Category: Photography

A Kestrel for a Knave was a book by Barry Hines published in 1968. It was adapted for the Ken Loach film Kes.

The protagonist, Billy Casper, was played by actor David Bradley who later had to adopt the stage name Dai Bradley, because there was already an EQUITY member, the RSC actor David Bradley. You may know the latter from many a TV drama, as unintelligible Arthur Webley in Hot Fuzz, as Filch in the Harry Potter films, as the first Doctor in Doctor Who and as William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time, and Walder Frey from Game of Thrones, etc…I met him once, I mentioned it before.

As for Dai Bradley, he was also in the film Zulu Dawn, a couple of other films and various TV parts.

When the book was reprinted after Kes the film, they used the infamous scene of Billy sticking two fingers up for the cover…I grew up with this book…I was infamous by proxy as a child.

First trip of the year to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve known as Lackford Lakes. 2nd January 2025, glorious sunny day, first such of the year and the first for quite some time.

Having seen four raptors on the journey there – Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Red Kite – a trek through the reserve to see what we could see then gave us:

There was also a very odd looking bird being harried by a Blackbird in a tree. It was probably a juvenile Blackbird, but it seemed to have a rufous bib and a very pale, speckled breast for a brief second I imagined it might be an Asian vagrant in the form of a Red-throated Thrush. But, very, very doubtful.

2nd January 2025 was also our first outdoor picnic of the year! Is an indoor picnic an oxymoron?

Once again, we headed for the North Norfolk coast for the end of the year. Decent weather on arrival so a trek along the beach from Old Hunstanton in search of Glaucous Gull and Shorelarks although we saw neither.

The Glaucous Gull had been reported as feeding on a dead seal, we saw at least a couple of seal carcasses above the tideline, but perhaps too many people and dogs even for a brute like a Glaucous Gull to sit tight for a meal. It was reported on the 2nd January, so it was still around. Funnily enough, there are two Glaucous on the dump near our village at the moment, although no seals.

From Sunny Hunny, we drove on towards Holkham and stopped briefly on Lady Anne’s Drive where a Long-billed Dowitcher had been spotted in previous days. I took photos of the much larger Black-tailed Godwits and other birds on the flood to the east of the Drive. The LBD is 11 inches bill to tail whereas the BTG is 17″). Once back home, I could zoom in on the long shots and could see I had got a snap of the LBD. So obviously smaller than the BTG but somewhat similar in appearance otherwise. It’s an American bird that presumably got lost and headed south down the wrong line of Latitude some time ago. They have been reported in North Norfolk previously and elsewhere in the UK.

Once in Wells-next-the-Sea, we checked in at the Arch House Rooms in Wells (run by the Globe Inn) before a sunset walk through the town and out along the East Fleet and then on towards the lifeboat station. Amazing sunset.

We were back in time for a half-decent supper at the Globe Inn, although the pub was not quite as nice as we remembered it from a previous meal there a couple of years ago. But, at least we got fed, one couple didn’t get their choice of drinks, none of the food options they chose were available, and they walked out hangry.

We had planned to walk to Holkham from Wells on New Year’s Eve and perhaps hop on the bus back, but given the windy, wet weather forecast for New Year’s Day, we changed our minds about that and drove to RSPB Titchwell instead. Titchwell is often our NYD haunt, but while it was windy at least it was dry.

I realise it’s not all about lists, but we recorded 60+ bird species on this trip. One of them new to us, that Long-billed Dowitcher. Titchwell was also the closest we’ve ever been to the rare Black-winged Stilt (a ringed specimen that had dropped in a couple of days before). Interesting to see that the reserve still has a Tawny Owl hiding in the same ivy-covered tree that we’d peered at on our previous visit to Titchwell earlier in 2024. We also noted a couple of species of fungi we’d not noted before – Scarlet Elf Cup and Candlesnuff.

The Merlin app claims to have picked up Hawfinch, Firecrest, and Long-eared Owl at Titchwell. Fairly unlikely, but who knows?

Busy day, no chance to get out birding or togging, even. Moreover, it was dull and grey, so not great for capturing avian beauty. That said, I was setting up the new lens on my Canon R7 adjusting the customised settings buttons, a Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM. Once I’d done that I snapped a cheeky Robin that landed on the bushes in the front garden after it was chased in by a male Blackbird. It sat on its usual perch and the Blackbird didn’t bother it again.

Anyway, photographed in low light from the comfort of the settee through the double glazing, the bird largely in shadow. Camera settings: shutter speed: 1/500s, aperture: f/7.1, ISO 4000, lens pulled to full extent 500mm.

I processed the image with DxO PureRaw4 as I generally do, see above. The reason I mention it so often is that it does an incredible job denoising job. I reckon it effectively pulls your image down 3-4 stops of ISO; my ISO 4000 is thus being cleaned to the noise levels one might expect at much better ISO of between 250 and 500. There’s no way I’d get a properly exposed shot with these light levels and that shutters peed at such a low ISO.

I then did a quick levels edit and crop in PSP to show a fellow togger:

Finally, I did a more detailed edit of the kind I would do before uploading to my socials: