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Sunday 21 August 2011

Red-necked Grebe again

Had a sleep in for a change this morning and as the weather was good I decided to quickly have a go at the Red-necked grebe at Gailey again. 

On arrival it seemed the grebe had moved to the other side of the pool and the sun was right in front of you :(

After spending the next 4 hours waiting and moving around with the good company of Bob I managed to get a few action shots.


Saturday 20 August 2011

Red-necked Grebe & Nuthatch

This morning I met with Ken and we visited cannock chase to try for some small birds.  One of my fav birds were showing so I had to get a few shots.  Apart from the nuthatch, blue tit, great tit and coal tits there wasn't alot else :(

Our good friend Pete was at Gailey trying for the Red-necked Grebe so after a few text messages to check it was showing we headed over to see him. 

After a few hours it did come towards us but it was still a far distance.  Hopefully if the weather is good I may try again tomorrow. 


Saturday 13 August 2011

Red Kites at Nant-yr-Arian

After seeing some photo's from others this is a place I have wanted to visited for some time now.  I went with one particular shot in my mind and that was the Water shot. 

I got there a few hours earlier than the feeding time of 3pm so my son could have a play in the park area.  On arrival the weather was not good at all with white clouds everywhere and they were very low to the point where you couldn't see the tree tops at times. 

The place seemed pretty quiet at first but by the time 3pm came it was very busy with kids.  Lucky for me they mostly left after the first feeding frenzy thinking it was all over.

Shooting hand held at 400mm with low light and white cloud makes things a little more challenging.  Below are the best from the day but I will be visiting again to try again.

The water shot I was after.
 White clouds.
 Flyby
 Flyby

Wednesday 10 August 2011

West Midlands Safari Park

With a week off work I decided to take the wife and son to the Safari Park.  We arrived around noon and joined the traffic around the safari.  It was bumper to bumper all the way around and took us over 2 hrs to complete.  I managed a few shots but everything was just sleeping in sun and not really doing a lot, like I would :)

After some lunch and a few hours on the rides we decided to drive around again about 6pm as it was now quiet.  This time we only saw a few cars all the way around and the animals we really wanted to see where out playing around.  The highlight of the day was the lions as the young were playing around with each other and at times they came within a few feet of the car.

All in all a great day out and I will be visiting again very soon.  Here are a few mixed pics from the day.




Monday 8 August 2011

Trip to Attenborough NR

As things have been real slow around here it was decided to take a trip to the trusty Attenborough NR. 

We set off early with the hope of seeing something a bit different.  After approx. 2 hrs of walking around the NR we hadn't even taken a pic again.  As you can imagine Ken was not assumed after lugging his 600mm around with him. 

Once back at the car park we noticed a few brown jobbes flittering around in the trees.  After closer inspection we noticed there were a few blackcaps.  That was it, tripods set up :)




















Once we managed to get a few shots we headed to the lake next to the visitors centre where we managed a few great crested grebe,tufted duck and red crested pochard. Ok nothing special but I was just happy to take a few pics to be honest.