We've given up at the caravan at the moment. while we were warm in the van, the weather has meant we have been stuck inside with little to do. We decided we might as well be at home for a while.
It's frustrating because I felt I was beginning to get somewhere with both photography and fishing. I sat out fishing for a few hours yesterday and set my camera up on a tripod at the side of me, focussed on a branch. Pinned to the back of the branch was a tiny plastic pot (about 1.5cm diameter) with some maggots in. After an hour, I got bored with photographing the robins (2). Then a wren paid me a visit. He (or she) wouldn't sit on the branch, but kept coming down on the ground, right by my feet. I tried manouvering the camera and tripod to get a photo, but most of the time it was too close to focus. It's not often you need the macro facility to photgraph birds! It sat there for some time, no more than two feet away from my two feet.
I did manage to get one shot of it, which pleased me, as it is one of my "target" birds this year. It isn't really a "gallery" shot, but it is a start and has given me some ideas.
While I was sat there fishing I saw, among the more common residents:
Kestrel
Curlew
Shag
long-tailed tits
goldcrest (2).
I had got up early because I heard the grey-lagged geese on the lake, but by the time I got out, they had flown off. I would really like an atmosperic shot of them on a misty lake or taking off directly towards me.
We also have a pheasant that roosts in the tree right at the side of our caravan.
The coots are back on the lake (they seem to disappear in the summer) and there are plenty of moorhens and mallard.
I haven't seen the kingfisher yet, which worries me a little, as I've sat watching for him (and her).
Wow!
We left this morning to return home. Just round the corner from the site (about 200 yards away), there are two fields that the farmer has turned into water meadows. As I drove past, I saw a fantasic sight of hundreds (yes, hundreds) of waders feeding in the fields. I couldn't identify many, as I was driving down a single track road with a car behind me, but there were curlew and what looked like sandpipers, etc. I just hope they are still there when I get back. I will have to see if I can get permission to go into the edges of the fields. We often get curlew flying over our lake and I have even got them to make a diversion towards me by calling them, but I didn't realise there were so many close by. We also get little egrets flying over and on several occasions they have tried to roost at the lake side, only to be frightened off.
Well, that's all for the future, right now it's back to the garden.
It's frustrating because I felt I was beginning to get somewhere with both photography and fishing. I sat out fishing for a few hours yesterday and set my camera up on a tripod at the side of me, focussed on a branch. Pinned to the back of the branch was a tiny plastic pot (about 1.5cm diameter) with some maggots in. After an hour, I got bored with photographing the robins (2). Then a wren paid me a visit. He (or she) wouldn't sit on the branch, but kept coming down on the ground, right by my feet. I tried manouvering the camera and tripod to get a photo, but most of the time it was too close to focus. It's not often you need the macro facility to photgraph birds! It sat there for some time, no more than two feet away from my two feet.
I did manage to get one shot of it, which pleased me, as it is one of my "target" birds this year. It isn't really a "gallery" shot, but it is a start and has given me some ideas.
While I was sat there fishing I saw, among the more common residents:
Kestrel
Curlew
Shag
long-tailed tits
goldcrest (2).
I had got up early because I heard the grey-lagged geese on the lake, but by the time I got out, they had flown off. I would really like an atmosperic shot of them on a misty lake or taking off directly towards me.
We also have a pheasant that roosts in the tree right at the side of our caravan.
The coots are back on the lake (they seem to disappear in the summer) and there are plenty of moorhens and mallard.
I haven't seen the kingfisher yet, which worries me a little, as I've sat watching for him (and her).
Wow!
We left this morning to return home. Just round the corner from the site (about 200 yards away), there are two fields that the farmer has turned into water meadows. As I drove past, I saw a fantasic sight of hundreds (yes, hundreds) of waders feeding in the fields. I couldn't identify many, as I was driving down a single track road with a car behind me, but there were curlew and what looked like sandpipers, etc. I just hope they are still there when I get back. I will have to see if I can get permission to go into the edges of the fields. We often get curlew flying over our lake and I have even got them to make a diversion towards me by calling them, but I didn't realise there were so many close by. We also get little egrets flying over and on several occasions they have tried to roost at the lake side, only to be frightened off.
Well, that's all for the future, right now it's back to the garden.
