The elusive wren

And you thought that swallows were hard to shoot? Well you can think again…

I have been on a quest to shoot swallows in flight this summer, and my, they are much harder to shoot than fast and agile whippets. After the swallows disappeared to warmer climates, I was looking for a next challenge until my eye caught a little wren hopping along the tree catching insects.

And a challenge I got. I found the little wren even more difficult than a whippet at full speed or a swallow in flight. I just couldn’t get a decent shot of this tiny, elusive bird that hides in the undergrowth, is extremely shy, and moves too fast from hiding place to hiding place. With a fast subject like a swallow, you can practice technique, but if you only ever see the wren for a second or two, now that’s hard to get.

The opportunity came after the first autumn storm when we had thrown broken branches into a large pile beside our cottage. The pile of lichen covered wood, chopped from the broken branches, proved to be a heaven for a pair of elusive wrens with the insects in abundance. With a lot of patience, I managed to get these images that I am quite chuffed with.

These images again show the quality that my 70-200mm lens and 2x converter delivers wide open and at a high ISO (400mm, 1/200, f5.6, ISO 800).

A wander to the Broomielaw

A lunchtime wander exploring the Broomielaw with some of my work colleagues.

Swallows in flight

And you thought whippets at speed are hard to shoot? Well you can think again…

I had thought that, after many years of practising my skills of action photography capturing super fast lurchers and super agile whippets, I would be able to capture any animal on camera recently competently. So it came as a bit of a surprise that my first attempted to shoot the swallows in flight at the first summer at our cottage failed miserably, resulting in some blurry swallows shots, but mostly, empty frames.

So I went on a quest to master shooting swallows in flight. With a swallows nest under our eves, at least one nest in our neighbour’s shed and many more in the surrounding areas, we had swallows in abundance. The power lines out the back were a favourite place for the swallows and their young to congregate, and at the hight of summer, I would always loose count at 80 or 90.

Key to the quest was watching the swallows, determining their favourite perches and flying routes, before getting the camera out to try to capture them. But then the wind changed, and I was back to square one.

Here are some good and bad shots from this summer. The best ones are the six in the left two columns. Unfortunately the swallows headed for Africa by the time I nearly started to get the hang of it. Ach well, they’ll be back next year for sure.

A wander around Govan Church

A lunchtime wander exploring Govan Church and graveyard with some of my work colleagues.

A wander around The Lighthouse

A lunchtime wander exploring the walkway on The Lighthouse in Glasgow with some of my work colleagues.

A wander to the Barrowlands

A lunchtime wander exploring the Gallowgate and the Barrowlands with some of my work colleagues.

Mist over Loch Ascog

We got the keys to our cottage and headed up with a rented van loaded to the hilt. As the last part of the track, actually more a field, was completely saturated with water and soggy, we decided to leave the van at the bridge. While ferrying the content of the van to the cottage with the help of a wheel barrow during the afternoon, mist started to form across the Loch.

I can kick myself for waiting too long before getting the camera out, as I missed the low sun light filtering through the mist across the loch. When I eventully ended up carrying my camera while walking back and forward, I still got some wonderful shots of the dense mist after the sun disappeared behind rigde, and a later when the mist had partly cleared again with the red sky reflecting in the still water of the loch.

With such a wonderful view on our first day in our cottage, we are very much ooking forward to our time here with (hopefully) loads of fantastic photographic opportunities.

Catedral Metropolitana

Catedral Metropolitana, Ciudad de México

Or in English, the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City.

Mexican sanderlings

I simply sat down on the beech in Tulum with my camera and watched the sanderlings wander along the shoreline searching for crustaceans. Amazing how these lovely little birds were completely unperturbed, not just with passing very closely by me, but also with the noisy flocks of tourists on the beech.

Gold finches in the snow

It started with a small thistle seed feeder in the garden and a pair of very shy gold finches, occasionally visiting the feeder. Then there were seven regularly and now there are twelve daily stuffing their faces. They frequent the two thistle seed feeders and the three sunflower heart feeders we now have in our garden. Surprisingly, they seem to prefer the sun flower hearts over the thistle seeds. Maybe I should write to Colins to get them to update their bird guide.

Beside our kitchen window is a tree with two sunflower heart feeders. The tree provides shelter to the visiting gold finches, chaffinches, blue tits, coal tits, great tits and green finches. At certain times of the day, the tree is heaving with birds while at other times there is no bird to be seen. These shots were taken from our kitchen window on a snowy Sunday morning.

The main image is now my most successful image on flickr: Gold Finch in Flight. OK, not in terms of number of views as one of the Notre Dame School fire images tops this league by far, but certainly in terms of comments and awards.

Hounds in the snow

Bart ‘the Dachshund’ was staying for a sleepover on Saturday night. On Sunday morning I let them out into the back garden and they ended up playing for a long time in the snow. It was wonderful to see them chase, tease and play while heavy snow was falling. From the shelter of the back door, I had a dry vanatage position for taking these images. Hope they do the fun they had justice.

A wander to the financial district

A lunchtime wander exploring the financial district in Glasgow City with some of my work colleagues.