Headed over to see the Waxwings at Ashington with Keith this morning but as is the norm now for us light was not very kind which was a shame as the birds played very well indeed.

As we were taking our images a second group of birds flew in from the south making the group larger than I expected to find.

I managed to count 60 birds before getting bored and giving up!

The image below shows part of the flock.

The birds were doing the usual waxwing routine resting up high and swooping in for a quick feed before returning to the tree tops to rest for a while. It was easy to tell when the birds were coming to feed as they became very vocal just prior to take off.

after a spell with the waxwings we decided to head to Amble for some well deserved chips, after eating we had a wander around the rocks where I spotted several Purple Sandpipers.

also large numbers of Eiders on the sea

and Keith spotted two stunning Med Gulls in the small bay with the sandy beach unfortunately dog walkers helped keep the birds out of reach for any good images with my 100-400mm lens.

Buzzards, Grouse and a couple of odd balls

No the odd balls ain't Keith and myself before you ask!

We headed off into the hills on Sunday to try and locate some Adders to photograph unfortunately the wind was blowing a hooly and the Adders were no where to be seen. So we decided to have a wander into the hill tops to find some grouse with loads of reds and a few blacks wandering about we had some great fun trying to get close enough for some images but we both failed this time around.

We did eventually end up with some good birds but not very good photos just record shots.

Highlights of the day for me were the White Pheasant and a large flock of yellowhammers along with a canada x greylag hybrid goose and one of my favourite flowers the snowdrop which were all over the place.

St Mary's

Spent a couple of hours at St Marys Island today.

Had a good time with the waders - nearly got wet with the rising tide not watching what I was doing too busy looking through the lens!

Here's a few pictures from today but i'll leave the ID's to you lot as my wader knowledge is very poor.

I think - Bartailed Godwit, Knot & Turnstone

Bartailed Godwit

Dunlin

Knot

Knot

Turnstone

I would appreciate ID help with the bird on this next image though, I thought Dunlin but........

(confirmed as Dunlin - thanks to K Reeder & A Tilmouth.).

Eiders, Seals & Octopus!

I had an unusual day at Blyth quayside today.

Called in with Nicola, James & Amy so James could feed the gulls, Its one of his favourite things to do :-)

When we arrived I spotted someone with a 7D and 100-400, It was Keith so drove over next to him for a chat. After chatting we fed the birds while Keith took advantage of our bread and photographed a few gulls.

The Eiders were looking very nice today in the sunshine.

As we fed the birds Keith shouted over to tell us about a seal coming into the river from down stream so we watched as it came up and started feeding happily just a few meters out from the quay side. I didn't have my long lens with me so we popped back home to get it and when we got back it was still feeding away in front of us.

I managed a few images of it 'floating' about like a log then caught something very unusual for Blyth, it surfaced with what appears to be an octopus! or perhaps a squid?

I'm saying octopus! but will be happy to be corrected if i'm wrong.

Incase anyone is wondering about the tropical looking water colours these are created by the Arklow Meadow ship and the Alcan unloading facility which casts a gorgeous green and orange tint into the river on sunny days like today.



Black and Red

Sunday 27th February saw us heading off into the moors in search of Grouse, to be more specific Black Grouse.

The day started well with reasonable light but as we got closer to the moors that all changed and as usual for us the light vanished and the rain appeared!

Our first notable encounter were five stunning Roe deer feeding not far from the road behind a wall.

My next find was a stunning Golden Plover (actually two Golden Plovers) but I only managed a distant image of one. Fabulous colours and rather good camo too.

As I drove along I spotted what I thought were 7 crows on a wall in the distance but when we had a better look Keith realised they were in fact Black Grouse! These were the only black grouse of the day but at least I got a record shot.

Onwards we headed into the moors and as expected we found plenty of Red Grouse at much closer distances to the car but this one was really calm and we followed him on foot for a few minutes - just enough time to get a couple of decent photos and not cause him any stress. His female waited down in a ditch for us to move off before she came back out again.

All in all we had a good day especially considering the fact it rained most of the time.

Some day we will find some sunshine!

Lightroom

I visited Lindisfarne on the 12th February with my pal Keith Reeder.

I've already posted a few of my many really good (in my opinion) bird images but I also played about with the landscapes while out and about.

The below was taken with my 100-400L IS USM lens on the 50D. When I first looked at it I nearly put them all straight into the recycle bin as they lacked contrast and detail but I didn't and I decided to see if I could recover any details in Lightroom 3.3.

I've posted a before and after below - What do you lot think? I'm rather happy with the results but my monitor isn't calibrated yet so it might be a bit off!

A few more from last weekends outing

Having spent a little time processing some images from last Saturdays outing with Keith

I've got a few more images to share with you all. These aren't the best quality but I liked them.

The light was dropping off fast and give off a lovely warm glow however it doesn't really suit the images in my opinion.