Halvergate

I went to Halvergate earlier in the year to see a Rough-legged Buzzard.  It may have left as there was a sad face against it on BirdGuides this evening.

Rough-legged Buzzard but like ages ago

I went to Halvergate last week to see a Short-eared Owl.  Which I did.

Bloody Hell.

I went to Halvergate on Saturday to see a Short Eared Owl. Which I didn't.   But I saw this.

Blimey

And some of this too.

Mute and Bewicks with Nelson's Column in the distance

Halvergate.  It's alright.  Sometimes.

That Heron again...

This bird has been very kind to me over the last year, sitting on various bits of metal that point into the sky and things like that.  It has posed, preened, fluffed and flown in various light conditions that have appeared on various online outlets.  Here are the latest two to be processed.

Ninja Heron

Get your freak on

Breakin' the rules with a Fox

If you follow the rules, you don't take this shot.

400mm lens at 400mm.  

1/8s f5.6 ISO640.  

Sort of hand held.

Sort of works.

Fox having a yawn at camera talk

Waxwing!

Ok, it isn't a fresh one.  A year ago today one was kicking about in the middle of Norwich City Centre. It ate apples, waited for a bit, did a poo, waited a bit longer and then went back to the apples.  It was a grey Saturday afternoon, with a Premier League kick-off less than an hour away.  Funny looks were the order of the day.

My overlong experiment with high ISO was in full swing.  With the benefit of hindsight I can comfortably state that as far as the image quality went I stuffed it.  Nonetheless here is a photo of the bird that I still quite like.  Those branches were always in the way!

Waxwing = nice

Triskaidekaphobia

A highly significant gull

This one in fact.  

[I'm represented in this image by the looming foreground bulk - a rare self taken photo image (there must be a better name for that kind of thing)]

'So what?' you might say, 'getting close to gulls isn't that hard or exciting' and you would (in my world anyway) be completely wrong.  You see this particular gull is good for the following reasons.  It is a Med, I could get close and it can be seen from the ring road in Norwich.  

Most significantly of all - I now have Meditteranean Gull on my Norwich List.  

I took more photos.

.

There was a Common Gull or two.  They are already on the list.

More gull photos here.

Back on the Black

First Black Redstart of the year is back in the patch, and what a cracker he is!  Bit distant for a decent shot so a heavy crop, but this will change as the season progresses.

Plenty more Black Redstart photos by clicking on these words...

Got a photo in the paper

In the Eastern Evening News on Monday.

Always been my most favourite regional evening Newspaper...

Doesn't look quite as nice as it does on the screen though!