It made a change for me to have decided on where I was heading before I set off, well before in fact. Images from friends of a drake smew at Draycote and velvet scoters at a place called Swithland Reservoir were enough to tempt me away from my usual quest for owls at this time of year, and after reading Dave Hutton's blog about when to try for the scoters, I got up early and headed over to Draycote Water first thing.
It was pretty quiet when I arrived, with a few joggers and cyclists starting gingerly out on their circuit of the lake, with me trying my new walking boots out for the first time on a stroll along the path. It was smooth enough to have taken my slippers, to be honest!
Didn't take long to spot the smew as despite the cloud, it was surprisingly calm up there, and the bird stood out against the water and the group of tufties he was with. The smew was preening and then fishing, all the while moving along the lake, following the flock, though not too closely. I took a load of shots, but I could see towards the dam, that the clouds had broken, so waited and thankfully the sun eventually came out.
With the sun on him he positively glowed.
Such a cool-looking bird, with the white and black markings.
Interesting to watch him dive too, as he seemed to take a breath (opening his beak) before tail down, and dive forwards and under.
Caught a few fish when I was watching, though he would turn towards the centre of the lake and away from me to eat the catch. He also took offence to a male goldeneye which surfaced too close, though I missed that scuffle. The female goldeneye wasn't far behind the male and I was just starting to divide my time between the three, when the boats started to sail, and the birds headed further out and down towards the hide end. My cue to leave.
SatNav set to Swithland and after a short check on a map, I found my way to the dam at the reservoir. Dave wasn't wrong about the light being awkward, with the sun being in your face from any side which looked over the water. After a chat to a local birder, I located the pair of velvet scoters along the side of the reservoir. Females, and a new species for me.
The one bird was fast asleep, bobbing around in circles quite far out, but the other seemed intent on fishing, so I followed that. As is often the case, you take lots of shots in case it never comes closer, but as it does, you know all the previous ones will be binned. As was the case here, as it fished near the overflow area for a while, giving me reasonable views - far closer than before.
I think it can out-dive the smew. Was down for a good while, though unlike some grebes, this tended to appear close to where it dived.
Compared to the smew they're not the most attractive birds, but are a welcome addition to the gallery. They're also interesting to see how they dive compared to the smew. Both birds use their tails to push down and propel themselves up and into a dive, but these open their wings, which makes predicting the action a bit easier.
Moving over towards the dam, I drove round and got some more shots of it, closer still.
Below me I spotted a pair of goldeneyes also fishing, so I grabbed some frame-fillers of these distinctive birds. Light could have been better, but what am I saying? It wasn't raining so I should be thankful for that!
The female was keeping the male close by, though both were fishing constantly.
When the scoter headed off, I thought I'd do the same. Wasn't sure where to go though, so considered Marsh Lane again, but enroute, changed my mind and tried for the long-tailed duck at Coton. Beside the main road though, perched in a tree was a buzzard and who am I to refuse such a shot. I parked up, put the window down, lined up the lens and...
Got a shot of the side of a yellow tanker as it went past, obscuring the buzzard!! Made a change from the buzzard buzzing off! Thankfully it didn't, and I got a few shots albeit in difficult light.
The long-tailed duck was showing, but at a distance according to some friends I bumped into, who'd just been to see it. I changed plans again and headed over to look for the firecrest(s) near Hams Hall. By then though the light was woeful, and after a brief search, the lure of a cup of tea and comfy sofa was too much, so I called it a day.
First day of a new year, and I was keen to try to get out after all the rain of late. A slight hangover and dodgy stomach didn't aid a speedy start, though I have been much worse after such celebrations in the past. Having not been there for a while, I thought I'd try Marsh Lane, as reports of a bittern, jack snipe and a brambling had surfaced in recent days.
After de-icing the windscreen, I actually remembered to fire up my hand-warmer, and set off, calling in at Little Grump's oak tree on the way. No sign of either of them. In fact, not a great deal around even along the lanes. Reminded me of Mull, when the light was finally available, all the wildlife went into hiding.
At Marsh Lane, I trudged through the mud, around the reed bed and stood for about 20 mins, with some other birders, hoping to see the bittern. Reed buntings and wrens, chaffinches and dunnocks, but no sign of the bittern. Oh well, off to the Oak Hide where folks had seen both a brambling and the jack snipe.
The brambling hadn't been seen for some time according to those already in there, but the jack snipe was sat, bill tucked into its feathers on its back, obscured by some reeds. I could see it well enough, but not much good for a shot. Occasionally it'd stir, bob a few times, and then go back to sleep.
Whilst waiting and hoping it would do something other than sleep, I kept a watchful eye on the feeders. Plenty of finches, but no brambling amongst their numbers. So I was pleased when a tree sparrow turned up. I was less pleased when, after waiting for the tree sparrow to finally hop into view from the oak tree it was hiding in, that one of the birders in the hide decided that was the right time to leave, clattering open the door and scaring off all the feeding birds, including the sparrow.
Eventually it returned and I took the first shots of the new year. I suppose the good thing about getting average shots on the first day of the year is that it leaves plenty of room for improvement later in the year!
Just after the almost mild excitement of taking a photo on such a lovely day, we spotted the jack snipe moving. Would it come out into the open? No. It moved into a spot that was even more difficult to see it. Swine.
Got some shots as it moved, but compared to those I got of one at the North Moors (Upton Warren) these were only ever going to be record shots. Such a shame as the light was there for a change!
I decided that I would stay ay Marsh Lane - I had previously considered heading down to the Moors for a look, but that would waste valuable time driving and instead, I could be sat freezing in the hide, watching a jack snipe do jack s**t. Which it did. The light started to fade mid afternoon and again I found interest with the feeders. One of the finches looked a bit different... yes, a brambling.
The light being low meant high ISO, but I was pleased to see one, let alone get a shot. Sadly the flock were spooked and they flew off to the trees behind, leaving me to watch the jack snipe again. Bored. I thought I'd go watch the reeds again, in the hope of seeing the bittern. The reed bed was actually in decent light, though the bittern was nowhere to be seen.
Thanks to the eagle eye of a fellow 'tog, I did get to see it eventually, but it was so dark by then I was shooting at ISO 3200 and the image below is at best a record shot, and a very grainy one at that. Still, better than a no-show, as the one at UW had done recently.
So ended the first day of 2013, and despite actually having decent light, I'd hardly taken a shot. Let's hope things improve for the rest of the year!
So another year has almost gone by, seemingly in a river of rain water. Dismal days summed up the wettest year on record with a band of rain following me up and down the country, with the only real exception being a few days in March spent in St Ives, when we were treated to some unseasonable warmth and glorious Cornish sunshine.
December has been particularly dull, and after booking off a few days over the festive period, I've spent most of them sat in the house, looking out at the rain. Such a waste of valuable time off. I have popped out a couple of days though, when the clouds have stopped shedding their load. With such short days, travelling far afield is a bit pointless, so I've found myself camping out in the new hide at the Moors pools, at Upton Warren.
On both visits I waited until dusk to see the bittern, though it only showed one afternoon, and for about 5 seconds. Not quite the majestic views had down on the levels, or even a couple of winters ago on the North Moors pool. Still, there are other subjects to point the lens at.
Finches - green, chaff and bull varieties frequent the feeders, in good numbers too. I often overlook more common species like the greenfinch and chaffinch, so when they posed on something interesting, I took a shot.
I do love the colours on these birds - enough to brighten up a dull day.
But the bullfinches steal the show every time. They have a glow to them and really stand out in the darkness of hedges.
The family of rats still seem to be enjoying the free food on offer, and show their ability to climb when they fancy a nibble on suet. Or just sit looking rather plump, munching on the ground.
Every so often the unmistakeable call of long-tailed tits chirrups out and over they come, in their small flock, bobbing and flowing, taking it in turns to feed on whatever takes their fancy, usually the suet.
Such fluffy looking birds with those distinctive stripes over their heads.
Occasionally the secretive water rails would break cover, usually scuttling across the channels, or swimming at pace.
So while perhaps the one star of the show failed to show, another resident put in a couple of appearances, and brought a smile to many of the folks I was sharing the hide with.
