Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
5th July 2016
My new hat!!
Part One: Staple Island
I was going to tell you about my new hat. It's especially designed for Arctic conditions. However that'll have to wait as I need to relate my trip with Barry to the Farne Islands on Tuesday 5/7. Weather was rubbish as we headed north into rain and then mist. Beyond the Tyne Tunnel and an approaching occlusion the sky brightened and once at Seahouses all was full of promise.
It would be Barry's first time on Staple Island if we could land safely. Well, landing was a bit of a scramble in the swell but we made it. First views...of the principal characters! Starring:
Puffins
I caught a sand eel this long!!
Shags...and razorbills
Guillemots
Lesser black-backed gulls
Bamburgh Castle from Staple Island
My interest in bird photography was sparked by a desire to catch birds in flight or bifs to the more obsessive! Here's a few bifs.
And a few more on the rocks...
The eyes have it!
Oystercatcher and young
Dinosaur with young!
Guillemots
...and so we left Staple Island. Not easy taking photos from the boat due to the swell. Here's a reasonable shot of a razorbill.
Part Two follows in a few days! See you on Inner Farne for Part Two and the conclusion of My New Hat!!
22.06.16 ff
The Day that I Forgot.....
.....................and other tales...
On June 22nd, before the most recent blog post, I went to Tophill Low. Apart from a brief flying visit by a male kingfisher I had to settle for reed warbler and blackcap...
Blackcap - well, browncap!
Four-spotted chaser - so-called because of its eight spots!
Reed warbler with juvenile
Kingfisher - male
Great Scott!! It's a great knot!
June 28th - finally found a weather window to get down to Titchwell for a night to see the great knot. I left home in the afternoon having booked an overnight on-line. The bird appeared early next day at Titchwell on the fresh marsh after a spell at Gore Point. Always distant but a lifer for me and a challenge to locate among 2,000 knot! On the photos the white dots will help.
It's the darker bird at the back - only marginally bigger then a knot if like me you sort of expected a significant size differential.
The most difficult shot to understand. The bird is back to us looking left. The head looking right is another bird. Often the darker head was all you could see!
One of the rare moments when I could see most of the bird. Others have had closer and much better views but I was quite happy. You probably can spot it now without a white dot to help you!
Generally darker and reminiscent of turnstone summer plumage...
...until the whole lot take off and you lose it completely!
Crowle Moor South - June 30th
En route I called at North Cave to see a wood sandpiper distantly as it turned out...
I carried on to Crowle.
Turn left at the Crowle Moors little car park and carry on down track for about 400 yards to SE75529 13739 past a small corn field on the RIGHT to a wooded entry with space for a couple of cars. This is Crowle Moors south. My second visit this year - the first must have been just a little too early. This time I got lucky.
The first large heath was about twenty feet away across open deep bog. I tried to get close and a better angle but it seemed too dangerous. Wellies required even for the nice bits! Sheep kept an eye on me.
Later I followed two others until this one perched so wonderfully for me!
23.06.16
Prees Higher Heath
Shropshire isn't a place I know well but I did see the red-footed falcon there last year. This time I was fulfilling a long-held plan to go to see the silver-studded blues at Prees Heath. It's a pretty long drive and I was glad to find space in the small car park which meant no long walk to the reserve. [The reserve website suggests you park at a truck stop and walk. It looked a very long slog to me!]
Anyway, here's the reserve.
I never noticed the man on the right when I took the shot! I wonder what he's doing?!
A lot of local dog walkers were about but, as ordained on various signs, all were on leads and people seemed pleased I'd come to see 'their' butterflies.
Here they are: a lifer butterfly for me, the silver-studded blues. The silver studs are pretty difficult to spot in the field but the butterflies are an intense blue, very low flying and a smidgin smaller than common blues.
I had put my 400mm lens down on dry grass and was using the 100mm macro. Eventually I walked back to pick up the lens. I didn't need to wander very far: the butterflies were numerous. Even posing on my lens!
Also spotted: a nice stand of strong-growing pyramidal orchids.
Possible orchard ermine moth.
A buzzard soared overhead.
Back over the pennines, I called at Crowle Moors south for large heath but saw none although the conditions seemed perfect and it was the same date as when I saw plenty last year. Final call at Blacktoft en route home: heron and dusky maidens.
19.06.16
Not so much a diesel fest...
...as a whinchat extravaganza!
I split the morning between Fen Bog and Ellerburn Bank. It was soon obvious there was a ''diesels in the 70s'' event on the NYMR.
I had come for something else however. So far this spring I hadn't encountered any whinchats - a bird for which I feel a special affinity. Fen Bog usually has a few nesters and in fact I photographed 3 pairs on Sunday and soon knew roughly where 2 of the nests were. I think no more comment on whinchats is needed: here they come!
I also saw my first small heath of the year at Fen Bog...
...whilst at Ellerburn Bank I saw a rabbit protected butterfly orchid...
...chimney sweep moth and common blue butterfly. The latter two were away too quickly for me but I did manage to swap to the macro lens to photograph this argus butterfly.
229 UK 2016
16.06.16
Good morning, Carrot Face!
Gibraltar Point has proved a disappointment several times in the past so it was with some trepidation that I decided to risk a trip to see a couple of caspian terns. In the beach car park I met Karl Dutton who had just arrived moments earlier. We were soon in the hide overlooking Tennyson's Sands and had the two terns in sight.
They were quite settled unless the avocets got agitated although there was little sign the terns were interested in the avocet chicks.
The terns went for a couple of flights which was very rewarding as they came past the hide.
On the way home I called at North Cave to see the possibe/putative/probable/hybrid duck which is probably just a drake scaup. Record shot from turret hide.
For the past three weeks a pair of wood pigeons have been visiting a lamp post outside our house as it goes dark. They seem very affectionate and although copulation is usually the end result the two birds do seem to chat and kiss! Is this affection in the bird world?
