Leach's Storm Petrel

[Rich Steel]

Hi

I am fortunate in that my local coastline is one of very few and best places in UK where Leach's Storm Petrels can be seen under the right conditions. I am always in anticipation at the end of September and beginning of October for prolonged gale force north-westerly winds which push the birds out from the Irish Sea and in to Liverpool Bay. Under very strong winds a number are forced down in to the mouth of the River Mersey where the linger until about an hour after high water when they start moving out eastward along the top of the pennisula. They tend to take a fairly straight line from the river mouth which tends to bring them into shore about 3 miles eastward and obviously in to camera range and sometimes too close for the camera. Winds, tides height and times all coincided very nicely last week and good numbers of birds were passing (which can be compared to some years when there are none).

Even with the conditions putting the birds in the right place, they are very difficult to photograph. They are not much bigger than a starling, have a very erratic flight path through the rolling turmoil of the sea (look a bit like a bat) and your stood on the water's edge at the full mercy of a 35mph onshore wind and accompanying spray and wind blown sand. Its tough on both kit and photographer. Needless to say many photos end up in the trash.

Taken with a 1DmkIV with 500mm lens at ISO800 F4 +1EV at 1/1250s.

Here hoping for another remnant of a hurricane from the USA before mid-October :)

Cheers

Rich

[john jackson]

Congratulations Rich. I don't think I have ever seen a better photo of this species. Leach's Storm-petrel is hard to find and harder to photograph. The water droplets on the wing, face and feet top it all off. Truly exceptional.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very well done, Rich. You knew the opprtunity and took advantage of it quite impressively. I think the white rump could go a little lighter, but that's it...excellent image, especially in though conditions.:cool:

[Arthur Morris]

WOW! Incredible pose, head angle, detail, exp. The white rump is a bit on the blue side.

From the bank? Tripod or hand held? Vertical original? A truly amazing capture.

[Melvin Grey]

A great achievement Richard, - another vote for the best image of this bird. Braving the 'trying' conditions certainly paid off, you really deserve this one.

[Dan Brown]

Awesome Storm-petrel image! Very cool low angle and head turn! I gather from your description of the conditions that this shot was made from shore and not a boat, is this correct? Super shot of this species non the less!

[Rich Steel]

Thanks for the comments. The bird was photographed from the shore at the bottom of a very slippery concrete embankment. You certainly would not have caught me out in a boat under those conditions as I would have been permanently slumped over the side with a technicolour yawn.
Artie this photo was taken from my second short session where I did try a tripod and some but gave up in the end and reverted to hand holding. The tripod was OK for when the birds were 'walking across the water' but useless as soon as they lifted up as the wind was batting them all over the place. This image is a vertical crop from a horizontal image although is the full height of the frame as shown.

I found this bit of video footage that was taken down at the River Mersey mouth on the previous day for those who have not seen them before.



Cheers

Rich

[Dan Brown]

Thanks for sharing the video Rich! Such interesting behavior! What a unique situation to observe and photograph these pelagic birds!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Rich for the additional info and the link. Here is some more additional info:

Mother Carey's Chickens is an alternate sailors name for storm petrels. So who is Mother Carey? Mother Carey is a corruption of Mater Cara, one of the epithets of Maria, the mother of Christ, used by the Spanish and Portuguese sailors who were the first westerners in the southern seas.

[Rich Steel]

As they say 'you learn something every day'...especially with BPN :)