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Using a Gimbal Head for Wildlife Photography
Using a gimbal head to photograph sea birds at Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire.
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Sea Birds
Second visit to Bempton Cliffs; puffin, kittiwake, gannets, herring gull. guillemots, razor bill, chicks.
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Birds at Bempton
The ghost of last year’s disastrous day trip to Bempton Cliffs has been laid! Last year, the forecast of early mist, lifting mid-morning, had been wrong and thick fog became even thicker by lunchtime with no prospect of clear weather – we could hear birds but not see much. To add insult to injury, trying to follow the birds that we could see made me motion sick. The saving grace of that day had been a visit to Rodley nature reserve, near Leeds, in the afternoon. I have discovered that I cannot work with a macro lens or with a long telephoto lens without becoming motion sick (not much chance of getting…
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Great Crested Grebe and Moorhen families
I was very lucky to be able to watch a young family of Great Crested Grebes last week in a local pond. By the time I had found out about them, the chicks were over a week old and becoming independent in getting around the pond, though they did occasionally hitch a ride on either mum or sometimes dad’s back. Unfortunately they were at quite a distance from the shore on both days that we went down to watch them, so taking photographs was a challenge. Closer in, near the edge of the lake were two families of moorhens darting in and out of the reeds and it was possible, from time…
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Le Weekend
Last weekend’s photography started early Saturday morning. My friends, who know I am not an early riser, will be surprised that I was up just after 5 am and on the road, with two photographer friends, by 6 am. Our destination…the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs on the North Yorkshire coast. Unfortunately, a few winding roads and a slightly foggy morning brought on my motion sickness and I spent most of the first hour sitting in the car in the car park, waiting for nausea to subside. Meanwhile, my friends went off in the fog to explore and came back with the bad news that the fog was very thick…
