Houghton le Springwatch - Part 2

And it's more Nature shots, as Spring well and truly kicks into gear once again. There's a few new shots in the bag, after one or two recent outings with young Mr Corr, aged 11. He's at that age when an interest in Nature, particularly Birds, takes a bit of a hold on these mild warm nights, so we head round the corner to Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve to check out the latest movements of a family of Mute Swans. These birds have been nesting for a month now, and the eggs were ready to hatch, so off we went. Some of the following photo's were taken at another nest site, at Herrington Park, opposite Penshaw Hill. Both clutches had six eggs in total and on arrival at both locations it was clear that the eggs had hatched as no swans were sitting - both were on the water, with their cygnets. Once again, a loaf of bread came in rather handy when coaxing the birds towards the camera - one shake of the bag and over they came. The parents were happy to feed on the bread, but the cygnets weren't interested at all. It was probably their first sighting of bread and they weren't too impressed. A few minutes in and the parents were off - back on water and out of reach for the bog standard lens holder that was me. Aye, but there was a nifty little 300mm telephoto job tucked away in camera bag - well equipped as always! So here they are, a selection of Nature shots, taken on the doorstep, and I'll be back with more at a later date, including Wren's and Blue Tits...

Cheers, Ash

  

Herrington Country Park, Sunderland

A former Durham pit site, which was reclaimed and developed into the now known Herrington Country Park, the park is one of the largest in Sunderland and is home to a large selection of events including the Annual County Show, Marie Curie daffodil walk, diabetes UK walk in the park and many more. The park has cycle routes, boating lake, cycle/skate park, large amphitheatre created from grassed embankments and numerous sculptures/art works set out around the park. Herrington Country Park was once the site of Herrington Colliery, which closed in 1985. By that time the colliery waste heap was the largest in the North East and cast in the shadow of Penshaw monument, it was transformed into one of the premier parks of the North East.

A typical summers day presented me with an ideal opportunity to take some shots of the park from nearby Penshaw Hill. This vantage point was ideal as I had the bright sun behind me, bathing the park in light for long spells due to the sparse scattering of clouds. My first shot was taken between two pillars of Penshaw Monument as I faced south towards the park. A shadow of the Monument was cast across the grass embankment in front of where I stood, which was an ideal subject to fill the foreground, which would have been fairly bland without sun and shadow. This shot only shows a small section of Herrington Country Park, which lies to the right of the pond which is seen in the distance. Farm fields make up the bulk of this landscape shot and these are situated between the park and Offerton, just off the A183 single carraigeway. My second shot shows a larger section of the park although this, in fairness, is only a quarter of the actual size of the park. I was drawn to the landscape in front of me when composing the shot, opting not to pan too far to the right where the bright sun was 'Burning out' the sky. Once again, both shots were taken on a Canon 7D with a 18-135mm EF lens. A circular polarizer gave a nice effect to the cloud formation, adding some saturation to the blue sky in the process. The polarizer is a must for landscape shots - mine being a 67mm HOYA PRO 1-DIGITAL affair, picked up on ebay as a used item, but mint condition nevertheless. If you've just bought your first DSLR and fancy knocking out a few landscape shots (Ross!), then give one of these filters a try, they're worth shelling out for.

I'll be back soon. I'm trying to catch up on a backlog of blog images for you, including more low-light work in the shape of a Whitley Bay Sunrise, Latrigg Fell Walk in the English Lake District, Sunrise over Keswick and a few Angel Of The North shots. Until then...

Ash

Hatching Out - Mute Swans 2011

I finally got round to posting again on my blog - it's been a while! I've been busy with other things recently, although the photography hasn't suffered because of it - I've got stacks of new images to get through and they will be uploaded soon on ashleycorr.com.

More on that later.

Just a quick update on the Mute Swans that were nesting at nearby Rainton Meadows, Houghton le Spring. After visiting the nest site a few weeks ago I saw a clutch of six eggs, but for reasons unknown only two eggs actually hatched. Whether the nest had been robbed at some point or predators had possibly destroyed the other eggs, who knows. I managed to get over to the site shortly after the two remaining eggs had hatched and here are a couple of photographs from my visit. Both the Cobb and Hen were present as the new cygnets took their maiden voyage on one of the ponds at Rainton Meadows. I didn't get too close however as both parents made it clear upon my arrival that they weren't gonna tolerate any arseing about on my part. Of course the bread came in very handy - the key to those close-up photographs. Weather was fine. Plenty of sun and blue sky. Just the ticket. The birds were literally a couple of feet away from me as I photographed them, with the Cobb guarding them closely as I worked. I made sure not to move around quickly as any sudden movement is usually met with disapproval from both parent swans and if I pushed my luck I was going to get a dig of some sort. Didn't want that did I.

Two nights later I was photographing another family of Mute Swans at Herrington Park near Penshaw Monument. There were seven chicks at this location and they looked approximately ten days old. They must have been fed heavily by visitors to the park earlier in the day as they weren't interested in a feed, preferring to doze off at the waters edge, making photography a bit of a non-starter. I was sat roughly six feet away from them but they just didn't want to know. I normally photograph Mute Swans a lot during the breeding season but 2011 has seen me concentrate more on landscape shots that I had pre-planned earlier in the year. I've also had one or two other things on the go so my nature photography in general has taken a back seat of late. Never mind, there's always next year. I keep toying with the idea of buying a full-on telephoto lens, possibly 500mm, maybe 600mm, but the asking price always puts me off. To me, this type of kit is a must for nature photography, especially birds. I'll stick to landscape photography for now.

I'll be back soon with some photographs and write-up's, including Local Landscapes, Local Landmarks and Live Music Photography. There's also some new 'On Location' shots to come, in the shape of my recent visit to Italy. I photographed the unique city of Venice, plus Verona and Lake Garda...COMING SOON!

Until then, see ya later,

Ash