Last Night's Sunset

Just to show I'm still alive (just about), here's a shot from Monday evening. It was taken on the hill above my house, looking west. The sliver of water in the distance is the Burry Inlet, which separates the Gower Peninsula in the South from Carmarthenshire to the North:

Whilst I was up there, I noticed a half-dozen Swifts and a couple of Swallows flying around, which reminded me that I've hardly seen any of these birds this year. Anyone else noticed a shortage of Swifts and hirundines this Summer?

The River Clyne

I've been a bit 'under-the-weather' lately, and this evening was the first time I've been out with my camera in seemingly ages. I've got an almost-permanent pain in my lower back, no doubt caused by lugging this heavy gear around for so long, so I just wandered down to the beach with my Canon 40D and newly-repaired 17-40mm lens, hoping a nice sunset might develop.

These were the best shots I could come up with - some pics of the River Clyne, a small stream which flows into Swansea Bay here at Blackpill, with the sun going down in the background:

While I'm on the subject, here's a little video of the same river I took about a mile upstream last Summer:

Today was the first day, after a long, cold Winter (by our standards) that felt truly Springlike round here, and it was appropriate that I should finally get to see (and hear) my first Swallows of the year, as a small group twittered overhead on my walk down to the shore.

Dusk at Worm's Head

Yesterday evening, I headed out to Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula, hoping for a beautiful sunset. This view over the coastguard hut was as near as there was to a colourful sky:

A stubborn bank of cloud then positioned itself behind 'The Worm', resulting in this cool blue light:

I turned to the right to photograph this view along Rhossili beach towards the small tidal island of Burry Holms:

I zoomed in on the outer part of Worm's Head:

Finally, a long exposure of 124 seconds:



I also had a try at a star-trails shot over the headland, but that was a failure as well!

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!

To Three Cliffs Bay and Back

I headed out to Pennard Cliffs on the Gower Peninsula late this afternoon. I was hoping I might chance upon a Dartford Warbler, as I had on my last visit there. No such luck this time, the only birds of note seen being a Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk flying over; a single male Stonechat; and a pair of Choughs, of which this was one:

Walking along the clifftop, I came to Three Cliffs Bay, where a hazy sunset was developing:

 On the left here are the three pinnacles which give the bay its name:

I put my 500mm lens back on for this shot of the sun going down over the rocky outcrop known as Great Tor:

Once I saw a starry night was developing, I thought about staying around to try for a star-trail shot over Three Cliffs Bay, but wimped out as I didn't fancy hanging around after dark in the wilderness.

Instead, on my way home, I stopped off by my favourite tree on Swansea Beach to try another long-exposure effort. There was no moon tonight, so I was able to set a one-hour exposure (for some reason, the long-exposure noise reduction didn't work properly on this, so it looks a little grainy):

As I crossed the adjacent golf course, I came upon the strange sight of about 35 Redshanks scurrying about on the grass only about ten metres from the nearby road.
Rather odd thing to see at 9.30 p.m., I thought.

Swansea Bay Sunset

A few shots from this evening, taken from the beach near the city centre, and looking back towards Mumbles:

A shot of the town, with the tall building on the right being the Meridian Tower:

Caswell Bay Sunset

After my bird photography efforts yesterday, I went to the nearby beach, Caswell Bay, in the hope that a nice sunset might develop. It didn't really turn out as hoped; but, just before I left for home, this beautiful pink afterglow bathed the landscape in some lovely hues, which I did my best to capture:

A vertical to finish:

As you can probably tell, I can't really decide if I'm a wannabe bird photographer or landscape photographer. If I had two lives, I might have one concentrating on birds and the other on landscapes. As it is, I'll just have to settle for being the jack of two (or more) trades, and the master of none!

Newton Farm, Scurlage

There has been a small colony of the rare and declining Tree Sparrows nesting at the ruins of Newton Farm on the Gower Peninsula since at least the 1970s. Feeders and nest boxes have been put out for them by various conservation organisations for the last few years. I went out to see them twice about three years ago, and was planning to head out again last winter, hoping to get some better shots. Sadly, I heard the sparrows seemed to have left the area, and so didn't bother. A couple of recent sightings of a single bird at the feeders prompted me to head out to the village of Scurlage this last Wednesday. I set up my camera and tripod about twenty yards from the feeders to see what turned up. Eventually, amongst the numerous House Sparrows, I spied a single Tree Sparrow. This was the best shot I managed of it, which is not quite sharp, but will have to do for now:

The sun soon appeared, making for quite a nice afternoon. The Tree Sparrow (I assume there was only one as I never saw more than one at a time) visited the feeders occasionally, but frustratingly tended to feed round the back of a feeder, making decent photos impossible. I had to content myself with photographing this male House Sparrow:

And this Great Tit:

As well as this female Chaffinch (male Chaffinches didn't seem to have the intelligence to work out how to land on the feeder!):

Another cock House Sparrow:

At one point, a Sparrowhawk dashed through, although there were no birds on the feeders at the time, so I don't think it caught anything. (I wonder if he's been eating all the Tree Sparrows?!) Besides the birds on the feeders, the only other birds of note I saw were a few flyover Ravens, and a couple of small flocks of chattering Fieldfares.

As I was packing up, the sky began to colour up, so I quickly plonked my big lens on a tripod and zeroed in on this distant tree:

I altered my positioned, so that the tree was positioned against the brightest part of the sunset sky:

I added a 1.7x converter to get in as close as I could. I think the bird perched in the treetop is a Buzzard:

I took one last shot, before trudging across the muddy fields for home: