Glimpses of Wildfowl and Wetlands

SLIMBRIDGE & MARTIN MERE

29th October and 4th November 2013

November has been a busy month, and I have had some computer problems, so I don't have much to show here.
A quick visit to Slimbridge gave nice views of a group of cranes from the Great Crane Project foraging in the Rushy Pen.



I was also pleased to get a nice shot of a shoveler drake feeding in the sun directly in front of the Martin Smith hide. I always think that the shoveler is most colourful of British ducks.



My day at Martin Mere was rather frustrating, when the light was good there weren't too many birds around; when the birds arrived the light went off. In addition I too a lot of blurred shots: I have decided to give up on my bean bag, resting my long lens directly on the hide's window frame gives much better results.
The only photo I really liked was this one of two whooper swans, shot from a lower angle than usual against a bright blue sky. I had to clone out a wing from the bottom left hand corner.

White plus Black and Grey

LITTLE EGRETS & JACKDAWS AT SLIMBRIDGE

1st May 2013

Rather later than intended, here are the photos I took at Slimbridge before Monty the crane appeared.

I had excellent views of little egrets hunting in front of the Martin Smith and Robbie Garnett hides. It was not so long ago that seeing a little egret in full breeding plumage would have sent any British birder into paroxysms of joy. It is too easy to become dismissive about these beautiful birds now that they have become so familiar. They are very elegant all the year round, but in spring their plumes or aigrettes add an extra dimension.

As I have written  before, water bird shots look good when there is a reflection to offer a double view of the subject and this also shows the quality of the water surface; the photo below demonstrates the energetic way that egrets shuffle their feet to disturb their prey, even when the water is deeper than their ideal. With pure white birds, you get a marvellous bonus when ripples are reflected from their breasts.

The birds in front of the Robbie Garnett hide were so close that I couldn't include the main reflection - although of course I was using the 700mm combination. I think there are three different egrets in these photos, they don't seem to take much notice of each other when they are foraging. Watching through the viewfinder I thought the bird below was warning off another, but when I looked around there was no other bird nearby.

You certainly don't have to watch a hungry egret for too long before you see it make a catch; they are remarkably efficient hunters of small fishes. These birds were catching sticklebacks. You can see the stickleback's spines in the photo below, but they didn't save the fish from the egret.

The traditional problem with shooting white birds in bright sunlight is overexposure, resulting in loosing highlight detail ('blowing the highlights' in photographic jargon). The conditions for these shots were a stiff test, but I think I have avoided this problem: I always set my D300s to underexpose by 2/3 stop compared to the factory setting, which usually avoids the problem, particularly as I always try to use the minimum ISO setting (200) - but a couple of test shots and a histogram check are still advisable. I also shoot 14-bit NEF (Nikon Raw) images, so that I have a little extra safety margin available when I am processing a 12-bit image. I use Capture NX2 because it is matched to NEF images and I like to set white and black control points on my images to get a full tonal range.

I'm quite sure that jackdaws recognise that inside the boundaries of Slimbridge, people are no threat, so they are very relaxed when close to the hides. Jackdaws are favourites of mine: adaptable, agile, intelligent, sociable and wonderful fliers. This bird was having a rest after raiding the feeders opposite the Robbie Garnett hide, I think (s)he felt that the seed mix was too good for the goldfinches and great tits.

This bird was hunting insects in the grass right in front of the Martin Smith hide.The problem with these photos is that there is no true white point in them (even the highlight in the eye of the bird below is distinctly blue). I find it much harder to process these shots by setting a black point and finding a true neutral grey point and adjusting its brightness.

Monty’s Birthday Bath

A CRANE AT SLIMBRIDGE

1st May 2013

I have been itching to get to Slimbridge since I learned that a pair of the cranes released by the Great Crane Project had returned to Slimbridge and built a nest on Tack Piece, right in front of the Martin Smith Hide. I finally had my chance on May Day.

When I reached the hide, a little before 11am, it became clear that the birds had not gone through with their attempt. This was hardly surprising because they are still very young. I caught a glimpse of the pair in the far corner of the field, but by the time I reached the Holden Tower, the birds had flown.

