Birds | esterspears

Browsing All Posts filed under »Birds«

Fleeting flight of the Auks

July 9, 2025

Photographing Puffins in flight can be frustrating; the birds are small and fast, making framing difficult. They flap their wings that are more suited to ‘swimming’ underwater – faster than flying, at up to 400 times a minute – not as fast as a Hummingbird granted, but still requiring a fast shutter speed to freeze […]

Puffins in the Pinks

May 19, 2025

Once more to Lundy Island, this time on a day trip from Bideford. It is an early start to coincide with the high tide, but the bonus is that you get extra hours on the island as the return journey has to align with the next high tide so that the boat can navigate the […]

Rainy Day on May

May 10, 2025

The Isle of May, off the Fife coast, is a national nature reserve and home to over 100,000 puffins during the breeding season; which runs from April til June. This small island which has a tremendous variety of wildlife, renowned for its rich bird life, seals and reefs, also has an interesting religious and maritime […]

Waving at the Waverley

June 18, 2024

The paddle steamer Waverley was built on the Clyde and launched in 1946, as a cruise ship to take day trippers through the Scottish lochs. By 1973 she was the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world and due for retirement but in a magnificent leap of faith was sold by the owners ( Caledonian […]

Puffins Galore

June 11, 2024

When everything else in life is going tits up, it’s nice to be able to report a heart warming success story from our very shores across the water at Lundy Island. Back at the turn of this century when everyone else was worrying about a non-existent ‘millennium bug” and dancing to Britany Spears (no relation), […]

The high lands

April 8, 2024

Road trip. Go with the flow, follow the road and see where it takes you. Click on your favourite image, as ever, this blog is best viewed on a big screen. Crabber in a loch Red Deer everywhere Castle of the McKays The shepherd off Sandwood Bay, near Cape Wrath. Chocolate box Scotland This enigmatic, […]

Birds in the mud

February 21, 2024

Vellator quay mud to be precise, and the river Caen as it meanders across the great field and into the Taw estuary. There’s a multitude of birds that use this habitat, some are included here showing well, from a few mid winter wanderings.. Vellator boats Little Grebe A mallard and a […]

Fish supper on Woolacombe beach

July 17, 2023

What a sight as over 800 herring guls feed on sand eel in the shallows of Woolacombe beach. If you click and enlarge this foto you can see the sand eel, small silver fish, jumping in the surf Like this A single black backed gul joined the party As well as some back headed guls […]

Night Moves, Purring Crickets and Goatsuckers

July 12, 2023

Very privileged to be shown a nightjar spot on Exmoor. Night jars arrive from Africa in the spring and are gone by late August, ancient folk tales refer to them as goat suckers as they were meant to steal milk from your goats at night. In actual fact they eat mostly moths and bugs. In […]

All quiet on the rock

July 4, 2023

It’s not very often that you visit Lundy when it’s not windy, it is a lump of rock stuck out in the middle of the Bristol channel after all but when it’s calm, it’s beguiling. All the noise is stripped away and you can hear the subtle sounds of the island, not just the shouters, […]