Woodcock in my Garden!

Two weekends ago on the very frosty Sunday morning, upon opening the curtains downstairs I saw a very rare bird indeed. A Woodcock, casually sitting under the bird feeder station without a care or stress in the world. It occasionally fed around the base of one of the feed stations feet for a few hours on and off. Then around lunch time gradually made its way to the bottom of the garden (charging at 2 Jackdaws that landed in the garden in the process). It then resided between the 2 wire boundary fences for a couple of hours. I managed to get photos of the bird with my long lens shooting through the window. These pics follow the timeline of the bird moving to the end of the garden and even meeting our resident Moorhen that was doing a "What the hell are you?" to it... haha.

Just fed

Looking inquisitive

Back detail

About to charge the Jackdaws

Feeding

Out in the garden after charging the Jackdaws

Meeting the Moorhen

In all the bird stayed for around 6 hours in the garden. Those 6 hours were one of the most magical I have had the pleasure of with wildlife. I hope it will return one day after being left undisturbed.

Garden Visitors 4

With the garden being so abundant, it has been hard to fit all my images into least amount of Blogs possible...lol. So this shows the rest that call our garden home most of the time...

First up is the Greater Spotted Woodpecker. A pair (in fact at one point 4 were seen) make daily stops on the Peanut cages at various spots in the garden. The images I have are from a branch I set up extending from the feeder station and only some 25-30ft away from the window shooting from. I have also brought in a dead tree's trunk and fixed it onto a fence post with feeders either side at the bottom of he garden, but time and weather has prevented me from capturing them sitting on it. They are very nervy but bold against other birds on their feeder. We believe to have the Lesser Spotted turn up too but I have yet to capture them. 

 

Looking Disgruntled

Posing

   

I am so privileged to have the wonderful birds visit our garden so regularly. It backs up how safe all the birds in the area feel in our garden. 

Of all the Tit species, this one, the Coal Tit is the most elusive in the garden. A pair do spend a lot of time in the garden picking a Peanut and flying off somewhere to eat it. But they move so quick and within all the shrubbery/ Cherry Tree branches that its been nigh on impossible to capture them. I have managed 2 shots but not of what I really want of them. The first is of a brief landing on the washing line and the second only 7ft or so from my bedroom window.

Life on the Line...

They are like the badgers of the bird world with their White stripe down the back of their heads. The colouring is great too with the Grey wings offset by the Yellow/ Greenish breast area. 

One Storm ridden evening a Song Thrush decided to sing on top of next doors Connifer. With the dark cloud in the distance, it gave me a perfect backdrop to capture him singing (if not quite in the Rain). The light hitting it really made it stand out giving a pleasing record of this behaviour. 

Distance wise it was around 35-40ft away but luckily having the 500mm lens I could get the reach required. 

Every shooting season sees the release of Pheasants on the Park behind us. Some of those each year also become brave and tame I would say, as able to get 12ft from one particular male in 2014. They come in to feed on the seed in the Apple cage like other birds. But with one advantage over the others, in that, they have the height to knock the feeder to get seed to drop out of it onto the ground. Its like ringing the "Dinner Bell". The following captures this in action plus some of the "Tame" Cock Pheasant and the Hen in lovely light.

In this last frame I was actually against the fence looking back to the house, which shows how trusting she and he was. Even though a common sight in the countryside, they are so full of colour and patterning that is always pleasing to see and even more special when seen up close with a wild one.

Bearded Reedlings Up Close at Stodmarsh

It had been quite a while since I was able to visit a Nature Reserve over the summer months. I had visited Stodmarsh one brief Saturday afternoon in August but with hardly any wildlife about proved to be a blank session. Then on Sunday 20th September my friend at my camera Martin invited me along for a bright and early 6am pickup trip to Stodmarsh. We arrived about 6:45am just as the Sun was rising through a beautiful misty morning.

Mistified Cows

We headed to the Turf Fields hide near the Grove Ferry end of the reserve. This can be a prime spot for the Kingfisher. The elusive bird for Martin to yet capture on camera! We hadn't been there long and not only one but two of them flew towards us and split left and right! Doh!. There was mild activity from Mallards and Gadwall I believe. After 30 or so minutes it was evident there was not much going to happen there so we discussed moving on further, as in the distance we could hear and see a few Bearded Reedling. 

From previous trips and conversations with regular visitors I knew where we had a good chance of finally seeing "Beardies" up close. Given that they were always seen very early our chances were increased a lot. After leaving the hide we could hear more of them in front of us. Some further 100yds or so we could see some moving about close to the area I had been told about. A family of 4 people were the other side of this patch of Reeds and the Beardies were moving about undisturbed by their presence. So making our way to the exact location we were confronted by some 8 or so birds down in a Dyke area. 

It was really difficult to get clear unobstructed shots of the Beardies (seen below) then luckily they moved up to become beautifully backlit in the rising Sun. Some even made their way down onto the ground to eat grit for digestion.

