May Bank Holiday

So how was your bank holiday weekend – enjoyable we hope :-)

Ours was busy busy busy. We took the Nikons and the XF305 for a couple of long drives. Seri, who will blog the trip later, took Friday as a leave day giving us plenty of time for photographic mischief.

So Friday we went for our first trip of the year to Bempton Cliffs. A very long day trip from Coventry, where we live, we spent roughly 7 hours in the car and covered about 360 miles. With 4 hours on site we were both pretty wasted by the time we got home.

The  cliffs are a prime breeding site for many species of true seabirds – Gannet, Guillemot, Razorbill, Fulmar and Kittiwake all breed on the cliffs in large numbers. There are many other species to see also, naturally, with small numbers of Puffin as well as gull species, occasional Peregrines, Linnet, Skylark, Kestrel, Tree Sparrows and, well look at the above RSPB link for a general guide.

Highlight of this trip was undoubtedly the long range views of two Short Eared Owls – one of which can be seen hunting in the video below…

A good if somewhat tiring day.

 

Saturday we stayed in Coventry visiting Tocil Woods which is situated within the grounds of Warwick University. Yes, Warwick University is in Coventry LOL.

We had a happy hour or so wandering in the woods which are beautifully bedecked with thousands of Bluebells at this time of year, and then home for food, fluids and lots of rest.

Sunday and we were in the car again for another 300++ mile trip – this time back home to Wales.

Rain was forecast for the afternoon so we got up especially early and were in Gilfach Farm nice and early. First stop there, for us, is always at the bottom of the humungous hill and into the “Otter Hide”. Otters have been seen there, but never by us. We go there in search of Dippers. We were almost immediately rewarded by sighting of the little brown marvel of nature.

Seri got to grips with shooting the birds with her Nikon and I began the task of setting up the XF305 for shooting into the darkness of the river. As you can see from the video it didn’t work out too well….

I captured the above video with the camera in a less than ideal position and setup. The bird then delivered it’s beak full of food to the nest (under the bridge) and went out of sight. So I dutifully set the camera to a better position, sorted out the exposure and colour profile and waited for its return.

Didn’t see it again LOL – CAPTURE YOUR SUBJECT WHEN YOU SEE IT :-)

So back to the Nikons for me too…..

We had a great time at Gilfach shooting the Dipper, Pied Flycatcher, Pipits and Nuthatches amongst others.

We then drove down to our beloved Aberystwyth, where we lived for a decade, bought the smallest portions of fish and chips we’ve ever seen, and headed straight back into the hills and into Nant yr Arian, a place we’ve been visiting regularly for 20 years or so.

Photographed the Red Kites feeding and then the long drive home……

Bank Holiday Monday we were both dead on our feet so a little bit of shopping and then stayed home, planning our next raiding party :-)

We shot some 5,200 still images over the weekend and a bit of video.

Obviously we’ve not posted any still in this posting, but 50+GB of data takes a long time to sort out – so next time :-)…

For now – here’s one we did earlier…..

Click the image to see our latest work in progress.

Take a look at our Flickr site to see what else we’ve been up to.