male Merlin in the sun

 Loyal to his chosen post and in beautiful late winter sun 

male Merlin

 this beautiful little male Merlin has been a winter regular on the Lincs coast for three winters now at least but always evaded any sort of image so pleased to at least get something last week on a sunny afternoon 

Merlins

never easy in Britain and much rarer round here then in the 80's and 90's -- only see one on my local patch about every 3-4 years now

stunning Merlin

micro-dot images of an absolutely stunning adult male Merlin seen yesterday on the coast -- there are clearly far less wintering Merlins in Lincs than 30 years ago and I see relatively few now so this striking male was a sight for soar eyes as it perched on apostle's in full 70x Swaro scope views -- unfortunately an unseeing camera toter walked out and flushed it never having seen it

Merlin year ender

always hope to find one of those tame ones but never seems to happen in Britain -- on my old stamping ground of the grues --

dull day Merlin

One of the birds I would really like to get some good shots of, not falconers birds transported to a moorland locality and placed on a perfect lichen fringed perch, but an actual wild bird is the Merlin -- nearly didn't take the camera this morning as the weather was so dire but when this lovely Merlin flashed past and landed on a lichen encrusted concrete sea wall I was pleased I had at least something in the car -- dire light and the 7D2 has poor noise in rubbish light, forget the hype its may have better noise in sunlight but when its dull I don't think it is any better than the 7D1 -- anyway a cracker of a bird, shame about the noise and light and backdrop! maybe one day

Marsh Harriers and Merlin and weather

here in t-east it has been foggy from dawn to midday for the last 2 days  - this morning it was 3C but one of my returning male harriers was having a real battle with an incumbent pair on his territory -- fog and tele lenses really do not mix -- add a little shadows and highlights and at least I can see which is which! a male Merlin passed by then as the cold air mixed with sun the atmospheric distortion increased to the levels of mirage at 3m -- by evening it was almost possible to get a sharp shot at 20m but not much beyond that -- a frustrating spell of weather for photography just when harrier action is hotting up

juvenile Merlin

from a distance in the heath haze I thought this might be a small skua sat out on the beach but a bit closer the pale nape patches revealed it as a juvenile Merlin; I have never come across one of the very tame birds on the coast in autumn that have featured in magazines like Dutch Birding so this one was a challenge; three rather deep water channels later and it was closer than I have been in the past but I could have done with the 500 lens! Its underparts appeared to be a bit wet and I wondered if it had just arrived and dropped in on the beach covered in shallow water or if it had mis-judged an attack on  a wader -- in any case it seemed perfectly fit and eventually flew off inland

bathing Merlin

well it kept trying but every time it settled in a puddle on this track up came some dog walkers, ignoring me there with a camera pointing at it and walked past flushing the bird! nice to be considerate