Bird project 2013

This year I have a few goals. Inasmuch as, there are things I want to have achieved by the end of it, not because it's January, but as part of an ongoing process of moving my life in the direction I want.

Last year, I started taking photography much more seriously, practising a lot and upgrading my equipment. By around September, I had an informal target of 70 bird species photographs on Flickr. I only upload photographs that meet a fairly high standard on there, of quality or interest, preferably both. So I saw more than that, but I made it to my target anyway. This year, I want to push myself much further.

So, I want to have photographed every native species in the UK by the end of the year. Resident birds, summer and winter migrants, and hopefully common vagrants. It's not a strictly-defined list, and some species (crested tits, cranes) are very restricted in range, so may not be possible. But it's a good target to aim for.

I'll post an entry for each successful outing, with the best pics of each new species I see. I'll include location, photographic conditions (light, weather), and any relevant comments. It's mainly for my own records, but it might offer insights to others trying to take photographs of birds. I've learned most of what I know (still nowhere near enough) from blogs, Twitter, and practice, so it's not impossible people may want to know this.

Also, I have informal, personal levels of quality. I only post the best on Flickr. Less good photos go on Twitpic sometimes. To show what I mean, and so this entry isn't all text, here are a few examples:

Level 1 - a photograph I am entirely, or almost entirely, happy with - good enough to be viewed large (a tufted duck, Aythya fuligula; I've shrunk it for this blog), uploaded to Flickr (in this case, I already had an even better photograph of this species, so I didn't bother).

Level 2 - a photograph of moderate quality, especially given the conditions, that shows a species of particular interest - in this case, greenshanks (Tringa nebularia) and a spotted redshank (T. erythropus).

Level 3 - a photograph that allows identification (in this case, of a kestrel, Falco tinnunculus), but which is of very poor quality indeed (I did post this to Flickr, but as part of a montage showing its flight and landing).

For the purposes of this project, however, any quality level that allows unambiguous identification will be acceptable.

I'll include a list and some highlights of the species I photographed last year in the next entry.