Upton Warren (2 Viewers)

[upstarts1979]

Birding at the Moors 17th Feb

I Arrived at east hide at 12pm. Spent a good 2 hours or more with Des and Stu sheltering from the sleet and rain and taking photos of Little egret mostly. This bird had many body plumes and performed well in front of the hide catching lots of small fish. Also about was a displaying pair of GCG's, 14 Curlew again posing on the nearest shingle island. As the rain intensified the 20 common [/B]snipe came out of their roost to feed in a roving mass over the scrape islands of Amy's marsh. The only other waders were the flock of about 300 Lapwings many of which were feeding in the field behind the hide. The duck numbers had mostly increased since sunday with 27 shoveler, 4 Shelduck, 10 Teal, 25+ Tufted and 40 Pochard. Water rail were calling from the reed beds. It looked like a pair of LBBG were holding territory and a 1st summer Herring gull

In the first picture of the East Island in Amy's Marsh there are a number of species How many ?

 

[warrener]

I Arrived at east hide at 12pm. Spent a good 2 hours or more with Des and Stu sheltering from the sleet and rain and taking photos of Little egret mostly. This bird had many body plumes and performed well in front of the hide catching lots of small fish. Also about was a displaying pair of GCG's, 14 Curlew again posing on the nearest shingle island. As the rain intensified the 20 common [/B]snipe came out of their roost to feed in a roving mass over the scrape islands of Amy's marsh. The only other waders were the flock of about 300 Lapwings many of which were feeding in the field behind the hide. The duck numbers had mostly increased since sunday with 27 shoveler, 4 Shelduck, 10 Teal, 25+ Tufted and 40 Pochard. Water rail were calling from the reed beds. It looked like a pair of LBBG were holding territory and a 1st summer Herring gull

In the first picture of the East Island in Amy's Marsh there are a number of species How many ?

Good to have a chat yesterday John. Some more images of the Little Egret taken on Wednesday if anyone is interested.

http://stuartandrews183.fotopic.net/p63356633.html

Stuart

 

[Gertatron]

In the first picture of the East Island in Amy's Marsh there are a number of species How many ?[/QUOTE]

At least 7!

 

[Duck_Pond]

A lovely selection of shots there Stu :t:

Today looks like a day to be spent somewhere in the warm, doesn't it?!

 

[wheatearlp]

In the first picture of the East Island in Amy's Marsh there are a number of species How many ?

Assuming you only mean species of bird , I can definitely see 7 (LBBG, H.Gull, BH Gull, Lapwing, Coot, Shelduck & L Egret) but I suppose one of the blobs on the left of the east island could be a Snipe. No doubt there's a Teal tucked away somewhere too.

Cheers
Mike

 

[upstarts1979]

In the first picture of the East Island in Amy's Marsh there are a number of species How many ?

At least 7![/QUOTE]


Got it gert
cheers john

 

[upstarts1979]

Assuming you only mean species of bird , I can definitely see 7 (LBBG, H.Gull, BH Gull, Lapwing, Coot, Shelduck & L Egret) but I suppose one of the blobs on the left of the east island could be a Snipe. No doubt there's a Teal tucked away somewhere too.

Cheers
Mike

Hi Mike
I kept looking at that black blob thinking it was a coot I don't know what it is but there is a common snipe bottom left and up a bit.
cheers John

 

[upstarts1979]

A lovely selection of shots there Stu :t:

Today looks like a day to be spent somewhere in the warm, doesn't it?!

East hide would be nice.Pete
Yeh thats why I'm at home. Now if it was spring I would defo be there.

cheers John

 

[midlands birder]

today at upton, the little egret still in front of the east hide and showing superbly, also a new in wigeon, a great drake as well, the male siskin is still on the causeway with a flock of goldfinch, 18 snipe and 14 curlew, not loads of stiff but nice, would be better if the rain stopped........
MB

 

[upstarts1979]

today at upton, the little egret still in front of the east hide and showing superbly, also a new in wigeon, a great drake as well, the male siskin is still on the causeway with a flock of goldfinch, 18 snipe and 14 curlew, not loads of stiff but nice, would be better if the rain stopped........
MB

Hi Craig
A trickle of stuff all week nothing major but people sometimes dismiss february as a nothing month. The snow that is now falling will hopefully stir things up a bit. I will be there tomorrow so the place has been well watched this week. Lets hope its the big one Friday.
cheers John

 

[warrener]

A lovely selection of shots there Stu :t:

Today looks like a day to be spent somewhere in the warm, doesn't it?!

Thanks Pete. Went to try and see the GGS this morning but was defeated by the cold wind after spending about an hour and a half looking around.

 

[upstarts1979]

Birding at the Flashes 17th Feb 2010

Spent longer in the feeding station than I normally would have. Two water rail feeding in the open totally oblivious to me and Des. One actually squeezed into the 2inch mesh cage to grab seeds another waited below the sed feeder to gather any spilliage. 5 Bullfinch and 12 reed buntings were the other highlights. A cettis sang close by just as the Little Egret flew over from the Moors. Into the main hide a large gathering of lapwings numbered a min of 600, but only a hanful of common snipe appeared. The little egret fed in front of the hide also the 3rd flash and the sewage works spooking the Teal everytime it got close to them. As dark approached more birds came into roost to join the 63 Teal many of which were feeding in the flooded cut areas of reed and grass around the 2nd Flash, these included 205 BHG, 10 Curlew, 4 shelduck, 50 mallard, 1 tuftedand 12 Greylag. A noticeable increase in general bird numbers around the flashes saw 33 Stock dove, small flocks of starlings, calling water rail, 10 coot and a drumming great spotted woodpecker.

The water level has risen about 1cm since sunday but will dropped before the march work party

cheers John

 

[upstarts1979]

Hi Mike
I kept looking at that black blob thinking it was a coot I don't know what it is but there is a common snipe bottom left and up a bit.
cheers John

There are 8 species that black blob is in the same position on 6 other shots but had gone on a later shot so it was a coot:eek!:
Lbbgull, Herring gull, BHG lapwing, coot, snipe shelduck and little egret, I am new to this birdwatching game so I get a bit confused:-C

 

[upstarts1979]

A few shots from the Flashes yesterday (17th Feb 2010)
1. the water rail inside the cage
2. The littel egret in front of the main hide
3.group of lapwings roosting

Can anyone help me with this problem
This is aimed at the photographers amongst us.
Technical information required
These photos were taken with the quality setting at 6M all my other photos are taken at 1M. I tried to upload them on here but they would not fully load. So today I resized them to between 65% and 70% of the original size.
What effect does this have on the quality of the picture? and what is the benefit of increasing the quality setting if you have to reduce the size. I realize that in normal terms the higher setting gives better quality pics. But in terms of using the pics on this site what could you recommend I do. My camera is just a basic x6 optical and 3.2 digital zoom. When using the 6M the digital zoom is not available.

cheers John

 

[Sy V]

John

I'd have to know more about the workings of your camera to be sure. But, I assume the *M number is an arbitrary image quality setting (bigger file size = better quality image).
But, you have raised a point of interest for me: habitually I resize all my forum pictures to 800 pixels long size. This allows me to post my shots without reaching the limits that the forum software allows (remember that my RAW images are ~25Mb each).
Shooting .RAW allows far more manipulation of the data than shooting in.jpeg. This said, and a bit like your 1-6M settings, I can shoot 3 or 4 different filesize of .jpeg (if I want). To the laymen's eye there's not much difference between the resultant images, but you would really see the difference if I tried to enlarge a small jpeg to A4 (say) compared to a large .jpeg. The smaller filesize image would breakdown and appear pixelated/granular earlier in the enlargement process than the bigger filesize image.
Looking again at the allowed sizes (on the strength of your observation/query) it appears that you can post larger .jpg than .jpeg files. Call me a Luddite but I always thought they were essentially the same thing.
So are the allowed sizes governed in order of columns? In other words, is the file size the most important thing followed by the pixel dimensions?

