Bucks Stone Curlew!!

After work yesterday, I checked the bird news as usual and was presented with the news that a Stone Curlew had been present at Gallows Bridge Farm (Part of BBOWT - Upper Ray Meadows). I've been there a few times before and for me the site seems great for raptors, I've only realised today that the area is far more expansive than I thought, I only knew about the Gallows Bridge Farm site.  Anyway, enough rambling...... The news of a Stone Curlew - in Bucks!! I couldn't believe it, finding out at the end of the day though I presumed it would move on overnight however news came this morning that it was still present so since I had time to dash over before work I couldn't resist.

I turned up at the site which was already occupied by a few local birders, bad news though, they were unable to locate it but informed me that as they were arriving a departing birder informed them they'd had views.  So I set about scanning the field and located the Stone Curlew tucked up against the hedge on the opposite side of the ploughed field to the right of the entrance track. It was sheltering from the biting cold wind which inevitably was blowing directly into our faces - it's April.....!

I watched the Stone Curlew for about 10 minutes and fired of a few photos but the light was dim and the bird distant so this was the best I could manage.

43. Stone Curlew

 

Although it was difficult to get a decent photo, I still managed some fairly decent views but only through the telescope.

 

Since the Stone Curlew was remaining tucked up and sheltered I thought I'd best have a look around the rest of the reserve.  Not a great deal to offer, suppose the cold, wind (and some snow - it's definitely April?) keeping everything hunkered down.

 

There were a few Canada Geese about, heard a Skylark and Curlew and had a Raven fly over then sat in the hide for 15 minutes or so. Slowly scanned the area, 3 Fieldfare were pointed out to me, I then located 2 Curlew the other side of the field by a small pool of water, this also contained a few Coot, Widgeon, Teal and a Shovelar. Whilst there the Canada Geese came over to the pond on which the hide overlooks, these were joined by a pair of Pied Wagtails.  Just before leaving 2 Stock Dove flew in and afforded so nice close views.

 

I left the hide just in time to catch a Red Kite flying over, got off a few shots but again nothing the write home about (or to blog about to be honest!) but here is the best of the lot.

 

44. Red Kite

 

As I was making my way back to the car I noticed the reserve had gotten a lot busier and that the throng of people were not looking were I'd been watching the Stone Curlew.  I made my way over to them to be told the Stone Curlew had moved and was offering better views.  Looking through the telescope there was no mistaking a Stone Curlew, I could even make out the yellow eye and the bill was obvious.  It was now quite active although still fairly distant and I was hoping it would move closer to us to allow me to get some better images but a new arrival parked next to it for a close view and spooked it resulting in it flying back to it sheltered spot on the far side of the ploughed field, I managed a couple of shots before it flew and one of it in flight.

 





 

That was enough of the Stone Curlew, more honestly I was frozen solid and needed to warm back up. Whilst loading everything back into the car a nice male Reed Bunting kindly posed on the bird table.

 

 45. Reed Bunting

 





 

As I was opening the gate to leave the reserve I watched whilst 4 Ravens were being harassed by jumping Canada Geese who were obviously concerned the Ravens were flying too low and too close for their liking - Funny.

Local Area

Quickly popped out around the local area today with a walk over to Salford Priors gravel pit.  A lot of the local fields still contain flood water, one of which had about 8 Lapwing, 2 Common Sandpipers and 2 Grey Heron.
We have quite a few Red-legged Partridge around the area of the gravel pit and local farms, they seem to like to hang out on the road during the evenings, not sure if it's down to the tarmac holding the heat of the day?

I managed a few shots but none of them great, the light was horrendous (got to blame something!) Best bird of the walk was a great view of a female Sparrowhawk, she moved quick and low across my path, I tried to get a photo  but only managed to get one which was extremely blurred.

38. Buzzard

39. Carrion Crow

40. Red Legged Partridge

41. Lapwing

42. Pheasant

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.....