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For a list of specific species I’ve photographed, see here.
Previously:
December 31st 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
Cold, Frosty, Foggy and really rather wonderful in the meadow this morning.
December 30th 2025 – Fleet Pond Nature Reserve
An afternoon stroll around Fleet Pond, a place I’ve not been to since last January when it was covered in ice. I could see 3 Cormorant in the distance but otherwise it was just Swans, Crows, Coot and Black-Headed Gulls. The sun was low in the sky as you’d expect at this time of year, but at times disappeared behind dark cloud.
December 27th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
It was busy at the meadow today, so much so that space in hide was at a premium until some left to go home. Today I got my first images of the humble Wren, its backside first.
The Perrigin Falcon was back, but just sitting on the ground on the far side. A deer was sat in the sun apparently sleeping.
Some birds in flight, Lapwing, Cormorant, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull and Red Wing.
Swan.
Grey Heron.
Egyptian Goose, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe and lots of Pochard, all asleep.
December 24th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
An afternoon walk around the meadow. By chance, a bird landed and was hopping down the same path as I was, keeping itself just far enough away to stop me getting a good image in the failing light. Only when I got it on my screen at home could I see that it was a Grey Wagtail, my first sighting.
December 22nd 2025 – Thursley Nature Reserve
An afternoon visit to change things up a bit as I’ve been to Tice’s Meadow so frequently as of late. It was very quiet, the only positive was a lone Cormorant on Moat Pond. It will get busy again in the spring.
December 22nd 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
After walking at Thursley Nature Reserve I returned to the meadow, thinking there is bound to be something to photograph. In reality it was also pretty quiet here too. I’ve often seen Jay at the meadow but always on or near the ground. As soon as I get within range they disappear, every time. But this Jay was high up and obviously felt safer. Sadly I could not get a clean shot.
I saw this man sat on a bench as I arrived, 30 minutes later he must have hopped over the fence and taken a short cut.
December 19th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
An early start intended to capture the red sky, except there was no red sky today. I’m really pleased with the set of images from today, some of my best I think.
I started with some sky images shortly after the sun had risen.
This is a Treecreeper, the first time I’ve captured one. They can only climb up, so they hunt for spiders and bugs amount the bark as they climb, then fly to the bottom of another try to repeat the process.
This is my best set of Stonechat. The male first is male and has stronger colouring. I think the rest are female.
This Long-tailed Tit took me a while to identify. Doesn’t quite look like the close up images of these I have previously captured. Probably because its feathers are puffed up.
Lapwing.
Little Grebe.
Mute Swann.
Another new bird. Reed Bunting.
Little Egret.
Other suspects observed as I walked around the meadow.
December 18th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
It never stopped raining and I had the entire meadow to myself and the wildlife.
December 16th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
An early trip to Tice’s Meadow. Inspired by some of the images I’ve seen taken in the early morning I made the effort to be in the hide, by first light. It was very cloudy and dull, so not red in the sky. In fact, it was so dull that for a long time I could not really get focus lock. Overnight, all the Cormorant and Gulls had disappeared to slowing re-appear as time wore on. The first Cormorant arrived at 0830 flying in from the east, by 0915 there were still only 4. Where do they go overnight, and why. They can’t have any predators when sat on the island!
Given the lack of light, every image was taken at ISO 12800, and thus after denoising, birds (particularly the white ones) totals lack dynamic range and start to look artificial. Full frame would have performed better.
A low quality panorama at dawn.
December 14th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
When all the Lapwing and Gulls suddenly take off together you know there is a predator about. It took a while to find it, but there was a lone Perrigin Falcon. It stayed on the far side of nature reserve, so you will need to click on these images to open them up.
Cormorant.
Northern Shoveler, Teal and Mute Swann.
Tufted Duck.
Black-Headed Gull.
Its been a months since I’ve managed to capture a Long Tailed Tit.
A Dunnock, followed by 2 female House Sparrow and 2 Male House Sparrow.
Grey Heron.
Blue Tits.
Great Tits. The first image is one of this years juveniles, thus its colouring in more muted.
December 12th 2025 – Farnham
I took a trip into town with my 500mm lens to get some better images of the Perrigin Falcons that perch on the Church tower. Sadly they were there not around so I went for a walk towards Bishops Meadow. I’ve always thought of Squirrels as quiet, but this one was making racket. I don’t normally take any video, but perhaps I should do some more of this in future just for the fun of it.
I got some pictures of him too.
A first time for me, a Tree Pipit.
I saw something flying by, high up and recognised the tail shape. Sure enough, its a Red Kite. As you can clearly tell, it was as very dull day.
And the rest of the images I captured.
I decided afterwards to try something a little different in the edit on some of these images. De-Saturate the background to draw they onto the bird, because some of these backgrounds are very busy.
December 11th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
BBC Weather suggested that it would be sunny all morning until 1pm. I sat on the sofa and 10am and though I’d go out at 11 whilst it was still sunny. I woke up at 1pm, but thankfully the sun lasts a bit longer before the clouds took it away.
These are House Sparrow, a first for me.
Dunnock.
Robin.
Blue Tit.
Squirrel.
Grey Heron. I finally captured on taking a fish, sadly with his back to me and of course these are all heavily cropped.
Cormorant.
December 10th 2025 – Farnham
A slow walk around town to capture the Christmas lights. As the evening wore on I got colder and colder until I gave up and went home. These images are not in any particular order and I’m sure I’ll be back in a few days removing the weaker images.
December 9th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
Spend a couple of hours wandering around the meadow. It was very quiet, I only saw 2 other people in all that time. But, I have discovered where the deer go to hide away so, but I’m not sure whether its a good idea to go back and photograph then again in that location. Its hidden away, and probably a space they feel safe in. When I appeared the deer bolted and I don’t want to disturb their safe place in future.
All todays images were taken use the XF 500mm without a teleconverter. I’ve noticed the X-T5 focus trackers bird in flight much better without the 1.4 teleconverter that I’ve often used in the past. It does mean I crop more deeply though. So, its pros and cons like everything in photography.
This Robin was keen to use the bird feeders but not a brave as the Great Tits and Blue Tits so did not stay long.
It took a couple of minutes to get this Dunnock in the frame, it just could not sit still for more a few seconds and was hard to pick out from the branches as its not as brightly coloured as the tits. I actually thought it was a Chaffinch until I got home and took time to check.
Saw this Squirrel cross the path and run up a tree.
Egyption Goose
Grey Heron
These Cormorant sit very low in the water, sometimes will only the neck above the waterline. Like a submarine. I watched them diving for fish but unfortunately never saw them catch anything.
December 5th 2025 – Birdworld
A dull winters day but occasionally the sun did break through which really helped with these images.
December 4th 2025 – Farnham
Several times this year I seen people post images on Facebook of a Peregrine Falcons on St Andrews Church in Farnham. This afternoon I set out to see if I could get my own image of it. I made the mistake of assuming my 500mm lens would be too long and relied on the 70-300mm instead, in reality I could have done with the extra reach to avoid cropping so deep. I could not see the Peregrine Falcon at all, so stood scrolling through Facebook to find someone else’s image, and only then could I see the birds. They’ve aren’t obvious against the brick work from a distance! Once you have you eye in they are easy to see, and in fact there were 2 Peregrine Falcons, each on adjacent faces of the tower.
December 3rd 2025 – Farnham
A walk around town after dropping Coralie off at the library. As always, click on an image to enlarge it, best viewed on a larger screen than a phone.
I think these reflections are probably the strongest images of the walk, along with the bench. I did take images filling the frame with the bench, but thought the wide shot including the bin and tree on either side was stronger somehow. The first and third have been turned upside down, which confuses the viewer at first. The centre image is as taken, and shows the reflection as it really appeared.
Sun burning away the morning’s dew.
Weather vanes around the town centre.
November 30th 2025 – Tices Meadow
Very strong and harsh light today, with the sun low in the sky. Some nice reflection details in these images of a Little Egret.
Cow, Pied Wagtail, Tufted Duck, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Mallard, Black Headed Gull.
A small Deer on one of the smaller ponds. Again, I like the reflections.
And who doesn’t like a Squirrel.
November 29th 2025 – King Pond
My first visit to King Pond in Alton. Some nice close up of Cormorant.
A Red Kite eating Corn on the Cob! These are quite extreme crops, even using the 500mm f5.6 but at other times it was too long.
Tufted Duck.
And there is always Mallard.
And the rest…
November 25th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
An afternoon visit to the Meadow. Difficult light at times, but I think the results work.
November 24th 2025 – Farnham
A quick visit into town to get 2 new tyres on my car and my glasses repaired. Two Michelin tyres for £273, ouch. But at least I got my glasses straightened out for free, I suspect I had sat on them for something. Since I had to wait for the tyres to be changed, I took a few snapshots. I’d like to go back after dark though and image the Christmas lights. I did the same last year, but took them all handheld and processed out the noise. This years I have a better tripod so I can hopefully take my time and get it right in camera.
November 21st 2025 – Lincoln
I intended to photograph wildlife, but there are very little around on South Common. This is a female Blackbird taking lunch.
There are always a few horses around.
And the Red Arrows were out practicing. Each year 3 of the 9 pilots leave and return to their units, and 3 new pilots arrive. The winter is spent creating next years display routine and getting everyone up to speed.
November 20th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
Today I visited the meadow in the morning, and the sun really set off these images of the birds so well. It was however only just above freezing.
This is the best set of images I’ve captured at the meadow.
This Cormorant took a Pike for its mid morning snack. Unfortunately the shots of it taking it head first down its throat were all out of focus.
<Re-edited many of these images on 25th Nov to correct the underexposure and give them a bit more punch>
I used to think the Tufted Duck was my favourite, but now I prefer the Shoveler. It has more colour about it.
And you can’t forget the Mallards.
Swan Cygnets.
And the adult Swans get in on the act too.
Pied Wagtail.
Gadwall?
Great Crested Grebe.
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Fox and Deer
Green Sandpiper.
November 16th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
This Little Egret started off very close to the hide, but as soon as I got my camera out it flew off. It did return later though.
Probably my best set of Grey Heron in flight images.
An unusually light brown female Mallard. As in all aspects of life, the female wants to go her way and the men are forced to follow along either moaning that this is the wrong direction or sulking because we know we don’t really have any choice in the matter.
It does not matter how many times you tell your daughter to keep her dignity, the moment your back is turned….. (Great Crested Grebe)
Have you noticed that when there are a lot of Lapwing together on the island, they all stand facing the same way. Probably judging those who sit in shipping container getting cold when they could be warm at home.
Cormorant definitely think that are superior though the Egyptian Geese like to give them some attitude occasionally.
Widgeon just watching…
November 13th 2025 – Farnham Heath and Tice’s Meadow
I don’t often visit RSPB Farnham Heath because I don’t often see many birds, and those I do find are small birds that don’t sit still long enough to capture. Today was no different but I did manage to image a pair of Crows. They were in the shade of tall spruce tree, but there was a shaft of sunlight coming from the left side which lit up the dead bracken. The green shoots of spruce saplings adds a bit of fresh green to the images. Some nice feather detail too.
I then made my way over to Tice’s Meadow and arrive just in time for thick cloud to smother the sun. I really struggled to get focus lock in the poor light because I was could not open up the aperture beyond f8 because I was using a 1.4x teleconverter on my 500mm f5.6.
November 12th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
Ran into Dina who I recognised from the Facebook group. I now know where this summers Hobby was perching for all those photographs on Facebook so I’ll keep an eye out for it next year if it returns.
The light was going as time wore on and many of the images were taken at ISO 12800. So, they’ve all been pre-processed in DXO PureRaw 5 to remove noise.
My first images of a Chaffinch.
A Dunnock.
Gadwall.
Cormorant.
There was a large number of Lapwing on a far island, but this one was just about close enough to get a half decent image off. However, by the time the sun was fading and in the wrong place leaving much of birds in shadow. I’ve done my best to bring out the feather detail and keep the reflection but they are quite severe crops.
A few Swan images. I quite like the reflections best. They were taken close to sunset hence the golden light.
A pair of Teal.
And finally a Great White Egret, Grey Heron and checkout those long tail feathers on the Magpie.
November 9th 2025 – Frensham Little Pond
A couple of snapshots taken on my phone during a morning walk around the pond. I must repeat this another day but with my camera. The first two are straight out of camera from my Google Pixel 10 Pro. The second two are the same images but with more saturated colours in the sky to bring out the blue. I think I prefer the second two.
November 7th 2025 – Frensham Little Pond
A photo walk around Frensham Little Pond. No birds to photograph today, so its all landscape and a few close up of Oak Moss. I don’t have a macro lens so can’t get really really close.
November 6th 2025 – Thursley Nature Reserve
Very quiet at Thursday today. No birds showing well at all, just 4 Canada Geese, a few Mallard and 2 Crows on the ground feeding.
A couple of Black and White too.
November 6th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
Not a soul at the meadow today. More birds around than at Thursley but still a dull grey day.
Female Shoveler with its distinctive long bill, Male Gadwall, Femail Gadwall, a pair of Egyptian Geese, a Mute Swann, A Little Egret with Mallard and Gadwall for company, Cormorant drying it wings and a Tufted Duck.
November 4th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
This was a afternoon, but I should have gone in the morning. When the sun was out, I was shooting directly into it and it this time of year its not very high in the sky.
A few Great Crested Grebe were on the water today.
I ‘m not sure what this first duck is, but the second is definitely Widgeon.
Gadwall.
In the foreground is a Moorhen, and the back three are Teal. The first time I’ve captured Teal.
