Perfect Day On The Humber

Yesterday was one of those rare days where everything just clicked into place.

The couple of days before had been foul weather and yesterday it was forecast bright sunshine nearly all day.I figured that the raptors would have had little opportunity to feed in the bad weather so they would be making the most of the sunny conditions.

I walked to my favoured spot and there were some good signs on the way. A female hen harrier was hunting distantly and a male flew up from the saltmarsh. Three short eared owls took flight.

I got into position around 10am and within the hour a male hen harrier flew past at fairly close range. The female stuck to the back of the field too distant for photographs. A couple of marsh harriers were hunting distantly, a kestrel was hunting nearby and a sparrowhawk made a couple of low darting flypasts in typical fashion. It all quietened down across midday and then I was made awaye of a bird above me given away by its shadow-I looked up and it was one of the male hen harriers-we were eyeball to eyeball bo more than 5m apart! Needless to say it drifted off once it clocked me and gave no chance of photos.

A call from a friend said that he had one of the males quite close. By now the sun was movong round so I decided to move.

I wasn’t at my new spot for long before the female re-appeared-still a long way away away but a good sign.

Not long after one of the males made a close fly-by and then almost immediately another one appeared and caught a vole. They stayed around distantly for a while then the light started to go. As we made our way back a couple of short-eared owls performed well with one giving a close fly-by.

My new gear really came into its own-most of the hen harrier shots were taken with the teleconverter engaged giving an effective focal length of 840mm. The images have then been quite heavily cropped so when I said close fly-by, that would be around 60m away.

The weather looks pretty grim for the forseable future so it may be a while before i go back again-no doubt the winter sun really does make the images.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Raptors on The Humber

My favourite winter project is to photograph raptors that over winter 9or in some cases) reside on the Humber, its one subject that I’ll never tire of. Just looking at my hen harrier gallery alone, there are nearly 400 images there and I’m just in the process of planning my next trip-to photograph hen harriers!

Fortunately The Humber is also home to an impressive list of other raptors which often frequent the same habitat, so if the hen harrier action is slow, theres usually something else to keep me occupied.

I am a very big fan of preparing and researching a visit and over time I have been able to pin down some key elements (weather and time of year are obvious ones) but also the state of the tide (high tide is usually best to photograph merlin on The Humber for example. I’ve even found out that some fields suit different raptors depending on the height of the grass and weeds.

Once I’m happy with my research I like to set up for a long period of time in oe spot-I’m firmly of the belief that I should let the birds come to me rather than trying to chase them around.

That involves selecting a suitable location (on a bak, beneath a hedge or simply using one of the recently erected screens between Skeffling and Welwick. In any case I know I might be in for a long wait and would be happy to spend all day lying in wait. Some days this pays off and most days not so but that is the joy of wildlife photography and part of waht makes it so special-especially when all pieces of the plan fall in to place.

So hows it going so far this year I hear you ask?

Well I’m happy that the research phase is over and that I have found a couple of reasonably productive spots. Also the fact that there has been up to 3 male hen harriers on The Humber is also another important factor. So now two more things need to happen-firstly we need some bright weather as its been atrocious in the last few weeks and secondly I need to be there on a day when everthing clicks-light, wind direction and closeness of the subject. Good job there’s still all of the winter to go then!

Below are a few images that I’ve taken in the last few weeks.

Kestrel

Common Buzzard

Common Buzzard

Common Buzzard

Common Buzzard

Common Buzzard

Sparrowhawk

Sparrowhawk

Sparrowhawk

Sparrowhawk

Late Autumn at Spurn

Well Autumn took an unexpected twist this week. Unfavourable winds brought in a few migrants to Spurn, fortunately they all converged on the same place making for a very pleasurable couple of hours.

News came through on Thursday that a pallas’s warbler was in Sykes Field at Kilnsea and it was accompanied by a yellow-browed warbler and a firecrest. With a trio of birds like that it was difficult to resist so I was on my way by half-ten.

The particular area they were all frequenting is a u-shaped line of willows with the southern end open. Conditions weren’t great for photography, however I think that cloudy, misty conditions actually add to the image and capture the atmosphere and ‘feel’ of the day.

The pallas’s warbler had been trapped and ringed the previous day and it weighed less than 5 grammes.It find it utterly incredible that this tiny lightweight had travelled from somewhere in Siberia, crossed the north sea in unfavourable winds and hereit was in a feeding frenzy, trying to build up its weight to continue its journey to who knows where!

The yellow-browed warbler will have made a similar journey and if I were guessing, I’d presume the firecrest had come from continental europe at least.

Conditions werent great for photography but my new nikon kit coped more than adequately. the more I get used to this stunning technology, the better the results appear to be.

Maybe Autumn has a few more surprises yet?