Planning your Spring Trips - Part 2

This year was the first year that I didn't go to Mull for a few years.  I made six trips in five years.  It is a fine place.  There is a lot if ground to cover, and getting lose to the wildlife requires knowledge, skill, patience and some luck.  OK, so no different to most other places in the UK to be honest.

Now I am either tight as I don't like paying for someone to put me in front of my subjects, or prefer the thrill of my own explorations.  The truth is someone in between, and probably much closer to the last.

Let me explain what I mean.  When I go somewhere new for a holiday, I usually have more subjects that and photos that I want to get than I know is reasonably possible, although it never stops me trying.  With limited time in one location, I have tended to use a wildlife guide, rather than a photo guide to take me round an area so I can see what is where.  Photo opps on these days are usually limited by the activity, and other people.  However, if I can get a day trip out early on, I am then better placed to do my own thing for the rest of the week, or however long I have.

And so it was when I visited Mull on previous years, taking a trip out with Pam and Arthur Brown of Discover Mull, or Steve Duffield of Western Isles Wildlife this year on the Uists.

Mull is a great island with wonderful wildlife but not always close to you, so you do need to work at it.

The typical  big target species that people go to see are Golden Eagle, White Tailed Eagle, Hen Harrier, Short Eared Owl, Ottter, and Corncrake down on Iona.  Early May is a good time to see all of these species, with the SEO and HH being dependant on the vole population.  The first couple of years I went the vole population crashed so the Harriers and Owl were nowhere to be seen.

All of the above were taken on Mull or Iona, the images below were taken on North Uist or Skye, but can be found on Mull

However, many of my best shots, in my opinion were not of the 'big' species.  There are a staggering number of bird species on Mull, I usually just about cracked 100 in a week there.  Some of the best photography can be had working these other species, which I will bring you in the next part.

Martin

Trip Report - North Uist - The Out takes

Well if we are all honest, we all have our cock ups while out taking photographs, and I am no different.

I bought a really nice little guide book (link below), which was duly read up before we left Stratford.  Thinking that would be useful while we were there, particularly for some of the non wildlife interest such as the various stone circles, burial mounds etc.  Well, I suppose it does help if you pack it and take it.  Oh well, at least it isn't worn out for next time.

As mentioned in the Trip Report Day 1 - Part 2, we went out with the MV Stardust to get some White Tailed Eagle images.  The biggest mistake here was being seriously overgunned in the lens department.  It only allowed me to get approach shots of the bird, rather than the fish take, as the bird came so close to the boat.  The 70-200 zoom was needed not a 500 prime.

And just why is it that always the best image in terms of how the subject presents it self is always the one you cock up?

In the sequence I took, this was the best angle of the bird - great wing spread and angle, legs down and a fab tilt of the head - just a shame I cocked up

On the second morning, I got up early and went out looking for some early birds. I had a stunning close by sight of a Short Eared Owl at one end of the Committee Road, but as I was driving at the time, and had a car behind me, it was just a great sighting.  At the far end of the road, I saw another one, quartering across the moor.  Stopping the car, I planned my approach.  The 7D and 500f4 was in the passenger footwell ready to go, I reached across, just by the gear stick and switched it on while watching the road ahead.  Silently rolling the car down to a convenient layby, the bird set down into the moor.  This was going to be great.  With the car stopped, silently opening the door and crouch walking towards the edge of the road, with the car acting as a silhouette breaker, there was my subject.  Great size in the frame - the camera was already set to default C2 mode,  static bird, so I didnt need to waste time checking settings.  Raising the viewfinder to my eye, it looked great.  Pressing the shutter button, nothing happened, no lights in the viewfinder.  I switched the camera on and off again - still nothing.  What the ****!!  Then it clicked - the batteries were on the widow cill back at the lodge in the chargers.

Sneeking back to the car, and lifting the tailgate, I switched to the 1Dmk3 body.  Every little sound I made seemed to amplify and I was sure the bird would fly.  Retracing my steps, I got this image.

Shame about the grass strand over the eye

One of the great delights of the 7D has been the C1, C2 and C3 settings.  This makes it really easy switching between different types of scne, whether your bird is static or flying, against a clear sky or cluttered background, or static against a background.

On the Thursday, we had been to Balaranald at the seawatching point getting images of sea birds in bright light.  With the bright light and whites of the bird, I had dialled out any exposure compensation in my C3 setting (birds against clean sky) to protect the highlights.

On the Friday, we were presented with a male Hen Harrier carrying a vole coming towards the car.  We had to move quickly.  Getting the car into a passing place, we hopped out with cameras ready.  Quick check of dial to C3, and click click click.

It was when I reviewed the rear screen my heart sank.

The metering had worked perfectly.  Evaluative metering, at zero compensation gave me a great 18% grey sky  - I needed to be back at my default settings of about 1 1/2 stops over exposed with the EV comp dial.

