I recently did a short session with a few knot, which no doubt are thinking about departing northward soon. For these photos rather than lying down in the estuary mud as usual I decided to get a slightly higher angle to get some reflections.
There has been a lot of local debate over a minority of photographers disturbing waders at high tide on the beaches (not that they consider the dog walkers, kite surfers etc!). In fact due to the antics of a minority chasing the birds around (which just doesn't work with these birds), one of the local beaches is now out of bounds to photographers. Concerned that this may spread I sent this photo over to the local wardens of this feeding knot (and so obviously completely unstressed) showing that with the correct approach no disturbance is made to the birds.
Taken with 1Dmk3 with 500mm and 1.4Tc at ISO400 F6.3 +0.67EV
Superb light and sharpness Rich. I have to agree with you about disturbance. If you know well how your subject reacts to human disturbance you can get your images without disturbing it a lot. BTW, this guy semms to be not very worry about your presence.
Typical knee-jerk reaction!! A dangerous trend is taking place all over the world with these "measures" taken against wildlife photogs. I hope your local wardens have an open mind to your pleas.
For this image, I think lying in the muck as you usually do would have been better as the reflection is not strong enough to try to include it. For this image I actually think cropping to above the lower middle OOF mud would strenghten the comp. Getting higher would work best with a smooth water surface with an unobstructed reflection.
The feeding behaviour is caught perfectly - the eye being still open while feeding is a big bonus. I really love the concentric circles surrounding the head, especially the thicker one closest to the face. Very nice!!
Thanks for the replies. I agree the reflection does not really add much to this photo and couldn't decide whether to crop it off. I was in position photographing birds in small pools left by the tide and didn't want to move position for this bird which came in feeding close.
Why are photographers always blamed? I really don't know. Most of the complaint seems to come from bird watchers the antics of which leave much to be desired, which is why I don't often go to rare bird sightings. I think as in most things in life a minority of idiots spoil it for the few. All this came about as some local 'photographer' decided he was going to sit out in the hen harrier roost on the local marsh and wait for the birds to arrive in the evening. Everyone knows the roost is there and know it is out of bounds and that you would not go there for fear of disturbance of these rare birds. Anyway he was spotted and escorted off the marsh by the local RSPB wardens. Following this there was much debate over roosting waders being disturbed on the beaches and photographers were unfairly identified as the chief culprits. Part of the problem is there are many people who have gone out and bought the kit and think they are an instant wildlife photographer but their fieldcraft is non-existent and they are perfectly happy chasing birds around the beach but I suspect the majority of their photos are of fleeing tail feathers. Birds are difficult enough to get close to in the UK generally, and running around after waders is a completely pointless approach.
Personally I think it is ridiculous to blame photogrpahers when the usual case is that I have spent a couple of hours lying in the mud waiting for the tide to bring some waders close, only to have a dog run in to my field of view, closely followed by the owner. I have recently sent many emails defending photographers, for fear that the situation would get out of control, and hopefully this has now calmed down a bit. After all it is not in our interest to distrub the subject we are trying to photograph, the welfare of which should always be the top priority
Feeding Knot
Reply With Quote
