Gambia birds, Jan 2013

Photos from a week spent along the southern coast with the Rutland Osprey Project group (J J our guide here), then a second week traveling upriver to Georgetown / Janjangbureh with Kit and Dorian (and Ebrima as our guide). I've included the best shots of all the birds I caught on camera. I've tried to keep to one shot per bird, but some are repeated - because they're a bit rare, or a bit special, or I just liked the pictures. Many I didn't photograph at all. What to do when our guide called "Copper Sunbird!" - reach for binoculars or camera first? See the bird and risk no photo, or try the photo, miss, and not even get a proper look? Some shots were difficult anyway. Distant subjects, against a bright sky or hidden in deep shadow. Equipment problems too: autofocus locking on the twig in the foreground, and birds that flew before my focus even found them. Then the limitations of this photographer: attempting manual focus with poor eyesight, or frantically juggling unfamiliar controls hoping for a decent image. Anyway, I've pruned well over 2,000 photos down to just 400. Even these, my pick of the crop, are variable quality. Some heavily processed to compensate for poor exposures. Some blurred to start with, others zoomed so much they are now really grainy. And I may still have some identifications wrong, though with help (from Angela, Dorian and Roger) I've tried to limit that. If you still find anything doubtful, please let me know. But I hope looking at these photos gives you at least some of the pleasure I got taking them!