Migrating Ducks
I like the effect of this first image as it almost seems to show the flight of a single duck in a “strobe” sequence as it flaps its wings and progresses across the image. It is of course multiple birds in a single shot but it does allow me that “flight of fancy”.
Despite “official” records showing that some of our summer months in the UK are the warmest on record, my personal feeling was that in Scotland we had a lot of wind and rain in our normal summer season, making it feel cold.
In 2011, following an extremely cold and snowy winter, there was an unseasonal hot week in spring with record temperatures worthy of our best summer days.
Leaves started to turn early in August which indicates cooler temperatures and a premature Autumn. There was then an improvement in temperatures and the onset of autumn was halted leaving a strange effect of fully green trees adjacent to bare ones.
In September there were a few “scorchers”, not enough to consider it as an “Indian summer” but good while it lasted.
It was on one such day that I walked along the coastal paths near Gullane with my camera.
I heard them at first and couldn’t see them. Then several massive V shaped formations appeared overhead. They were so high I couldn’t decide what they were. I also didn’t know whether they were coming or going.
A second formation flew over about 5 minutes later and I wasn’t sure whether the first lot had gone around in a large circle or if this was a indeed a complete different flock.
Given the cool summer and the sudden heatwave I wondered if the birds knew whether to stay or go.
Being able to zoom in on the originals of these images I figure these are ducks.
The next image shows a wider angle, providing a reference point to the ground and consequently scale. Had I pulled back to provide a wider angle that encompassed the vast number of birds, they would have been too small to see.
The formations were flying in a westerly direction. The poor birds must be as confused by the strange weather patterns as we humans are or perhaps they understand them better than we do.
These photographs were taken in September 2011 using a Fujifilm S5 DSLR. Shot in RAW format and processed in Photoshop CS2 ACR2.4
All the photographs were taken by West Lothian photographer Norman Young and are copyright ©. Please respect copyright.
Should you wish to purchase or use any of the images on this site, please get in touch.
