Birds in Flight

After a stunning weekend weather wise (and a great moth trap last night) I was hoping today would be equally god as I was stuck at work from Friday so missed the sun, when I went out the sun was trying to break the clouds, however it failed miserably! it was really cold and horrible all day. So instead I looked for migrants (found one, more on that later) and attempted to catch a few flight shots, the dull sky I find helps this when trying over water as the diffused light is reflected back.

So on to the Migrant, well, as you would suspect it was a Chiffchaff, which I heard singing very briefly just by pooh stick bridge, however I am not 100% sure on the true identity, something sounded, well, odd, rather than the usual, chiff, chiff, chaff that I hear, this one had a weird whistle like wheet, so was more, chiffwheet Chiffwheet, but it sang only twice and I never saw it, I’ve had a listen to Siberian (tristris) and it sounds close but I know there are major issues with song identification on chiffchaffs so am happy just to say it was a chiffchaff and leave it at that.

Canada Geese

Anyway, while watching the bushes the bird above had been in I was disturbed by a commotion behind me and the Canada Geese were getting all amorous and territorial so there was a lot of croaking and flying around the lake, this allowed me to start grabbing a few in flight photos.

Amorous Canada Goose – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Canada Goose in flight, Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

More Birds in Flight

After the Canada Geese in flight and the Mallards (first picture) I decided to try some gulls, these were not so good, but still fun to try. Birds in flight photography can be tricky subject, it is hard to keep focus and the speed of birds flight can sometimes be an issue here, but I find dull days slightly better than bright as the light on the birds appears more even.

Black-Headed Gull in flight – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Common Gull in flight, Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

I must admit that after this I was cold and fed up. It was not as nice a day as the weekend had been. So decided to head home and photograph the moths from the nights trappings, (added one below) and have a doze ready for my night shift.