Some Birds and Mammals from a feeding station

SOME BIRDS AND MAMMALS FROM A FEEDING STATION  

I am very lucky to have a `feeding station` set up on private land. I have had this set up for a number of years, and I share it with another photographer. We have been very fortunate that the owner of the land has let us set up two permanent hides in one corner of his land, a bird table, both seed and peanut feeders, as well as a small pond. Over the years we have been attracting a variety of birds/mammals to this set up.  Because both hides have been there for a number of years, the birds have become quite accustomed to them. The main hide is of normal height, and will (at a pinch) accommodate two people, whereas the other is a low level hide, and will only take one person. This one is basically a hole in the ground , with a `cut down` hide on top of it. Its great for getting shots of birds at ground level.  

Over the years we have photographed, Jays, Magpies, Great Spot and Green Woodpeckers, Sparrowhawk, Wood Pigeons, Stock Doves, Collared Doves, Robins, Blackbirds, Starlings, Song and Mistle Thrush, Great, Blue, Coal and Long Tailed Tits, Greenfinch, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Blackcap, Pied Wagtail, Carrion Crow, Rooks, Pheasants -Male, Female and Juvenile, Red Legged Partridge and we also get regular visits from Foxes.

The following shots are all taken at the location so far this year. All these pictures have been taken since I changed systems to Olympus equipment, using the OMD-E MkII body, and either the 300m F4 Pro or the 40-150m Pro + the MC 14 Converter. All images either taken on a tripod or bean bag.

Juvenile Green Woodpecker

Jay 

Great Spotted Woodpecker 

Long Tailed Tit 

Female Pheasant drinking at the pond 

Great Tit 

Juvenile Green Woodpecker

Female Pheasant 

Coal Tit

Wood Pidgeon

Great Spotted Woodpecker 

Magpie 

Male Blackbird in pond 

Having a good slash about 

You can see on this shot that when they put their heads actually in the water, a thin membrane comes over the eye to protect it

Stock Dove

Blue Tit 

Showing the set up for how the previous type of picture was taken. I used to dislike these squirrel proof cage feeders, but they are very good for placing twigs and small branches in for birds to land on. 

Greenfinch 

 A small group of juvenile Goldfinches coming down to pond for a drink 

Photographed from the low level hide

Fox Cub  

Pheasant when it was just a chick 

Female and the Male Pheasant

Male Pheasant from the low level hide

Juvenile Green Woodpecker 

  

As I said previously, these hides are on private land, which the owner kindly lets both me and the other photographer use. Its is not a `paid for set up` like some locations that other photographers have set up, so please, do not contact me regarding using the location. 

Seals and Waders at Horsey Gap

Seals and Waders at Horsey Gap 

Yesterday I went out with two friends to Horsey Gap to photograph the Seals. At this time of the year there are lots of Seals on the beach and providing you use a longish telephoto lens, you can get some nice shots of them. Its important that you use a long lens because you do not want to get close enough to disturb them. 

The following are a selection of images I took using the Olympus OMD-E MK II , and the 300m F4 Pro lens with the MC 14 converter, giving me a combined focal length equivalent to 840m on a full frame DSLR. Although it is quite easy to hand hold this set up, I did have it on a lightweight tripod. This was mainly because there are long periods where there is nothing much happening. Its a bit early in the year for the males to be really fighting over the females, so there are times when its quite quiet on the `action` front, so it makes sense to leave it on a tripod until the fighting starts.  One advantage of  going at this time of year is that you can actually get down onto the beach. If you go in November when the pups are being born, the beach area (where the seals are) is sectioned off by the wardens. At that time you have to stay up in the sand dunes and photograph from there.

Both Matt and David are still using heavy DSLR`s, and what with the combined weight of the camera, telephoto lens, Wimberly heads and heavy Gitzo tripods, I was quite pleased to be carrying my very lightweight set up !  I have to say that I am amazed at the sharpness of the 300m F4 Pro and MC 14 converter. Its enabling me to take a lot more images than with my old Canon set up. 

When we arrived early in the morning we found a group of Sanderlings, close to the shoreline. Although we got a few shots of them, it wasn`t long before they flew away. On the way back to the car after we had photographed the Seals, we found them again, and this time they were a lot more approachable, in fact on one occasion they started walking towards me and I had to move back because, I could not get the whole bird in the frame! That's quite amazing when you consider how small the birds are.  

The light was very changeable when we photographed the Waders. One minute they were in bright sunshine, the next they were in very overcast light as the clouds moved in. 

I quite like this shot we took early on. The birds were very close to the shoreline and its quite a low viewpoint