Scoters - far out man!

Hopefully the last of the photos from the gloom, as the sun's trying to stay out and the tide is favourable. Today's plan is to refind the Great Egret and wait till it poses for a close up, I may be gone for sometime..........

Grey Heron from the Bank of Scotland Hide, Montrose Basin, click here   filmed in very poor conditions, but worked with a little edit!

Not a sensible plan, I went to Lunan Bay hoping to see the Black Scoter, but mainly to see what kind of results I'd get using a two times converter. The Scoters were around half a mile offshore, it was cold, windy and very dull. Despite the conditions I did get an understanding into using the converter and its limits. No Black Scoter but many were mobile and a large group were towards Corbie, still large numbers of female and 1st winter Common Scoters, no Velvets seen and only a few Long-tailed Ducks, around twenty Red-throated Divers, Red-breasted Mergansers, Shags and Cormorants.

The only bird seen on the salt pans from the Bank of Scotland Hide

No, this wasn't taken in monochrome, it was just very dark. It's a Redshank

Bar-tailed Godwits flying aong the edge of the basin, from the Bank of Scotland Hide

Cock Pheasant photographed through the fence as you can see in the lower part of the photo

Arbroath in heavy cloud and rain

From this blog one year ago this week.

"Another period of gloomy, wet, windy and cold weather. If it gets any worse I'll need to take a torch with me"!

Groundhog Day! 

Meanwhile, another test of high ISO photography while I make up my mind about new glass!!

Difficult to say if this Redshank was actually missing a leg or just adept at hopping along the beach on one

Oystercatcher with a Turnstone in the background

Turnstone

Jackdaw, in immaculate plumage

Herring Gull at Victoria Park watching a car, waiting for food to be thrown out

4th winter Great Black-backed, apparently the world's largest gull, and not to be messed with. In the pool in front of the Old Brewhouse

Tufted drake at Keptie Pond. I went thinking something unusual may have dropped in and the weather might have stopped the steady trail of dog walkers. None of the above happened

Jay Fest and Bank Vole

Although it was a dull afternoon, especially in the shaded area where I sat in a hide, the modern DSLR made photos possible with the capability to handle high ISO values. The lowest ISO was 720, the highest 10,000, most were around 2000-2800. Close proximity to the targets did help, even for the very wary Jays.

One of the very wary Jays, it took a lot of work and patience before they made very short forays into the open where I could get a photo

I like this one, simply because it was a difficult photo to get through a gap in the undergrowth

Bank Vole, spoiled by the faint green of some grass in the foreground. I'll snip some of it away if I go back and may trim the plants impinging on the path to prevent ticks, if the are still active

An aaawwhh photo for some (Claire)

Likely the same Dunnock in different light

This wee fella spent a lot of time hopping about my feet inside the hide

One of the few places where a Wren will dwell in the open

I was too busy with the Jays to try for a Blue Tit on something more natural looking than a feeder

I think this is the 10,000 ISO photo, it's a male Chaffinch

It makes me wonder just how many Coal Tits are visiting the hide, I mean how many peanuts can a wee bird eat, and they seem to be all of the time

Great Tit

Buzzard at Balgavies where the Willows in front of the hide have been cut to ground level. The feeders were empty which may have been why there were few birds. A male Sparrowhawk passed through three times in 20 minutes, surely that and the Buzzard having an affect on the birds