Farne-tastic weekend!

A blinding weekend, two days on the Farne Islands with Steve Blain and Paul Hackett, the weather was pretty much perfect except a strong swell on the sea made the timings a bit outside what we had hoped for, but in the end it was a photographically productive trip.

 I came home with all the target shots I had wanted, mostly that consisted of more and better Puffins in flight with bills full of Sandeels, Close ups of Shags showing the irrescent green colour better, Razorbills, I had perfect light for them on Saturday morning and a real poser to work with too.

You can find many more images from the Farnes on my Flickr pages click here .

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1 to 1 photography tuition

I am now available to take bookings for full day photography tuition (1 or 2 pupils) again, so if you are struggling with understanding your camera's settings, controlling exposure, fieldcraft and composition why not e-mail me for details.

Muddy puddles

Most years I set up a pool to attract birds so I can get shots of them drinking and bathing, this year I have had 2 on the go, the long dry spring has meant that the pools were much more successful than usual with one pulling in Yellow and Pied Wagtails, Corn Buntings Linnets, Grenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and several species of Warbler, especially a pair of Whitethroats who came to bathe at about 8:40 a.m. each day.
The other pool was shallow and deliberately muddy and offered much needed building material for the Swallows and House Martins around the farm.
There are many more shots on my Flickr pages http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/

Yellow Wagtails

It's about time I did an update on here!! I don't know where this year has gone, it's half way through already and it feels like Christmas was just a few short weeks ago.
Always my favourite few weeks of the year is when sping migrants pass through the farmland near to home, the local dung heap is piled high with the bedding and muck from the winter cattle sheds and produces tons of bugs which from the end of March attract lots of Wheatears, Whinchats and Yellow Wagtails, all stop off to feed on their journey northwards.
This year the numbers were down, I suspect though due to there being several muck piles spread over the area rather than one big one so the birds weren't concentrated in one site, and this year the most accessable site had Sugar beet waste rather than dung spread on it.
7 birds have stayed, 3 males and 4 females took up residence around the Beet waste pile, of the males there is one with a very pale lemon coloured head that looks like a lutea ! There are 3 pairs of birds well into breeding now and they are eagerly coming to meal worms to feed to their young.