Caspian Gull ~ Dungeness, Kent - 21.02.16

Sunday 21 February 2016

With the forecast for dull and overcast conditions I wasn't really expecting to much today but 45mph winds with a bit of drizzle produced the most gulls feeding I've seen here since Dec' 13 ..

1000's of gulls all feasting on queen cockle and starfish in the crashing surf.

The lazy Glaucous never moved from the shingle ridge all afternoon.

From the boats between 13:00 and 16:00 I managed to find a new Caspian Gull a refreshing change to the regular bird which today didn't make an appearance ..











United Arab Emirates ~ Feb' 16

Sunday 14 February 2016

Flew from Heathrow to Dubai, 6th to the 13th February with the base being in Fujairah on the east coast.
The main targets were the larger gulls on Kalba Beach, in the afternoons when the fishermen pulled the nets up the beach, but there was two slight problems with this plan ...

#1 .. The fishermen weren't fishing !!
#2 .. No large gulls came to feed !!

So some previous sites from last year were tried again, along with some new ones with varying degrees of success ...

Wamm Farm, then tried new sites along the east coast down to Kalba.

Al Riffa in the north near the Oman border, down the west coast for the falling tide at Khor al-Beida.

Jebel Hafit and Green Mubazzarah.

The mountains from Kalba to Hatta, trying many tracks off the main roads and off the Huwaylat Road, best spot was Wadi al Helo ...

Common Myna ~ Green Mubazzarah


Common Myna ~ Green Mubazzarah


Red-wattled Lapwing ~ Green Mubazzarah


Lesser Crested Tern ~ Kalba Beach


Whiskered Tern ~ Kalba Beach


Swift Tern ~ Kalba Beach


Slender-billed Gull ~ Kalba Beach


Slender-billed Gull ~ Kalba Beach


Western Reef Egret ~ Kalba Beach


Sooty Gull ~ Kalba Beach


Sooty Gull ~ Kalba Beach


Whimbrel ~ Kalba Beach


Purple Sunbird ~ Wamm Farm


Desert Lark ~ Wadi al-Helo


Blue Rock Thrush ~ Wadi al-Helo


Isabelline Wheatear ~ Al Rams

Hooded Wheatear ~ Jebel Hafit


Hume's Wheatear ~ Wadi al-Helo


Hume's Wheatear ~ Wadi al-Helo

This next image was taken just after the sun dropped giving a soft light, its a big crop but its my ...

' Image of the Trip '


Hume's Wheatear ~ Wadi al-Helo


A good trip but finding targets to photograph sure was hard work ..

Japan ~ Image of the Trip

Monday 1 February 2016

On the way back from our Japan trip RB asked if I had a Image of the Trip ..

Well from the moment i pressed the shutter on this image i knew it was the one ..


Slaty-backed Gulls ~ Kushiro Harbour, Hokkaido

F8 ~ 1/1600 ~ iso 640 ~ @300mm

Love the symmetry of the birds and the angle of there bills is near perfect ..

I was shooting the right-hand bird in portrait, when into the frame walked the 2nd bird and both began calling ..
Through the viewfinder it looked good but once it was all over and seeing the results on the back of the camera, I was thrilled with the symmetry ..  
I could easily of chosen an Eagle or Crane image but they are not unique, there's  plenty of  them on the internet with Cranes displaying and Eagles swooping. 
Go to Japan in winter and the Eagle & Crane images would be straight forward to achieve ..
Go to get two Slaty-backs calling together and you'd be waiting a long time.

So thats my Image of the Trip ..