Whitley Bay Cemetery
Talk about a dry spell!
Last weekend my buddy Mark Mowbray and I hit Holy Island (Lindisfarne): we did OK for birds – up to five Short Eared Owls overhead, a Little Egret on the causeway and a dapper male Bearded Tit at the Lough (quite a bird for Northumberland), but the light was dismal for most of the day, and the birds were generally distant.
Bearded Tit, Holy Island. Heavily cropped record shot
And to be honest, we were gabbing too much to do the SEOs justice – we missed any number of good opportunities because we were too busy chatting!
Aside from that, all I got – believe it or not – was House sparrows! Cute and photogenic though they are, you don’t go all the way to Lindisfarne for spuggies…
So today, in the hope of Winter thrushes feeding on the plentiful berries there, I spent a few hours at Whitley Bay Cemetery, just across the road from St Mary’s Island…
Yet again, light was at a premium, and as it happens, there were no Winter thrushes to be had.
In fact, although there were quite a few Blackbirds, Finches, Tits and Robins around, none of them would play nicely, being either too far off or in deep shadow.
The only birds that would play were – you guessed it! – Spuggies again!
So, I tried to make the best of things…
House Sparrow, Whitley Bay Cemetery
House Sparrow, Whitley Bay Cemetery
House Sparrow, Whitley Bay Cemetery
House Sparrow, Whitley Bay Cemetery
House Sparrow, Whitley Bay Cemetery
It comes to something when a Wood Pigeon is actually the best bird of the day!
Wood Pigeon, Whitley Bay Cemetery
Not to worry – I quite enjoy the challenge of making images of “ordinary” birds that are worth a second look. I deliberately moved for a couple of these images so that the background was a large red Dogwood shrub (you can tell which ones!) and for the “Woody”, although I could have cropped a lot more than this (it’s more or less full frame) I think it’s more interesting with the gravestone as the main feature of the image.
I guess it would have been better if it had been a Tawny Owl, though..!
quote – “And to be honest, we were gabbing too much to do the SEOs justice – we missed any number of good opportunities because we were too busy chatting!”
chatting me? Don’t know what your talking about mate!
Any excuse for not getting any pictures of the seo’s :)
I did have a good day though and it was fun trying to get the owls
Aye, lesson learned there, I reckon – if we’re owl-hunting we split up!
Hi Keith,
Some excellent photos as usual. The last sparrow shot is probably my favourite – a great P.O.V and technically spot on. The bearded tit is also very nice (especially for a ‘record shot’ !); heavily cropped or not, it’s still sharp, clear and unobstructed – which I can imagine is hard to achieve!
Cheers,
Steve.
Thanks Steve.
These pictures are just “gap fillers” really – much as I like Sparrows, even I can’t get that enthusiastic about pictures of ‘em!
I think that the first Sparrow is my favourite in this set – the one you mention probably needs to be a little bit further to the left for my tastes.
Still, easily fixed.
Thanks for dropping by – it was nice to hear from you again.