February 2023

insectsandflight.com

all pictures © robin williams

February 2023: wildlife, from the Somerset Levels

February 28th 2023. On this last day of the month a great many things have had to be fitted in, few towards our interest in the surrounding wildlife. A grandson is on his way to Australia via a short visit to Berlin and a son-in-law to Thailand for his lifelong passion - golf. I took advantage of a brief interlude and opened up the trail camera to see what was on the card. Out of this a few pictures emerged as of interest, as well as being within the requisite range of the lens. The first of these amazed with its detail and colouring during the night. It is so good to be reminded of the presence of 'our' deer, even if we no longer catch out them during the day.

Roebuck, Capreolus capreolus

Roe deer, Capreolus capreolus f

The other two come from the early morning twilight. The camera has two lenses, one for daylight colour and the other for night-time photography, handling both realy well but there is a period where the light is neither one thing nor another. We call it dimpsy-dark here in Somerset. The pictures are rendered in silver and black. Which lens or program this uses is not obvious.

Roe deer, Capreolus capreolus f

February 21st 2023. It was a quiet, perfect afternoon, ducks reflected in the water of the pond at Catcott Lows. I had not high hopes of anything too exciting thinking about it on the way home. The pictures of a female teal more than made up for the time spent. Well worth the visit. Common teal, Anas crecca f

Common teal, Anas crecca f

Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus

Great white egret over Glastonbury Tor, Egretta alba

'Jenny' Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes

February 19th 2023. Another perfect pre-spring day at Catcott Lows, sunshine catching the splendour of the duck, of which there were a great number. Lapwings were also there but hid among the dead reeds, only becoming obvious when some fright drove them all into the air.

Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus

Shoveler, Anas clypeata m

Shoveler, Anas clypeata m

Shoveler, Anas clypeata m

Wigeon, Anas penelope m

I became even more concerned with quality recently, as a result of a copy of my Nikon program apparently going mad. It was as if the pictures were slightly out of focus. I struggled with the program, tried all sorts of variants and, after some days of complete frustration did what I should have done much earlier - reloaded NX Studio. I deleted the existing copy completely, then loaded a fresh copy. What joy, all was back to normal once more; what a relief! But, it left a nasty taste, so I decided to check everything to do with quality; my work flow, all aspects of using NX Studio, as well as checking the focus for specific lenses on each camera.

After a deal of soul-searching, I decided to continue using the latest version of Nikon NX Studio as the basis for my system. This turned out to have various extra steps that really improved quality, particularly involving sharpness. For instance, a click on the display for the currant picture brings up the central area blown up. All will be seen in great detail, with every change of sharpness, colour etc being instantly visible. It makes the most extraordinary difference to the finished picture (though not always as visible on a website, because of native restrictions, but extremely effective in large-size prints). Like every photographic program, there is far more available than you could ever use, but further exploration is always worthwhile and proved so for me. The picture below, as well as earlier ones of male teal, show flank markings at their optimum, after carrying out such adjustments. In particular, the Wigeon's markings are by no means easy to spot in the open, yet show well in the picture. Checking and re-setting the focus of specialist lenses has proved vital, even though they were only slightly out. I wait with eager anticipation the effect on my macro-lenses in the 'insect season'. I thought my my close-up pictures were sharp, but perhaps the plane is now slightly different and may improve focus further. Of course it is vital to combine all this with use of an appropriate mono or tripod. Only time will demonstrate this. Results from all this depend on careful examination of every aspect of workflow and process - constant vigilance.

Wigeon, Anas penelope m

February 9th 2023. Greylake! I had been wondering what state this amazing reserve would be in, famous for enormous numbers of waterfowl, when I heard a couple of good reports from people who had been there in the past few days. I was most anxious to go there as soon as practicable, while Fiona had not seen it in all its glory, in winter. Fortunately it was both sunny and largely, relatively still - unusual for its location at the he end of miles of flatlands and a prevailing south-west wind. We were indeed lucky, plenty of duck in sight. The landscape differed from the usual, water levels were extremely high, causing the loss of that great green lawn usually seen to the left of the pond. The duck were gathered in the remaining higher area but also spread more widely across the soggier areas. While there were other birds, our concentration was on the large numbers of teal and snipe. Our understanding of the large numbers out there was boosted by one or two eruptions caused by predators passing overhead.

mixed duck, Greylake

Mixed duck, Greylake

I was delighted to concentrate on the large numbers of Common teal stretching in front. We must have encountered that magical moment for the teal when they were all asleep, completely peaceful. This is not the norm. Teal spend much of their life dashing around with frantic energy. Here we were able to study the intricate plumage of the drakes with their beautiful flank markings, also the subtle shadings and markings on the head.

Common teal, Anas crecca m

Snipe seem to be everyone's favourite. They certainly are mine. The more I see them, the more the appreciation grows.

Common snipe, Gallinago gallinago

February 8th 2023. A comparatively short visit to Catcott Lows harvested a varied collection of pictures, though nothing was at all unusual. It was a marvellous afternoon with brilliant sunshine and little breeze. A numbere of friends were there to make it even more pleasant.

Shoveler, Anas clypeata m

Shoveler, Anas clypeata m & Wigeon, A. penelope m

Wigeon, Anas penelope m

Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus

Robin, Erithacus rubecula

Great white egret, Egretta alba

February 2nd 2023. Romey, Fiona and I have been meeting weekly to spend time on learning to draw and paint. The idea is that we search for the best methods for each of us to practice it and see if we have any hidden talents. We have been going for a month so far and retain our initial enthusiasm. Fiona has turned out to be very good at drawing, not indulged in since schooldays - a definite find and encouraging for development as well as enjoyment. I have always enjoyed pen and ink work, though not in recent years. Romey likes the social side, as well as searching for colour. Periodically we may show results in this space. Each week sees some improvement at present.

It was a fine day, so made my way to see how Catcott was behaving. Were the ducks there in numbers? Is there anything unusual among them? We no to both. The numbers were not as much as earlier and not as in other, previous winters. Not was there anything unusual among them. In the end, my pictures were all of Wigeon, the most prolific duck here and, of course, among the most beautiful of all.

Wigeon, Anas penelope m

Wigeon, Anas penelope f

Wigeon, Anas penelope

Wigeon, Anas penelope m

Wigeon, Anas penelope

Wigeon, Anas penelope - Perfect peace!