Brent Geese

As promised, Brent Geese. These birds winter here in large numbers especially at Pagham harbour and can be seen flying in groups made up of thousands of individuals. It was recently discovered that  birds such as these, when migrating not only fly in that trademark arrow formation to save energy but also but they also time their wing beats. One will time its downward motion so as to take advantage of the gust created by the goose in front of it. This means that they can migrate further without stopping due to them being more energy efficient. These particular geese come all the way from Siberia.

 

f/7.1

1/400

ISO-320

400mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common tern

Seeing as though my course in wildlife conservation and countryside management is now complete me and a few friends took a trip down to studland for a day on the beach. Whilst waiting for the ferry i spotted a few terns fly by and of course had my camera with me so i took a few photos :).

f/8

1/4000

ISO - 1600

500mm

Yet another gull...

Took a trip to lakeside country park today to do some geocaching with my mum and nan. Whilst there i got loads of photos i am happy with, one of which was of this black headed gull which was one of many that were flying low near the surface of the lake.

f/5.6
1/1250
ISO - 400
247mm

Casting a shadow

Another turstone photograph :)

f/7.1
1/32000
ISO - 500
500mm

Wild Bird Wednesday - Stormy seagulls

I took the opportunity last week to go out and see the story seas on the south coast of england. Apparently the worst storm in 20 years. It was certainly the biggest and roughest sea i had ever seen (being 20 years of age that made sense 0_0). There were pieces of star fish, sea weed and shark eggs on paths that were usually a large distance from the tide mark.  

However after doging a few waves, and a few failed attempts at large wave photographs i noticed large groups of seagulls were still on the stormy waters. They were sticking together and jumping over the breaking waves, but riding the waves that were not breaking yet. It was fascinating to watch. I assume they were in large groups so that there was less chance of them missing an oncoming dangerous wave. These are the best of my shots of that behavior.

Swallow take off! - Wild Bird Wednesday

I took this photo when on a field trip to studland bay near Bournemouth. Me and one of my tutors found ourselves in competition for a photo of this swallow taking off, one of the last to migrate from brittain that year. I am yet to see his photo.

Herring gull

I recently went on a family Holiday to north devon. The gulls there went crazy for any scraps found left on the beach. I took this as one came in close trying to get to some scraps a family had left behind on the beach.