Foxy has a cunning plan onwards and upwards.

[pedro maia]

The White-winged tern picture is a stunner Dave!

[Dave Williams]

4 hours ago, xelas said:

500.000 photos in two years?! Where did you find time to see them all?!

 

I have mentioned before Alex, it's a real pain in the a*** looking through the shots deciding what to keep and what to delete. The R6ii shoots 30fps.the R3 40! The re[placement shutter actually cost £140 including VAT so not at all expensive.

 

[Galana]

I have just done the maths, sans calculator, using 1 minute for each frame. If my back of a fag paper maths is right you spent half your last two years on these.

Does Clare know? You need to get out more.

[Soukous]

13 hours ago, Galana said:

I have just done the maths, sans calculator, using 1 minute for each frame.

 

with multiple exposures at that frame rate it is surely more likely to be 10-15 seconds per frame, apart from the ones you want to process

[Dave Williams]

15 hours ago, Galana said:

I have just done the maths, sans calculator, using 1 minute for each frame. If my back of a fag paper maths is right you spent half your last two years on these.

Does Clare know? You need to get out more.

Couldn't agree more. I get much more pleasure taking photos than processing them etc. I have my camera back and the weather is good so it will be some time before I get all my shots looked at, and then it's usually under the influence after our likely BBQ's!

[Dave Williams]

I have just spent an hour of time looking at just the shots of one species! A week ago I was stood at Metochi Lake, a short 10 minute drive from our hotel. it's only small , maybe at most 40m in width and 150m in length. The main attractions here are Little Bittern and Little Crake but the reflections off the lake can be stunning too, especially as the sun rises at around 6.00am ( 4.00am UK time....eeeks!).

This is where I was when my camera died and it seems amazing I have it back less than a week later too.

I needed my tripod here to capture the Little Crake, as well as the resolution the R5 offers combined with my 500mm lens and a 2x teleconverter which rarely comes out of the bag.

It was a lifer for me and makes an appropriate entry for my 600) Little Crake in my Big Years with a twist ( to help cut down time processing images!!)

 

Little Crake. BY600     Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[michael-ibk]

Very cool - congrats on a beautiful lifer.

[Galana]

A very worthy Lifer.

Good news on the camera repair too.

 

4 hours ago, Soukous said:

more likely to be 10-15 seconds per frame,

OK. Still divided by six it took two full months. (and I was using an average, not the minimum)

Do it another way. Divide my 344 days by 60 x 30fps and that's how long he spent behind the viewfinder taking them in the first place.

[Tdgraves]

Gorgeous crake, would be a lifer for me too.

[PeterHG]

Congrats on the lifer at lake Metochi. We went there three times last year, but failed to see the little Crake each time. Beautiful light on the bird!

[xelas]

A true beauty, congratulations on your lifer! 

[Dave Williams]

Only the second of the species I have seen, the other was perched distantly on a tree in Bulgaria.

601) Long-legged Buzzard

Long-legged Buzzard. BY601   Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[Dave Williams]

I only saw this bird as I happened to stop the car at the side of an unmade mountain track to let someone pass. Distant, it was gone in monments but unmistakably a bird I wanted to see. A "lifer" and another for my Big Years list!.

602) Eleanor's Falcon

Eleanor's Falcon   BY602.     Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[Peter Connan]

Seems the added focus of not having to shoot the same birds you shoot every year is allowing you to rack up quite a bunch of very special lifers!

[Dave Williams]

3 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Seems the added focus of not having to shoot the same birds you shoot every year is allowing you to rack up quite a bunch of very special lifers!

I was surprised how many I got in Lesvos as I'm fairly well travelled in Europe.

[Dave Williams]

603) Little Bittern

I'd only ever seen one twice before but in Lesvos there were quite a few sightings. This female was often at the side or in the river at the ford crossing of the Tsiknias river so a great photo opportunity.

Little Bittern  BY603.  Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

There seemed to be few males than females about. This one was around 100m up from the river crossing where you are looking down a steep bank to the river below. It appears to have caught a Mole cricket.

Little Bittern  BY603.  Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[Dave Williams]

604) Eurasian Hobby

I haven't seen one in many years, they don't often appear in North Wales, and I have never seen one this close before!

Eurasian Hobby   BY604   Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[Dave Williams]

My new take on the Big Year does allow me to add previous additions if I think they were not really representative of what the bird looks like.

The 149)Black Stork is actually an incredibly colourful bird when the light is right!

 

Black Stork    Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[xelas]

11 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

I have never seen one this close before!

The surprise was mutual !

 

Great photos, Dave. Specially the Black Stork as most I have ever seen (by myself) was its undercarriage.

[Dave Williams]

605) Dalmation Pelican

Another lifer and I was lucky to arrive at a spot where it was swimming down a channel close to my parking spot as most people were only getting distant views across the Kolloni Salt Pans. I have to say though, it was a bit disappointing as I expected a more striking looking bird but it wasn't in best breeding plumage and colour.

Dalmation Pelican. BY605.  Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[Dave Williams]

606) Blue Rock Thrush

I'm sure most birders on Lesvos made the pilgrimage to the Ipsilou Monastery perched high on a mountain top, as the surrounds have a host of good species. It was well known that Blue Rock Thrush were nesting there and as it's one of my bogey species I had to give it a try. The nest site was one of the safest and least accessible you can imagine and I think it's not a problem to share it here. To be honest, the views are really distant and disturbance virtually zero I imagine. I visited the Ipsilou several times but after my first visit on the 8th of May it appeared the birds had fledged. I only saw the female bird come to the nest but that was better than nothing at all!Blue Rock Thrush.  BY606.  Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

Edited May 31, 2023 by Dave Williams

[Soukous]

12 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

My new take on the Big Year does allow me to add previous additions if I think they were not really representative of what the bird looks like.

 

It's your thread, so you can change the rules anytime you wish 

[Dave Williams]

22 minutes ago, Soukous said:

 

It's your thread, so you can change the rules anytime you wish 

 

Blue Rock Thrush will be one I hope to add again at some stage but not this year. I spent all day in a hide specifically for the species a couple of years back and it didn't show!

[Dave Williams]

607) Cinereous Bunting

This is one of the Lesvos specialities and another "lifer" for me.It took me several visits to the Ipsilou Monastery to get a shot I was reasonably happy with and although I saw one often they were usually distant. They are rather furtive little birds, you hear them more than see them as they are well camouflaged too.

 Cinereous Bunting.  BY 607.   Lesvos 2023 by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[PeterHG]

 Beautiful Lesvos additions! Though I did  see the Dalmatian Pelican last year, it was much more distant. I missed out on the Cinereous Bunting altogether, but you got an excellent shot!