Time to start saving

Over the years, my interest in wildlife photography (particularly birds) has continued to increase. I find something very satisfying about obtaining a good shot of both common and less common birds. This blog has provided me with somewhere to record the photos I have taken, and allow me to share them online. 

Over 5 years ago now, I got my first digital compact camera to start taking some (albeit terrible) photos of garden birds. I had a Fujifilm Finepix S700, with 7.1 megapixels and 10x optical zoom. The optical zoom part was the bit I was mostly interested in. It allowed me to get closer to some of our garden birds. Admittedly, 10x zoom was still relatively useless for my needs, but it was a start. 

After a while though, I decided that a DSLR was going to be my next step. Digital compacts really are quite ineffective for any kind of decent bird photography. Nearly 3 years ago now, I got an SLR camera - the Canon 500D (with 18-55mm kit lens). I loved using the camera, and discovering how to use all of its functions was exciting. I can remember at the time being especially interested in trying to use the movie mode, as it was the first Canon SLR (I think) to include a full HD movie mode. 

After a few months, I was able to afford to buy a cheap telephoto lens. I bought the Canon 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. This allowed me to take some much better quality photos of all kinds of wildlife. According to online reviews, it was about the best quality telephoto is was possible to buy for the money (just under the £150 mark). I was thoroughly enjoying taking photos with this lens and, although it was much more challenging to get used to than what I was using before, the images I was taking were much, much better. 

I've now been using this setup for about 2 and a half years, and I think now is possibly the time to make another step. This lens has been very good for me as a beginner, but for some time now, I've been thinking about upgrading. I want to now get a high quality bird photography lens that will give me a bit more reach for taking photos of birds at a slightly longer distance. 

I've been doing lots of research on the internet on the options available to me. The main issue with bird photography is that it doesn't come cheap. There just isn't a good lens available for less than about £500. And me being a student doesn't help matters much either. But I thought it would still be good to set myself a target so I have something to aim for. The selection of lenses include a couple from Canon, and one Sigma lens, and are as follows. I have included some information I found from the research I did. Maybe this information can help anyone else who is looking to buy themselves a bird photography lens at some point in the future.   

• Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 (approx £700-£800)- Cheaper than the other two, and gives the flexibility of a 150-500mm focal length. Can produce good images but isn't as high quality as the Canon alternatives. Apparently, high quality images can be obtained if you are willing to stop down a few times. Relatively heavy, but apparently popular with lots of birdwatchers.
• Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM Prime (approx £1000)- No zoom on this lens so its just got the single focal length of 400mm. Image quality is supposed to be the sharpest lens available around this price mark. Lots of places online recommending this lens for bird photography. No Image Stabilisation. 
• Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L IS USM (approx £1200)- Has the advantage of being a zoom lens (not just a 400mm like the one above). Good image quality but not as good as the 400mm prime apparently. Also has Image Stabilisation. Apparently very tempting to bird photographers because of the perceived flexibility of the focal length range and IS, but many experts state that almost all the time, the lens would be used at 400mm, and the better image quality of the 400mm prime gives it the edge. 

So I am definitely leaning towards the Canon 400mm f5.6 lens for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, bird photography is not a cheap hobby to have, and although £1000 is actually relatively cheap compared with some available on the market, its gonna be some time before I can afford one of these. But at least I now have a target to aim for. Not only this, but it's definitely a long term investment. I want this lens to last me as long as possible. Maybe I'll have the money at some point in the summer but we shall see. I may decide to rent this lens 

Hopefully, this post may be of use to anyone in the same situation as me. Below are a set of links to some of the sites I have used for my research. There are lots more websites which I have looked at, but finding them all is very difficult, so here's a few of the ones I could find: 

• http://mikeatkinson.net/Tutorial-3-Equipment.htm
• http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=43436
• http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=240617
• http://www.alexsukonkin.com/reviews/Canon-EF400f56-L-USM_en.shtml
• http://www.michaelfurtman.com/comparing_canon_400s.htm

Any more information anyone has on this would be much appreciated, as my mind isn't completely set on this lens just yet. 

