Tourist Time

Earlier in the week, while waiting on the railway platform for my train, I heard the unmistakable sound of a Raven 'cronking' overhead.  Great to see and hear these fabulous birds in Warwickshire.

On Friday, Jac and I took a day off work and went to London to be tourists. One of the places that neither of us had been to was the Tower Of London, so that's where we started.  I was particularly looking forward to seeing the Ravens , probably more than anything else.

Now they are obviously not wild, and each of those that we saw had one of their wings clipped to prevent them flying off.  We can deliberate over that and while I have my views, I understand both sides of the argument.

Notwithstanding, it does give lots of people chance to see these iconic and friendly birds at close quarters.

I grabbed a few images with the Panasonic P & S, and the 5Dmk2 and 24-70 f2.8L.

Easy to tell which is from which camera.

 Canon and converted from RAW

 Pana in jpeg

Canon but in jpeg

While I sometimes shoot in RAW and jpeg with the 5Dmk2, the jpeg images just never 'cut it' in quality after a bit of Capture One processing, IMO.

With a windy period coming up in the UK as we get the leftovers from Hurricane Katia, I hope all of you stay safe.

Martin

MIni trip report - Part 3 - Ravens

I like Ravens.  I like their sounds, I like theeir skillful flying and and like the interactions that go on between Ravens, and also with other birds.

Gigrin is a great place to see them as there are lots there.

They are one of the first birds into the feeding arena as with the other Corvids as they are not shy and want to make sure they get their fill early on.

However, being all black birds they are very difficult to photograph well.  I will share a couple of images, not because they are particularly good pohotos - I dont think they are.  But as record shots showing the typical flying, chatting as they go, and also into a typical environmental 'in an Oak Tree in Wales' kind of way.  They can be even more difficult when the light is flat and crap, without even a decent catchlight.

If you click on large, you will still see a fair bit of detail retained.  The 7D does a pretty good job of getting the detail out of a diffcult subject  Both at ISO800.

Kites to come soon - so many to review and process!!

Martin

Garden update - Blackbird Wars

The very cold weather is bringing plenty of activity into the garden as there are plenty of food options  that I have put out.

Up to 20 blackbirds this morning. It has been fascinating watch them take their little bits of space and see

them studiously watching their nearby rival, before flying at them in a threat display and  watch that displaced bird moving off to displace  another bird ....and so on.  It is like watching a sequence of chess moves.

There have also been significant numbers of sparrows and wood pigeon.chaffinches and now coming in large numbers too.

An occasional Redwing or two drops into the apple tree or maybe have a bath in the pond.

It is a constant job keeping the ice clear on the pond - it is now over two inches thick, but the birds are constantly using it to drink.  So please make sure you put out water for them in your garden a couple of times a day.

Early yesterday morning looking out the window, a very large dark shape came across and settled on the top of a neighbours tree.  Looking much larger than the usual Crow or Rook, a quick check though the binos revealed it to be a Raven.  I have seen Raven overhead in Stratford a few times but not settled like.  It sat there for about five minutes until it was intercepted by a Crow which forced it away.  But a great sight nonetheless.

I spent some time freezing my feet in the hide yesterday with little result, but will put some Blackbird images up to go with this story in a while.

No more sign of the female Blackcap that I saw last week.  Maybe I was just too hopeful that I would have another garden resident.  If she has any sense she will be a good few hundred miles south in Europe where it will be much warmer.  But we are getting a couple of regular Pied Wags in to make up for it.

Martin