Chaffinch and Blue Tit

Just a couple of photos of birds in the garden. There are a lot that I still need to photograph from the garden species list and I’m sure I can improve on some of these too, but here’s a female Chaffinch and a Blue Tit.

Chaffinch

Blue Tit

Sat in the living room yesterday morning I saw a big flock of Curlew fly over the house and land in the field behind us. I was then determined to get some photos of these and the other coastal and estuarine birds around here. After a quick visit to A&E we went for a walk across the fields and along the banks of the River Leri.

There were quite a few birds around, the flock of curlew was a few hundred strong and there were loads of Lapwing, Canada geese on the water the odd Oyster Catcher, Plovers, Pipts (I think) and some flocks of a duck that I’ve yet to identify. I’m sure someone can identify it from the photos below.

Photographing them was however next to impossible. I’ve only got a 300mm lens so need to get quite close in order to get a decent photo. Having Morgan in tow to start with didn’t help either. I think I need a longer lens, a steadier hand, a bird hide and lots lots more patience! I’m nor giving up yet though and it is quite relaxing sitting on the banks of the river waiting for birds to come to you.

December the 1st, the first day of winter and after what turned out to be a very windy autumn, the weather is right on cue with the first frost.

The winds have eased here in Wales and we had a lovely clear night last night with a nice moon.

Winter Moon

The temperature dropped to -0.7ºC overnight nd then this morning there was a frost and a lovely sunrise.

Frosty Sunrise

We’ve just had some new artwork to brighten up our walls.

The first is a 85cmx60cm canvas from a photo I took earlier in the year. The photo was only taken on my compact camera so I wasn’t sure how good it would look blown up to that size, but it looks brilliant. The canvas wrap is really good too. We got it at a reasonable price from Point 101.

The second is a limited edition print of a Alison Bradley painting. No. 44 of 350 – Day’s End which is an atmospheric image of some surfers wandering up a Welsh beach after a surf session. Very fitting.

Well done to all those who competed in the Aberystwyth Twin Peaks Challenge today. It looked like a great event with good conditions. I hope you put in a time to be proud of. I was the photographer part way up Pendinas and then again on the prom and managed to get some good shots of almost everyone running.

The photos I took are now  online ready for all to see and buy: Aberystwyth Twin Peaks Challenge Photos 2009

Here are a few as a taster, but the link above takes you to the full album. They are ordered and titled by runner number so you should be able to find yourself fairly easily. There are a few here and there where I couldn’t see the number, these should be on the last page of the gallery. Feel free to use the images on your personal blogs or for non-commercial purposes, but please keep the copyright watermark in place. You can buy a full size, non-watermarked digital image from the Aberystwyth Twin Peaks Challenge 2009 Photo Album.

Click here for the full Aberystwyth Twin Peaks Photo Album ».

There are over 200 photos in the album so I have had to reduce the size and quality of them quite a bit for the web but the hi-res versions that you can buy are of course much better.

Sorry if I missed you, but I couldn’t get everyone, it’s nothing personal!

After a damp night, the lawn was covered in tiny little musrooms.

Mini-mushromms

Mini-mushroom

Not a great night for moth-trapping last night. Light winds and dry which is good, but the temperature dropped to 2ºC and we only got 5 moths.

I think all 5 of them were Lunar Underwings (Omphaloscelis lunosa), but as you can see from the photos below there’s quite a bit of variation in colour and intensity of the markings between them which doesn’t really help when it comes to identification.

Lunar Underwings

Of course, if my identification is incorrect and I have something different then let me know. I’m still learning.

Finally after a couple of months off I got out for a windsurf session at Ynyslas today. Conditions were good as well with a 25-35 knot wind and some nice little waves. There were plenty of kite-surfers out as well and four windusrfers in total.

I took my waterproof camera with me as well and tried to get some shots, but it is surprisingly difficult when getting battered by the waves.

Well done to all those who competed in the Forest of Dean Enduro today. It looked like a great event with perfect conditions. The dry, dusty singletrack looked amazing.

I’m still under doctors orders not to ride in such things so I took a whole load of photos instead and they are now  online ready for all to see and buy: Forest of Dean Enduro Photos 2009

Here are a few as a taster, but the link above takes you to the full album. They are ordered and titled by rider number so you should be able to find yourself fairly easily. There are a few here and there where I couldn’t see the number, these should be on the last page of the gallery. Feel free to use the images on your personal blogs or for non-commercial purposes, but please keep the copyright watermark in place. You can buy a full size, non-watermarked digital image from the Forest of Dean Enduro Photo Album.

There are over 600 photos in the album so I have had to reduce the size and quality of them quite a bit for the web but the hi-res versions will be much better.

Sorry if I missed you, but I couldn’t get everyone, it’s nothing personal!

See if you are in the album here.

Our busy weekend continued with a day on the beach (after re-visiting the moth traps set the night before).

Morgan and I had a play in the sea, which gave me a chance to get my waterproof camera properly wet. It coped well and considering its size and durability I’m still pretty impressed with the photos that it takes. I used it to take all of the photos on the beach on Saturday as it is the ideal camera for such locations. I certainly wouldn’t want to be swapping lenses and playing around with my SLR whilst soaking wet and covered in sand. Somehow I don’t think it would like it.

Here I come!

Getting deeper

Glug Glug!

As well as playing in the water we did some ‘beach art’ too. Some of it was for Morgan’s homework, and then we started messing around balancing pebbles and such like.

Beach Art

Pebble Art

Pebble Stack

I also wanted to get some silhouetted shots of Morgan playing on the beach and quite like this one. In fact I might get it printed onto a large canvas so that we can hang it on the wall in the living room.

Playing on the beach

Stand off!

Horses at Ynyslas

Beach Scene