Visited Pennard Cliffs on Gower again today:
Weather was sunny, but surprisingly cool, with a cold northerly wind, although a little less hazy than on Sunday. I walked along towards Three Cliffs Bay:
I was hoping to see the Lesser Whitethroat that I had seen in some scrub near Three Cliffs on Sunday. It was there alright, and was singing heartily, but from deep within some bushes, and was not going to emerge to let me photograph him. It was unusually birdless on the gorse-topped cliffs, which usually hold Stonechats, Dartford Warblers, and plenty of Whitethroats, amongst some commoner species. All I saw of note were a few Choughs, a single singing Whitethroat (no decent pics), and a Kestrel. A handful of Ravens patrolled the cliff edges, as usual.
Looking to return home with some pictures (however bad!) to show for my little jaunt, I resorted to fitting an extension tube to my wide-angle lens (a Canon 17-40 mm f/4), and trying a few close-ups of the small flowers that studded the short turf. This involved grovelling on the ground, and handholding my lens just a few inches from the blooms, and attempting to depict them within their environment by using a smallish aperture to gain a reasonable depth of field. Not sure if they work too well, but it was worth a try! Here are a few:
Hi Jeremy
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment on my blog and pointing out my spelling mistake - my only excuse was tiredness and poor proof reading - I did at least spell one of the tags correctly!! :-)
Interesting to see what bird species you have in your area. I haven't seen any Whitethroats here yet - we get a lot of them in this area.
Hi Kerry,
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the correct spelling of peninsula every day, as I live near the Gower Peninsula. I probably got it wrong myself when I first came here!
I've just seen one Whitethroat and one Lesser Whitethroat so far; plus a few Swallows, Willow/Chiffs, etc. Hopefully, some warm southerly winds will bring more migrants up to Wales!