RSPB HQ

Never been to the RSPB's HQ before but since I had an hour to kill I thought I'd pop over, I'd heard they'd had a number of Brambling visiting their feeders so hopefully it would be worth my while.

I arrived nice and early, only a few cars in the car park, the feeders however were already congested to the max with Lesser Redpolls, Siskins and Tits, a few Mealy Redpolls have been reported but my ID skills aren't good enough for separation of the two.

I took quite a few shots of the birds feeding which looked great on the camera display but rather blurred when transferred to the computer and view as a larger image.

A female Brambling appeared which I was happy with but she was very flighty and difficult to photograph, so after about 20 minutes watching and photographing the birds around the feeders I decided to take a quick walk around the nature trail.

I crossed the road to the start of the trail, made my way round the first corner then noticed some movement in one of the trees, 3 Brambling which sat for a while allowing me to obtain a half decent image.

32. Brambling

 

The walk around the reserve, although pleasant did not offer up much bird life, I think they all hang around the feeders! I heard Raven calling in the distance but didn't manage to see them.  I did see a fox and only managed a quick few shots as it ran off through the woods.

 

Fox

 

I continued round to the hide by the HQ building, again plenty of close up views of Redpolls, Tits and Siskin. A nice quiet hide allowing ample opportunity to practice photographing the birds.

 

 33. Redpoll

 

 Redpoll

 



 34. Siskin

 

Somehow managed to get onto this Coal Tit who rarely stopped in the same spot for more than 2 seconds!

 

35. Coal Tit

Coal Tit

Stock Dove, a bird I rarely get to see up close flew in with it's partner and again afforded me some fantastic close up views, I managed to get a fair few shots at different angles in an attempt to catch the neck patch in different lights, I only uploaded the one though, might have another look through and see if I can find one with the neck patch looking purple..

36. Stock Dove

 

I then noticed something flying low in the background, my first thought was Merlin, it was flying extremely fast but also rising, it was difficult to get onto with the binoculars but I eventually managed it - Woodcock, awesome, only my second every sighting and my first in daylight, I presume it had been flushed by walkers as there were a few in the direction from which I first noticed it.  Now an extremely happy bunny with Brambling and Woodcock for the day I decided to call it a day but just before I did a Goldfinch landed on the feeder so I grabbed a quick photograph for the blog.

37. Goldfinch

 

So all in all I would thoroughly recommend a visit to the home of the RSPB, a small heathland being restored, hopefully when it brightens up a little (if) there may be the chance of visiting Tree Pipit, Woodlark and who knows, maybe I could be so bold as to hope for Nightjar and Dartford Warbler!!

 

Almost forgot, while in the hide I had a glance out of the side window and saw this cute little bunny, couldn't resist a photo...

Bunny - Cute....









Battersea Park

Had to work in London today so decided to have a quick wander around one of the parks, since I've recently visit Hyde and Regents I decided to opt for one of the more obscure ones and settled on Battersea Park.  As my recent run of luck would have it, as I arrived it started to rain.... pretty much par for the course now! My main aim for the day was to hopefully photograph a Ring Necked Parakeet, which in London should be no great feat.  I unfortunately only brought my 18-55mm lens so would have to do with some stand off shots as reflected in the photos produced today.

First up for me was a very obliging Dunnock, I have to constantly remind myself that I need to photograph the everyday species for this blog.

26. Dunnock

 

I've decided that until I have time to sit down and work out how to use an imaging software tool (photoshop, gimp etc), I will upload the full image as I've noticed that cropping it in Paint leaves the image a lot more blurred than if you just zoom into the original.  So although the remainder of todays photos look like landscape or scenery photos, I promise that if you click on them and zoom in then you will see a bird roughly in the middle of the image.

 

There wasn't a great deal of bird life around Battersea Park, a small number of Tufted Duck, a couple of Canada Geese and the odd Blue and Great Tit flitting around in the bushes was generally the mainstay. The most noticeable birds of the visit though were the noisy Grey Heron who are actively nest building and appear to be in the process of displaying.  There were quite a large number in the tops of the trees on the islands.

 

Walking around the boating lake, several Ring Necked Parakeets were observed flying over, they were also doing their best to drown out the noise of the Herons with their own particular racket....  Anyway I finally found one within reasonable photographing distance, the only problem was that it was in the top of a tree so I was shooting into a grey sky.  This is something that I need to work on as I find it almost impossible to work out the correct balance for making the subject stand out without over exposing the image, this was the best of a bunch I took, experimenting with different apertures, ISO's and shutter speeds...

 

27. Ring Necked Parakeet

 

On the other side of the boating lake amongst the Tufted Duck and Pochard were a couple of Red Crested Pochard and a pair of Gadwall, this was the best image I could get of the Gadwall as they swam away and into cover, I will endeavour to obtain a better image over the course of this blog however, for the sake of the race, this will suffice for now.

 

 28. Red Crested Pochard

 

29. Gadwall

 

I was now coming to the end of my walk around the park and was about to put the camera away ready for my trip across town to the office when I found some obliging Woodpigeon (I'd seen a fair few around the park but they were all in impossible poses/locations to allow a suitable shot to be taken).

 

30. Woodpigeon

 

After the woodpigeon I turned the camera off, then whilst walking out of the park I noticed a small movement in the hedgerow which turned out to be a Wren, he was more than happy scampering around in the undergrowth with me observing so I turned the camera back on and managed to capture quite a few shots which required a fair amount of adjustment with the aperture, ISO and eventually shutter speed just to get to the image below.  The first images I captured were all blurred, these were on an aperture of about f5 with ISO's from 100-3200, I then experimented using the flash which seemed to help, however when I loaded the images onto the computer, the images for which I'd used the flash were not quite as clear as those without.  The end result was f5.6, ISO 400, 1/13 exposure.  I have placed a red box around the Wren, just in case you don't believe he is there....!

