And Now for Something Completely Different...


Here is Birling Gap, Beachy Head and Brighton seafront. And not a starling in sight! Just a the odd seagull.

Seven Sisters and Birling Gap

Beachy Head

Jovian Sunset

Ocean Theatre

Walking in My Shoes

Comments

Unknown said…
Great shots Alan! Stunning scenarios!


Marco
7 March 2013 at 21:21
Alan MacKenzie said…
Thank you, Marco. I hope you enjoyed my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.
8 March 2013 at 09:20
Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brighton Starling Murmurations - Winter 2019 / 2020

Image
Update:  When you've finished this gallery, move onto my project for 2020/21 . Welcome to my winter starling murmuration project. The photo essay is a dying art, so please encourage me to produce more like this, by leaving a comment at the bottom. You don't even have to login. Your name or an alias is better than posting as Anonymous. Starling murmurations are one of the most mesmerising sights in the natural world. Every winter, starlings escaping sub-zero temperatures in Scandinavia migrate to more temperate European latitudes. The south coast of England is mild throughout the winter, although the weather can be very wet and windy at times. The birds spend daylight hours in parks, gardens and farmland. Every afternoon, they gather in their thousands to form shape-shifting, fluid murmurations, before roosting for the night, underneath Brighton Pier.  Anyone in the city centre at around 07:30 in December will be startled by huge flocks of starlings making their way back to
Read more

The Decade in Pictures: Favourites from 2010 - 2019

Image
Welcome to my tribute for the decade 2010  —  2019. If you're stuck indoors for the foreseeable future, I hope my photos give you a window on the better times, when things we once took for granted weren't fraught with danger. I can't include every photograph, but if there's any images you feel I have omitted, there's plenty more over on my Flickr page . 2010 - Friston Forest, Seven Sisters, Chattri in Snow, Christmas in Brighton, Frank and Magnus Agugu. 2011 - Brighton Beach in Fog, Herring Gulls on Brighton Beach and Adder in Friston Forest. 2012 - Stanmer Down, Roe Deer in Poppies, Hove Beach, Brighton Starlings and the Moon Crescent. 2013 - Uncoiling Ferns, Falmer Poppies, Roe Deer in Buttercups and Large White Butterfly. 2014 - Beachy Head, Starlings and West Pier, Guillemot Rescue, South Downs, Leaping Roe Deer, Fallow Deer and Marbled Whites. 2015 -  Roe Deer, Beech Forest, South Downs, High
Read more

Don't Mention the Pandemic

Image
I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it. In these Unprecedented Times™, I may not be permitted to travel far, due to government orders, which must be obeyed at all times, but there is plenty of beauty in local nature reserves, parks and tree-lined streets. I'm not afraid to go out, for now , at least. I've already danced with danger and likely cannot add another number to the score. We've all been compulsively thinking about you know what. Forgoing hours of sleep. Drinking too much Chablis Premier Cru. Virtue-signaling for carers on a Thursday at 8pm. But let's be frank here — there's only so much time you can spend refreshing news websites, before you want to put a revolver in your mouth and shoot the Dominic Raab out of your amygdala. So, if you haven't seen a tree in leaf since last summer or you simply cannot go outside to enjoy the spring, come on in and enjoy my pictures, taken during my "one form of daily exercise". 
Read more

Early Summer Roe Deer Project 2019

Image
23rd May 2019: I was so pleased with the images from my first visit, that I could easily have finished the project in one evening. Temperatures were a good seven degrees warmer inland, reaching 23 °C and the Roe deer were just shedding the last of their thick winter coats. Grass height was still short enough to allow the easy observation of these small deer. The three babies from last year survived the winter; two bucks and one doe. The young buck was quite tolerant of me. When people wandered through the field, the buck went and hovered about the perimeter until they disappeared before returning to grazing on buttercups. Two adult does were present, but neither were pregnant. An adult buck accompanied one of the does. Possibly mistaking her availability, the buck chased the doe around the field in an unusually early display of courtship. My theory is that the doe is infertile, as she was not pregnant in 2018 either.  To avoid being bitten by pest insects, particularly ticks, I br
Read more