 

[upstarts1979]

John

I'd have to know more about the workings of your camera to be sure. But, I assume the *M number is an arbitrary image quality setting.
But, you have raised a point of interest for me: habitually I resize all my forum pictures to 800 pixels long size. This allows me to post my shots without reaching the limits that the forum software allows (remember that my RAW images are ~25Mb each).
Looking again at the allowed sizes (on the strength of your observation/query) it appears that you can post larger .jpg than .jpeg files. Call me a Luddite but I always thought they were essentially the same thing.
So are the allowed sizes governed in order of columns? In other words, is the file size the most important thing followed by the pixel dimensions?

Thanks for that Sy
Yes you are right the water rail in the cage was a 6M pixel setting and size was 2848 x 2136 at 1.52MB and it wouldn't allow me to upload
I resized it to 1937 x 1452 at 0.99MB and it was fine so it is way above their criteria.
cheers John
ps I think I am going to experiment a bit

 

[Sy V]

Going back to the subject of video. When I first got my camera I tried out the HD Video capture to see that everything was working.
My first attempts were hand held at the Flashes and contained background 'commentary' (by Messrs Belsey and Walker). Video through an 800mm lens handheld is not nice to view, regardless of the subject matter.
A few days later I tried again, this time tripod mounted and over in the East hide at the Moors. The results were much better and only the attempt to pan the entire pool proved a complete failure.
To date, these files have sat on my PC doing nothing as the smallest one is 93Mb and they're in .mov format. Various Google searches suggest that examples of editing software for .mov format movies are few and far between and almost all you have to pay for!
However, I found a movie converter application (Super) that I've managed to get working. This has converted the 93 Mb file to an 8Mb .avi file which appears OK to watch. I'll try and top and tail it tomorrow and post it into the Birdforum TV area. No promises though... and don't expect any fancy editing either!

 

[Sy V]

This is what I get if I interrogate your Water Rail image... still within the 300KB limit though.

 

[warrener]

A few shots from the Flashes yesterday (17th Feb 2010)
1. the water rail inside the cage
2. The littel egret in front of the main hide
3.group of lapwings roosting

Can anyone help me with this problem
This is aimed at the photographers amongst us.
Technical information required
These photos were taken with the quality setting at 6M all my other photos are taken at 1M. I tried to upload them on here but they would not fully load. So today I resized them to between 65% and 70% of the original size.
What effect does this have on the quality of the picture? and what is the benefit of increasing the quality setting if you have to reduce the size. I realize that in normal terms the higher setting gives better quality pics. But in terms of using the pics on this site what could you recommend I do. My camera is just a basic x6 optical and 3.2 digital zoom. When using the 6M the digital zoom is not available.

cheers John

Hi John, computer screens usually display at 72dpi (dots per inch) so a small file size will still give a good quality image. Its only when printing that you want larger files of around 240/300dpi to get a decent quality image. My original image files are in the region of 20mb but I downsize them to 10" x 8"@ 96pixels per inch for the web- file size approx 300k. If you have a suitable program, reduce the original file to the size that you want to display (6x4-7x5 etc) then set the resolution (pixels per inch) to 72. When you save the file, save at around 300k for the web. I hope I've got that right!

Hope that helps

Stuart

 

[upstarts1979]

Hi John, computer screens usually display at 72dpi (dots per inch) so a small file size will still give a good quality image. Its only when printing that you want larger files of around 240/300dpi to get a decent quality image. My original image files are in the region of 20mb but I downsize them to 10" x 8"@ 96pixels per inch for the web- file size approx 300k. If you have a suitable program, reduce the original file to the size that you want to display (6x4-7x5 etc) then set the resolution (pixels per inch) to 72. When you save the file, save at around 300k for the web. I hope I've got that right!

Hope that helps

Stuart

Thanks Stuart and Simon I think I am going to have to write this all down. That helps a lot Lads
cheers John