Little Egret. I don’t think I’ve every been to Tice’s Meadow and not seen Little Egret.
A pair of Egyptian Geese.
I also think I’ve seen Heron every single time I have visited. I caught this one flying diagonally away from me.
October 18th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
A chilly visit to the hide at Tice’s Meadow. I should have taken a coat, because sitting still in the Hide left me feeling the cold. The water level is really quite low, so all the birds are a long way from the hide and of course it was a dull and cloudy day, so almost all images were at 12800 ISO, which necessitates pre-processing the images through DXO PureRaw 5. Most images are also a heavy crop despite having 1000mm of reach.
There were several Grey Herons about.
A sizable number of Cormorant where present. Cormorant are unusual for a water bird in that their feathers are not water proof, so after swimming they often stand with the wings out to dry.
This male Tufted Duck was preening its feathers whilst floating out on the water.
If you have eagle eyes there are several Shovelers and Lapwing here.
September 20th 2025 – Staines Reservoir
Yesterday evening I saw this video that had just been uploaded to Youtube, about a twitcher who had gone to Stains Reservoir because he had seen reports of a Grey Phalarope which is uncommon in the UK. So, I took inspiration from this and headed off there this morning. It was a very dull, grey cloudy day which shows in the images. I did not see a Grey Phalarope but I did capture this Linnet which is a first for me.
Cormorant
I’ve only seen Great Created Grebe in ones and two previously, and initially I was only seeing them in pairs here, but finished up with a group of at least a dozen all together. I could not get all them into frame at once though, as I’m using the XF 500mm.
I only noticed after getting home and looking at the pictures that close to the Grey Heron I had capture, there was a Northern Shoveler in amongst the inevitable Coot. The Shoveler is easy to spot with its enormous bill.
A few Pied Wagtail.
and what I think is a female Pied Wagtail.
I have no idea what type of gull this is, or why it carried a clump of moss out onto the water. In breading season it would be good nesting material but its Autumn now…
September 16th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
Another late afternoon visit to Tice’s Meadow. Tice’s Meadow has its own facebook group and I regularly see some amazing photographs on it. Hobby‘s in flight, Kingfishers, Heron’s swallowing Pike etc. However, I never seem to see these things and when I do they are so far away I have to crop so far the image quality suffers terribly, or the light isn’t that good to start with. But, I have noticed that often these images are taken early in the morning, and as we know Birds are more active first thing in the morning. Another aspect of this, is that when I use my XF500mm f5.6 with a 1.4 teleconverter I can reach 1000mm, but some of these photographers are using the Nikon P1000/P1100 which can reach 3000mm. So, next year, when I’m retired my intention is to do some very early morning trips to the hide once Spring has arrived. In the meantime I noticed someone had captured Goldfinch on the bird feeders near the hide. I’ve walked past this many times but the feeders were always empty and I didn’t see any birds. Today however, I found the feeders all full of seed etc and lots of birds feeding. Many Blue Tits, Great Tits and a number of Goldfinch. The issue I had though is light, it was a cloudy afternoon and the feeders are all underneath the tree canopy, meaning high ISO shots using 12800. So, some post processing in required to produce a usage image.
I never normally use AI, but I was interested to see what AI could do to my Goldfinch image. Using nano-banana (Googles AI imaging tool) I told it to remove the metal and replace it with a branch.
I won’t be doing this again, because I’ve used up my free credits on nano-banana and would need to take out a subscription of $12 per month.
You can see that it has removed all the metal feeds parts, inserted a branch but it also replaced the feed on the Goldfinch. There was an intermediate step where I removed the feeder and birds on the right. So, how would you know this image was fake? The only red flag I can see is the shoots on the branch would not happen in Autumn, but I’m sure if I gave AI better prompts it would do better.
From the hide, I noticed a few of the Canada Goose have returned, probably no more and a dozen of the hundreds that were here all summer. I didn’t spot any Cormorant. No sign of the Hobby, which on facebook is often shown perched on the same branch but I had a really good look around and cannot find.
These are some Magpie shots, Snipe, a Heron partly hidden behind a fence and would just not move and a Great Crested Grebe moving out from behind a small island.
September 11th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
A very different early afternoon at Tices Meadow today. A chill to the breeze, and all the Canada Goose, at least 100 have disappeared leaving the Meadow look decided bare. I thought they were resident here, as Canada Goose often are in the UK, but perhaps they have migrated somewhere warmer for the winter. It will be interesting to see if they return before the spring.
These out of focus shots are of Pied Wagtail, which I think is the first time I’ve seen them here at Tice’s Meadow. They are a small bird so at long range it was a challenge and has required the XF 500mm f5.6 with 1.4x teleconverter and an aggressive crop.
