Bill Odie ...

[Ron Clark]

... was on BBC 2 tonight with the first of a new session of How to Watch Wildlife - and very good it was too. But thing is - Spring won't be long now (in fact, we noticed the first snowdrops showing in out front lawn today), and it will soon be time to be out about with with our clicker-boxes. Really looking forward to it Yes, I know - we can take photos anytime of the year but Spring always gets my interest. So ... do any of you good folks have any special projects or ideas you would like to follow up on this year? For me it's just the desire to improve on my photograpghy in general (and perhaps win a compo or two maybe), we'll see eh

Ron

[Christine]

Yes Ron, the Bill Oddie prog was good.interesting to see the Golden Eagle harrassing the deer!!!.I am waiting for the Swallows to return in the hopes of managing some decent pictures.Had a great view of our local Kingfisher today,but weather too murky for a decent pic.

[Annette]

I saw the bill oddie program too. The golden eagle harrassing that deer was amazing! the filming as usual was excellent. I especially liked the snow bunting. It was amazing how close he got to them, just beautiful.
This year I want to concentrate on my weather and macros photography (I need to buy some more lenses) as well as learning how to improve more on my wild bird photography now that I have my 500mm lens.

[postcardcv]

I've been set the challenge to photograph 125 species of bird this year, I think it will be a stryggle, but am giving it a go. So far I've managed 30 species, so am off to a good start, but it will obviously get harder through the year.

Also I got a macro lens fairly late last year, so hope to get to grips with using that to good effect. I'm also very keep to explore perspective, I want to do a series of shots of familiar places taken at ground level - I want to take more bird shots from low level too.

[Annette]

125 is quite a few! I suppose it depends if you want to photograph them really well or if you also allow dots on the landscape I have been photographing birds for 2 years and still only managed 200 species. LOL pathetic I know. Still I m sure youll have a lot of fun trying.
Love the low level challenge. Especially with birds. Getting down low really does make a difference. I look forward to seeing your results.

[postcardcv]

Originally Posted by Annette

125 is quite a few! I suppose it depends if you want to photograph them really well or if you also allow dots on the landscape

I'm hoping to get decent shots of all, though I might make exceptions for rare or especially tricky species - of the 30 so far most are reasonable shots (certainly all are easily ID'able). The only really poor one is the bittern, but I wasn't sure that I'd get another chance for one this year...

I'm keeping the list on BF, so you can see how I'm going throughout the year - http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=48796

[Annette]

Wow beautiful shots. I especially love the snowbunting and the coot running,brilliant. Thanks for the link will look on with interest. I hope you manage it.
Incidentally how did your wife come up with 125 and is she trying to get you out of the house lol

[Ron Clark]

Annette
200 over 2 years isn't so bad. Jan and I have been birding for 20 odd years and less than that on our life list. The average for a year for us is about 150 – that’s just seeing them, not photographing them though. We regularly see around 30-40 species each year in our back garden and travel around the country to see the rest.

Ron

[postcardcv]

Originally Posted by Annette

Wow beautiful shots. I especially love the snowbunting and the coot running,brilliant. Thanks for the link will look on with interest. I hope you manage it.
Incidentally how did your wife come up with 125 and is she trying to get you out of the house lol

Thanks I've been pleased with some of them - the snow bunting was good fun, but alas the light was so poor I was shooting at ISO1600 and 1/125th. I'm hoping to get back there one day soon in better light and give them another go.

I'd mentioned trying to get some more species photographed this year (as I want to build up my website) so my wife suggested going for a photo year list. The target figure of 125 is half the number of species I saw last year... but with another baby due at the begining of June I'll need to get a lot taken in the first five months.

[Annette]

Well happy snapping and good luck on your new arrival!