A kingfisher, which tried fishing from all manner of perches, though I didn't see it make a successful catch.
The "man-made" perches provided the closest views, though when it chose natural ones, like reed maces, the shots were arguably more attractive.
Thanks to everyone who has read, followed and commented on this blog over the year, and let's hope 2013 brings less rain, more bright weather and loads of great subjects for me to photo and share on this Blog. Cheers!
With the days being as short as they are at this time of year, I try to minimise any driving, to maximise time photographing during the daytime. So unless a mega rarity crops up that really takes my fancy, I see what's around locally.
Whilst out at a Christmas meal with family on Friday, I missed a call from Bob, who kindly left a message to say that the waxwings were back at Hartlebury Trading Estate, and as they were feeding on yellow berries, it might make a nice change. That answered my question of where to go on Saturday!
On the way I chose to try out the SatNav feature on my iPhone for a change to my normal one, and found the American voice rather comical, though the occasional delay with it instructing me at junctions, and its terms for routes (though it pronounced that word the British way) slightly confusing. Still, it's a Beta apparently and I soon found myself driving down towards a small crowd of togs standing near a tree, laden with yellow berries. So it works fine!
The birds were around, and as is typical with waxwings, they were feeding, then flying off to a higher perch on another tree to digest the berries taken.
Despite the weather being supposedly decent, after the first half an hour or so, clouds drifted across and made the shots of the waxwings rather dull. And as usual, whenever the sun did make an appearance, the waxwings were elsewhere.
This didn't stop me from taking shots of other birds though, and I was pleased to see both redwings and fieldfares also taking the berries.
The redwings tended to remain in the middle of the tree, which didn't make for quite so pretty shots, though one could say that they're pretty enough by themselves to warrant a photo.
Learning from the waxwings on how to reach the berries at the ends of branches, one blackbird balanced down the thin stems to reach them, and in a rare moment of sunshine positively glowed in doing so. Undoubtedly the best blackbird pics I've ever taken, as they're a bird often overlooked, or found poking around amongst shrubs, and not in the clear.
During the day, the waxwings started to fly off away from view, so we wondered where they were off to. John (Starkey) opted to have a look around the estate, and while he failed to find them, he did spot a green woodpecker. Later on, when the waxwings had been AWOL for some time, we both headed off to look for the woodie, but it had gone too. Fairly typical with my luck, ignoring last week's fluke.
All the smiles from seeing the birds during the day vanished when one of the togs failed to secure his camera and 500mm lens on the tripod head properly, and it fell - in apparent slow motion to all us horrified onlookers - down to the concrete, where it bounced a couple of times, and rolled into a puddle. No-one said anything for a second. The camera was broken along with the converter which wouldn't come off, but Bob tested the lens with his Nikon, and that miraculously worked fine. All insured, but we all felt so awful. I shudder thinking about it now.
On the way home, with Bob's advice, I called in to a local Christmas tree centre and picked up one for home. Barely fit in the car and various obscenities were uttered when decorating it, as the needles spiked my hands! Still, the odour from it lifts my spirits every time I enter the room.
With no mega-interesting birds appearing, I thought I would perhaps try again on Sunday. Waking up, I peered out of the curtains to see fog. Great. I chose to have a bit of a lie in. Was soon bored of that idea and went out anyway, only to discover that it was just Birmingham under the mist, and beyond the Lickey Hills, glorious sunshine awaited. Back down at the trading estate I was greeted with rather annoyed looking faces. Not at me, but at a ringer who had just left, having caught a couple of the waxwings and scared the rest off.
Brilliant, especially when the birds were already flighty before. After a chat with friends, I chose to drive off around the estate to see if I could work out where they'd gone to hide. I tried all the roads I could see and probably raised the suspicions of the local security guards as I tootled around peering out of the screen. No sign of the waxwings anywhere, but I did see a green woodpecker. It was initially in a tree, but flew off (of course) when I lined the camera up at it.