A Common Sandpiper and Snipe feeding in the mud.
Another first for me, the Common Sandpiper, which is easy to miss as it blends into the background.
Black-Headed Gull feeding.
A Mallard bottoms up, and Tufted Ducks. The male has white sides and the female brown. You can clearly see the tuft on the back of the head.
A Lesser Black-Backed Gull watching the world go by.
September 9th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
I’ve been stuck at home for over a week whilst on-call, so could not wait to get out. The water level has dropped significantly since my last visit.
Adult Moorhen
Juvenile Moorhen (extreme crop)
A pair of Gadwall
Black Headed Gull and a Mallard
On the left you can see a Great Crested Grebe with a fish in its beak (viewed from behind) and over to the right is another Great Crested Grebe with two juveniles with black and white stipes on on their heads. You need to click on the image to expand it full screen to see the details.
I also saw a Greylag Goose. As I was walking back through the forest, a Jay flew out of the long grass and into the trees. But it was really shy, and moved away each time I tried to get a clear view for a photograph.
On the local facebook group I’ve seen some excellent recent pictures of a Hobby in flight and a King Fisher. I didn’t see these but I suspect they are more likely in the early morning when birds are generally more active. I’ve never yet seen a King Fisher IRL, let alone taken a photograph.
September 7th 2025 – In the Garden
This Great Tit cautiously watched me from an Oak tree before deciding it would be safe to visit the bird feeder. Notice that it has a lump on its neck. We had a Blue Tit with a similar lump about a month ago.
August 31st 2025 – West Wittering
A strong wind was coming on short from the south all day, and one minute the sun was out the next hidden behind a cloud. The Red flags were out for swimming, but that did not stop the surfboarders or kite surfers.
August 30th 2025 – Hailing Island
It took an hour to get to the beach, and after 6 photographs the rain started…..
I an idea in mind for this afternoon, and think I pulled it off. I took a few images but even using a solid tripod they were blurred, but I’ve heard about this on Youtube. So, once I turned of IBIS (in body image stabilization) I got the effect I wanted. The first image is just too show what conditions were like before I slowed down the shutter speed. Using a 10 stop plus a 3 stop neutral density filter to reduce the light enough to allow a 4 minute exposure and f13 and ISO 125.
I’m not sure which edit I prefer…
August 28th 2025 – In the Garden
Back in the garden today. As before, taken by pre-focusing and leaving the camera on a tripod to take one image per second until the battery runs out. If I sit in the garden, the birds stay away so short of getting a hide, its the only way. All images were taken at 1/800s at f5.6 with ISO 2500. It was overcast so I could not get a higher shutter speed without increasing ISO even further, and the noise can get really bad on an APC sensor like I have. Mostly Great Tit‘s and occasional Blue Tit. I used the XF 500mm today which definitely shows more detail and better feather detail than the XF 70-300 I have used previously in the garden.
Naturally all the birds fly away when the Squirrel arrives. The feeder is made entirely from Metal, so I do wonder if the squirrels teeth get harmed when trying to get peanut kernels like this. There is no Squirrel dentist to make repairs!
August 24th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
Another visit to Tice’s Meadow Nature Reserve. This time without any silly errors setting my exposure compensation unknowingly. As before I’m using the Fuji XF 500mm f5.6 with the 1.4x Teleconverter. You can’t get enough reach here, every bird seems to prefer the far side of the water.
All the usual birds were present, Swan, Canada Goose, Coot, Mallard etc. Not shown is a Common Sandpiper which I did not realise I had captured until I got home, and it was out of focus in the background of another bird.
Today I saw a Lapwing for the first time. Seemed to be on its own. It has incredible iridescent feathers on its back. Huge crops to show this, which loses image quality unfortunately, but the birds are just so long. Click on each image to expand it.
This is a young Great Crested Grebe, and seems to be one its own too.
These two images of a Cormorant are the same photograph but show how much I have to crop even when using a very long lens. Check out how beautiful the feathers are. It was on the same branch yesterday.
There is another Cormorant preening in the centre of this group.
Snipe camoflage them selves into the environment really well. The yukky weeds hanging on everything is weed. The water level is at least 2 feet higher over winter.
A Grey Heron.
August 23rd 2025- Tice’s Meadow
These images are the result of nearly 2 hours sat in the hide at Tice’s Meadow. The hide is a long steal container, with one side removed to entry, and with a window cut into the other 3 sides. This gets us right up to the waters edge and relatively hidden. On this occasion there were 3 older men using binoculars and a long telephoto DSLR. This was good because they pointed out some birds I would probably not have otherwise noticed.
