Thursday 26 March 2009

Local Patch-Raleigh


Things are hotting up in my local area as spring kicks in-out and in again, The spring migration is in full flow and every visit to lakes show more and more ospreys, Yesterday i revisited the nest and there were 4 ospreys circling over, One would drop onto the nest and the other 3 would swoop down,The one on the nest would literally back flip as if you grab the swooping bird,then all fly off and have some fun in the air calling each other before doing it all again, I did get some shots,nothing spectacular but the account is now well and truly open,The weather yesterday was very grey which made metering difficult so i used manual mode and after a couple of test shots i realised that to get a bird in flight properly exposed i would need to completely blow the sky which was fine as it was a horrible grey anyway, I used the Nikon D3 along with the 600+1.4x but the conditions meant that i needed to go up to ISO 800 and sometimes ISO 1600, The D3 is famous for its high ISO capabilities but in order to get grain free ISO 1600 shots you need to have the exposure bang on,Any adjustments in processing will bring the grain out,
The garden is going very well with more and more birds turning up everyday as well as different mammals,The usual suspects are still coming like cardinals,junco,sparrows (2 types now) woodpecker,tufted titmouse,pine siskin and a sparrowhawk but we now have new guests that are regulars like American goldfinch that are just coming into breeding colours,Nuthatches (2 types) warblers,bluebirds and yesterday whilst in the hide a brown headed cowbird-what a crazy name-no udders and doesn't moo,still nice to see and a great addition to the portfolio,
Mammal wise i have deer coming every night along with 2 possums,2 grey fox and the other night a raccoon and lots of squirrels-not too bad for a small town garden,
All this means that i can grab the camera and spend a pleasant hour or 2 in the hide when the conditions allow,I haven't tried for the mammals yet as most come out when its dark so will need a couple of extra flashguns for that but will continue to feed them to get them into a routine,

Dave

2 comments:

  1. The shot of the two Osprey's at the nest is great Dave, well caught, keep them coming.
    Iain.

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  2. Thanks for looking and leaving a comment Iain,I will be back in a few days when the weather decides to brighten up

    Dave

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