When it appeared, I failed.

Not Much Wildlife About But Still A Beautiful Walk

A 6am alarm call for my day off, was still not early enough to capture the sunrise. Spring it well and truly here, beautiful days followed by miserable days of showers. Fortunately for me my day was just that, a beautiful spring day.

Blue skies, plenty of sunshine & time to grab the walking boots. The night before I packed the camera bag with my zoom lens and my macro lens too. I set off from my house about 07:00 and headed for the coast.

The plan was to capture some early spring flowers, sea birds and with any luck a bird of prey.

Early into my walk, I knew I wouldn’t capture many flowers if any at all. The ground was absolutely soaked, every step I took was into another puddle. Most of these puddles were ankle high, higher than many of the early flowers.

I attached the 100-500mm lens and hoped for some bird photography.

Hope bing the word of the day, I was about 2.5 miles in to my walk and I couldn’t believe it. I had seen nothing. Not even a seagull!

I could have turned backed and headed home but I thought ‘You know what, I would rather be here and not see anything than sit at home thinking what I have missed”

I carried on in hope more than anything. I soon got to a bench I knew I would stop at if no one else was there. I stopped here to have breakfast.

Breakfast, a late one for me at approx 09:30

Whilst eating breakfast, I sat there in almost silence. The only noise I could hear was that of the waves breaking below me. So far I had only seen one other person, that was a young last who came jogging past me. I was walking very slowly, afraid of slipping in the mud. I wasn’t too concerned about hurting myself and I was more worried about damaging the camera. I laughed to myself as she ran past me, she must have thought who let his old guy out this time of the day. As I was eating breakfast I could see movement on the horizon, this young land had either disturbed a load of gulls or a bird of prey had appeared.

It was about a 10 minute walk from where I was so I put my backpack on and headed in that direction. This 10 minute walk was quite possibly the wettest part of my walk, by the time I got there all had quite downed. Some gulls with still making a lot of noise but they were all down on the rock. These gulls were the first bit of wildlife I had seen today, there were quite bit away out at sea, all perched on a rock.

I scanned the area for any other type of bird and I couldn’t see any but I did notice another young land sat atop a cliff, I the realised it must have been her who disturbed them all. I walked for another 5 minutes and at last I seen a cormorant. Something I could take photo of.

I pointed my lens towards it and it driver under the sea. I waited for it to pop up, thinking it would pop up further away but it came up actually closer to me, still at a good distance away but I went for it and fired away. I knew it would be an ok photo and not one worth printing but one maybe to remind me of a beautiful walk.

Just after I took this image, things started to improve. Only briefly though!

More gulls making a noise made me look towards another cliff, there was a small pool of rainwater atop this cliff and to my surprise there was some Geese there. Again though not really an image worth printing.

Canada Goose, in their own private pool.

I headed off along the headland, thinking it was starting to be a better morning now that I am seeing more wildlife.

I could see another 3 cormorants out at sea, this time sat on a rock. So far away thought I thought to myself there isn’t much point in taking an image of them, until one of them opened its wings.

3 x Cormorants sat on this Little Rock island.

Not known to me at the time but these three cormorants were the last birds I seen whilst out walking long the coast. Just a few minutes after this image, the noise of the waves were taken over thy the noise of a Search & Rescue helicopter.

I took my chance to grab a photo of it against the blue sky, following it around I took another one of it as it flew past South Stack Lighthouse.

The helicopter was the last thing I seen flying whilst out here on the coastal path. I couldn’t believe I had barely seen anything but it was great to be out. I started heading towards the path which would take me to the road where I could start my walk home. After walking through some more really wet ground, I made it to the road. I did think about putting the camera away but I knew I had to walk up a hill and I thought to myself there may be a good view from there. I started walking up the hill and to my surprise and out of nowhere a red kite flew over me, turned around and headed back towards me.

I lifted the camera and fired away, at last I have seen something close enough to me. I was stood in the middle of the road, the road which is full of 45 degree bends and many dips. I couldn’t see any cars coming towards me and they sure couldn’t see me. I took many photos of this red kite and as I wacthed it fly off towards the coast, panic set in. I was so excited at seeing it, I didn’t check the cameras settings.

I looked in the viewfinder at my shutter speed and knew straight away, I had failed. This was before I looked at any photos I had taken. My shutter speed was too slow for a bird in flight.

I knew my 2nd bench stop was coming up so I decided to stop there and check the photos. There was somone already sat there, I’ve never seen anyone other than myself sit on this bench, there is two there but one is broken. I decided to carry on home.

I didn’t see much else on my way home apart from elderly couple, who I stopped to chat too. I’m sure I was with them for some 30 minutes just talking about our morning walk.

After getting in, I put the camera bag in my office and left it there for some 3-4 hours before opening it.

This is something I normally do, the temp in the house in much warmer than outside and if I take the camera out of the bag straight away I normally get a build up of condensation. Hours later I grabbed a whiskey and reviewed the images, my initial thought was true.

Most of the images were worst than I imagined, actually all but two of them where.

Out of the two this was the only half decent image I got. I was so annoyed with myself I decided to grab another whiskey.

The photo looks ok on here and on social media, but it is far from good. If you zoom in on it you can see it’s not great and certainly not print worthy.

Anyway, thanks for reading and until next time. Take Care.

7.5 Mile Walk But Not Much Out There

When it appeared, I failed.

A Rainy Day