This Black-Necked Grebe is a bird I knew nothing about, but in the UK there are only approximately 55K. It spent most of the time with its head tucking to the feathers on it back resting, but I did manage a few shots of it awake. It has a bright red eye.
All of the shots today are taken on the XF 500mm with a 1.4x teleconverter. The teleconverter increase the focal length at the expense of image quality, and many of these shots are cropped heavily too. The birds always seem to prefer the far bank despite using a hide.
I first photographed this Swan last week, and it still has fishing line hanging from its throat. I expect it will be there until it passes away.
This is Snipe was pointed out to me by the old men. Otherwise I don’t think I would have noticed it. In the middle image there are two. Shame the background of these images isn’t very appealing.
A Cormorant preening itself.
This Grey Heron started on the far bank, then flew over to my side. I didn’t notice until it was too late to photograph in flite though.
A Juvenile Herring Gull.
August 17th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
If you click on the Swan images to expand them, you may be able to see that one of these swans had ingested what looks like a long piece of wire, definitely not weed that they feed off the bottom of water for. It was feeding in the first two images, but in the third you can see the wire hanging down. Perhaps is old fishing line of something, but I hope it manages to get it out because these things can kill a swan.
If you look closely at the birds on the island, although they are mostly Canada Geese there are some Greylag Geese (orange bill) along the front, some Cormorant on top and Grey Heron in the background.
August 17th 2025 – Thursley Nature Reserve
In the spring Thursley was very busy with birds, but now the breeding season is over there really aren’t that many birds I can find. A couple of Canada Geese in the long grass, some female Mallard and a lone Little Grebe (at long range) was about it.
August 15th 2025 – In the Garden
This evening sit on the patio prompted a pigeon to visit and sun itself on the lawn. Apparently they do this in order to put direct sunlight onto the parasites that live among their feathers.
This an adult male Black Bird which is molting, something they do after the breeding season is over. It will have new feathers in a few weeks. The brown is a juvenile female Black Bird sunning itself.
August 14th 2025 – In the Garden
My first image of a Song Thrush in the garden this evening.
This Magpie is shedding feathers. According to google this is normal after the breeding season is over.
August 13th 2025 – In The Garden
This Squirrel sat for quite some time eating whatever he had in his hands.
August 12th 2025 – In The Garden
A pair of JackDaw‘s perched themselves at the top of a Leylandii in the garden.
August 10th 2025 – Tice’s Meadow
A quick visit to Tice’s Meadow before getting home to listen to the Charity Shield. I saw several Herons but none of my shots seem to have been in focus, probably due to heat haze considering the conditions. On my last visit there were huge numbers of Jackdaw, and although they were present it was in nearly such large numbers.
Hundreds of Canada Geese, and if you look carefully at the birds in the water, the birds with orange beaks are actually Greylag Geese.
Checkout the huge grey webbed feet on these Coot.
There were several Little Egret, but all a long way away on the other side of the lake.
and a few others
Overall I had too many images that were soft or not in focus. Potentially its heat haze, but I need to close down the aperture a little and try f8 and not just rely on 1/1000s. I need to remember that the longer the focal length the shorted the depth of field.
August 9th 2025 – In the Garden
I should have gone out to take some photographs, but because I am tired and lazy, I just sat in the garden instead. This is Great Tit that likes the peanuts, but has a strange growth on its neck. I have no idea what it is, just hope its harmless. All images on the Fuji XF 500mm f5.6, which seems to be glued to my camera these days, taken at f5.6 at f8 and 1/800s. ISO ranges from 800 to 2500.
August 7th 2025 – In the Garden
I should clear out all the dead wood in the garden, but the birds do like to perch on it.
In previous years our local Squirrels have been completely grey, but this year they are more brown. We don’t get Red Squirrels sadly. It wasn’t even raining!
August 6th 2025 – In the Garden
I had to get up early to support some customer database upgrades, so I was at my desk 0630. Around 7am I just happened to look out of the window and saw a flock of small birds moving from bushes onto the bird feeder and back again. They re-treated to the bushes every time a Magpie hopped over to the bird feeder, and even onto it to feed on occasion. I’m used to seeing Blue Tits in the garden, but normally they are single or in a pair. This time there were 4 of them, with a single Great Tit.
We think of Magpie’s being black and white, but they actually have marvelous petrol blue feathers when they open up their wings.
Being so early in the morning, and cloudy, I could not get enough light so many of the images were taken a 8000+ ISO, which I very noisy on this camera. I’ve cleaned them up but it does mean they are a little soft as a result. There is never enough light for a crop sensor camera!!