The image I posted at the time was a bit of a rescue job in Capture One and with some noise processing and I got this, purely as a record shot to show the bird and prey, but nothing special really.  A reminder to reset the default settings at the end of the day

You will note that that the well known 'Sod's Law' dicatates that all thse cock ups were on signature species.  Why don't they happen when you are photographing a Meadow Pipit or something like that.  Or is it that they do, but you don't notice it and it just becomes another 'Delete image'

Right well that's enough honesty for now - I can't remember any other cock ups. although I am sure there were plenty more

Back next time with some constructive tips

Martin

Trip Report - North Uist - The Landscape

In my recent series from North Uist, I promised I would post up some of the views of the landscape so you could see the sort of terrain.


North Uist is a 'low' island with only a couple of minor hills, the largest being Eabhal at 347 m on the east side of the island.  It covers an area of 117 sq miles with about half of the land mass being water such as small fresh water lochans and peat bogs.  More details can be found here and here if you would like to know more detail about the island.

Our accommodation was based on the west side of the island right next to Loch Hosta,  just by the sea as well.

'X' marks the spot - our accommodation next to Loch Hosta

Hosta Beach

I mentioned the Committee Road in many of my day reports.  This was a great place for Hen Harrier and Short Eared owl and we were never disappointed.

Committee Road through the heather and peat

Peat fires are quite common on North Uist, as there are virtually no trees to be seen.

Each area of the island is allocated a location where they may cut peat.  This is carried out during the summer, and the 'bricks' are stored in a pyramid style to dry out. Once they are dried, they are bagged and taken to the houses.  When we first saw the scene below, it looked like the land was littered with plastic bags from the distance.  but as you got closer you could see the previously cut area, the freshly cut rows, and the bags awaiting collection.

We also visited Balranald a few times as it was very close to our accommodation.  This was where we saw the 'machair' - an area of land behind the dunes by the sea, which comprise of cultivated areas of dune.  This was very popular with the birds as we found out.

The Machair

The beach at Balranald

and further south on South Uist at Ruhba Ardvule

Now with sunrise and sunset being either so early or so light at the time of the year we were there, I did not fancy get up and silly hours to capture the first golden light, so all these images were taken during our normal daytime activities while we were out watching the wildlife.  So no beautiful sunrise or sunset shots this time - maybe next year.

I will do two more posts from our trip.  One covering the out-takes/mistakes, and another with hopefully a couple of useful tips and learning points from using the 7D and other bits.  You will also have to put up with me blogging for a bit as Dave is otherwise engaged for a while as you will have seen from his last post.

Martin

Trip Reports - North Uist - Flora

As promised in previous posts, I said I would put up some images of some of the flora that we saw on North Uist.  Most of the time we were looking for bird life, so I mostly used the wettish part of the Friday to fill in a few natural history record shots.

Lady's Smock

Marsh Marigold

Bog Bean

Wideer view of Bog Bean in water margin

Birds Foot Trefoil

Not a brilliant specimen of Butterwort

Tormentil

Honeydew

Marsh Lousewort

Viola  (not sure of sub species - any advice?)

Northern Marsh Orchid

I was hoping to find the Hebridean Marsh Orchid, a very rare and localised species, but we were too early in the year.  We did find this Northern Marsh spike, among a few.  This was the most advanced, which I took on the Thursday in later evening light.

I wish I had carried out a slightly more detailed coverage of the flowers on the machair, particularly near Balranald, but looks like we will have to get back there again next year.

Next post will cover a bit of the geography and topology of the islands.

Good book for helping identify flowers species, that I used to help with the above.

Martin

Trip Report - Cairngorms - Final Day

We got up very early on the final Saturday to get the 0730 ferry off North Uist and back to Skye.  It was raining hard, but we didn't mind as we had been blessed with a very dry week except for the second half of Friday.  Passing the old haunts of the week previously we were sad to be leaving.  A new species was seen, although one we would prefer not to see - a  Mink.

On the boat crossing, after having succumbed to a Calmac breakfast, we saw numerous Harbour Porpoise, as well as all the usual sea birds along with Kittiwake and Great Skua.

On the run back across to the Cairngorms, we also had sightings of distant Black Throated Diver before we dropped in to RSPB Loch Ruthven to have distant sightings of Slavonian Grebe.  Sadly neither species were close enough for a decent image.  We did pick up some lovely views of Curlew flying by very closely though in the grey light.

Curlew

Moving on to the Caingorms we pitched up at our hotel and met up briefly with Neil McIntyre for a chat.

After a wonderful  meal and pleasant evening, we left the hotel early on Sunday morning and popped down to Neils place for a pleasant couple of hours with these delightful little characters.  They are now going into their summer coats, hence the 'blond' patches and loss of the ear tufts, but they are still beautiful nevertheless.

I know that there are loads of this sort of image about, but I think you can never get fed up with them.

Moving back through the estate, we found a Mistle Thrush looking a little bedraggled from the rain, but finding plenty of worms.

Mistle Thrush

So many thanks to Neil for another great shoot.

We went up to the Cairngorm Ski Lift area to see what we could see, but got into the cloud before we reached the car park.  This year there has been plenty of snow, and skiers and boarders were still heading up the hills on the last weekend of May.

