Sunday 5 February 2012

Before the snow

Rob and I went out yesterday to take some test pics with the Sigmonster, to send to Sigma. Despite being repaired, it is still underexposing by up to a full stop (getting worse the further you zoom). So our short visit to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve was mostly spent taking simultaneous photos of the same subjects using various different lenses. It was very cold (more ice than last Wednesday) and rather grey and still.

Not many photos taken besides the test shots, but while Rob was setting up in Grebe hide I photographed the tits coming to the feeders.

Heavily cropped male Bullfinch, from the car park. My best photo yet of this species... but there are acres of room for improvement!

On the way to Willow hide we met a woman coming the other way, who advised us (really rather strongly) not to bother going there because the lake was iced over. We went anyway. There was a small patch of clear water around the island, full of Coots, but all the ducks seemed to have moved on, apart from a couple of Mallards. Another couple in the hide found the Bittern sitting out in full view, sadly much too far away for a good photo. It took both Rob and I a while to find it despite clear directions. My terrible photo at least shows its great camouflage!

We didn't see much else as we didn't check the East lake, but there were rumours of a Jack Snipe somewhere, as well as the White-fronted Goose that I may or may not have seen on Wednesday.

7 comments:

Hawky said...

maybe she just didnt want to share her bittern spot hehe!

Such a quality blog Aiki (or would you prefer marianne on here? :) )

Forever looking forwards to your next post

Alan Pavey said...

The Bullfinch is a really nice pic, that camouflage is great... I can't find it!! :-)

Marianne said...

Thanks, Hawky. You can call me Marianne here! Alan, look at 9 o'clock for the Bittern :)

ShySongbird said...

Hee hee, that camouflage is so good that I thought I had found it four times before I actually did :-)

Love the colourful Bullfinch!

Mike H said...

Great Bullfinch shot Marianne. Glad you told Alan where to look for that Bittern as i couldn't see it first time. If you click on the photo and enlarge it it makes it easier. Thanks

Millhouse Photography said...

The Bluetit is a lovely shot Marianne.

creadur said...

fantastic stuff! We should totally do a collaboration some time.