Astronomy, Photography and Weather
March 19, 2024, 12:26:05 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: IAA lecture programme continues alternate Wednesdays from September - an excellent programme of lectures- Queens University Belfast - Bell Lecture Theatre. Also keep an eye out for the Summer Events
 
  Home Help Search Gallery Staff List Login Register  

A Day at Slimbridge.

Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: A Day at Slimbridge.  (Read 752 times)
JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« on: March 08, 2009, 06:26:52 pm »

On Friday I went to Slimbridge ,said to be the world's best Wetland/wildfowl centre  and is located in the Severn Estuary.- It was started by Sir Peter Scott in 1948.The story is that he was a shooting man and shot a duck - he was so taken by the way the mate of this duck became distressed that he never shot another bird but embarked on a programme that is what we have today at Slimbridge. Sir Peter's wife was 90 last November. She said he returned from war with a feeling he had to do something positive for the world and decided to save threatened species. It's the only place in the world where all 6 species of Flamingo are in one place. He also saved the wonderful Hawaiian Goose from extinction. The Hawaiians were eating the eggs .He brought some  birds back to Slimbridge and embarked on a breeding programme. These geese have to be the favourite bird there - they will come right up to visitors  and  'ask' for food and they will try to go into peoples' pockets - seed can be bought there to feed them and the other birds.

I was fortunate enough to see two kingfishers from a hide but even my 400mm end of my lens plus the 1.6 X crop AND a 1.4 extender I  just about reached them so next time I'm going to try digiscoping them. I could have done with more light really to get the shutter speed up on occasions but I'll go again soon-nothing doing next week ,I see.  I'm no too happy with the mandarins - not quite 100% sharp but I've decided they are reasonable enough to post. I took them at 1/200sec.

I could have cropped this first one a lot more but I thought it might be better to keep some of the bank and water vidsible to give a 'context'. As ever if anyone sees how any of these might be  improved please shout up..settings, croppings ,anything.

Kingfishers







A Coot.




Jackdaw





Mute Swan





Mandarins Ducks (males)







Flamingos











Swan Goose from Mongolia, N. China and SE Russia





« Last Edit: March 08, 2009, 06:30:55 pm by JohnC » Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5182


Maghera, N. Ireland


View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2009, 11:41:22 pm »

Beautiful images John!!. Love the Kingfisher and Flamingo captures. Glad you had such a successful photo shoot!  Smiley. I'm sure it must have been challenging to get a good image of those guys in action.
Report Spam   Logged

jgs001
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1280


Horsham, Sussex, UK


View Profile WWW
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2009, 11:55:04 am »

Superb set of shots John, love the Kingfishers
Report Spam   Logged

John
Canon 450d, EF-S 18-55 IS, 55-250 IS, Raynox DCR250
HQE5 + C80ED & Vista 80s. NexStar Skymax 102 SLT.

*** My Astro Blog ***
JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2009, 04:14:36 pm »

Thanks ,glad you enjoyed them. The kingfishers are wonderfully photogenic aren't they. I rung Jessops this morning and the bloke said they'd lost my 28mm f2.8 lens but located  it this morning after I rung - it's been to two repairers (under guarantee) and won't be fixed for another two weeks, that's 6 weeks Ugh. and it's he one I use on the scope and it has the adaptor ring on it too  to fit the camera to the scope. Such is life.
Report Spam   Logged
JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2009, 10:20:12 am »

Forgot this one. I assume it's the same as the others but with his head up ??


Report Spam   Logged
Roman White
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1479


Poltava, Ukraine


View Profile WWW
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2009, 11:24:40 am »

Great stuff, John!
I always liked kingfishers, and the mandarin ducks are fantastic!  Smiley
Report Spam   Logged

SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ
Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer
Poltava Astronomy Portal
martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5182


Maghera, N. Ireland


View Profile WWW
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2009, 02:24:58 pm »

John, that's a stunner!!!  Smiley.  What an incredible Duck.
Report Spam   Logged

JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2009, 03:00:53 pm »

They're incredible aren't they. Easily the most colourful - fancy seeing them wild .


Report Spam   Logged
Paul
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1297


Larne, N. Ireland


View Profile WWW
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2009, 11:18:26 pm »

Very impressive shots John - love the Flamingoes reflected in the water!
Report Spam   Logged

JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2009, 11:43:34 pm »

Thanks,Paul. It was the reflection that drew my attention - made it more interesting. I hope to get better kingfisher photos by digiscoping them when I get that 28mm f2.8 lens back from Jessops. It's got the adaptor ring on it, they lost it for 5 weeks but found it again so that's another two weeks to sort it- it will be fixed by Monday 23rd. Ugh. Under guarantee,I couldn't get infinity to try a night sky shot.
Report Spam   Logged


Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum

Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy