25th - the beautiful birds of columbia

​       Graham Storrie of Morpeth Camera Club delivered to us on 25th September a talk entitled Beautiful Birds of Columbia. He explained that he is, primarily, a bird watcher and that his interest in photography is mainly to support and supplement his bird watching. When he counted last year, he had so far seen 2,054 species of birds. Graham used to be a chemist for Procter and Gamble, the large American multinational goods corporation, and since his retirement in 2018 he has travelled widely around the world with like-minded friends to bird watch. His photographs of birds are taken in landscape, portrait and in flight and sometimes help him to identify a species at a later date. He explained that although he does take photographs from bird hides, his shots are mainly taken opportunistically in areas where particular species of birds are likely to be seen.  
 
     Although Graham now owns a Nikon Z8 camera, his photographs during his 2023 trip to Columbia were taken with a Nikon D500 and a Z611. He used a 500pf lens and a Z 100-400 mm lens and commented that although his Z (mirrorless) cameras can shoot silently, his D500 was "like a machine gun". Graham uses back button focusing, Aperture Priority mode and either spot or centre metering. 
 
     When in Columbia, Graham and his friends travelled to a number of areas with local guides where they had the opportunity to see specific species of birds. Graham showed us some of his Columbian bird photos which included many hummingbirds (such as the blue-throated Star frontlet, the Tyrian Metaltail, the white-bellied wood star, the long-tailed sylph and the Indigo-capped Hummingbird), different types of antpittas (such as the brown-banded), various tanagers (such as the hooded mountain) and toucans (such as the black-billed mountain and the grey-breasted mountain) and the little tinamou, a ground bird which looks rather like a more colourful pigeon.    
 
     The colours of most of the birds were spectacular and Graham noted that the colours of hummingbirds changed significantly as the light changed. Sometimes he thought he was photographing a different species of bird but then discovered that it was the same species, but the appearance had changed with the light.
 
     Our members very much enjoyed Graham's talk and his photographs of Columbian birds which were, indeed, beautiful. We discovered that Graham is very much a bird watching expert and enthusiast who is prepared to "drop everything" to view a rare species which may be sighted anywhere in Northumberland, and he has a number of international trips with his bird watching fellow-enthusiasts already planned for the next 2 years.
 
Ray Barnes
CCC Programme Secretary