Siggy’s back!

It’s been away for what seems an age, but finally my Sigma 500mm lens is back from the repairs and is as good as new thanks to the good people at Sigma.  So it was with great expectations that I went out at the weekend with it. The main hope of the day was to photograph the local Red Kites but anything else was also game if I came across it and with that extra 100mm gain over what I had been using recently, more would be open to opportunity, especially small birds.  It was ironic then than for the whole morning I struggled to get close to much – maybe it was simply too higher expectation – but little was filling my cameras frame.  The Heron below moved away within a minute of my arrival, the Reed Buntings that had been so accommodating last week, this week didn’t keep still as was the case of a family of Long Tailed Tit fledglings I came across, Red Kites were also circling high up in the distance as was a lone Buzzard.  Only a family of Canada Geese gave me the chance to reacquaint myself with the magnification of a 500mm lens.

A Heron deciding not to hang around for me

Not every image has to be filled by the subject to make it work.  A Coot moving across a weed covered lake patterned by previous movements

Despite the poor opportunities, I had used up most of a 2GB card when I saw a Red Kite coming low towards me and I had moments to get into an open position where the trees weren’t in the way, took one shot where my camera then refused to take anymore.  Reason? It was saying ‘card full’.  All I could do was watch the Kite glide over me.  By the time  I would have got a new one out, it would have been just in time to get the back end of the bird disappearing.  I new that card was nearly full but it should have automatically transferred to the second one, trouble was I hadn’t deleted the contents of it before hand as I thought I had and this one too was full.  The closest I have been to a wild Red Kite and I only managed to get one shot of – a poor one at that.  I was starting to think this was not going to be my day.

One of the best places you can see Red Kites on Tyneside is the Nine Arches Viaduct along the Derwent Walk Country Park.  It’s a bit of a cross roads for them, often nesting nearby and a communal roost in winter not far away.  It was here I made my final stop of the day and waited in the hope that one might just come down close enough to give me a good view.

Nine Arches Viaduct in the centre

Plenty of Kites could be seen (and heard) in the distance but none wanted to come close enough so I become distracted by a small ‘jumping spider’ patrolling right in front of me on the viaduct ledge.  A macro opportunity I thought so quickly changed lenses.  This spider wasn’t going to make it easy for me, it was constantly on the move and when it did stop it didn’t give me enough time to focus on it before it was off again.  I’m still getting used to macro.  This spider was tiny and the depth of field was a matter of millimetres and in keeping with typical wildlife photography where you always should focus on the eyes (in this case many eyes), was difficult, not helped by my having to stretch and the quite poor light – for macro at least. I did notice it going over the viaduct edge every now and then, then reappearing and hoped I could catch it just poking up over the top with those beady eyes and the lovely green background.  Trouble was, I never new where exactly it would appear and when it did, it didn’t stop for long.  I did mange a few shots – not exactly what I wanted but ok.  I didn’t realise until I got them home and looked on the computer that it had caught something, a fly of some sought, and was carrying it off.  It’s amazing really.  Here I was with my newly returned long telephoto lens trying to capture distant images and drama and right under my nose, right were I was standing, drama in miniature was unfolding. I continued to ‘stalk’ this diminutive predator as it hurried along but was distracted by someone asking me was that a camera I had!  I manage to resist the urge to sarcastically say, no it’s a Morphy Richards silver kettle and answered him, but now I had lost my spider.  Also funny, while I was pointing the lens over the top of the viaduct, photographing something that was only centimetres away, people were stopping and looking over the edge at something they thought I must be photographing in the distance! Whilst trying to find the spider again, I noticed what I thought was a small, fluttering bird below which I then realised was in fact a bat!  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a bat and never in the middle of the day.  There must be some of them living under the arches.

Whilst being distracted by the bat (and the spider) a Kite passed low overhead.  By the time I scrambled to get the 500mm lens back on, it was already some distance away and just as I thought I'd missed yet another opportunity, it turned and started an ascending, circling glide.  By the time it made its first passing I was able to dial in some exposure compensation so as not to get a silhouette and take some frames.  By the second passing I was also able to drop the ISO from the 1600 needed for the macro to 800.  Still, conditions were not ideal.  It was overcast, though reasonably bright with the position of the sun overhead and behind the Kite.  A combination of over compensation the exposure for the Kite and the grey, formless skies, meant for a ‘washed out’ look to the images, so unfortunately, they’re not great.  Still, I quite like the first showing the Swift in frame, one of many that were also flying around. It was amazing how, after only a few minutes, this bird was far up in the sky and some distance away.  I don’t think I saw it once flap its wings but rather just used the natural, warm uplifts of air to effortlessly glide away. I suppose I could work on the images on the computer to bring out what hazy blue colour there was in the sky to help improve the picture and maybe try this before uploading the few decent ones to my website.  I’m still waiting to get a really good, technically, Kite shot.  Maybe I’ll try again over the coming months.

Update from previous post about Long Tailed Tit nest. Last week I did re visit the nest I’d been watching over a couple of weeks in hoping to see the chicks fledge.  Unfortunately I came across the scene in the photograph left.  It looked like a predator had got in the nest and presumably taken all the chicks.  Click on the images of a larger view.  You can see the nest in the background and feathers littering the foreground, presumably, lining from inside the nest. Although the nest was low down, I had thought being in a thorny Gorse bush overlooking water, it was relatively safe.  It must have been a small mammal, maybe one of the weasel family.  A bird of prey such as a Sparrowhawk couldn’t have got in. It’s a shame but then Long Tailed Tits do have a high mortality rate and their nests at this time of year are often raided like this.