Recently I took the plunge and decided to go mirrorless and buy an R7 body….. For the past 6 years I have had an Eos 7d Mk11, however technology marches on and now with autofocus improvements and tracking the R7 seemed a great way to go. So armed with my new camera I thought I would visit the R.S.P.B. reserve at Bempton Cliffs and try the tracking on some close flying Gannets. My Mrs and I visited Bempton on Friday 21st July. If only we could dodge the showers….. And we failed miserably!!! We made it to the first viewing platform and then the heavens opened… with unbelievable heavy rain, consequently we got absolutely soaked!! We could just make out the Gannets as they swirled round the cliff face … however photography in these conditions was completely hopeless so it was time to retreat to the car for a dry off !! After about half an hour the rain stopped and the Sun came out to give a beautiful afternoon… strange to think just an hour ago it was monsoon conditions with very limited visibility.
The views of the nesting Gannets were unbelievable with great views in the afternoon sunshine. Kittiwakes and Fulmars also added to the mix which made a great couple of hours of photography. The eye-tracking on the new camera was brilliant and really locked onto flying birds really well. As an interesting note when I edited some of the pictures there were some Gannets showing ‘black eyes’ apparently recent research has shown that these birds have recovered from the deadly bouts of Bird Flu that are devastating some of the sea bird colonies that are dotted around the U.K.’s coastline. So it was very encouraging to see that some birds were making recoveries.
