52/2012 Week 17


A group of Sandpipers in flight over water

This week wasn’t looking too good for me to get a photograph for this weeks challenge. The weather has been appalling with heavy rain and very grey skies. So this afternoon, with a break in the weather, I seized the opportunity  to visit the banks of the River Clywd which usually has a variety of feeding birds in the estuary and mud flats. Of course these birds never fly towards you it’s always away, so you have to be quick in getting the photograph.

Camera details for this image, Focal Length 500mm, ISO 400, Shutter Speed 1/1500 sec, F-Stop 6.7

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13 replies to “52/2012 Week 17”

  1. No not a good week at all weather-wise for photography. But I bet the River Clwyd was nice all the same.

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    1. They’re predicting a month of rain to fall today as heavy storms batter the south and right up here to Wales. I got the dogs out early, the wind is picking up now and it’s starting to rain. A day of doing some catch-up post editing of yesterdays shoot, methinks

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        1. Mines not to bad in rain. The Samsung GX-10 like the Pentax K10D is weather-proofed against rain. That’s not to say I would take it out in absolutely torrential rain but many of the photographs of the Air Show were taken when it was raining.

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  4. Hi Mike. I am sure these are Common Sandpipers. (Actitis hypoleucos) They do the same for me, always going away. Bugga.!!!

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    1. For some reason the reply by email isn’t working for WordPress posts as it’s just been bounced back to me…..here’s what I said earlier

      Thanks Steve, I knew you would know what they were. It’s the first time I’ve taken a walk along the estuary and was quite surprised at the numbers of feeding birds. Lots of gull, a whole colony of oyster catchers, quite a few turnstones, sandpipers, as you said and a lot of cormorants. There were other odd birds flying around, some geese which I haven’t identified yet and a buzzard. The problem though is the estuary is wide and and very muddy. That thick cloying stuff so I couldn’t get really close. In a lot of cases it was more like group shots than individual close-ups.

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    1. Sometimes just settling down and getting low works, but not always. I’ve found that if they fly away from a source of food they will be tempted to come back but only if you start to blend in by sitting still. Problem is you have to wait some time for them to come back and I didn’t have that luxury yesterday

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