I think I'll leave today's post at that. Sorry for posting so much about things such as this, but without my SLR, posting photographic content isn't really possible at the moment. My camera has now been sent back home after its repairs, and I should be able to bring it back to uni next time I go home at the weekend (probably next weekend, or the one after that). Tomorrow I may post about my morning birdwatching session in my ecology module but we shall see. Until then, enjoy the rest of the week :D 

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2013

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is something which brings much of Britain together and has really become an exciting weekend which so many people look forward to. There is always such an impressive number of people that take part, and I'm sure this year was no different. 

Having said this, I had originally thought 2013 would have been the only year for a while where I wouldn't take part, at least in my garden back home, with me being at university in Reading. However, I happened to be popping home this weekend anyway, which worked out very nicely indeed. I went home on the train on Friday evening (only about a 40 minute journey altogether), stayed at home on Saturday and came back to university in the evening. It really is convenient living so close to university and being able to do stuff like this. This allowed me and dad to do the big garden birdwatch together on Saturday morning. 

I woke up about 8ish on Saturday morning to pop outside and make sure all the feeders were as filled up as possible. They had been filled up on Friday morning, but I wanted to make sure everything was topped up. We then started the counting at 9:15, with the conditions cold but sunny, with the ground still partly covered with snow. The result? Probably the most disappointing big garden birdwatch we've ever done. We saw a total of just 10 species, which is the lowest we've ever seen. Everything about the conditions would suggest that the bird activity would have been high. Not only this, but just a couple of weeks ago, before I came back to reading after the Christmas break, we were seeing some incredibly busy activity at the feeders. On the 7th January, I tweeted this on my wildlife twitter feed:

So we really don't know what caused the quiet bird life yesterday morning, but that's all part of the exercise really. If everyone saw tons of birds in their garden, then it wouldn't really be a realistic demonstration on the populations of garden bird species. Anyway, without further adieu, here is the list that we saw. 

• Dunnock- 1
• Blackcap- 2
• Chaffinch- 3
• Robin- 1
• Blue tit- 3
• House sparrow- 2
• Wren- 1
• Magpie- 1
• Blackbird- 1
• Collared Dove- 2 

10 species

To be honest, it wasn't the lack of species diversity that was most apparent, but just that the numbers of birds around were generally very low- only 16 individual birds were seen throughout the course of the hour. Amazingly, Woodpigeon, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit and Coal Tit all eluded us. These are all species we would probably expect to see on an average day. It was pleasing to see a Wren though- a species which is probably around the garden quite a bit but we only actually spot once every month or so. And it was good to see both a male and a female Blackcap- a species which tends to visit us all year round these days. 

I managed an average photo of the male Blackcap below. My 500D is still off for repairs, but I still had my 300mm lens at home, and I used Mum's 450D to take a few photos. All photos were taken through my bedroom window to avoid disturbing the birds, so the photos really aren't any good, but I wanted to get some photos up as a record of the day, and also simply because getting any photos to post on this blog at the moment is difficult.
 

And below, a photo of a rather smart looking Magpie:

The pair of Woodpigeons in the photo below very annoyingly decided to sit in the tree of the garden next door, not descending down into our garden to be counted...

... Only to fly down to the garden about 2 minutes after we finished counting the birds:

It wasn't all bad though. Throughout the whole morning, we actually saw a decent variety of birds in and around the garden, and flying overhead. The problem was, all of these other species decided not to visit during the hour we were recording in. There were times both before and after the counts where the feeders were busier, but nothing really close to what we were seeing a few weeks ago. 

One species that was particularly good to see was a Bullfinch (female), that landed in the trees at the end of the garden two doors down. Although it arrived during the hour, it was only seen in a nearby garden, and not our own, so couldn't be counted. A terrible record shot can be seen below:

Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Long-tailed Tits Woodpigeons, a Song Thrush and a Great Tit were all seen feeding in the garden outside of the hour that we were recording in. A Fieldfare was also seen at the top of a tree in our next door neighbour's garden, as well as flying overhead. A bad record shot of the Fieldfare can be seen below, just as it was flying off.

