 70D and although I can use AutoISO when set to Manual, I don't think I can then compensate - I will explore more but I think that is my current understanding. I agree that would be a very useful setting.

 

@@JohnR

Thank you - it is worth experimenting and seeing what works best for you.

 

@@Kitsafari

Thank you - I am glad you enjoyed it (A few more babies coming up!)

[TonyQ]

As a beginner, one of the unexpected pleasures has been seeing so many baby birds, and seeing them develop so quickly. In the past I had read about the number of weeks before they fledge, for example, but not seen them develop. The parents work so hard to feed their young and the development of those young has become much more real and wonderful.

 

Reed Warbler collecting seed to take to nest

Upton Warren 09.06.2016

Great Crested Grebe youngster developing some adult colouration

Earlswood 07.06.2016

Black-Headed Gull growing up fast

Upton Warren 09.06.2016

Long-tailed Tit youngster, not long out of nest

Upton Warren 09.06.2016

Shoveler youngster already with distinctive bill

Upton Warren 09.06.2016

Shelduck chicks

Upton Warren 09.06.2016

Water Rail adult

Upton Warren 09.06.2016

Watwr Rail Chick

Upton Warren 09.06.2016

This last sighting was a real treat for us. There were at least five chicks, hidden amongst the base of the reeds. They moved in and out of the reeds following their parents (both were present). I have lots of photos of reeds, or out of focus chicks so was pleased to get a couple where you can see what the chick looks like. It was a real delight watching them. Before the Big Year I am not sure I had heard of a Water Rail, but now seeing the babies is wonderful.

 

It is a bit quiet for new birds here at the moment, so after posting 100 local birds, I will switch to some birds from Kenya

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

The rail chick is beautiful, but from a photography perspective the first two, and especially the Grebe, are stunning shots!

 

Can't wait to see your Kenyan birds.

[TonyQ]

Thank you @@Peter Connan

 

101. (K1). White-headed Buffalo Weaver Dinemellia dinemelli boehmi

Meru National Park 10.01.2016

Meru National Park 11.01.2016

This looks more orange than pictures in the books- I don't know if that is natural variation or if it is due to a coating of orange Meru dust