Wildlife Photography – Photographing Spoonbills.
For the first time (to my knowledge) there are nesting spoonbills at a local wetland where I live in Essex, which is absolutely marvellous. Spoonbills are a large wetland bird with a huge spoon-like bill, hence the name. They really are a fantastic bird to photograph and have been on my list of birds I have wanted to get images of for some time.
So I’ve visited a couple of times and on the second morning I got some images that I’m really pleased with.
I got up at 5am and arrived on location at around 6.15am. The early start was well worth it. There was so much action. I photographed common terns fishing, lots of herons flying almost too close for my long lens at times, little egrets and of course the spoonbills.
Most of these waterbirds often nest communally together, giving us photographers lots of photo opportunities. I had to wait a fair while before I got any spoonbill images because the female spoonbill and the chicks were tucked away in the trees so it was hard to get a clear shot. I had a bit of luck though: a heron came too close to the spoonbill’s nest which resulted in the female spoonbill breaking cover and taking flight to chase the heron off. Great images in the bag. Sometimes you need that little bit of luck with wildlife photography.
Later on the male spoonbill came back to the nest with food for the chicks. For the next 45 minutes or so the male was in and out of the nest giving me ample opportunity for flight shots of this amazing bird.
So all in all, one of the best morning’s wild bird photography for a while.