A number of birds were seen flying overhead throughout the morning. On 3 or 4 occasions, a small flock of Redwings could be seen flying over. Other birds flying overhead throughout the morning included Carrion Crow, Red Kite, Buzzard and Common Gull. So by the end of the morning, the number of species seen in and around the garden and flying overhead was 22- which really isn't too bad really. 

Not only this, but we noticed a Blue Tit pair check out the nestbox at the end of the garden for a good 5 or 10 minutes. Unfortunately, this nestbox currently has no camera in it, as the cable has become damaged again and needs replacing. Hopefully this should be sorted in time for the nesting season though, even though I won't be at home to watch what's going on! I'll have to get mum and dad to keep checking on the nestbox and sending me photos/videos if and when something happens.

Anyway, I think I'll stop rambling on about our garden birdwatch and start reading about what everyone else saw over the weekend (and entering our counts on the RSPB website). I hope you all had a great weekend of garden birdwatching, and saw some interesting species. Until next time, see you later :D  

What does Environmental & Countryside Management Involve?

I thought I would use this post as a way of briefly describing what my uni course involves. As I've said before, I'm studying Environmental and Countryside Management here at Reading University, but I never really explained what my course involves or anything like that. So, amongst a couple of other things, I'll just briefly summarise what modules I've been doing and stuff. It'll be nice for me to have this post here for my own records too, if I want to come back to it at any stage. Apologies for the dull Friday reading that will be this post, but wanted to get something up on the blog today. 

So in the first term (until Christmas), my course involved 6 modules, of which 4 were compulsory and 2 were optional. A brief outline of these  modules is below: 

Quantitative skills for environmental scientists- Essentially, this was a statistics maths course, involving statistical tests, graphical presentation of data, logarithms, trigonometry and a bit of algebra. Difficulty was probably slightly harder than GCSE, but not A-Level. Given that I never did A-Level maths, it was the first time in well over 2 years that I had done any kind of maths, so it did take a while to get into the swing of things- especially logarithms. 

Hydrology (optional module)- Involved lectures focussing mostly on river systems, flooding, droughts, hydrological calculations, precipitation, and drainage. Heavy focus on some stuff already covered at school but interesting nonetheless. Coursework involved producing a report on the lake located on the university campus. Yes, we have a lake! A couple of screenshots of the report I did can be seen below. 

UK Food Chain (optional)- Quite an interesting that's pretty self explanatory really. It focussed on the sources of UK food, the way value is added in food chains, food security, the future of UK agriculture, etc. 

Introduction to Environmental Science- Mostly geographical and ecological course about the natural environment and environmental issues. Some of the module repeated my A Level geography course but was still one of my favourite modules from last term nonetheless. Some of the work included an essay on a topic of my choice (I chose to write about the Canadian Tar Sands), and a group poster about a conservation topic of our choice (our group decided to do ours on the decline and conservation of the Red Grouse). I have shown the poster below: 

Ecology and environmental management- A module that mostly involves going out on field course every week on a Thursday to study a particular environmental or ecological area. Often, the field course is spent collecting data or samples for a report which is written up over the weeks following. Examples of places which we've visited include the Jubilee River, a couple of local farms, a trip to a couple of areas of the Chilterns, and some stuff based on the university campus. 

Last term one of the pieces of work I produced was an invertebrate sampling report. This involved comparing the invertebrate diversity between two different habitats on the university campus- grassland and woodland. This involved collecting leaf litter samples and pitfall trap samples and examining the samples under microscopes to identify the taxa present in each sample. The write-up for this investigation took a very long time but produced some interesting results. A few screenshots from the write up can be seen below:

Introduction to management- This module was an interesting one for me. It was a module all about business management. I'd never done business studies or economics at school, or really had much of an interest in the way businesses work. So it was a really nice course for me, purely because I'd never learnt about the topic area before. Not only was it an interesting module, but I guess I've come out of it a bit better equipped with skills that I may need at some point in the future. The coursework involved putting yourself in the position of a small environmental consultancy company and describing the structure of the company, outside impacts on the firm, etc. 

