Wren in the undergrowth

Took a lot of pictures of a Wren in the garden yesterday, many of which turned out alright.  This pic, however, is the most representative of the afternoon.

Over the top

Golden Plover

Can't say I was expecting to find this little cracker today, but I tried to make the most of it.

Common Tern

Black Redstart for BPN

Little Egret

Blue Tit

Meadow Pipit

Fair few of these moving about at the moment.  No complaints from me!

Time for another Black Redstart

Thought it might be time for another of these...

Herring Gull

A very popular colour ringed gull

1. See colour ringed gull

2. Fill up SD card until the ring is readable.

3. Report to ringers via CR-Birding (which is awesome)

4. Get mail back from ringing chap with details on bird

5. Be amazed.

This bird has been reported 260 times! It is 15 years old.  It was ringed at Orford Ness, lived for a while in Southwold, and now hangs around Aldeburgh.  

I am a gull and I am awesome.

Thanks to  Mike Marsh from the Landguard Ringing Group for the info!

Triskaidekaphobia

Took this a while ago, but thought I'd save it for a rainy day...

Guillemot

Black Redstart revisited

Looking back over some pics from the summer.  Here is another from a session I had with a Black Redstart.

Driveby Dunlin

I reckon that nearly everyone that took a camera to Gramborough Hill the other week took one or two pics of the Dunlin that fed, confidingly*, in the nearby pool.  Here is one such pic.

* that is bird photographer code for I could go right up to it and it didn't fly away.

Bird photography cliche #1

There are plenty of people taking pics of birds and putting them on the web and you may well be one of them.  It is reasonably plain to see that there are common images that it seems that you should have in your 'portfolio'.  Barn Owls over the fields at sunrise, a hungry Robin in the snow, a Kingfisher perched on a NO FISHING sign, Puffins doing anything. Puffins.  Are there not enough Puffin pictures in the world already?  Can anyone take a picture of a Puffin that we haven't already seen (says the man with not one Puffin picture)?  Yes, this may seem disparaging but it isn't meant to be as these are shots that I have yet to get with any success and in all probability I will drag the missus oop north next spring and melt a couple of SD cards full of Puffins and Gannets and plaster them all over the net.  Maybe it is a rite of passage, a test of your skills against what is already out there.  I don't know.  All I'm trying to say, with little success, is that I would like to think that I know when I am showing a picture which I consider to be a bit of a cliche.  So here you have one.  A Common Tern doing that angel wing thing.  Shockingly harsh light at a really poor angle, but here it is nonetheless; cliche #1.