August 2nd 2025 – In the Garden
I’m on call so can’t really go out. Instead its a shot of one of the nuts are growing on the oak trees and a Great Tit. This was the only bird I saw in the hour I sat on the patio. During the spring the garden was very busy with birds, but not so much now.
July 18th 2025 – Stormont (Northern Ireland)
We visited Stormont for a guided tour and lunch in the fancy members restaurant.
I could not fit the entire building into a single shot, so I stitched two together, which accounts for the warped look on the right.
This Heron was at the same spot several evening in a row. I think its waiting for the tide to go out and leave water trapped around the rocks and then feed. The dark birds with an orange bill are Oyster Catchers.
July 17th 2025 – Bangor and Cloughey (Northern Ireland)
Bangor Castle was our first stop, not particularly large and not a patch on Lincoln Castle. We parked in a local car park and I though I was paying for parking when it turns out I was registering my card with the app. So, got a parking fine of £45 if paid within 30 days or £90 after that. I paid same day :-). On a day with better weather
This Heron was at the same spot several evening in a row. I think its waiting for the tide to go out and leave water trapped around the rocks and then feed. The dark birds with an orange bill are Oyster Catchers.
July 16th 2025 – Rathlin Island (Northern Ireland)
This was always intended to be the highlight of the trip for me. A 2 hour drive to Ballycastle, to catch a 40 minutes ferry ride to Rathlin Island, and because you are permitted to take a vehicle, a 20 minute bus ride to far eastern edge to visit the RSPB Seabird Centre. And then in reverse at the end of the day.
It is now that I realized I had a camera problem, but at this point thought that perhaps my new lens had been damaged on the flight over. It was another 48 hours before I realized why I could not get the camera to focus as I intended, and ended up using a smaller aperture that I might otherwise to give my images a better chance of being acceptably sharp by increasing the depth of field. The camera was focusing but not in the way I wanted. The focus box went green but never on the bird. Only two days later did I realize that the focus mode has changed from continuous to single shot without me knowing. Hence as I moved the lens around, and at 500mm hand held (750 full frame equivalent) it hard not too, the bird mode just did not seem to be picking up the birds and usually focused to the side or behind them. A rookie error, and not really the best time make it after such a long trip. The focus mode switch was set to single shot rather than continuous!!!
From the RSPB Seabird Centre its a walk down a LOT of steps to get to the viewing platform. I had expected to be a lot closer to the birds, but in the event you needed a pair of binoculars or very long lens even to identify what birds were present.
So, each of these birds is a breed I’ve never shot before. I’ve done my best to tidy up the images and pick out the sharpest. Actually, they aren’t too bad.
This first image shows just how stunning the scenery is here. The Kittiwake and Fulmer shots were taken from the side of the cliff face on the right. Notice the green area at the bottom, that is where the Puffins and Razorbills were. A long way down, which is why I needed the 500mm, but sadly forgot my 1.4 teleconverter. In fact, in this situation a 2x teleconverter would have been useful, the 500mm has such good image quality it would work well enough.
Don’t forget you can click on any of these images to expand them.
The Kittiwakes flying in and land on these tiny ledges and and somehow manage to build a next on them. In the second image you can see 3 young Kittiwakes with the down feathers that have not yet left the nest.
These Fulmer were nesting quite high up, so I was able to fill the frame without a big crop. In fact, with the 500mm they are too close but I could not move further away because of all the other people on the viewing platform. I took this holding camera over the edge of the platform, pointed hard right and you can see the edge of cliff face on the right side.
Here you see a group of 6 Guillemot and three Puffins. It was Puffins that I most wanted to see (for the first time). Without the 500mm and a good crop you would hardly know what they were given how far away they are. Sadly, there was also no opportunity to change position or the viewing angle. It would have been wonderful to be able to get down to their level and fill the frame. Speaking to another birdwatcher, they told me that last year there was another viewing platform, much lower down which I try for if I ever go back.
To nest the Puffins burrow into the soft earth and completely disappear from sight. There is a lone Razorbill in this image too.
This Puffin had just landed on the large stone, and had to flap its wings in order to walk up to the top where it perched. You can see the back end of a Puffin sticking out of its burrow.
Some other images from Rathlin Island.
July 15th 2025 – Bangor and Cloughey (Northern Ireland)
Painted end gables are something of a stereotype I think for Northern Ireland, but at least this doesn’t refer to the troubles.
Today was a slow day spend avoiding the rain!
This rainbow images was taken at dusk standing right outside the house we were staying in.
July 14th 2025 – Scrabo and Bally Walter (Northern Ireland)
Some stunning views on the walk up to the tower and very windy at the top.