So that rounds up the modules I did in the first term. Now for the second! Apart from one of the modules (ecology and environmental management, which runs throughout the year), all the ones I have this term are different to the ones I had in the first term, which has made it a nice refreshing start to the new year. So, here we go then. I apologise if you give up reading here, I can imagine this isn't the most interesting read in the world. Obviously I've only been back at uni for 2 weeks since Christmas, so I only have a rough idea of what these modules are like so far, but I'll give it a go..  

Countryside and the environment- Fairly self explanatory really. Covers the processes of the countryside, and has a big focus on climate, weather and the atmosphere. Interesting so far 

Mammals: species, diversity and conservation- Really interesting module about mammal behaviour, ecology, distribution, diversity and evolution. The lecturer is also very funny which helps a lot. 

Ecology: species and their interactions- This module has definitely been my favourite since I've been back. It consists of a lecture on ecology, followed by a practical session in the field. The ecology lecture has a focus on evolutionary biology, the interactions between species, population dynamics and so on. 

The practical part of the lecture is the bit that really appeals to me as its effectively a birdwatching session. The lecturer explained that one of the best ways to be able to understand ecology is to have a basic understanding of the species which are around us. Birds are apparently a good species to study, as they're good indicators of environmental change, they're all around us and so easy to study, and relatively easy to identify, at least compared to things like insects. At the end of the module, we as a group will be undertaking a campus-wide survey of the bird species present, and producing a piece of coursework based on this. So the birdwatching field work is also a way of training the people on the module to be able to identify birds well enough for the coursework. The campus, as I've said before is such a diverse area for wildlife, with so many habitat types over a relatively large area. So it really is perfect for undertaking such a project as this.

The field work session involves splitting the students into 2 groups. Each group over 6 weeks will spend an hour in 3 of the most definitive habitats on campus (the lake, the woodland and the open grassland). The group I'm in focussed on the lake as our habitat last week, and we saw a decent range of species, which I've listed below: 

• Wren
• Kingfisher
• Mallard
• Great Crested Grebe
• Woodpigeon
• Coot 
• Black-headed gull
• Moorhen
• Robin
• Egyptian Goose
• Mute Swan
• Blue Tit
• Blackbird
• Lesser-black backed gull 
• Red Kite
• Long-tailed tit

This week, it was the turn of the other group to go out into the field to observe what they could in an hour. Annoyingly, the woodland group managed to spot 2 Little Owls and a Firecrest- two birds I would love to see, especially the Firecrest. The Firecrest has apparently been seen on campus for the last few weeks. Its a very scarce bird at the best of times, and for one to turn up on the university campus is really quite incredible. Its thought that this particular individual may be a winter migrant, but I'm not sure how long it will stay on the uni campus for. 

The day after I heard about the Firecrest sighting from the second group, I headed out to the area which it had been seen, as my lecture happened to be around in a building around that area anyway, but alas, I couldn't find it. A small population of breeding Firecrests are found in a woodland near where I live back home (Wendover Woods), but on my one visit to the woodland, I didn't see one. Hopefully I'll spot the one on the university campus to make up for it! It'd be great to make the university campus my proper local patch. 

Finally, I'd just like to mention how impressed I've been with the lecturer for this module. He's very enthusiastic about his subject area of ecology, and has got virtually the entire group interested in the practical sessions every week. He's done all sorts of ecology-based work based in this country and abroad, and is now head of biological sciences at Reading University. Check out his website here. His nature photography is well worth a look if you get the chance. 

Ecology and environmental management- The only module that has continued beyond the first term. The content is the same as the first term really. This week involved a soil seed bank experiment that will be continued over the next few weeks. 

Right, I think I'd better limit today's post to that as I've been rambling on so much and I just want to get this finished now! Sorry if this hasn't been particularly interesting, and I don't really like talking so much about myself like this, but it will be nice to have this post as an interesting reference for me in the future. Will post tomorrow about the Big Garden Birdwatch, as I'll be home at the weekend, and therefore be able to take part. Until then, have a great weekend of birdwatching and see you later :D 

Wales at New Year

As per usual, my New Year was spent on holiday with friends and family. This year, as with last year, we were in Wales, near Newtown (not too far from Welshpool). A good week was had by all, and I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to post some of the pictures I took throughout the week. I didn't take a huge amount but there were a few which are worth sharing. 