 

31. Wren









Forest of Dean

On the way to pick the kids up I decided to go via the Forest of Dean, in particular New Fancy viewing platform to see if I could see a Goshawk before they finish displaying.  I arrived at the viewing platform, saw a pair of Buzzard over the canopy and a few Siskin in a tree close by.  Then literally within a few minutes of arriving and as my luck would have it of late, the skies opened up and the deluge began, aargh!!!!

I then popped over to RSPB Nagshead in hope of Hawfinch and Marsh Tit but again to no avail, I did manage a photo of a Song Thrush for the race though.....

13. Song Thrush

 

Since it was dire birding here I headed over to Cannop Ponds for Mandarin Duck and Dipper.  My luck improved slightly as there were a great number of Mandarin Duck present with very close views of both male and female.  Whilst I was there I scoured the brook between the two ponds for Dipper but failed to locate any, a small consolation was a pair of Grey Wagtail though so not complaining.  Then just as I was about to leave a large crow  appeared, and with a big wedge of a tail was unmistakably a Raven, even better it landed in the tree I was standing by so afforded some great close up views of this often 'seen in the distance' bird.  A couple of photos were gathered of some commoner species to make the numbers up for the race.

 

 14. Blackbird

15. Moorhen

 

 16. Treecreeper

 

 17. Lesser Black Backed Gull

 

 

As I managed to get some close up views of the Mandarin Duck I thought I'd add some of my favourite shots..

 



 18. Mandarin Duck

 

 19. Grey Wagtail

 

 20. Mute Swan

 



21. Mallard

 

 22. Coot

 

 23. Robin

 

 24. Raven

 

25. Great Tit

 

Little bit gutted about the Goshawk, will have to try again but next time check the weather forecast, especially as this would be a lifer for me.....



Double Lifer!!!!!

Decided that I couldn't ignore the Pied Billed Grebe any longer so I took a trip to RSPB Ham Wall and what a great day, the sun was shining and the birds were all showing.

First notable bird of the day was a booming Bittern, this is the first time I've heard this weird call.  Next up was a Great White Egret feeding just off the first platform, never expected that today.  Whilst I was looking at it through the telescope someone called Bittern, I looked up and there was one flying across in front of us, unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with the camera but did manage a great view through the binoculars

7. Great White Egret

 

I then walked on up to the second platform which is where the Pied Billed Grebe has been reported from, on route I saw plenty of tit and finch activity in the trees and hedges lining the path and heard numerous Cetti's Warblers however was unable to locate any. I took a few shots of some Long Tailed Tits, one which I am quite happy with.

 8. Long Tailed Tit

 



I finally arrived at the second viewing platform but viewing was at a premium as it was very busy, this still didn't stop me getting some great views of the Pied Billed Grebe through my binoculars and some amazing views through the telescope; my first lifer of the day.  The pictures however are not as great, suppose I brought an entry level camera for a reason though so can't grumble.

 

9. Pied Billed Grebe

 

I'd heard there had been a Ring Necked Duck, Scaup, Smew, Black Necked Grebe and Ferruginous Duck present yesterday so I wandered on further along the track, on route I managed to snap a couple more birds for the list, Blue Tit and Chaffinch.

 

 10. Blue Tit

 

11. Chaffinch

 

I arrived at a group of people who it turned out where getting on/off glimpses of the Ring Necked Duck.  I managed to get onto my second lifer of the day - awesome!!  Again, not the greatest of shots as it was through trees and in a very narrow viewing window.

 

12. Ring Necked Duck

 

Whilst observing the Ring Necked Duck I happened to look up and notice 3 birds flying towards us, since I was having I lifer day my first hope was Crane - no chance.... however 3 Spoonbills were a nice addition to the year list.  I wandered further up as somebody informed us that the Ferruginous Duck had been located.  I arrived just it it disappeared behind some reedbeds, I waited for about 20 minutes but he wasn't coming out.  I decided to call it a day and head back to the car as I still had to go to work, on the way back I stopped for a quick look at the Pied Billed Grebe but he'd become elusive, a bonus though was that the 2 Black Necked Grebes had arrived back, great views but too far out for photos.  Lastly I found a Chiffchaff flitting about the tree tops by the carpark which was another nice addition to the year list.

 

All in all a great day; lovely weather, great birding, an awesome site and 2 lifers to boot.....Happy Days.

 



Let the race commence.........

In true gentleman like fashion, Will and I decided that we'd go for a quick spot of geeking together at the start of our race to see who can photograph the greatest number of birds within a 12 month period.  We opted for a quick look around the woods at Woburn for the elusive Lady Amherst Pheasant as you have to start somewhere and nobody that knows of their whereabouts is willing to divulge such information.  Why it's such a secret is beyond me as if what Mr Evans says about there only being 2 surviving males, then it's hardly a breeding bird which requires protection...... Anyway down from soapbox and on with the race.

As I said we started in Woburn woods which to our amatuer birding skills were deviod of birdlife.....

Then on to Caldecotte Lake to see if the Scaup were still hanging around, if they were then our great geeking genes failed us again as we were unable to locate them.  We did see a lovely pair of Siskin but I was unable to obtain a photograph of them, what I did manage is shown below, not the greatest of starts but it's only day 1.

 1. Magpie

 

 2. Grey Heron

 

 3. Canada Goose

 

 4. Black Headed Gull

 

 5. Pochard

 

6. Great Crested Grebe

 

Seems I need to sort the numbering out, will have to work on that....