On my drive around, I'd seen an area of ground I considered perfect for such woodpeckers, so drove back over there, parked up and waited. I was in contact with Ken back at the waxwing site, in case they showed up, but I could see blackbirds, robins, goldfinches, greenfinches, rooks, magpies, the occasional raven, gulls, redwings, jays and then, at a distance, a green woodpecker appeared.
It was a distance too, and my view was obscured by a thin wire mesh fence. But with nothing in the waxwing tree, I stayed put and hoped. It took a while, but eventually the woodie came within reasonable range for some shots, and with me in my car, it didn't fly off either, even when it heard the shutter going.
Add to the mix a bit of sunshine, and I took a load of shots. I wasn't sure if they'd come out what with shooting through the fence, but having seen them on the PC now, I was pleased I did.
The majority of the time I was photographing a female (black patches under the eyes) as she fed on the ground, or when spooked, perched on a post or tree.
But there was a male around - maybe a juvenile too, as can be seen from the shots - the male has a red patch under the eye. He was more vigorous with his digging, and hence mucky around the face. Dirty boy! Both seemed to find a great deal to eat on the ground though.
Then a call came in - the waxwings were back. Dilemma. Should I stay or should I go? Without breaking into a song, I stayed. I have hundreds of photos of waxwings, and hardly any of green woodpeckers. And as there were two birds edging closer, I crossed my fingers of some better shots.
Suddenly I heard the gulls going mad, cast a glance down the road and saw them chasing a buzzard. The peckers, which had been playing statues for most unusual sounds they heard, chose to abandon that idea and fly off, cackling loudly as they did. The light had also all but gone, and I headed back to see the waxwings (and friends) before heading home.
As a footnote to this blog, an image of a fieldfare I had taken on the Saturday has been chosen by the BBC as the banner image on their Facebook Springwatch group page, for the forthcoming Winterwatch programmes. I am chuffed to bits, to put it mildly, especially as they have included a credit on the main image.
About time I added something to this blog! With Christmas rapidly approaching, free time is getting harder to find, especially when the weather can so often ruin any chance to go out with the camera. I have spent a few evenings going through old sets of images, processing those which were shelved or too similar at the time to air, including a few from Northants, when we were treated to some wonderful afternoons photographing short-eared owls.
But on Saturday it was supposed to be sunny and not too cold. A scan of the rare birds on various sites showed little of interest within a sensible distance, so I headed down to Wychbold, or precisely the garden centre opposite Upton Warren's sailing centre (by the Flashes). After there had been 46 waxwings present during the week, when I arrived there was just a lone bird helping itself to the berries on the trees lining the fence.
Of course, as soon as I wandered over and set up, it flew off, to a poplar tree behind the sailing centre.
That gave me a brief chance to natter to some friends who were already there. It wasn't long through before it returned to feed, and I set myself up hoping to get some shots of it against a blue sky backdrop.
Kindly the waxwing hopped down from the top and out along a branch to reach some of the berries on the edge of the tree. Then it was a case of timing the shots to when the bird had grabbed a berry, and hoping it would play catch with it, before eating it... or more often than not, dropping it!
With only a light breeze, the branches remained still, so getting sharp shots was a doddle, and I had time to switch between landscape and portrait for shots, depending on how the waxwing was positioned.
It would occasionally fly off for a while, to digest the berries, before returning, and continuing its quest to strip them from the trees.
It wasn't long before the majority of togs and birders left, but I was soon joined by Keith, and then later by Bob, in his freezer suit. He'd already bagged a fair few delightful shots of the flock down at Hartlebury trading estate, but is never one to refuse further opportunities.
Eventually, just after lunchtime the bird flew off and didn't come back immediately. A birder wandering along mentioned he'd seen one around the back of the truck stop, so we strolled over, and sure enough, this was where the bird had been vanishing to, and was sat in a bramble / berry bush, almost invisible if you hadn't heard it calling. Photos were impossible as it didn't stray, until that is, it flew back to where we'd just been!
Bob opted to stay for more pics - I chose to head elsewhere. I wanted to see some other thrushes, maybe get pics of redwings and fieldfares. With nothing particular in mind for a location, it was a magical mystery tour, following my nose wherever it wanted to go. We (that's me and my nose) went over to Holt, past Grimley and then out into the sticks from there, where we eventually came upon a grassy meadow, with dozens of the birds feeding. Well done that nose.
