Saturday 25 January 2014

Gulls, Dungeness, 25/1/14

Dungeness, 25/1

Late start, weather, grey fog shrouded the power station, the lighthouse was only just visible when we arrived at the fishing boats around midday ! The sun did filter through for an hour, then the grey cloud rolled in again and the wind strengthened making it a difficult day for photography !

Great Black-backed Gull, adult










Kittiwake, 1st winter        1/400 sec,  f4.0,   800 Iso

Monday 20 January 2014

Black-headed Gull, Dungeness, 19/1/14

After an early breakfast at Romney Farm !

A Great White Egret was on the ARC (from the causeway)

Out to the fishing boats ! It's a smashing day, blue sky, high tide !

Common Guillemot


Black-headed Gull





Saturday 18 January 2014

Great Black-backed Gull, Dungeness, 18/1/2014

Dungeness,

Mick and myself have the good company of Jono today for a look at the Gulls !

click on the link for
Jono's excellent blog write up and superb images from what was a Superb Day out ! ! !

Do click the link,  well worth a read ! no comment from Mick yet !

http://www.wansteadbirder.com/

photo opportunities were rather limited, poor light, SE  wind, wrong direction, my excuses ! !


Great Black-backed Gull, adult




Herring Gull, A3BJ

Saturday 11 January 2014

Gulls, Dungeness, 11/1/12

Dungeness, 09.00 hours, the sun is out, blue sky,

As we crossed the causeway,  2 Black-throated Diver on the New Diggings, a Great White Egret on the ARC.

We head out to the fishing boats !

Very few Gulls today !  Tide is out, no movement !



Great Black-backed Gull


Caspian Gull, 2nd winter, 1st winter.     Herring Gull, 1st winter







Herring Gull, adult


Herring Gull, 2nd winter


Crow


Turnstone

a good number of Kittiwake, none coming close for a photo !

Monday 6 January 2014

Caspian Gull, Little Gull, Kittiwake, Dungeness, 5/1/14

Dungeness, by the fishing boats !

A slow start for me !
Then, after our breakfast, it's about midday, high tide is at about 13.15 hours

The light has been good but cloud cover is advancing, it becomes rather grey !
The South wind has strengthened and the sea now is quite rough !

There is a huge amount of food debris on the high water mark, scoured from the seabed in the storms and thrown up on last nights tide, all morning there had been very little Gull activity, no gulls fed on this endless line of food of queen cockles, razor, fish left overs from the fishing boats, etc

Kittiwake are feeding close in, many !

Kittiwake, 1st winter








13.30 hours, its high tide, the pounding waves are dragging the food debris back into the sea.

a 1st winter Little Gull comes close feeding, it is dip feeding on bits of the queen cockle !

it's approaching us, flying into a strong Southerly, dip feeding, passing by us very close, then 25 meters past us, turned and flew back 200 -300 metres to begin a return feeding pattern approach back to, and in front of us. Several of these flyby !

then an Adult winter Little Gull appeared, same approach, same feeding pattern,

We are now treated to 40 minutes of many flyby's of both the 1st and adult winter Little Gull !

The light is not good, there is very little contrast and its difficult to get focus on this tiny Gull

Little Gull, 1st winter                                       1/1600  f4.0  800 ISO


Little Gull, 1st winter


The light is deteriorating !  now down to     1/800    f4.0    800 ISO

Little Gull, adult winter                    


Little Gull, 1st winter



 Little Gull, 1st winter


Little Gull, adult winter


Little Gull, adult winter


Little Gull, adult winter


A ''Crazy'' 40 minutes and it was over, the Little Gull did not return, they must have been full up !

The light has gone !  It is now very grey sky !
You cannot get better than what we have just seen !
I return to the car, pack the camera, change my clothes, boots ''off'', carpet slippers ''on'', heater ''on'' !

Mick is still out there !

15.14 hours, my phone rings, Mick Southcott, ''there's a Caspian Gull flying straight towards you'' !

Coat on, still in slippers ! I am out there in a flash !

this cracking 2nd winter Caspian gave several flyby's, backwards and forwards past us, close !

the light suddenly gets better ! brighter !


Caspian Gull, 2nd winter                1/1250   f4.0   800 iso

1/1250   f4.0   800 iso

1/1250   f4.0   800 iso

1/1250   f4.0   800 iso

The light drops !

1/640   f4.0   800 iso

1/640   f4.0   800 iso

1/640   f4.0   800 iso

1/640   f4.0   800 iso

Luck was on our side !  
The Caspian was using so little effort to fly into the strong southerly wind that it appeared quite slow motion, enabling to take flight shots down at 1/500 sec shutter speeds.

1/500   f4.0   800 iso

1/500   f4.0   800 iso

1/500   f4.0   800 iso

40 minutes watching this Superb Gull !

15.45 hours we left the beach, it's now near dark !

What a kick off for 2014 !

Saturday 4 January 2014

Kittiwake, Dungeness, 4/1/14

Dungeness, by the fishing boats.
A very overcast day with strong wind,

Highlight of the day

Kittiwake, 100's