Walkabout at Windmill Farm

Hadn't paid a visit to Windmill farm for ages, so got there at 9.30am on Saturday morning. Decided to set off with the 600mm lens and tripod with a vague idea of where to go. Set off to look for the main hide at Ruan pool and didn't find it (should of looked more closely at the map in the information centre) . Got back to the van about 3 hours later having only took pictures of a few birds on the last leg of this initial three hour trek. Check of the map and back out this time on the correct route to the hide. I arrived there and there I was me, and nothing else at all for thirty minutes so gave up on that one. Returned to the van armed myself with the macro and zoom lens and the twin flash for the macro. Unfortunately the batteries were flat on the twin flash, some idiot (me) left the spares in the van. (just having a bad day) Still determined to get some pictures of something before I left I went through the wooded walkway in the marshy area and around the dragon fly ponds. Final pictures can be seen below. Bit to windy for the macro shots but I still managed some. The dragon fly ponds are also good for getting images of dipping swallows, which is where I will go on my next visit with the larger 600mm lens as the 100-400 focal length is to short.




Swallow: Exif: Canon 1D Mk111, 100-400mm zoom lens, Aperture Priority, F6.3, 1/500 sec, ISO 400, +0.7 stop

Dragon Flies: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 100-400mm zoom lens, Aperture Priority, F6.3, 1/2000, ISO 400, + 0.3 stop

Beautiful Demoiselle: Canon 1D MK111, 100-400mm zoom lens, Aperture Priority, F8, 1/200, ISO 400, + /-0.stop

Whitethroat Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 840mm,(600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter), Aperture Priority, F5.6, 1/1250, ISO 400, +/-0 stop

Ruddy Darter : Exif: Canon 5D, 100mm macro lens, Aperture Priority, F10, 1/160, ISO 200, +/- 0 stop

Hover Fly (Helophilus Trivattatus): Exif: Canon 5D, 100mm macro lens, Aperture Priority, F10, 1/160, ISO 200, +/- 0 stop