Moving on, we headed to the Inshriach Nursery for coffee and cake.  Well you are totally spoiled for cake, but the views are even better.  There are a lot of feeders set up for viewing with close ups of Red Squirrel, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Siskins, Finches and Tits.  Always worth a drop in if you are in the area.

With the weather not particularly brilliant, we checked out an Osprey location before setting the compass south and driving home.

Arriving back in Stratford about 7 1/2 hours later, we had completed our trip.  1770 miles and 48 mpg.

As mentioned in my last post, I will do a couple more showing the flora and landscape of North Uist.  I hope you have enjoyed each day of our travels and my reports.  I have tried to bring you a different range of wildlife subjects over the week.

Martin

Trip Report - North Uist - Day 7

And so finally we make it to our last whole day on North Uist.  The forecast wasn't brilliant, and so it turned out with the best of the weather expected early in the morning. Getting out of bed to make our first cup of tea, looking out over Loch Hosta I saw a small dark bird flashing across the water towards the lodge at very high speed.  Staying fixed on the subject, she came close by the edge of the lodge, using it as cover as she swept, darting over the mound and fence before terrorising the wading bird population nested down on the moor.  That was as close as I have ever been to a wild Merlin.  It was a stunning start to the day.

 Heading down towards Griminsh quay, I noticed a familiar looking profile on some telegraph wires so we headed towards it.  We got quite close but it then flew off a short way and settled on a much more photogenic location.  Sadly he didn't call for us, as it would have been good to have got it with beak open

Cuckoo

With the expected rain due imminently, I then set about getting a few images of the flora of North Uist which I will put up on separate post in the future

Moving down to Committee Road, once again the Hen Harriers and Short Eared Owls were there for us.

Male Hen Harrier plus Vole

Jac missed a sitter of an SEO right in front of her although I did say I wouldn't mention that  :-)

Moving on down the Committee Road, then rain set in and we went and holed up in the Kirkiboost Community Centre for coffee and cakes.  We met four guys that we chatted to on the boat to the islands and shared tales from our week.  So Dave if you are reading this, drop us a comment.

After a while there we headed back towards home to think about packing up but took a detour down the Balranald road and was pleased to see this Snipe.

'aving a scratch!

Snipe on a big stick had eluded me photographically all week, although we had seen plenty.  At least you can see we did get some rain while we were there.

So that was it for the week on North Uist.   However, I have not finished yet as in future posts, I will bring you some  of the topography and landscape, as well as a separate post on the flora as mentioned above.  Also in the series will be some outtakes and also some tips and tricks that we learned with the 7D and another useful one for helping you find a fast moving subject in the view finder when you have got a big lens plus converter on to stop you waving the thing around and just finding sky.

I also have one more post to bring you of our journey back home as we came via the Cairngorms so I have some great images of a very popular little animal to share.

Martin

Trip Report - North Uist - Day 6

We woke up on Thursday with bright blue skies, warmer temperatures and a different wind direction, after some heavy rain overnight..  The long run of northerly winds that we had been experiencing all week were coming to an end, and had gone round to more westerly.  So with the wind more onshore we headed off to Balranald and out to the sea watching point at Aird an Ruanair to hopefully see some decent sea birds, and hopefully some Skuas.

This little Arctic tern was a regular on this rock just off from our 'garden' at the accommodation, so I thought I would include it in this 'seabird' day.

On the walkout to the point, laden down with cameras, tripods, binos and scope we had some great sightings of a female Merlin and Great Skua.  Settling down on the rocks, with a falling tide we saw many sea birds including Common and Arctic Tern, Gannet, Turnstone, Dunlin, Eider, Razorbill and Cormorant flying by.  

With the 7D's set up using the C1 and C3 custom options for either 'birds against sky' or 'birds against sea' settings, we were able to quickly alternate between settings.  I will cover how we used the gear and these settings in a summary posting at the end of the series  on our trip, along with a number of other tips.

The Arctic Terns were delightful and came fishing in the rock pools as the tide fell

A few Gannets came close by to give us a shot

Cormorant with a bit of up light from the white surf below to help the exposure

Left a bit of space around this to set in the environment - blue seas and white surf

After a good few hours at the sea watching point, and not having seen Long Tailed Skuas that we were hoping for that passage through this point, we moved on back inland.  Just past the location where I photographed the Corncrakes in my last post, we saw these Whooper Swan parents with the two cygnets shown, plus a further three just out of shot.

As mentioned before, one of very few pairs that breed in the UK

After an early supper, again we headed out and back down to the Committee Road for more late evening shots.  As usual the SEO's and Hen Harriers were there and continued to delight us with wonderful views.

A couple of Short Eared Owl shots, again drawn back to set a bit of scale and environment

Distant juvenile White Tailed Eagle.  Again one shared for the scale and to 'sense' the big space

 

Final shot of the post  - Curlew in the last rays of the evening sun.  These birds were wonderful to watch and particularly hear their calls.

Coming in the next instalment of our final day on the Uists will be Cuckoo and Snipe, both of which had eluded us during the week, along with some of the flora of the islands. 

Martin