Marvellous Morning for a Bird Survey

Whimbrel (Canon EOS 500D 500 mm, 1/320 sec at f/14, ISO 400)

This morning was a wonderful time to be out dong a bird survey on the croft land at Drumbuie and Duirinish.  We recorded a total of 38 species including most of those we would expect to see at this time of year.  The highlights for me were the Whimbrel (see above) and particularly actually getting a good view of a singing Grasshopper Warbler.  I tried getting a shot with the camera and would have got a really great one if only the auto-focus had worked properly.  Needless to say it flew away before I thought to switch to manual.  I have included the best shot I got below so you can see what I mean.  Otherwise, I managed some decent shots of a Lesser Redpoll, Sedge Warbler (the auto-focus worked this time) and a male Wheatear.  The redpoll is quite soft being a fair distance away and heavily cropped but the others worked fairly well.

Grashopper Warbler (Canon EOS 500D 500 mm, 1/320 sec at f/14, ISO 400)

Lesser Redpoll (Canon EOS 500D 500 mm, 1/320 sec at f/18, ISO 400)

Sedge Warbler (Canon EOS 500D 500 mm, 1/320 sec at f/11, ISO 400)

Male Wheatear (Canon EOS 500D 500 mm, 1/320 sec at f/10, ISO 400)