These are from Bally Walter which is just up the cost from where we stayed.
July 13th 2025 – Southampton to Belfast City
The first day of our trip to Northern Ireland. We had a lot of trouble booking accommodation at the last minute because it turns out The Open Gold Tournament was happening in Northern Ireland at the same time. Callums first time flying and my first time on an aircraft with a propeller.
I did take some pictures with my X-T5 but I must have messed up somehow because they are all just black, like you would get if you left the lens cap on. I definitely did not shoot with the lens cap on.
July 10th 2025 – Farnham Heath
A fairly short walk, only 1.2 miles in 30 minutes or so, but it was 31c! I felt shattered and slowed to a crawl every time I go up even the slightest slope. I didn’t see any birds to photograph, only a small bird here and there but moving to quickly to capture. Being outside at 3pm was probably the issue, its too hot and they are hiding away keeping cool. So, no nice bird shots today, just a landscape panorama.
July 9th 2025 – In the Garden
This Grey Squirrel has a good amount of Red Squirrel in it! Would be nice to see the red come back.
July 8th 2025 – In the Garden
A juvenile Blue Tit on the bird feeder.
July 7th 2025 – Farnham Heath
This is my first time to Farnham Heath. I was very quiet, a few small birds flying around to its hard to take photographs of small birds that move so quickly and look so small in the frame.
These first images are a juvenile Goldfinch. Its only a few days ago that I took my first ever pictures of a Goldfinch but this time its a juvenile that has not yet developed all that colour in the face.
A juvenile Robin and a juvenile Stonechat.
Here is a Stonechat and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
July 6th – Workflow
For a while now my workflow has been to pick out the images I prefer, then process them through DXO Pureraw 5 and load the ‘.dng’ produced into Capture One. This provides a little sharpening and removes a LOT of the noise. After I have finished any edits on the image I generate a ‘jpg’ which is what you see on these pages. However, I can see the Capture One does a better job of rendering colours. So, in future I’m only going to use DXO Pureraw 5 on images which really need noise removing, which is does exceptionally well but I can’t then recover the colours. I guess thats why is called Colour Science. And Fuji is famous for its Colour Science and film simulations so I don’t want to sacrifice that unless its really necessary. What I’m not going to do though and go back and change all the images I’ve already processed and uploaded to website.
July 5th 2025 – Frensham Little Pond
This was an early evening visit on an overcast day. This heavy crop is a parent child Great Crested Grebe, the first time I’ve spotted a juvenile.
I could not resist these trees with such white trunks. The 500mmm is too long to get the entire tree in frame and I had no space to step back.
A Black Headed Gull
I can’t resist a good Crow on the ground. An underate bird because its so common.
July 4th 2025 – Thursley Nature Reserve
I decided to bunk or work at 4pm, they’ve had their pound of flesh so why not. These first 2 birds, are both Stonechat. Its a young female on the left and a male on the right.
This is the first time I’ve also captured a Pied Wagtail.
And in yet another first for me, a Goldfinch.
These were all taken with a shutter speed of 1/1600, but clearly still not fast enough. They move so quickly!
According to a google image search this is Fireweed. Doesn’t really look like a weed though.
July 3rd 2025 – In the Garden
I glanced out of my office window this morning, and the bird feeder was crowded! Managed to get some nice images though it would have been better in sunlight as I had a lot noise to remove. In order these are Great Tit, Juvenile Blue Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker. This is the first time I’ve seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker. I seen a Green Woodpecker in the garden a few times, but never managed to take a picture of it.
July 1st – In the Garden
When I took this first shot I casually assumed it was a Pidgeon and didn’t notice until I opened the files on my computer that in fact is a Collared Dove. That will teach me to take a proper look at what I’m photographing in future. The Woodpidgeon was taken shortly and is for comparison. I like the first image only because its my first Collared Dove, but there is no doubting the Woodpidgeon is stronger. I was actually perched on a leylandii and keeping a close eye one me.
This Robin confused me a few minutes. It hasn’t got the red breast I expected, and I see then in the garden every day. This in fact is a juvenile Robin, and the red has not yet developed. It was also keeping a close eye one me, but gradually gained confidence and ended up walking within about 2 meters of me.
I noticed a couple of days ago that the moon looked incredible as the sky darkened to a navy blue. Both days since I have forgotten to get my camera out. So, this was it during the early evening. Shot with the XF 500mm with a 1.4x teleconverter making it 700mm, that’s over 1000mm in full frame terms, which is crazy and hard to hold steady on the subject.
None of these shots today needs any cropping… so nice to have a long lens at last.