The light by then was low, so getting shots of the birds trickier than I'd hoped, and the flock often relocated when vehicles or cyclists went by. I stuck at it, and got a few shots.
Then, from out of the woods nearby flew a green woodpecker, which landed on a tree pretty close! Unfortunately there were a couple of branches blocking a clean view, and rather than climb further up the trunk for me, it chose to fly off to the ground slightly further off, to feed.
I hardly ever seem to get shots of these, so I grabbed a few, even if the light was mostly gone.
When that flew off, I thought it was best to head back, and perhaps try the same spot again, should another weekend soon be blessed with bright conditions and free time...
I think my last blog entry was a tad on the epic side for a week's stint in Norfolk, so I'll try to keep this one a bit shorter!
As with a lot of my trips, Saturday's was very much last minute. I had no idea where to head on Friday night, and still hadn't decided until after breakfast the next morning. One word lingered in my mind. Allestree. You see, some years ago, I'm fairly sure Steve Seal and Dave Hutton lead me over there in search of a waxwing on an estate, and as is often the case with those two, the photographic rewards were fantastic and memorable. Back then there was just one bird to look at, but this time, over 50 of them had been reported.
It was cloudy, but the forecast was for it to brighten up, so the course was set and just over an hour later I arrived in the housing estate near Derby, quickly spotting a few togs with their lenses pointed skywards, to the top of a tree. Sat there, were about a dozen waxwings. Super!
I took a couple of shots initially, in the gloomy conditions, in case they all flew off, which they did several times, as there was a sparrowhawk patrolling the area. Thankfully, each time they'd gather again in one of the taller trees nearby, returning to the berry-laden rowan trees we were staking out.
Though they weren't just making the most of the berries on offer, as they'd often launch off at speed, returning seconds later with an insect, caught on the wing.
They are also incredibly agile, taking berries from the very ends of the thinnest branches.
Sometimes a bit too thin!
Aside from the posing these birds do, their calls are lovely, like a soft trill phone. But the best thing about them, is seeing them in sunlight, and after a while, the clouds parted and bathed the area, the trees and the waxwings in sunshine, transforming the scene.
With the faint breeze catching their fluffy crest, the birds seemed to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine as they posed on the top of the tree, but they looked just as fine when feeding from the clumps of berries - the combination of colours was a real sight for sore eyes after the gloomy weather on a lot of recent trips, and throughout the summer full stop!
As usual with these birds, they quite often pick berries that are too big to eat, and play catch with them...
Or drop them completely!
It was quite still that afternoon, so we were able to get good sharp shots as they fed and posed, and at the end of the day, when the golden setting sun cast its glow across us, there were some lovely images to be had, and I took full advantage.
The day had been fun, especially finally meeting with Kev Joynes and bumping into Darren Chapman again, though I did feel sorry for Kate who had wanted to come along, but had been let down by someone who had arranged to meet her. I suggested to her that we could try again Sunday...
Which we did. Forecast to be clear and sunny, and after a few tweets, text messages and emails in response to my photos from Saturday, I guessed there might be a few more folks around!
While the light was fab, the birds were less accommodating, and didn't feed much from the trees we were watching. That didn't quell Kate's joy at seeing them for the first time, as she plonked herself down on the pavement below the tree to get close enough for a 400mm.
When they did come down to feed, as before, they generally fed from the middle of the tree where the light was lacking, or from the back, where it was impossible to see them clearly. I had by now dug out my 100-400mm and was attempting to catch the waxwings in flight. Not easy as the 50D isn't great at locking on, and the birds' flight is undulating and they change direction in the blink of an eye.
With it being a Sunday, I had to leave early to meet with family to head to the pub, so I left mid-afternoon. I hoped the others would have more luck with the shots they wanted, but it appears the birds remained awkward. I did see a small flock on another tree some distance from the road we had been camped on, so perhaps they were feeding there. The light wasn't so good down there though!
A good weekend in fine weather, with better company photographing one of Winter's most colourful attractions. Not a bad result for a very late decision!
