I took a trip to Slimbridge Wetlands the other day, had a great time. I went to watch the Starling roost in the evening and have a general wonder around. It is an awesome place and I will be heading back when I can! The Starlings were incredible, some 50 000 show up to roost at Slimbridge every evening around 3:30-4. The only thing was that they weren’t in the best place to photograph, so I spent most of my time watching. I meet another photographer (Pro or semi pro I think) on site and he said that it was a wasted trip, as he didn’t get any good shots. To me this is the wrong attitude. I thought the trip was a great success, sure I didn’t get many shots but the starlings are just so amazing to watch that it is always worth seeing them camera or not! I think this photographer was there because he thought he would get some great pictures for his portfolio, not because he wanted to see one of Britain’s best wildlife spectacles and I very much disagree with this. For me it’s seeing the starlings first and pictures second. Which I believe should be the way when photographing any wildlife.
Anyway rant over! Below are a couple of the shots from Slimbridge and one from my trip to Frensham today. I have visited Frensham three times over the last week to see the starling display. However each time I have been the starlings have been nowhere to be seen! I have been to Frensham Great and Little Ponds in the hopes of finding them and I have managed to see a total of 8 starlings in the 3 visits. They appear to have moved onto a different roosting ground and I have no idea where it is. The reeds that they normally roost in look a little thin and beaten up from the heavy rain and strong winds we had a week or so ago. I believe this is why the have moved on. Hopefully they will be back in the coming weeks, but in the mean time if anyone knows where they have gone then please let me know!
The pictures below aren’t my greatest work but I want to share them anyway! The starlings aren’t to clear in the blog sized photo, larger version can be found on my Flickr account (link on the right).
Andy
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!