More from the marsh!

I had always thought of summer as the quiet period for bird watching and photography. Not this year though!

Having spent much of my last Blog entry moaning about missing the best of the bird action, I happened to be in the right place when this Bittern came out of the edge of the reed bed to have a look at the world. I think it may be a young one. As I watched, it looked like it might be about to launch into the air, but each time thought better of it and crept back into the cover of the reeds. It did do a bit of posing though, including an attempt at adopting the famous vertical-neck posture to blend in better with the reeds - it is actually known as "bitterning" apparently.

Just in passing, I must mention that my new Canon EF 400mm f4 DO II is giving me some astonishingly sharp photos. This bird was a good 40 or 50 metres away, but cropping in more tightly to these already cropped photos shows how sharp the bird was. That is with a 1.4x converter too. I do not think that the original DO lens would have performed as well.

Apart from this very obliging bird, there were other bitterns on the wing from time to time. It is easy to miss them as they usually make no noise to announce their presence, and the first thing you notice is them gliding silently by too late to raise the camera. Got this one though.

Although the marsh at Ham Wall seemed quiet, a little patience paid off. Here a Swan is taking exception to the insistent presence of a Cormorant.

It ended up giving it a good hissing to! The Cormorant was not bothered. Here it is making a bit of a splash to show its disdain.

 
Here in Somerset we are still lucky to be seeing Great Egrets every day. A fabulous sight and I am still very keen to photograph them. This one was calling as it erupted from the reed bed.

I am also always on the look out for those other charismatic birds of the wetlands, Marsh Harriers. They seldom come close enough for a good shot, but these are not bad.

At the other end of the size range is this Reed Warbler, although you would be forgiven for not recognising it. It has lost most of its head feathers and looks distinctly weird!

I once saw a photo of a Robin looking like this and it was perched on a sign which read "Queue here for sympathy." I have no idea if this was genuine or not, but it was very apt.

You will also have noticed that there are no Barn Owls in this post. I think the obliging day-flying individual that has featured in the last few posts has become nocturnal or moved away. Here it is taking a dubious look at the daylight and deciding it would go back to bed.

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Here is a post from my Facebook page that you may have missed.

I caught this Cormorant eating its lunch at #RSPB Ham Wall. You can read the whole story about this and a selection of...

Posted by John Crabb Wildlife Images on Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Like a Bird on a Wire ...

... yes, but in this case it's a Duck on a Fence. Surely not what Leonard Cohen had in mind when he wrote his famous song.

I spotted it on a fence alongside a footpath in Devon: a drake Mallard. Thinking that it would surely fly away as I approached, I started taking photos early on and continued as I walked closer. In fact it did not move and my photos got bigger and bigger!

In the end it just muttered to itself as I walked slowly by. So much for my dramatic "launching into the air shot".

A few years ago I came across a Mallard on a thatched roof in France. I am perhaps thinking of doing a series entitled "Ducks in Strange Places". What do you think?

 
(By the way, and just while I think of it, if you have scratched your camera lens, scroll down to the bottom to see the results of my little experiment.)

It was quite a good day out actually, it started just after dawn with this Barn Owl hunting over the fields - admittedly in rather dull light.

 And here it is with some prey, a Short Tailed Field Vole.

I also made the acquaintance of this confident little Reed Warbler singing its socks off in a reed bed.

Not to be outdone, this Reed Bunting was also singing at the top of its voice.

Later this Kestrel hovered briefly overhead.

No more photos for a few days as I will be without my favourite camera lens from now on, the Canon EF 400mm F4 DO IS. I am trading it in for the upgraded version 2. Quite sad to pack it into a box ready to send off, it has served me very well over the last few years so I can only hope that I will enjoy the new one as much.

Actually, on the subject of lenses, I conducted a little experiment. As I spruced up the old lens in an attempt to get the highest possible part-exchange offer for it, I noticed again that there were a few very fine micro-scratches in the blueish lens coating. This does not make any difference to the image quality at all. To prove it I took this photo:

Then, I removed the lens hood so that I could get close to the glass and held my index finger up right in front of the lens, partially blocking it, and took the picture below. I defy anyone to spot any difference. My finger was totally invisible in the final image. So much for worrying about micro-scratches!

So, that's it, just a brief blog for today. Please visit my website to see more at  www.johncrabb.co.uk
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