In May 2016 I was once again on my favourite offshore
survey
vessel, Geosund, in the Danish Sector of the North
Sea. As
usual I did not get out on deck as much as I would have liked but as
luck would have it there were a couple of days with decents "falls"
towards the end of the trip that I managed to document to some degree.
There were two main items of interest this time - one was the behaviour
of the migrating hirundines, the other was that I had left my tried and
trusted DSLR and telephoto lens behind and used a "point and pray"
superzoom to take pictures of the birds that turned up onboard. For
more details about cameras for bird photography including the pros and
cons of superzooms v DSLR cameras
see some of the articles on this
page.
The superzoom camera I am currently using is a Canon Powershot
SX60 HS. I have yet to get into the nitty gritty of this
camera but it obviously does a decent enough job.
The Canon Powershot got a baptism of fire and without any other cameras
available it was not possible to perform any side-by-side comparisons.
As usual for superzoom cameras there were two main disadvantages -
shutter lag meant it was difficult to take pictures of birds in flight
or when very active. Images were also rather pixellated - probably due
to the jpeg filter used. It must be emphasised that I have not got into
the details of all the functions available and better results may be
possible.
Advatantages were:
- the low-light performance which was quite impressive
- the ability to zoom out and take "normal" photos with the same
camera
- Price!
- Weight and size - much easier to have just the superzoom
camera in my offshore bag
Spotted Flycatcher, Danish Sector,
May 2016
Pre-dawn Sedge Warbler with Spotted
Flycatcher, Danish Sector of the North Sea, May 2016
The species that arrived on 25-26 May during a period of calm but foggy
weather were:
Barn Swallow 4
House Martin 3
Sand Martin 1
Spotted Flycatcher 3
Yellow Wagtail 1
Meadow Pipit 1
Cormorant 1
Common Sandpiper 1
Willow Warbler 2
Chiff-chaff 1
Garden Warbler 1
Reed Warbler 1
Whitethroat 1
The only seabirds observed were a couple of Fulmar.
This
Yellow Wagtail was incredibly active and presented a real challenge to
photograph using the superzoom cemera
Danish Sector, May 2016
A
Swallow takes a break from its migration, Danish Sector, May 2016
Pre-dawn Reed Warbler, Danish
Sector, North Sea, May 2016 
