EvilTed

European Greenfinch (Chloris Chloris)

Cambridgeshire July 2019

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/6.3, 1/1000s, ISO 500, 500mm

After having a chat with @AchtungDrempels about Greenfinches, I trawled through my catalogue to see if I actually had any photos of one. It turns out I have four, which is remiss of me as they are beautiful birds.

In Greek mythology Chloris was a nymph associated with spring, flowers and new growth, it comes from the Greek word Khloros, meaning pale green. All of which seem apt for a green bird that I find mostly in woodlands and hedgerows.

They eat a wide range of fruits, seeds, flowers and some invertebrates, and I found this one on a bramble bush eating its flowers.

Hi

I'm seeing posts I have deleted appearing in my profile. Is there a way of hiding them if they can't be actually hard deleted?

Love the app by the way 👍

Male Eurasian Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Rutland Nature Reserve, November 2019.

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f6.3, 1/40s, ISO 500, 380mm

Chaffinches are one of the most common UK small birds, but ones that don't visit my garden. So, I am always happy to have a chance to see them when I'm out and about and will always try and take a shot if an opportunity presents itself.

This one was a tricky task as sunset in mid-November in this part of the UK is 4:15pm, and it was already 4:30pm when I found the birds.

There was still a trickle of light left in the sky, cutting through the dense but almost bare trees as the birds prepared to roost.

I quickly realised I could either push the ISO to a point where the noise would really spoil the shot or attempt to shoot at a shutter speed well below the recommended 1/focal length for a long lense and ruin it with camera shake instead.

I shortened the lens to 380mm, braced myself against a tree as firmly as I could and wound the shutter speed down, watching the exposure needle creep towards the middle of the scale. Click...click...two shots and he was gone.

I looked at the exif data on the camera and saw 1/40s. I thought, that's probably the slowest shutter speed I have ever shot with this lens. And it was, until 10 seconds later when I got a lovely shot of a Dunnock at 1/30s.

You've gotta love image stabilisation!

I've just noticed all my photos, and many from other members of this community, are no longer visible. I use Boost for most of my browsing, but it's the same on the website. I've posted on a support thread that another user raised about the same issue.

https://lemmy.world/comment/8247921

If your photos are missing as well it might be worth adding a comment for visibility.

Razorbill (Alca torda)

Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire, UK, May 2019.

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/6.3, 1/800s, ISO 500, 420mm

f/6.3, 1/400s, ISO 500, 480mm

f/6.3, 1/1600s, ISO 800, 380mm

f/6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 800, 500mm

f/6.3, 1/640s, ISO 500, 420mm

Razorbills are truly fasinating birds and I think one of the most handsome. Their contrasting colouration and their bright yellow mouths and strong bills give them a really distinctive look.

They are member of the Auk family and are also known as the Razor-billed Auk, or Lesser Auk. Their closest relative is the now sadly exitinct Great Auk.

Like the other members of the Auk family, they spend most of their time out at sea, coming back to land for the breeding season. If you are ever lucky enough to watch them underwater you will see them using their wings as propulsion, in the same manner as a penguin.

Razorbills can be found around the coastlines of the North Atlantic and they generally live in large colonies. The Razorbill chooses only one partner for life and they only have one chick per year. They also don't start to breed until they are at least 3 years old and sometimes not until they are 5. They can also skip a breeding season as they get older. All this makes them very vulnerable to population decline.

I took these pictures at Bempton Cliffs on the East Yorkshire coast. Bempton and the surrounding Flamborough Head host England's largest onshore seabird breeding colonies, many species and over 300,000 birds. There can be as many as 20,000 pairs of Razorbills during the breeding season making it one of their largest colonies in the world.

From a photography stand point they can be a bit tricky. Like any black and white bird getting good exposure is always going to be a compromise. It is also difficult to get their eyes to standout from the surrounding feathers. However, they do seem to like to pose, they often display engrossing behaviours, and that yellow mouth makes an amazing contrast to the black head.

Cormorant(Phalacrocorax carbo) vs European eel (Anguilla anguilla)

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 500, 500mm

River Great Ouse, Camrbridgeshire, May 2019

This was another of those "right place, right time" situations. I walked a few miles to this spot on the river and was a little disappointed to see nothing on the water. I was about to head further down stream when this cormorant suddenly appeared. It had obviously been hunting in the rough waters of the weir and I hadn't noticed it.

Cormorants are sea birds, but in reality we get them in inland lakes and rivers almost all year round in the UK.

I took a couple of shots of the bird and then it disappeared again, surfacing only moments later with this frankly huge eel.

The European Eel is born in the Sargasso sea, a region of the North Atlantic ocean. It then migrates over the course of 300 days as a tiny larvae to the coasts of Europe .

When they reach the coast the larvae turn into tiny eels, which then move into a river. In the river they grow to adult size, taking anywhere up to 20 years, and then they head out to the Sargasso sea to breed and die.

In the UK a big eel is 5lb, though they can reach twice that, especially if they get trapped in a lake and can't return to breed. This was a big eel!

I watched the battle for about 15 minutes. The cormorant lost the eel a couple of times during the fight, but I suspect the initial attack had injured the fish, making its demise inevitable.

Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 500, 500mm Norfolk May 2019

f/6.3, 1/1600s, ISO 400, 500mm

This is the species that got me into bird watching. Over 40 years ago a teacher at my primary school was a member of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and told us stories, including the one about the symbol of the RSBP, the Avocet. A bird that was practically extinct in the UK by the 1940's.

At this point (early 80's) it was recovering but still a rare sight in the UK.

Fast forward a few decades and I had the pleasure of seeing hundreds of these birds for the first time on the North Norfolk coast. No longer rare, they are a UK conservation success story and one that I have been glad to be able to photograph.

Great Tit (Parus major)

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 500, 500mm Cambridgeshire 2019

The largest Tit species found in the UK, its range covers almost the whole of the mainland, apart from the highest parts of the the Scottish highlands.

It can be a bit of a bully and I see it on our bird feeders pushing off other species including Starlings, which takes some doing!

It has a distinctive call that sounds very much like Teacher! Teacher!

Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 500, 480mm

Orkney 2016

Male

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/5.6, 1/800s, ISO 500, 350mm

Mull 2017

Female

Nikon D850, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 500, 480mm

Isle of Lewis 2023

Male

Another absolute favourite bird that I only get to see when my travels take me to Scotland and the North of England. You can find them in Wales and in the South-West but I haven't seen them there. You will also need to be in the right location -moorland and heathland - and the correct time of year as the migrate to the UK in early March and leave back for Africa in October.

Nikon D850, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/7.1, 1/1250, ISO 500, 500mm

Whitethroats for me are a hearld of summer. They migrate in large numbers to the UK from Africa and arrive in late spring, I tend to start seeing them from the end of April to mid May. They are a medium sized warbler with quite a punchy song.
When they are setting up their breeding territories the males will have singing competitions whilst doing short displaying flights to attract a mate.

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/7.1, 1/125, ISO 2500, 270mm

f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 800, 500mm

Outside the UK now with the pink pigeon. Found only in Mauritius and the only species of pigeon to survive extinction on the island.

It was nearly extinct by 1991 with only 10 birds left. There's around 500 birds now thanks to conservation efforts and I was luck enough to see two different populations when I visted in 2018.

Mauritius is a great place to go for bird watching, especially as they have 28 species that can only be found there.

Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Nikon D850, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/7.1, 1/2000s, ISO 800, 200mm

Every year, we have many pairs of starlings breeding in our locality. We have bird feeders in the garden all year round, but when the starlings bring their young to them, it is really hard to keep them filled.

As a consequence of their generally rowdy behaviour and competition for food, we often get squabbles breaking out. It also means I can get very close to them, as they are generally oblivious to anything but the food and their disputes.