Hornsea Wanderings and Swift Pics

As I walk to The Mere most mornings I come across the same wildlife. Some would say that's a bit boring, but it isn't. Seeing the same creatures each day gives you a bit of an insight into how they behave, where they go, how they move, when is the best time to see them.

One of the birds I see most days at the moment is the Swift. What a brilliant bird it is. It only lands to breed and spends the rest of its life on the wing. Watch them flying and you'll see them flying fast, but follow them for a while and see them change direction so quickly it would make an F1 car jealous. This is what makes photographing them a bit of a challenge.

I've spent a fair while standing in fields, near hedges, near trees, near water on calm days, windy days, cool days and hot days, trying to get a good image of a Swift in flight. Ideally the time to get them is when they almost stall flying into the wind, meaning they are at their slowest - not necessarily at their lowest point, but at their slowest meaning you have a better chance of focussing on them.

I'm getting there...

best Swift to date, but not good enough yet

An altogether different creature I see every day is the Meadow Brown butterfly. They are to be seen mingling with hundreds of Common Blue Damselflies in the fields around Hornsea, especially when it is sunny and calm, and are pretty easy to photograph. Just wait for one to land on a food source and you're away.

Meadow Brown

or wait for one to share a thistle with a White-tailed Bumblebee

Yellowhammer? Same tree or one nearby almost every morning, singing away. Seems to be a good year for them as I heard 5 yesterday.

I mentioned Common Blue Damselfly earlier, as the fields are alive with them in mid to late June. Numbers have reduced a fair amount since then, but they are still abundant in the long grass meadows.

Common Blue Damselfly