More Rock Pipits and a Kestrel

A few more Rock Pipit shots from another visit to Three Cliffs Bay earlier this week:

As I sat watching the Rock Pipits, which may have had a nest nearby, I saw a Kestrel drifting past on the wind. At one point, it perched on this small bush, barely ten metres from where I sat, allowing me just enough time for this one shot, before taking to the air again:



My apologies for not making many comments on others' blogs lately, but I'm having a lot of trouble logging in to blogger - I can make posts, but not comments. If anyone knows what the problem might be, please let me know!

Badger Photos

A few of the better shots from my badger-watching trip to mid Wales on Saturday:

Due to the dull conditions, shutter speeds were down to around 1/25th of a second at ISO 1600 or even 3200. I was able to get some sharp shots by resting my Sigma 500mm f/4.5 lens on a solid beanbag on the hide's shelf, although some shots were spoiled by subject movement, and some by the peanuts which were put out by our guide appearing in the picture.

I definitely hope to return to this location again, and hopefully my next visit will coincide with some better and brighter weather.

Badgers

Until yesterday, I had only ever seen two badgers - and one of those was dead! Anyway, as it was my birthday yesterday, I decided to treat myself with a spot of badger watching in mid Wales. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible for photography and filming, with strong winds and heavy rain for most of the nearly two hours we were there, although at least we were under cover in a hide, so didn't get too wet. To be going on with, here's some video footage I shot:

I'll probably post some photos later, once I've had a look through to see if I managed any decent shots in the very low light levels.

Rock Pipits

Whilst at Three Cliffs Bay yesterday, I also managed a few photos of Rock Pipits; both on the beach, and further up on the cliffside grassland:



Ringed Plovers

A few shots of Ringed Plovers from a couple of hours at Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula this afternoon:

Grey Squirrels

A few recent shots of my local Grey Squirrels:

This squirrel had a penchant for flowers of the oak tree:

This cheeky so-and-so couldn't wait for me to throw down some nuts for him, and so climbed up onto the picnic table next to me to help himself to the food directly from source:



Swansea Sunrise

I was up early yesterday morning, so I decided to walk down to the beach to see if an attractive sunrise might develop. It did!

Here are a few of the pictures I took:

I put polarising and neutral density filters in front of the lens for this shot, to give a long exposure time of several seconds to blur the waves of the incoming tide. This combination seems to give a pink tone to the image, which I decided to leave in:

The Meridian Tower in Swansea Marina, with a windfarm on the hill behind:

Finally, I turned my camera and tripod around so I was facing about ninety degrees to the sunrise for this shot, pointing my lens out to sea and using a long exposure: