Paul Samuels Wildlife Travels
Photographic Blog Of My Ornithological & Wildlife Encounters Throughout The UK And Beyond
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Wednesday 13 March 2024
An Angel Appears In Bury !
Friday 5 January 2024
A Queens Goose
Queens Park - 05.01.2024
Red-breasted Goose
Wednesday 20 December 2023
Crosby Deep Sea Diver !
Crosby Marine Lake - 19.12.2023
Black-throated Diver
Monday 11 December 2023
Finally waxwings !
Burnley - 03.12.2023
The first birds to the region was a brief visit only staying a couple of hours before moving on, unfortunately at the time I’m travelling back up on the M6 and a lost opportunity to get some images locally.
Wind on a few weeks and I’m again travelling up the M6 and it’s a great day with plenty of sunshine and blue sky’s, you guessed it Waxwings have again appeared again locally but little chance of making it that day so a trip is on the cards for tomorrow.
Now Sunday it’s a change of plan as the Waxwings at the original location are proving difficult to locate but I have another option with twenty birds located in the Burnley area. It’s a grey old day with even fog as I travel over across the moors, disappointing really as yesterday was a great day.
Arriving at the carpark flanked on one side with berry laden trees, the Waxwings have been and gone so no panic getting the gear out, then someone mentioned they were re-located in the next street so quick change of location and hey-presto....Waxwings !
Sat at the top of a tall trees the Waxings are as usual nervous only flying down to feed on red berries when they feel secure. The shooting location's not the best always cluttered with branches spoiling the shot, not the classic shot of a bunches of berries on the branch end with a blue sky background, that’s the way it goes sometimes, still here’s a few images on the day.
Waxwing
Wednesday 6 September 2023
I Finally Make It - The End
El Taray - The Film
Francesco doesn't speak English but the group had many funny moment using Google Translate to muddle our way through conversations.....oh and he drives fast !
Sunday 3 September 2023
I Finally Make it - 8
Day 8, AM - La Vega
First up and quick as a rat up a drain pipe is the resident Red Fox, grabbing all the food it can stash before the big eagles appear, I just hope there’s some offerings left for the BOP’s.
The Bonelli’s Eagle has arrived from it’s usual vantage point on a pylon way off in the distance, usually it sits in a tree close by surveying the area before deciding all safe and come to ground.
Marsh Harries are literally everywhere, maybe up to twenty individuals, acrobatic jostling trying to rob each other of food, the interaction is spectacular just make sure you are using a zoom so you can back off the lens and get all the action. Most if not all the raptors seen were as seen on previous visits but surprisingly no Black Kite's.
Just a quick reference to gear generally used on the trip, although I brought along a 500mm f4 prime I found the flexibility and quality of Canon RF100-500mm to just about be match of the EF prime, the bokeh produced by the lens with an the uncluttered background is spot on, just look at the images.
Until the next trip...