Moon in Time-Lapse

This orange supermoon was filmed using the time-lapse setting on my new camcorder on September 10th. It was just a couple of days after the Harvest Moon:

Yesterday's Sunset

A few shots taken on a walk along Swansea beach on Saturday evening. Unlike all previous photos on here, which were taken with various DSLRs, these were taken with a little Olympus Pen E-PL1 camera:

After a sunny Saturday, it was back to the usual rain today. And now that the clocks have gone back, the evenings are going to be longer and darker than ever. Uh oh!

Moonrise Over Swansea Bay

A few shots taken yesterday on an evening walk along Swansea Bay. As the sun set over the houses behind me, this moon rose over the sea in front:

I scouted around looking for some foreground interest:

I found this Teasel growing in the sand dunes (in fact, I planted it as food for Goldfinches):

The sky's colour had gradually turned from orange to pink:

Not exactly Ansel Adams, perhaps, but thought I had better make at least one blog post this month!

Orange Moon

I finally had the chance for a bit of birding this afternoon - or so I thought. I went round to Mumbles, hoping to see and photograph the Rose-coloured Starling that had been showing well in someone's garden for a few days. I arrived to find several others who had been there at least an hour and a half, and hadn't seen a sign of the bird. I'm not the most patient when it comes to waiting around, and so, after 45 minutes or so of watching Goldfinches, House Sparrows, and plain old ordinary Starlings, flitting through various back gardens, I decided the bird had gone, and went for a walk along the bay. Dusk soon fell, and this strange, orange moon rose over the city:

By the time I'd got home, the moon had reverted to its normal pale shade.

I'm hoping to be able to travel to see the Isabelline Wheatear on the Gower tomorrow, so I dare say that will disappear tonight!

The Moon

I woke up a while ago, and couldn't get back to sleep, so popped my head outside and saw this near-full moon. Decided to try for a photo. A tripod-mounted 500mm lens with 2x converter gave this result:

Neighbours probably thought I was a peeping-tom, as I stood on my balcony in my slippers and pyjamas, wielding a huge lens, but many are the embarrassments the photographer must endure to get that perfect shot! (For a hilarious account of the downside of being a wildlife photographer, have a read of THIS BOOK. Absolutely brilliant!)

Moonrise Over the Bay

Some shots from this evening's walk along Swansea Bay:

Fans of 1980s pop music will no doubt remember Bonnie Tyler. This is her house (actually, probably one of many mansions!) along the seafront in her hometown:



Kidwelly

Early on Monday evening, I went for a couple of hours to Kidwelly, a small town in west Wales, between Llanelli and Carmarthen. I first went down to Kidwelly Quay, where the River Gwendraeth flows into the Burry Inlet. It was high tide, so the mudflats were covered, and the usually-present wading birds were conspicuous by their absence. This was the scene that greeted me as I looked directly into the sun across the estuary:

A pipit landed on the wall quite nearby:



I noticed another fellow pointing his lens towards some old farm outbuildings, so I went over to see what he was photographing. There was a small group of young Swallows, which presumably had nested close by, perched on the ruins. They allowed a close approach for some pictures:

I then walked the short distance up into the town, and crossed over the river and looked back towards the estuary into the low sun:

I came upon this small reedbed:

I spotted these knapweed seedheads, and photographed them against the sunset with my 500mm lens:

This intriguing small plant was growing in a meadow, and I put my 500mm 'macro' lens into action on it:

Finally, as the sun set and the moon rose, I was able to photograph the lunar light behind these Lombardy Poplar trees: