Grey Wagtails in Canterbury

The commonest species of wagtail in the UK is the black-and-white Pied Wagtail, which (according to some sources) is actually a sub-species of the White Wagtail, which itself is more grey than white ... though it shouldn't be confused with the Grey Wagtail, which - despite its name - is actually partially yellow ... though not so yellow that it should be confused with the Yellow Wagtail, which - I'm pleased to say - is true to its name and almost entirely yellow ... that is, except for the ones with a blue head.

Okay, so now that's cleared up, back to Grey Wagtails. I've seen them before in the West Country, but until recently I've only ever had fleeting glimpses of them in Kent. So I was pleasantly surprised the other week to learn that a pair of Grey Wagtails had successfully raised a family right in the middle of Canterbury, only five minutes' walk from the station. It took me a couple of visits to get them in the right light but eventually I got the shots I was looking for.

Photographing birds in towns and cities is never as enjoyable (for me at least) as photographing them in the countryside, but one advantage is that they're generally used to passers-by, and - as a consequence - much more approachable. Now I just need to find some equally confiding Yellow Wagtails to complete my wagtail hat trick ... or should that be a "wagtrick"?

For more Canterbury Grey Wagtail photos, check out Mike Gould's Flickr page and Steve Ashton's blog. I'm not sure if this is the same family or a different group further along the river. Hopefully the latter, as Kent could do with more of these delightful and energetic little birds.

The Travels of Y114264

 

On 23 November 2011 a first-year female Pied/White Wagtail was caught and ringed at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire. 173 days later it showed up at Stone Bay, Broadstairs (a full 132 km from the ringing site), where yours truly happened to have his camera with him. As it foraged on the sand in front of the beach huts I was able to get close enough to photograph some of the detail on the ring:

 

As you can see, I was only able to get a partial reading of the characters - Y?426? and "NH MUS LONDON" (clearly, the Natural History museum). Fortunately, this was enough information for the BTO to identify it as Y114264. These types of small numbered rings are usually only reported when the bird is found dead or caught by another ringer; typically, reports are more likely to come from colour-ringed schemes, as was the case with this Waxwing I photographed in December 2010.

So why go to all this effort to trap and ring birds (the majority of which are never seen again)? To quote the BTO:

"Ringing birds is essential if we are to learn about how long they live and when and where they move, questions that are vital for bird conservation. Placing a lightweight, uniquely numbered, metal ring around a bird’s leg provides a reliable and harmless method of identifying birds as individuals.

Although we have been ringing birds in Britain and Ireland for over 100 years, we are still discovering new facts about migration routes and wintering areas. However, the main focus of the Ringing Scheme today is monitoring bird populations. Ringing allows us to study how many young birds leave the nest and survive to become adults, as well as how many adults survive the stresses of breeding, migration and severe weather. Changes in survival rates and other aspects of birds’ biology help us to understand the causes of population declines." 

Source: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/ringing/about

There is, of course, also the personal satisfaction derived from transforming what would otherwise have been an anonymous member of its species into a recognisable individual with its own story to tell.

So, if you find or photograph a ringed bird you can report it to Euring Web Recoveries and the body responsible for that ringing scheme will send you a report detailing the bird's history.

See also:
Euring.org
BTO Bird Ringing Blog
Summary of all Ringing Recoveries for Pied/White Wagtail (Motacilla alba)
BTO Birdfacts: Pied Wagtail

Photographing Earthshine

I generally try to avoid going back and tinkering with old photos because - as with any creative endeavour, whether it's writing a story, composing some music, or making a film - there comes a point where you have to say, "Enough's enough," and walk away from it. However, I was recently contacted by a production assistant at Popular Photography magazine saying they were interested in using my image "Crescent Moon with Earthshine" for a "How-to" feature in the June 2012 issue*.

The original image was composed back in April 2007 and close inspection shows quite a lot of noise and signs of oversharpening (as well as some obvious artefacts from where the two stacks were spliced together). I've learnt a lot about processing since then - and newer tools have become available - so I decided I could do a much better job if I went back to the source files and reprocessed them from scratch.

For those who are interested in the technical nitty-gritty, the images were taken using a Canon 350D (Rebel XT) DSLR connected to a Vixen SP-102 achromatic refractor (focal length 1000mm). Earthshine (which is the reflected sunlight from the earth illuminating the shadowed part of the moon) is easy enough to capture on camera, but normally results in a severely over-exposed crescent. To retain the detail on the crescent I shot 31 images at 1/60 sec, ISO 200, and to expose the earthshine I took 11 images at 0.5 sec, ISO 800. I then stacked and sharpened these images separately using the freeware tools AviStack and RegiStax, before combining them in Photoshop using a layer mask to create the finished version you see above.

This new "redux" version is a big improvement on the original, and is probably the best I could do given the quality (and quantity) of the original 350D image files. Some flaws are still apparent: the dark band between the earthshine and the crescent is a little distracting and the earthshine itself could be brighter. These are issues that could be fixed by capturing more images at a wider range of exposures - and then combining them using HDR software.

But that's a project for another day...

*And in case you're wondering, yes they did use it, and yes they did pay me.

See also:
Shooting the Moon: Lunar Photography with a DSLR and a Small Refractor
Earthshine (NASA Science)
Planetshine (Wikipedia)

Digital Darkroom: Liven up dull photos

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, what you hoped would be a good photo comes out looking a little dull. In my case it's usually because I wasn't able to get enough separation between the bird and the background, and/or it wasn't in direct light. Fortunately there's a four-step technique you can apply in Photoshop that will restore some life to your image without adding extra noise.

1. Duplicate the background layer. (If your image already contains adjustment layers, combine them all into a new layer by pressing N followed by E while holding down the Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys.)
2. Boost the Saturation by +75.
3. Apply Gaussian Blur with a radius of 5 pixels.
4. Change the blending mode of the layer to Screen and reduce the opacity to 10%. (You can control the strength of the effect by changing the opacity, but don't overdo it!)

Here's a before-and-after example for comparison. Move your mouse over the image to toggle the effect.

Eastern Black Redstart, Palm Bay, November 2011

The beauty of this technique is that you can record these steps as an Action in Photoshop and then apply them to any image with just a single click.

...or you could just download the Action I've already prepared for you here:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BySUCOFwHc1Celk1SU5md3NSUzQ

To install the file in Photoshop, go to the dropdown menu in the upper right corner of the Actions palette, click on "Load Actions..." and navigate to wherever you saved the file.

Of course, no amount of digital trickery is going to turn a bad image into a good image; nor is this method a substitute for proper adjustment of Levels and Curves etc., but it is a quick and easy way to improve images which require that little extra "punch".

2.5-Dimensional Slideshow

Those of you who visit my Flickr page may have already seen this, but a lot of work went into it, so I make no apologies for airing it again. All of the birds in this presentation were photographed in East Kent, and all of them were wild (even the Kestrel):

 

I say a lot of work went into it, but how much? Well, to create the pseudo-3D effect, you first have to isolate the foreground element (the bird) from the background. This is done in Photoshop by duplicating the background layer, adding a mask and painting it so only the bird is revealed. You then have to remove the bird from the background layer by careful application of the clone brush (or the Content-Aware Fill tool if you're lucky enough to own a newer version of PS). The next step is to import these layers into Adobe After Effects, place a suitable distance (z-space) between the foreground and background elements, create a virtual camera to track in (or out), choose positions for your start and end keyframes, decide on the length of time it takes the camera to move between these keyframes, and render the animation.

...and that's just one shot completed; now you have to do the same again for all the other images.

Here's a behind-the-scenes screenshot showing a typical camera move being set up in After Effects:

There's a lot of trial and error involved in getting it just right, but the process does become simpler once you've worked through a couple of images.

While synching all the shots to the cues in the soundtrack*, I found I had more clips than I needed, so here - for those who are interested in extras - are the "Deleted Scenes":

If I haven't put you off and you want to try making your own 2.5D slideshow, a step-by-step PDF tutorial can be downloaded from this page:
http://www.daynw.com/3d-for-2d-moving-image-slideshow-effect-tutorial/
Note: Even making just an 85-second video was very time-consuming; this is not the sort of project you can knock off in a single afternoon.

Incidentally, if anyone knows where I might find a tutorial that explains how to replicate all the After Effects steps in Blender, I'd very much appreciate it if you left a link in the comments.

*The music for the slideshow is of course Aquarium from Saint-Saëns's Le carnaval des animaux, used to such memorable effect in Terrence Malick's 1978 film Days of Heaven.

Sand Martin Colony at Bishopstone

Walking along the stretch of coast between Reculver and Herne Bay can feel like stepping into another world when you're used to the white chalk cliffs that otherwise dominate the East Kent coastline. Here, the cliffs are comprised of soft clay and sandstone, which leaves them very vulnerable to erosion - but also makes them the perfect habitat for Sand Martins to build their summer breeding homes.

The Collins Guide rather wonderfully describes the Sand Martin's call (an audio clip of which can be heard on the RSPB page) as "a dry voiceless rasp as from coarse sandpaper" - which seems appropriate when you consider their building material of choice. Although the Bishopstone colony is easy enough to locate, the birds themselves are not so easy to photograph as they fly in and out of their nest-holes like winged bullets. During a visit last week I witnessed the results of a mid-air collision as two semi-dazed Sand Martins slid halfway down the cliff before regaining their senses and immediately rejoining the others. Fortunately, such incidents are rare, and sometimes a lull in the action presents a photo opportunity:

Otherwise, trying to track individual birds in the midst of this aerial chaos is a big ask for even the fastest camera/lens combination, so the best technique would seem to be to set your focus slightly in front of the cliff and keep firing away until you get lucky. I'm not a great fan of this shoot-and-hope style of photography, but sometimes there's no other choice. Also, given that the cliffs (which are north-facing) are in shadow most of the day, you may find you'll need high ISOs to adequately freeze the action. And, as you'll be aiming above your head for prolonged periods, a tripod or monopod might help to take the strain off your arms. I hope I'm not making this process sound like an exercise in futility, but when you do get a shot worth keeping it can be a very rewarding experience.

Anyway, whether you're there to take photographs or to just enjoy the spectacle of a few dozen noisy hirundines flying over your head, the Sand Martin colony at Bishopstone is well worth a visit.

See also:
http://www.kentos.org.uk/Reculver/Reculverdetails.htm
http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Sand_Martin

The Company of Kestrels

Getting sharp photos of birds in flight is difficult enough with conventional lenses, let alone with a manual-focus telescope, which is why - as much as I appreciate Marsh Harriers, Sparrowhawks, Hobbies, Buzzards and the like - Kestrels will always be my favourite bird of prey.

I saw this handsome specimen working the cliff-top at North Foreland, but I had to follow it all the way to Kingsgate Bay before I got the shot I was looking for (above). It then proceeded to tail me all the way back to Stone Bay. A case of a raptor using a photographer to flush out potential prey? Wishful thinking on my part perhaps, but it's nice to imagine that it wasn't just me who got something out of the encounter.

Now if only other birds could master the art of hovering in one spot...