Coots fighting

The poor man’s Black grouse. If Coots were rare photographers would pay a fortune to sit in cold, damp hides to photograph them. If Coots had sharp talons they would be rare as they would slice each other to death. Olympus Em1x and 300mm f4 lens and 40-150mm lens. 120 fps which is 5 times

Stonechat in flight

I shall leave the Stonechats for a while now. If it snows I will start again, otherwise leave it until the male is in its spring plumage.

Showreel

Stonechats

Stonechat

Stonechats find a tray of mealworms very quickly and are easy to attract. I used a hide for the first few days, but they quickly became very tame and I could just sit on a stool in the open. The male was very prone to hovering over the tray, but is was very brief and

Drone first flight

I am enjoying shooting video so much that I made my first showreel lasting 10 minutes. I even enjoyed the editing, which surprised me as I expected it to be frustrating and tedious. The next step will be a 10 minute film in slow motion, but beyond that I would like to do a short

Blue tit

Spindle always makes an attractive perch for birds.

Rook

I spend a lot of time shooting video these days. When I look at my collection of stills images I often wish I was shooting video when I took them. Especially the action of behaviour shots. This rook burying sweet chestnuts is a classic example of behaviour that would not show in a stills picture.

Hamerkop

Hamerkops build huge nests and this bird was very busy collecting sticks from around our camp site. I started off hand holding the 300mm lens, which is very possible with 7.5 stops of image stabilizer, but there is no doubt average sharpness improved when I got the tripod out of the car and certainly composition

Red kite

Taken at Gigrin Farm, Wales. The ability of the M1x to focus on birds in flight continues to impress, even when close to the ground it locks onto the bird and not the grass behind. All I have to do is get the bird in the frame.