Brighton's Starling Murmurations

Image
Thursday 8th November 2012: An estimated ten thousand starlings gathered around Brighton Pier at sunset this afternoon. I had little time to grasp the sheer magnitude of the display. Within fifteen minutes, my 16GB memory card was full up. The murmurations can only get bigger and more spectacular each afternoon, as thousands of starlings arrive in Brighton for the winter. ------ Wednesday 14th November 2012 : One would normally expect clear skies to be accompanied by cold, crisp weather, but today's maximum temperature of 12.5 °C   was an exception to the rule. Unfortunately, clear skies don't provide any kind of dramatic backdrop. Therefore, despite taking 600 shots, only one was good enough to show other people. After the standards set last Thursday, keeping up with expectations is becoming increasingly a challenge!  I was delighted to meet Fine Art and Photography student, Suzanne Carr on Sunday afternoon, after being contacted by email. Suzanne is in
Read more

The Beautiful Starling Murmurations at Brighton Pier

Image
Every winter, starlings escaping the harsh Scandinavian winter migrate to the British Isles and other mild European countries. Starlings feed in gardens and farmland in the daytime and gather in huge groups called murmurations over Brighton Pier in late afternoon.  Murmurations are thought to serve a number of purposes. Firstly, they are a defensive strategy against birds of prey; each starling monitors and shadows seven of its neighbours and this leads to murmurations adopting a typical fluid movement. Should a predatory bird attempt to intercept a murmuration, each starling in its path will automatically move aside, allowing the adversary to pass straight through. Flying in murmurations generates body heat and the collective warmth of bodies acts as a giant radiator when the starlings roost. Competition for the most sheltered places to roost is fierce and dominant males get first preference. Females and juveniles have to sleep in more exposed spots. Although migrant starlings be
Read more

Brighton and Hove Snow Diary 2010

Image
The temperature on December 1st 2010 never rose above -0.3ºC and heavy snow fell across Sussex. I started taking photographs two hours before work, in the afternoon and resumed photography after an early finish due to severe weather conditions. Continuous light snow fell until 19:45, when the powdery snow turned very heavy, dumping 15 - 25cm in  just a few hours. I caught the number 6 bus into Brighton city centre, where I spent two hours meeting friendly faces and photographing familiar places in unfamiliar conditions. As I braced myself for a long walk home, I thought I'd pop into Brighton Station on the off-chance that tonight's snow was of the 'right kind'. Miraculously, the 22:34 Southern train to Chichester was on Platform 2. The train crawled up to Preston Park, reversed and struggled along to Portslade. I met Frank on a very cold, snow-swept Hove Promenade. He was out walking his West Highland Terrier. He told me that he owns the Snoopers Paradise on
Read more

Early Summer Roe Deer Project 2020

Image
Welcome once again to my annual early summer Roe deer project, which was accomplished this year by cycling 52 miles on five round trips to a reliable site on the Sussex/Surrey border. In previous years, I caught the train to a nearby station and cycled to the nature reserve, but since I am not allowed to use public transport for non-essential journeys, cycling is my only available option. I was nervous about travelling so far by bicycle, due to the risk of coming home with nothing. The free time people have during the lockdown increased the chance of human presence in late evening, just at a time when the deer normally emerge to make the most of the short summer nights. Fortunately, local people here are considerate and they used alternative routes when I signalled to them that wildlife photography was underway. Although the holiday segment of my project began in good weather, Atlantic low pressure systems led to frustration at cancelled trips. I had to schedule visits on my days off t
Read more

Photos of the Year 2012

Image
I will remember 2012, as the year in which I became a true wildlife and landscape photographer. I've wanted to specialise in these fields since the age of 18; for want of the correct equipment and knowledge of wild animal behaviour, I dared not call myself a specialist photographer. Equally, 2012 saw my interest in photography become a social activity. Among others, it was nice getting to know Alex Lawrence , Andy Bertram and Finn Hopson , after bumping into them at various locations around Sussex. I would like to thank Alex, in particular, for his kindness, in lending me the Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS USM and the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM MKII for months at a time. The optical quality and focus accuracy of these lenses is second-to-none. Using them has been the turning point of my career; since everything counts in large amounts, I will now save for a super-telephoto prime lens of my own. If 2012 was the year of wildlife photography and social activity, it was also the ye
Read more