I have been to Kevin's Tawny Owl set up in the two previous years and decided to give it another go this year - last Thursday 18th July to be precise.

I was rather unsure as to whether it would work out as previously I took my 500 f4 prime lens as the lighting is by strobe lights and not flash so low  shutter speeds would be necessary. This time, I took my Canon R5 with the RF 100-500 lens but, at 500 mm, the aperture is f7.1 so much slower.

The Owls came in quite early and, quite frankly were there for most of the evening - the mother and two Owlets but the mother did not stay long leaving the stage to the youngsters.

After a load of perched shots at 1/60th second shutterspeed, I decided to try upping the shutter speed (with the resulting much higher ISO) to around1/400th second - ISO 12,800.

I was trying for some activity with the expected loads of blurred shots but the occasional one relatively sharp (providing you do not look too closely).

And then one shot that came out just acceptable after considerable work in Lightroom, Topaz Denoise and Photo AI - 1/400th second at ISO 12,800.

and then back to the usual 1/60th second for an unusual pairing of the two Owlets.

And, by the way, there was a rather brief visit from pair of Muntjac's - mother and well-grown fawn.

Many of my photos were acceptable - more in the Recent Additions section - but with a library of nearly 100 photos of Tawny Owl, I deleted most of the perched shots. Still an enjoyable evening.

Now back to the day job - the final editing and posting of the photos from Day 4 of the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.

I am still in full editing mode from my final day at the Ngorongoro Crater. Some I have posted but I am still only half-way through. I will update this blog when complete - whenever that is!!!

In the meantime, last Wednesday , I had a job to do in Kimbolton so took my camera to Grafham Water, not expecting anything too dramatic, just a pleasant day out.

The only activity was from the dam, a Black-headed Gull with a fish

and a Yellow Legged Gull sounding off.

and an adult Carrion Crow eating a dead fish with offspring in begging mood, not too successfully either.

When editing these images on my computer, I was surprised to see that I had some photos from the previous week, taken in my back garden when I was bored. First is a House Sparrow with a broken upper mandible but still able to feed from my feeders.

and a juvenile Robin posed nicely with a colourful background

Nothing to win awards but at least a catch-up. Once I have finished the Ngorongoro Crater final day, I will start on the photos I took last Thursday evening at Kevin Robsons Tawny Owl hide in Fen Drayton.

This place is just amazing. Despite the heavy rainfall, wherever the safari bus went, there were birds in view, especially sitting on trackside bushes and rocks. It would have been impossible to stop and photograph them all as we would not have had the time to see the main attractions. That was to be the major frustration of this trip.

Anyway, I have finally completed the editing of the second day in the crater, day 4 of the trip, with many more photos in the 'Recent Additions' section of this website. However there are some that I thought were really worth featuring. One of the birds sat in a bush was this Speke's Weaver and the colours have not been enhanced - quite a striking little bird.

There were several Sacred Ibis's in the distance but we finally managed to get close enough to a small feeding flock that was soon joined by this one.

There are several 'watering holes' in the crater and at one of them where we stopped to eat our packed lunch there were several Rufous-tailed Weavers, in particular this one really giving off because we did not feed it quickly enough.

One very amusing (and lengthy) encounter was with this pair of Warthogs, taking ages to do what comes naturally.

Wildebeests were common and some herds had youngsters

so the herd was keeping a careful watch on the Spotted Hyena pack but they had obviously fed in the morning so were only interested in relaxing.

Thomson's Gazelles were as interested in us as we were in them, always ready to pose for a photo.

So another very successful day in the crater. Tomorrow is the last one before we move on but it will take me a time to edit all those photos so please do not hold your breath!!!!

I have been concentrating on editing photos from day 4 of my trip to Tanzania - nearly finished.

However, I managed two trips out locally, just to make sure that my trigger finger had not seized up.

First, on 18th June, a half day ay Welney WWT, mainly to see the Savi's Warbler but it was so far away that any meaningful photography was not possible. Still, from the Reedbed Hide, there were a couple of distractions - Reed Warbler

and Sedge Warbler

I was hoping for Swallows and Martins from the main hide but I was probably too late as they appeared to have fledged so just the odd Barn Swallow passing.

That was it. Not much to show for the effort.

Hoping for a more productive day, on 25th, I spent the day in north Norfolk. Visits to Thornham, Titchwell RSPB, Brancaster Staithe and finally Snettisham RSPB. Just one photo worth keeping, an Oystercatcher at Thornham.

Once again, not much to show for the effort. Back to day 4 photos from Tanzania.

Since I returned from my Tanzania trip, some 6 weeks ago, a real local rarity has been reported but poor weather, family matters and other distractions have prevented me from going, until yesterday. 6 weeks is a long time to miss out on a local photo trip.

Still reported as present -  a Great Reed Warbler at Ouse Fen RSPB, only a few miles from my home so off I set. Easy to find and hear but not so easy to see. Even after all this time, there was still a few birders/photographers there. The weather was not ideal and the bird stayed some distance away in a belt of reeds so I was not hopeful of success but, after a couple of hours, it decided to appear within view - still distant so heavily cropped photos - but better than I have managed on the other two times that I have seen one.

Now back to the main job - editing the photos of Day 4 of my Tanzania trip. First run through completed, leaving me with just 333 possibles to narrow down to a mangeable number. Watch this space.