Luckily the weather we had throughout the week was actually not too bad for the most part, which is especially good considering the horrible weather we had in December. Even though the weather was generally decent when we were there, some of the fields in the surrounding area were flooded from the amount of rain prior to our visit. 

Luckily, the place we were staying in wasn't covered in water which was a nice bonus. The photo below shows the house that I was staying in. There was about 20 people in total, with 11 staying in this house, and the other 9 people split between two smaller houses across the road. 

And a picture of the house from the other side of the road where the other little cottages are:

The next set of photos were taken throughout the week on various different walks around the area we were staying. 

The next few photos were taken at a small local wildlife reserve. The site includes a wetlands area with reeds and a couple of islands, and some scrub/woodland in the surrounding area, with a couple of hides. We spent 2 or 3 hours walking around the reserve, popping into both of the hides for a while. In terms of wetland birds, it was actually pretty quiet and there wasn't a lot to be seen. It is only a small reserve, so it was always unlikely to attract huge numbers of wildfowl. 

Most of the bird activity, as is often the case at nature reserves, could be seen when walking between the hides in the scrub areas. All of the small common birds you would expect to see, we saw. There were a couple of unusual things to be seen though. I was very surprised by the number of Bullfinches in the area. We saw them 4 or 5 times when walking around the reserve, sometimes on their own, and more often than not, in a group with a couple of other individuals feeding on berries of various plants. 

Unfortunately, Bullfinches as I'm sure you're aware are relatively shy birds and it really is quite difficult to get close to them. This makes photographing them a bit of a pain, and as I was there, I was only really able to get a couple of record shots. Bullfinches aren't rare exactly, but it would have been nice to get some better photos of a bird that isn't seen all too often. Not only this, but I missed all the opportunities to take pictures of the male bird with its distinctive bright pink front. The photo below is the best I could manage of a female bird we encountered on our way to the first hide. 

Another bird we encountered was a friendly little Dunnock...

Once we had got into the first hide, there wasn't an awful lot to be seen. We did spot a Wren flitting around in the reeds though, which caught our attention for a while. They're such interesting birds to watch, but for something so common, they're surprisingly difficult to see. Even when you have spotted one, its often just for a few seconds or even less before it flies off into the undergrowth where it can't be seen. 

This particular bird stayed around a bit longer than normal, allowing a few pictures to be taken. Even though it stayed put, the bird was at quite a distance, and was obviously very small, so my 300mm lens really couldn't get particularly close to it. A very average cropped picture can be seen below.

We saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the way to the second hide, and a few other interesting species such as Teal and Great-crested Grebe could be seen from the second hide, but after a while we decided to head back. On the way back to the car though, we saw a tiny Goldcrest flitting through the scrub, a Jay, a Red Kite and a Kestrel. By the end of the day, we had seen a decent number of species for such a small reserve which was pleasing. Throughout the week, we saw other species such as Treecreeper, which was good to see. I've seen them a few times before, but its always fascinating to watch their unique behaviour as they climb up trees like mice. 

This reserve was just one of many in the local area around the house we were staying in. Wales generally really is a fantastic place to see birds, largely due to the fact that so much of the country has been left untouched. Pretty much every time I've been there I've ended up seeing an impressive range of species without really making an effort to go to many nature reserves. 

I think I'll leave today's post at that. I'm starting to run out of photos on my computer that I haven't posted yet so hopefully I'll have my SLR camera back from being repaired before too long. I also might try and add a couple of posts in 2012 to fill in the gaps I missed. Until then, have a great week :D 

More snow!

So today in Reading, we got about 4 inches worth of snow throughout the course of the day. All lectures were cancelled about midday, so I've been out most of today with people from my flat enjoying it all. I know I posted some snowy pictures on Monday, but today's snow was much more significant, and with my SLR still off for repairs, I don't really have much opportunity to post anything else. 

