My second expedition

My next expedition was to see some Mandarin ducks (Aix galericulata), I arrived early in the morning around 8:30am to stake it out. I got there with plenty of time to set up my equipment, but I hadn’t for seen that the ducks were not to play ball with me. I sat there for a good 3 hours with nothing to show for it.

I decided to take a walk, as I knew that if the ducks were to return they would do so in the early evening. So I set off round the fields lugging all my gear around with me. Just in case I saw anything interesting.

After I entered the route that I would take I started to think to my self that I would just use my small lens and try some HDR and panoramas. Although later I though that the panoramas were not good enough so just had to settle with HDRs. 

 

 

As I started the walk I was greeted by Green finches (Carduelis chloris), Gold finches (Carduelis carduelis), Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), Great tits (Parus major), Coal tits (Periparus ater), Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus), Rooks (Corvus frugilegus), Jackdoors (Corvus monedula) and to my surprise a Jay (Garrulus glandarius) whom was hopping around on the floor looking for nuts to burry for the winter.

This walk was new to me so I didn’t really know what to expect, so as I crossed the fields I was interested that the walk goes through a range of different habitats. I had gone from open farmland into managed forests. In the forests I wasn’t able to do as much photography as I would have liked because it would have been shots of trees, consequently it would have been very generic.

I did how ever find an old gate, which was on a hill leading up to a conifer forest. This was startling although clearly a plantation it was managed in an interesting way. There were huge trees, which have been ripped out by their roots. Now this is very strange because on closer inspection of the trees some of the bark very low down on the tree was missing. Almost as if a chain had been there and had pulled the tree down, it was very strange. 

Once I had passed that I then continued, eventually stumbling upon a hop farm finding some old abandoned lodgings and storage sheds. It was here were I spent most of the day listening to birds and doing some HDR I generally don’t like that kind of photography. The abandoned building kind, I think it is last photography there isn’t much else to do but find an old building. The photographs came out OK but personally I am not a fan. 

After than I found the hop farm, it was a shame that the hops were not yet planted and growing it would have been amazing to wonder through the corridors made by them. So instead I pulled out my camera much more interesting, except that the ground was parched and there was nothing growing, it wouldn’t have looked out of place in Chernobyl. 

Then it was back into the fields and back to those ducks. It was a shame as when I got to the pond they still eluded me. Leaving straight away after that I encountered a Coot (Fulica atra), Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), Nuthatch (Sitta europaea), Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) and a Green woodpecker (Picus viridis).

It was a nice end to my mini expedition, but as I walked along the path above the pond I saw on the pond my elusive prey. I have already seen them before but the Mandarin duck is spectacular. I managed to get a shot of it. It’s a record shot, but I got one.