Mealy bedroll

at last I caught up with the male Common or Mealy Redpoll on Waters' Edge Barton with some decent light--when alone it is much more approachable than when it is with the 6 Lessers which are also present

300f4

I remain deeply impressed by the quality of the Canon 300 f4 lens bought recently--the Coot and CG head demonstrate the image qulity it can produce in nice sunlight while the fightings CG's show its sharpness and generous DOF even in dull light

dodgy goose

this is the bird which is being reported as a Lesser White-front near Far Ings Barton--it is the same bird which has been with the Greylag flock for a couple of years and thus is an adult--in my opinion it is not a full blooded LWFG; the white blaze is far too small, the eye rings are very narrow and dull, the belly bars broken, legs washed out and bill too long and pointed?--it is clearly however, an escapee whatever its gene mix

Hawfinches

after a winter of failing to find any of the Hawfinch influx it was nice to see a few this morning albeit in freezing cold conditons

big bills

these are the best efforts out of a lot of shots with the A95 and Swaro scope--I tend to think the zoom eyepiece and A95 and not compatible!---nice birds though

back to home territory

Whooper Swans at New Holland were the most obliging photographic subjects of the day

whoops

finally caught up with the 6 adult Whoopers at New Holland this afternoon and they proved to be very obliging over high tide

stones

New Holland is always good for Turnstones and at high tide they often congregate close to the seawall motorbikes permitting!

daytime barn

this Barn Owl was out hunting in the middle of the day

odd gull

this first-winter Black-headed Gull with white replacing grey but solid black plumage marks was on waters' Edge this morning--a striking bird in flight

Sweden photo special

just back from a four day trip to central Sweden guided by Daniel Green---a superb trip and well recommended with top class accomodation, food and hospitality as well as spot on guiding to the best birds--- Daniel can be contacted at daniel@svartadalen.nu and their web site at http://www.svartadalen.nu/eng/ gives information on bird tours inthe area
photos here Kev digi-scoping Hawk Owl, winter landscapes and birders at the Sib Jay site

life bird

having seen most of the european owls Pygmy was my only likely new bird on the Sweden trip--hoping to photograph the species the first views revealed that birds were usually on the very tops of 60 - 80 foot high conifers!----as we watched one bird amazingly flew down onto a small branch just 1.5m above the ground---a careful approach through thigh deep snow eventually secured some nice photos in spite of the poor light and falling snow

more pygmies

a small bird with a big attitude---note the falling snow

Nutcrackers

one of the key birds at Daniel's feeding station is the Nutcracker--we observed two birds which came to pick up the well placed hazel nuts on several occasions during our morning at the site--one bird was giving a tongue clicking tock call as it sat high in the trees