I took my best EVER bird photo …

We have moved further north on our Scotland sailing adventure and have reached the absolutely STUNNING town of Mallaig on the west coast of Scotland, just over 40 miles from Fort William.

There are many walking routes around Mallaig, and we are going on the Mallaig Circular Route, well, part of the circular route anyway, as at the tippy top of this walk, there are some beautiful Stonechats.

So Tim and I actually did this walk mere hours ago, which is why I know that there are stonechats at the top. After getting back to the boat and getting alllllll my camera gear, I headed back out to try and capture some images of them.

Once I made it back to the top of the hill I got my camera out, and straight away managed to get some images of the stonechats, the male(s) in particular (I am not sure if it was just 1 male or many…).

The birds, had moved back away from the track, so headed back up the hill a bit and off the footpath to get a bit closer to them, and find some more compositions. I managed to spot a female in a nearby tree, and got a lovey video clip of her (you’ll have to watch the YouTube video, and I didn’t manage a decent photo!)

I got a few good images up here, especially of a male, posing on a branch in the ferns. This was also, where the limitations of a f5.6 lens come in (the f2.8 aperture becomes f5.6 with the 2X Teleconverter that I am using), and the background does look a bit messy behind him as the f5.6 isn’t as bokehlicious as a f2.8 or a f4 lens would be.

However, he moved closer to me (and further from the messy hillside) and perched on a fern, that I was able to isolate him on and got my BEST EVER bird shot (so far…). I made the most of him posing for me and captured images at different focal lengths before he flew off into the ferns again.

This male flew in very close to where I was standing, allowing me to get my BEST EVER bird image! I did have the camera in APS-C mode to have a 600mm equivalent focal length, but did not crop in any further in post.

And with that, I wrapped up my time with the stonechats and headed back to the boat, (after brushing off a LOT of ticks!), happy with my images.

If you ever find yourself on the west coast of Scotland, then Mallaig is a brilliant location to stop and explore, there are some amazing walks, like this circular one where the stonechats hang out, as well as a tasty bakery and stone baked takeaway pizza.