Greylag Shakedown

This Greylag Goose was photographed on the bank of the Itchen Navigation Canal near Swaythling in Southampton. This is an example of wrong settings, right results really... the ducks, geese and swans were being fed bread and seed by the passing public, who were also being mobbed by hungry seagulls as they dished out their wares. I managed to capture the Goose just as it was having a shakedown after bathing - great timing! :)

So, the shot was actually underexposed resulting in the almost x-ray like wingtips on the left and the white leading edge of the other wing. I played with several adjustments to bring up the colour of the birds beak, which kept bringing up the details in the parts of the wings which you cannot see above. In the end I decided I used a gentle S-Curve in order the maintain the blacks, whilst ensuring the birds face wes pefectly exposed.

The Itchen Navigation runs from Riverside Park in Southampton, through Swaythling, Mansbridge, Eastleigh and finally up to Winchester. With the exception of the public parks at Riverside, most of the navigation is managed by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. Despite the close public presence in Southampton, it is possible to see a variety of ducks and geese and even Kingfishers. If you are specifically looking for Greylag Geese you will be disappointed more often than not, so just a couple of miles north of here is Lakeside Nature Reserve at Eastleigh - it's a big draw for Geese and Swans, and just yesterday (January 29th 2019) we came across around 70 - 80 Greylag Geese on one of the small ponds.