We continued to wait around and suddenly there was an influx of about 40 to 50 birds. Having only ever seen two in the very distance at Dungeness Reserve, I was in awe of this magical sight. The next photos are from this showcasing the Bearded Reedlings in their natural behaviour.

The classic shot I was after

As you can see they are magnificent birds and we were so very lucky to experience these so close to us in almost perfect light too. This adds to a year that has provided so many firsts and lucky viewings. On a final note, the Kingfishers never made a close up appearance this day but my friend Martin had chance to return on the Wednesday after this and did finally break his duck with them and also returned another Sunday am to see these in even better light, the lucky sod...lol.

Butterflies and Moths

After initial success with my Fly Macro I have where possible moved into capturing any form of insect or mammal. In this Blog I show what Butterflies and Moths I have captured with not only the Macro set-up but also general lenses. My initial finding was that Butterflies are very skittish and prefer distance between you and them. So a steep curve to getting any shots was embarked on. With some experimentation I wondered if the old 300mm Prime lens would work on the macro extension tubes. So one sunny Sunday in July 2013, while out walking the dogs and armed with this set-up and the other lenses just in case, we set off on the hunt. At the edge of one particular stretch of woods, south easterly facing, was full of Thistle in flower. Being late afternoon the Butterflies were as usual very shy. But with perseverance it paid off.

Painted Lady

Small Tortoiseshell

 The extension tubes allowed the 300mm to enlarge these perfectly and sharp too. I could stand easily 6 feet away from them. The Sun really defines the vibrant colour and form of them. Although very common species, I have always wanted to capture them on film, well digital now...lol.

Small Moth (species unknown)

 The next to come along was in fact indoors on my Settee and so far unable to identify this Moths species. It was very small, about 2cm across and are very common. I loved the contrast between the brown material and the silver pattina. Light was very low and several attempts were made before it paid off for me.

Stacked with several exposures

October of 2013 was the next time a Moth appeared or at least stayed around long enough to photograph. One evening this Moth was hanging around on the garden table. Having read about focus stacking, I had chance to try as this Moth being late evening was very docile, due to lower temperature I believe. About 6 shots from memory were used in this and a stacking program was used to combine them together. I am fairly pleased with the result as the head has so much detail and good depth in focus too.

Well nearly a year passed before I had chance for Butterflies again. The next proved to be at a glorious open house garden with a small and unique classic car show on. The Gardens were full of insect life. Bright golden flowers, some Sunflowers were in full use by Butterflies. Trying another technique by using my 50-200mm I was able to be far enough away just as my first time, but without the need of the extension tubes and getting full metering by the camera too. There were so many of these feeding on the Nectar along with Peacock Butterflies too (I have not included any of them due to very distracting backgrounds and foliage).
 

Comma

Several days later up on the Devils Kneading Trough Reserve on the North Downs I was able to capture a very small but beautiful Butterfly. The Brown Argus. There were several about along with Common Blues, but they proved too elusive to photograph! This time I used my 150-500mm lens at around 500mm. I know the minimum focus is 6ft and thought it would work on these too. Which to my surprise it has. Although the weight of the lens made life very difficult as I had no monopod at this time.

Brown Argus

Then further on on the hill a Meadow Brown with a red parasite on it was spotted. It was preoccupied with feeding I could spend some time shooting it. By coincidence a friend at my camera club had also photographed it around the same time and entered it in the club league competition.

I am very impressed with the quality the lens has delivered and given true representation of these.

A Night on the tiles

Just 3 days later at my girlfriends this Small Tortoiseshell hung around and then landed on the side of the house. I saw a opportunity to do something different and have a comical touch to this. With some tweaking of colour balance etc, I wanted to portray this as being at twilight. Seeing the tiles gave me the idea of a narrative that it would be spending a "Night on the tiles" as the saying goes. Just a twist and bit of fun on a very popular subject.

Next to come and last until this season was an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar. This was spotted the day before in the garden of the house I was decorating at. So the next day I took the camera with me with the expectation of it still being around. And as luck had it, not only this one but another was also in the same patch of plant. Many years ago I actually found a Privet Hawkmoth caterpillar and kept it until it transferred into the Moth and let it go. So I knew this one was the Elephant being brown in colour. I believe it is starting to show signs of transforming into the Chrysalis state with the sheen on its back.

So here you have it, several ways of capturing these beautiful insects but all providing the same results. Hopefully 2015 will also provide some for me to document.

Fly Macro

In 2013 not long after the Barn Owl appearances, I discovered a photographer on a popular social photography website. His main interest lies in portraits, very close-up, of Jumping Spiders and a few other insects in America. He really inspired me into trying out Super-close Macro as it is called. He also happened to use the same brand of camera as me too. After viewing a video he had made on the equipment required, I could see it was really cheap to buy the necessary kit for this type of photography. In fact £7-15 for what are called extension tubes and about £40-50 for the old lenses.

After eventually finding the 28mm lens I needed at a non  extortionate price and being given the extension tubes as a Birthday gift. I was ready to enter into the genre of Super-close Macro. At first it was very hard and I could not see anything. This was in fact due to me being too far away from the subject I soon discovered. To actually capture the detail up close and personal, it turned out I only had to have a distance of around 50mm from the glass to the subject. This was quite unnerving at first, discovering detail suddenly, that was like that of Horror film monsters. I would jump on many occasions when the fly or other insect would appear very large in the viewfinder!

First successful shot

The above image is one of the first attempts out in the field that was fairly successful. It does lack sharpness in the eye, however captures all the fine hairs on the fly that I had no idea they had. The hardest part I found out in this genre is a very small depth of field. The area where there is focus is only about 5mm. This along with my unsteady hand and the other factors of the fly moving along with a slight breeze moving the leaves proved a steep learning curve. To potentially get an image good enough you really have to persevere and use the continuous shooting mode on the camera. 

Anthomyia procellarus

A couple of days later while out in the garden, I saw several of the above fly variety sunning themselves. They are only an average of 7-10mm long and some, as it turned out were very compliant to be photographed. The above fly was very tame in fact and this allowed me to start refining my technique. After acquiring an Insect pocket book guide (partly to find out what insects would bite!) I found out this is called the "Anthomyia procellaris". I was struck to how different by design this fly is to the first one taken just 2 days earlier. The Leopard like black spots are really striking and make the fly really stand out. For an insect that in so many ways represents disease to be so patterned, fuelled my enthusiasm even further to discover what other flies would look like. I managed to get another one of these at another location some weeks later and this one being much larger than the first. Around 15mm in length.

With spring now in mid flow, fly activity was numerous. With the days now longer  and lighter evenings every opportunity I would have, I would patrol the garden and chase down flies that were of a new species. Some had escaped me totally and would never let me close to them. Built in self preservation evident in these instances! Eventually some would not be spooked and the third I was able to capture is the above one. One common theme with all 3 is that they all have grey bodies and Bright red eyes (Although not so evident in the spotted fly above). This is also around 7mm in length and known just as a "Common Fly" like the first. The yellow triangular body part stands out too as a distinctive detail. The next fly was also taken on the same day. Again with grey colouring but this time having a yellow ochre rear abdomen. The shape of the eye is also different to the previous flies in that they are much longer and touch in the middle on top of the head.

Two days later my next fly was captured. This is much smaller than before and only 4mm long. Grey body yet again but with striking Ochre coloured legs. The small depth of field is really apparent in this photo too.

Another new discovery 11 days later is below. Big eyes feature again as does the grey. 

Finally a month later I found a group of flies that were not grey. They were down in a damp area where my Koi pond filter is. This area is damp most of the time, not from leaking water but as it is in shade from the house and fence constantly. They are very small and skittish, but with dedication worth the try. Stunning metallic green and gold covers them all over, including the compound eyes. These are by far my favourite species of fly. They look armour plated and have the friendliest of faces compared to the others. They have yet to return to the garden though after this time, which is a shame as I would like to really work on getting better representations of them.  

 

4mm in length! yes the next fly I photographed was only 4mm long. I first captured it on a white post feeding on something on it. Then while walking the dogs on Wye downs I got it again in a more pleasing setting. It is classified in the "Family Grassflies" and Latin name of "Thaumatomyia" and has taken on the colour scheme of a Wasp to give it a warning to potential predators.

This shows how much magnification I can get with the kit

Small Grassfly

The next is not much bigger and for the first time has a completely different stance and form to those preceding it. More aggressive in nature it actually is predatory on other flies. It also has a metallic covering in gold with red and green tinting in the compound eyes. It could be from the Mosquito family but I cannot confirm this either way.

Cannibal

The typical Common House Fly eventually became available to photograph. This particular fly being very calm in nature and allowed me for the first time to really capture the detail of Compound eyes of insects. The number of individual lenses that make up just one eye is staggering. The face also has a completely new design to others with the jaw like structure on the nose area. 

Look into my eyes...

The Horse Fly, big, bold and with a nasty bite too if you are unfortunate! This particular one was during my lunch break at work last May 2014. I worked in the countryside and with all that is normally found on land with stables, ponds and Nettles. It is a natural proving ground for all forms of wildlife and has provided many subjects for my work.

The Horse Fly

The last fly up until now was taken in July 2014 in my girlfriends garden. Being a town garden and near to a main river has created another diverse habitat for insects. It first struck me how different all of the insects were in her garden compared to that in my own and works countryside gardens. In one area alone there was over 100 Ladybird Lavae in all states of transformation. This metallic green fly was found on grass stalks sunning itself. It took me several attempts to get this shot, but patience paid off, as with all the other photos in this blog.