My blog is mostly about wildlife, particularly birds, walking, days out, all growing things and anything else that comes to mind.
To view pictures in larger format, just click on any picture for the picture gallery....

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Inland as the sun sinks

I deliberately intended to be in the right place at the right time, to get some pictures of birds as the sun was low in the sky at the end of the day. And this I did.

I also met Mark (a man of discerning taste as a Canon user :)) and we fell into conversation. Mark had been watching the Canada Geese, Mallards etc. regularly to see when they flew up and off to roost in the evening. Time went on, Mark and I must having been waiting from some 40 minutes or so, and the witching hour came and went; we had to conclude that they weren't going to fly off whilst we waited.

However, the time was really well spent and the light was wonderful. I love this time of the year for the lighting conditions and these will get better as we go through October - so fingers crossed I'm going to get the shots that I'd like.

If you find your way here Mark - hope you got some good shots.

This is what was around in the late afternoon.
Male Red-Crested Pochard dozing in the sun

stretching his wings...

Female Tufted Duck

Male Tufted Duck

Black-headed Gull - in flight

Female Wigeon

Sun lighting a Mute Swan

Mute Swan

Male Mallard - I just wish I'd had time to compose this shot properly. Managed to decapitate the wing tips and exposure is wrong.

Bottoms up! (Mallards)

Sun bathing Canada Geese

Canada Geese

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will you stop that? I've managed to stay quite ignorant about water birds sofar, but through your brilliant pictures I've started to learn!

Love the Mallards 'bottom up' picture. I feel I would very much like doing the 'bottom up' thing myself from time to time. LOL

mick said...

Great photos - the one of the sun lighting the mute swan is my favorite. I really like the way you have captured the sparkle of the little spots of water.

oldcrow61 said...

Wonderful photos. My favorite is the bottoms up one. So cute.

Yoke, said...

Great Pictures, Tricia.

The Birds tend to sink into the water with a less apparent contrast, wich I really like.

Joe said...

Hi Tricia,

Loving those photos. That swan looks fantastic. We have a small river near us (I don't mean the Thames) that attracts these kinds of birds.

Best wishes, Joe

Anonymous said...

Very moody, lovely as usual
Lv
SPD

Tricia Ryder said...

Carin - my knowledge of water birds is somewhat limited.

Mick - I like the sunlit swan too; soft.

OC - there's a bit of humour there :)

Yoke - thanks - the low sunlight does seem to soften the lines

Joe - glad you liked them

SPD - Ta ever so.

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