Little Egrets

as Blacktoft intercepted our Pec Sand before it found Alkborough I had to make do with photographing Little Egrets and their antics

Hobby and Buzzard mixed fortunes

Common Buzzards seem to have had a decent year locally with most broods fledging 1-2 young, there were 13 birds together in this group yesterday, but Hobbies have clearly had a bad time; this female was hunting Common darters over a HLS site but no sign of any juveniles which are normally prevalent at this time of year.

Common darter black

I guess you either like this sort of thing or you don't

Emerald Damselflies, Common Spreadwings

same camera combo as below -- the close focus on the 300 II at 2m is great for small subjects -- monopod for stability

Southern Hawker

I guess this maybe means that the AF is working OK but flying dragons are always tricky -- all shots with Canon 1D4 and 300 2.8 II + 1.4x III

Med Gull its a start

not easy using the camera even with the 300 2.8 but this juv / first-winter Med at Chowder this morning  gave a little test for the revamped A1 servo after Canon's firmware update performed earlier in the week -- still need to get some real action from some flying birds and with rather better light before I can see any difference -- all high ISO on a dull start to the day -- 1000 - 1600 ISO -- Not sure if it is a colour ring or just a metal ring on the right leg

male Black Darter

Hobby

a pair with one juvenile fledged -- still painful to lift a camera even with a light weight lens so a bit shaky!

Common Darters

getting out at last but the 300 is back with Canon getting its firmware update so using the weener 400 5.6 -- here needed extension tubes as it doesn't focus very close -- masses of dragons in the forest today

juvenile Hobby flash back

managed to get about a bit today and checked 3 Hobby sites that I was unable to get to at fledging time -- just one adult at one nest and no birds anywhere else -- it looks like it has been a very poor season for the delightful Hobby -- thus I flashed back to August 20th 2006 -- I had hidden myself in a copse near where a family of fledged juvenile Hobbies were loafing -- part field craft part total luck and part being in the right place at the right time but this juvenile suddenly landed right in front of me on the outside of the copse and started taking in its environs -note the midge it is watching in image 7-- my equipment a Canon EOS 30D and Canon 300 f4 lens -- not the most pricey or high spec combination but the best juvenile Hobby images I have taken -- all were processed from RAWs, why anyone buys a DSLR and takes JPegs is beyond me; you can always improve on your processed RAWs with better software in years to come -- so here a few of the images -- I seemed to hold my breath for about 30 minutes but when I looked at the times of the first and last image on the camera it was less than six minutes but a close encounter with my favourite bird that I will never forget  - a 30 minute session watching a cracking juvenile Merlin this afternoon gave me ideas fora winter project! but no shots as it was 500m away