feeder birds

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

quick Dartford Warbler

had a couple of hours on Canford Heath between Uni taxi last week -- windy and only found a couple of Dartfords but the weather was not helpful

looking back at Pine Buntings

a flock of 60 Yellowhammers on my patch at the moment clearly needs a close look for the Pine Bunting a species that seems to have almost dropped off the UK radar in recent years; also got me thinking back to past encounters

Big Waters fem March 1st 1990
Dagenham Chase male Feb 18th 1992
Gibraltar Point male  March 31st 1995

In the olden days I used to try and sketch things and made a lot more notes than I do now; lazy camera recording -- first two attached below; the Dagenham bird twitched by train at a time when I travelled free around the UK and a really cracking bird that I seem to recall I saw on my own-  what would the chances of that be nowadays even mid-week -- the Gib Point bird staked out in Syke's Plantation appeared at the feeding station after a few tense hours the first and only Lincs record and likely to stay that way? the yellow tones to the Big waters sketches are due to paper staining over the 25 years in the folder they were white originally honest!

then fast forward to the Camargue February 9th - 10th 2004 and 3 Pine Buntings, two adult males and a first-winter male with a large flock of Yellowhammers -- very very poor attempts at digi-scoping them -- so need to find a nice male that is photogenic!

Pink-footed Geese

waited 2 hours for these to fly and when they did straight at me and then landed in a field well off the roadside; scanned the 3000 but found nothing different other than two neck collars IIB and TKT

the 500 f4 is a great lens but even the new version is bulky -- flinging it around out of a car window is not a good option -- seriously considering the new 400 f4 DO if it is as good as some people say --

Goldeneye action

amazing what reaction one pretty girl can produce

brief Bittern

with the mild weather the local Bitterns have not been doing much flying at all in fact in about 12 hours I have seen 4 flights and only of 30 - 50 m; the two birds roost close to where they feed and presumably are finding it easy  to catch enough prey without doing any moving about -- maybe the cold blast next week will generate more sightings

Male Marsh Harrier

this bird seems to be staking an early claim to the local territory but he will no doubt be kicked out when the adult male returns if he does -- with so little to hunt at Far Ings he spends very little time in front of the hide  --

Magpie blast off

do we really want full frame everything? too much following convention?

drake Gadwall

time for a re-evaluation of photo techniques

that pesky Cetti's Warbler again

only seems to appear in the worst light -- not a bad day locally with a 2cy Little Gull over Far Ings, a flock of 47 Snipe, 2 Marsh Harriers and it didn't rain all day!

Wigeon

Goldeneye

all wildfowl numbers really low around here this winter; did a full count of Pochard today and found 14 birds -- compares with up to 2000 in 1980's -- Goldeneye today 18 compared to 70 - 80 in recent winters but need to check the Humber stronghold when the weather improves