Pied Wagtail and an Eagle

After photographing the crows in my previous post, I came upon this little Pied Wagtail perched nearby in the dim blue light of dusk:

If you're wondering what it's standing upon, it's this sculpture of an eagle (or osprey), photographed at sunrise way back in 2005:

Sunday's Sunrise

As penance for wasting a sunny Saturday by catching up on sleep and watching the rugby, I kicked myself out of bed before dawn on Sunday, and headed down to the beach. There was just enough time for a twenty-odd-minute exposure of this tree, capturing a few star-trails, before it got too light:

The same tree with the developing sunrise behind:

I put my 500mm lens into action for this shot of the Port Talbot steelworks across the bay:

I used the same lens for this pan-blur shot:

                        this shot of the Meridian Tower near the city centre:

and this picture of the dawn sky over Mumbles Lighthouse:

The colours became more intense:

That tree again:

A couple of my patented pan-blur shots, the aim being to reduce the scene to its essentials and remove distracting details (or something pretentious like that!):

The sun rising near the steelworks:

More-subtle light looking south-westwards towards Mumbles:

A final shot looking back across the rising tide towards the town:

and then it was off for some bird photography.

It was definitely worth getting up early for!

Swansea Sunrise

I was up early yesterday morning, so I decided to walk down to the beach to see if an attractive sunrise might develop. It did!

Here are a few of the pictures I took:

I put polarising and neutral density filters in front of the lens for this shot, to give a long exposure time of several seconds to blur the waves of the incoming tide. This combination seems to give a pink tone to the image, which I decided to leave in:

The Meridian Tower in Swansea Marina, with a windfarm on the hill behind:

Finally, I turned my camera and tripod around so I was facing about ninety degrees to the sunrise for this shot, pointing my lens out to sea and using a long exposure:



Chilly in Rhossili

I didn't sleep too well on Friday night, so was up early on Saturday morning. The sunrise lured me out into the chill morning air, despite the temptation for a lie-in:

I decided to head for Rhossili, at the south-west tip of the Gower Peninsula, wondering if the Red Kite which was there on my last trip might still be there, and also hoping I might connect with a Peregrine Falcon.

The day was chilly, and a hazy sunshine greeted my arrival in the village. I walked along the clifftop towards the Worm's Head, stopping to photograph a couple of passing gulls on my way:

Before long, I arrived at the tidal island of Worm's Head:

I looked across to the head, where I thought I saw a couple of seals basking on the rocks. I often see Choughs around this area, too, but didn't see any today.

There was no sign of any kite anywhere, so I continued my walk around towards Fall Bay and Mewslade Bay:

 Many of the local sheep were sporting natty pink hairdos:

As I peered over into a field, a Buzzard flew up from the ground where it had obviously been feeding, and circled obligingly overhead:

 The rocky coastline here is often a good place to spot Peregrine Falcons; and, sure enough, I soon spotted one zooming across the sea to my right. It flew inland a bit, before circling round overhead a good way in front of me. I took a few pictures, but they are very small in the frame and not worth posting. I sat down in the cool March air, hoping the bird would eventually return. It didn't! I got fed up and cold waiting around in the sea breeze, and lack of sleep was beginning to get the better of me, so I took the short cut back to Rhossili across the fields, stopping to photograph this lamb on the way:

Then home to catch up on some sleep!