Green-winged Orchid

 

 

 

 

Taken with a 400mm lens

DEPTH OF FIELD CALCULATOR

Google Depth of field calculator, type in your equipment etc and it calculates your depth of field.
Quite useful for close-up photography

Camera, 5D111
Focal length (mm)  400
Selected f-stop   f22
Subject distance  2m


Calculate

 Subject distance  2 m

Depth of field
Near limit  1.99 m
Far limit  2.01 m
Total  0.03 m

In front of subject  0.01 m (50%)
Behind subject  0.01 m (50%)

Hyperfocal distance  236.1 m
Circle of confusion  0.03 mm

 

 

ICTERINE WARBLER

 

 

 

 

 

An Icterine Warbler was found this afternoon at Sandwich Bay. It was quite vocal and although not too difficult to find, it was not easy to get a close photo as it stayed a safe distance at all times. Here are my efforts though. Nice to see some sun at last as well.

Icterine is a scarce spring migrant at the Bay and possibly a little more common in autumn when young ones cross the Channel from Scandinavia and northern Europe on their way to Africa for the winter.

 

LITTLE OWL

 

 

 

 

Testing out the new camera, Canon D5mark111. So far so good.

Very dark conditions with drizzle at times. Photos taken on high ISOs.

DUSKY THRUSH in Margate cemetery

 

What a treat. A first record for Kent and about the 10th for the UK I'm told.
There were bucket loads of birders there, some of whom had travelled many miles.
I would like to have got better pictures but could not get any closer because o the number of people there. Probably best to be there on your own, but then you have to find the bird first. Well done Steve for finding it.

  

  

 

Turdus eunomus has been split from  Turdus naumanni (Naumann's Thrush) which we were fortunate to see in Bhutan only a few weeks ago where too it is quite a rare bird.

 

 

EAST KENT ORCHID UPDATE 17 May 2013

Green-winged are now in full flower albeit very late, bit they caught very quickly. Early Spider too is flowering although quite small specimens at the moment, Early Purple is fully out and some Fly Orchids are already in flower. Some Lady Orchids are also in flower but these last a long time so there will be plenty more later in the month. Some idiot has mown some of the rosettes of Lizard Orchid on the roadside but fortunately there are plenty more. I am looking forward to the full array of species at the end of the month.

The garden feeding station produced two rarities today, namely a Song Thrush which we rarely see these days and a Turtle Dove which in the last few years has seen a catastrophic decline, no doubt due to hunting in France and Spain. It really is about time that the European government gets its act together and bans hunting of birds. After all there is no meat on any of these birds, it is just a barbaric pursuit which is unacceptable in the 21st century.

After a very late start the Green-winged Orchids shot up and flowered in just a few days. Amazing how they were able to catch up two weeks in just a few days.
Early Spider were found today on the East Kent coast but still very small.

 

 

Last year's pictures as I did not have my camera with me.

 

May 5th.
A glorious day and while sitting outside Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory this morning a Cattle Egret flew over. This is probably just the third record for the observatory.

A female Marsh Harrier did the same.

At last the warm weather has brought our some butterflies and Holly Blue, Large White and Green-veined White visited the garden. All first for the year.

A male Blackcap is still to be found on the fatballs. It must have been here for three weeks now. Unfortunately I have seen no females. Two Mistle Thrushes were about to fledge but I think they have been had by a Magpie. Very sad after all the work the parents put in.