I had seen a group of 5 cranes in the distance on my previous visit to Slimbridge in February, so I was disappointed not to get a better view. Anyway I had a walk around the grounds, without taking any photos until I returned to Tack Piece and managed to get some shots of little egrets and jackdaws (which will appear here soon, of course).

I decided to make a final visit to the Martin Smith Hide just before 2pm. Shortly after I sat down, a WWT volunteer entered the hide and pointed out that one of the cranes was close to the boundary fence (I admit I hadn’t spotted it, Tack Piece is a large field). He said he was going to give a talk about the cranes outside the hide in a few minutes. Luckily I was sitting close to the door, so I could hear his talk but also keep my eyes on the crane which was coming closer.

Actually I already knew quite a bit about the Great Crane Project, which is trying to reintroduce cranes to south west England. They have imported 20 crane eggs from Germany each year since 2010. The chicks are reared at Slimbridge, using techniques developed at the International Crane Foundation at Barraboo, Wisconsin to help them to survive in the wild. Then they are released in the Somerset Levels. A few of the older birds have returned to Slimbridge for visits in the past year, although it is at least 40 miles north of their intended home.

I knew that the cranes which tried to nest were Monty and Chris, who were in the group I saw previously. As the crane approached the hide, I thought it looked tall enough to be a male, so I guessed it might be Monty. I was amazed that it came straight back to the nest, now occupied by a broody coot, so I took care to get some shots showing the colour rings on its legs.

A quick visit to the GCP website (http://www.thegreatcraneproject.org.uk/) in the evening confirmed that this bird is Monty. I also learned that he had hatched on 1st May 2010, so it was his third birthday! He celebrated by having a nice bath in front of the hide, so I had an amazing opportunity for photographs – luckily my 500mm and TC1.4 combination was long enough for decent framing – these cranes are wild birds that have been trained to avoid humans, if Monty had come any closer to the hide he would probably have been scared off.

When the volunteer finished talking, I felt that I ought to spread the word, so I stuck my head out of the door and said ‘one of the cranes is having a bath straight in front of the hide’ and the other visitors were able to see Monty for themselves.

I see from the GCP website that the first batch of 2013 eggs arrived at Slimbridge on May Day. They plan to bring in more eggs next year, and it is hoped that Monty and Chris and their contemporaries will nest successfully by 2015.

NEWS  20th May

WWT have announced that Monty and Chris are incubating at least one egg in a new nest in the Rushy Pen, just over the fence fromTack Piece.

UPDATE 4th June 

WWT announced yesterday that a crane chick hatched successfully, but disappeared within a couple of days. It either fell victim to a predator or to a spell of bad weather. Disappointing news, but hardly unexpected for such young parents.

A Quickie at Slimbridge

 A bit of luck

Driving south through snowy England, I broke my journey at Slimbridge (much nicer than any of the motorway service areas). It was dull and grey, but the now made flat lighting more interesting. I only stopped for an hour or so, but it was well worth the effort. There wasn't much to see, indeed I have never seen fewer birds on Tack Piece in 39 years of irregular visiting, just a handful of sleepy Bewick's swans and a hungry looking buzzard.
The feeding station next to the Robbie Garnett hide had more activity, a couple of birders were photographing the tits and jackdaws on the feeders, but just after I arrived a water rail walked out of the reeds to join the moorhens in the shallow water around the feeders. I drew the nearer birder's attention to it as quietly as I could and then got out my camera with the 500mm lens and rested it on my beanbag. Fortunately the rail was reasonably co-operative and stayed around for at least 5 minutes, finding a couple of morsels worth eating. I had to use a very slow shutter speed at 200 ISO but I took 110 photos to give myself the best chance to make the most of the opportunity. Looking at the results, I was surprised to see how much the bird moved its head, even when its body was quite still. This shot was by far the best (1/60s at f/5).

I got a few more shots of Bewick's swans and pintails at the Rushy. But these are high key images which will need careful processing, so I won't rush to post them.
I then drove on through a heavy snowfall in Somerset. Conditions were so bad that a military Chinook helicopter (the big 2 rotor job) throbbed north up the motorway at about 50 feet as I was making a phone call at Taunton Dean services: I assume the pilot had to use the motorway to navigate in the white-out conditions.