I will warn you though, the pictures in this post were taken with my phone camera, so really aren't that good. I have the Nokia Lumia 800, which, as far as phone cameras go, isn't bad, just they don't even get close to comparing with a digital compact or an SLR camera. The colours are pretty dreadful, but hopefully you can get some idea of the extent of the snow today. I didn't really want to take out my compact camera into the snow, and as I've said, my SLR is off for repairs, so this is the best I could do really. 

All photos were taken on the Reading University campus. 

And of course, a day with a lot of snow doesn't pass without snowball fights, which is how most of today with the flatmates was spent. 

The start of a large gathering on the sports fields...

So there you have it, January really has marked the start of the winter properly. For a while I was getting worried that the whole winter was going to pass with the wet and mild weather that we saw throughout December. I hope the snow hasn't caused you too much disruption where you are, and enjoy it whilst you can this weekend! 

I do realise my posts recently haven't really been nature related but I'm really quite limited with what I can post at the moment. Might be back tomorrow with something a bit more interesting, we shall see. Anyway, cheers for reading and have a great weekend :) 

Winter has finally arrived

This morning I woke up to a nice thin layer of snow outside. Told you it would be a big contrast to what I posted yesterday! The photos below show the view from outside my uni room window this morning. There was a slightly more substantial layer of snow about half an hour before I took these photos. All the photos in this post were taken with my digital compact camera due to the fact my SLR is currently being sent off for minor repairs. So these pictures aren't the best quality, but I thought it would share them anyway.

With me having no lectures today, I popped outside to have a wander round the campus and capture some of the snowy scenes. As the morning went on, the snow became much more like sleet, and the remaining snow began to disappear.

Although the snow really was quite light this morning, it's maybe a sign of things to come in the next month or so. It really is good to finally welcome proper winter weather, following the strange mild, rainy and dull weather we've had for the last month in the south east. 

Wherever you are, enjoy the wintery scenes around the country today. Also I hope the snow doesn't cause you too many problems getting around- I know that other parts of the UK are expecting more heavy snow throughout today. Anyway, I'm off to go and get some lunch and get a bit of work done, so I'll leave today's post at that. Have a great day :D 

Brightening up January

The weather recently really hasn't been great. So I thought it would be good to cheer you all up with some sunny pictures from last September that I never got round to posting. With it being such a wet, dull December, and January turning pretty cold, its nice to brighten things up with a few sunny pictures. 

Below is a few photos of a Comma butterfly that was perched on the edge of our bird table in the garden. It took a while for it to open its wings and show its bright colours.

  

Its only when you are able to get up close to butterflies like this Comma, that you realise just how delicate they are. The wings look rather like they've been made out of paper and cut into shapes.

In the evening, a very bright pink sunset could be seen for a short time. It seems a while since we've seen something like this. 

What a strange contrast these kinds of scenes will be to the snowy scenes much of the UK are expecting over the next few days. 

My SLR camera is currently off for repairs and I won't see it for about 4 weeks I think, so I'll try to post what I can with my other camera in the meantime. Also, I'm back at uni now, so any photos I do take will likely be from the university campus. Anyway, I'll leave today's post at that I think. Have a great week everyone and I hope the snow that is expected doesn't cause you too many problems.

Life update

Its been nearly a year since I last posted on this blog and I just thought to myself today that I miss it all rather a lot. No matter how long I leave it between posts, it seems I will always want to come back here to post stuff occasionally. Quite a few things have changed since I last spoke to you, and I thought I would use this post as a quick way of letting you know what's going on in my life.  

After A-levels, I'm now studying Environmental & Countryside Management at Reading University. Its been great so far and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm living in university halls though which means I no longer have a garden to blog about (sad I know). But I will not let this stop me from updating this site. The university campus itself is a great place for wildlife, so there's always stuff to see there. And when I'm home (as I just have been for Christmas), or when I'm on holiday, I'll always have stuff to talk about. So basically, my aim for 2013 is to do at least one post a month, which sounds like a bit of a rubbish target, but I only managed 8 posts in 2012 so it's not gonna be the easiest thing in the world.

Anyway, I'm gonna keep this post short cause its late and I have a busy day ahead tomorrow. To summarise, I'm gonna be back soon, so stay posted folks! x