Autumn Colour (in praise of green)

I went out yesterday with the intention of utilising the sunny weather and the autumn colour to take some nice, if formulaic, photographs. Although the autumn display does not seem to be as bright as last year, I assume because of the wet Summer, there did seem to be a lot of yellow around.

Although I was thwarted by the fact that a large army of grey clouds turned up to hide the blue sky, I still managed to get some nice photos.

Autumn ColourHowever, it did occur to me that it takes more than some yellow leaves and sunshine to make a spectacular autumn scene. Without the contrast of some evergreens or trees that shed their leaves later in the year I am sure even the brightest field maple would appear less attractive. I took the photograph below to illustrate this point. If you cover the green shrub next to the maple it starts to look a little less interesting.

Digiscoping – foiled again

I have an obsession with being able to gain a level of proficiency digiscoping. I have the scope, I have a camera (albeit an old one) and the appropriate attachment, all I need are the subjects. After having experienced a birdy bonanza in the garden yesterday I got up bright and reasonably early for a Sunday, and set up my digiscoping equipment in the kitchen and aimed at the bird feeder. What did I see, absolutely nothing. I have no idea why, but my garden has been pretty bereft of birds today – I did see a wren, briefly, and this greenfinch:

Digiscoped Greenfinch

but that was all. I am not sure when I will try again – I have more success photographing the moon with this set up – although that moves as well!

My photography isn’t getting much better.

I had planned to go for a spot of birdwatching at Brandon Marsh this weekend, but unfortunately wasn’t feeling too well and so decided not to venture too far from home.

Saturday – a short walk to the Country Park with camera and binoculars, but no scope. I thought that I would see if I could take any better pictures of the ducks that are usually near the Visitor’s Centre. In particular I was hoping to get a picture of the drake Scaup that was a first for me (birding talk) a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, although it was showing well (more birding talk!) I couldn’t get any good pictures (due to my own technical incompetence and oversight). Still, undeterred I sharpened and cropped a picture that I took a couple of weeks ago and felt a bit better – results below.

Drake Scaup