Since finally bagging the glossy ibis, I have been scratching around for places to go. The unusual weather patterns seem to have prevented a number of usual suspects from spending their winter in the UK, so I have been unable to get my fix of waxwings and short-eared owls, for example. I think suffering from the latter is called Withdraw-owl Symptoms. Ok, I'll get my coat.
I have been tempted to head back to the Wyre Forest for the crossbills, but along with the rain has been almost constant strong winds, and that makes seeing and photographing such birds nigh on impossible.
And the shrike is still very much a hit and miss affair. My good friend Max has tried several times to photograph it, resorting to a super-zoom bridge camera in a vain attempt to get a better shot at such distance, which isn't a bad option when the bird is perched. I used to have a Canon S2IS, which had incredible zoom capabilities for stationary objects, though the end result never got close to that from a proper D-SLR, which isn't surprising given the price difference.
But while the shrike stayed distant, I did catch sight of a sparrowhawk on a hunting mission, and despite being gloomy (a storm was rolling in), the camera (my 7D) managed to lock on as it hurtled by, and I ended up with a couple of pleasing shots, much to Max's disgust, as he'd missed it approaching!
Up in Coleshill, well, at Hams Hall, there is a Hume's leaf warbler, a rarity found by Dave Hutton, but despite 2 visits, I have failed to get a single shot of it. It seems to poke about in amongst brambles and only breaks cover to fly to the next set of bushes. Dave's spent over 20 hours there and only managed a couple of record shots. Hopefully his luck will change, though I definitely haven't the patience for that!
After hearing of Max's gymnastics at Marsh Lane (he attempted a backward roll whilst holding his camera, trying to photo the resident male kestrel) I thought I'd try there, and sure enough, spotted the kestrel hovering over the meadow near the car park. I soon worked out that he was returning to the same perch on a nearby tree after each hunting attempt, so I crept closer and waited.
Needless to say, he then caught a vole and headed over to the fence posts near the car park to eat it. I managed to get back to a reasonable distance, grabbing some shots, before the local corvids mobbed him, forcing him away down the concrete road to eat in peace.
Whilst waiting for him to return, I called into the Oak Hide and watched the lapwings and gulls scaring each other into the air every few moments; maybe just to keep warm. Was rather chilly when the sun went in.
When the kestrel returned, I again set up hoping he'd land on his favourite perch. He didn't, of course, choosing a new favourite just out of sight. However, with the light occasionally being decent, I grabbed a few shots as he hovered.
Then this last weekend, the forecast changed from the usual rain to offering a few hours brightness on Saturday morning. With the red-flanked bluetail on offer in Gloucestershire, I opted to avoid the crowds and hope my luck would change chasing hawfinches in the Forest of Dean. Thankfully despite the woodland being soaked, most of it is high up, so is clear of the terrible floods affecting many parts of the county currently. That said, many of the streams seem to be on the verge of spilling over and the lakes all looked very muddy and churned up.
So, did my luck change this year? Yes. I managed to connect with 4 hawfinches in the end, and come away with some half decent shots, even though they tended to hide amongst the branches mainly, and were always the last to feed from the ground, and of course, first to fly off.
They were hanging around with a flock of chaffinches and greenfinches, the latter showing acrobatic skills to feed on the fruits of the yew tree. The hawfinches simply broke off small branches and then helped themselves to what they wanted.
As they were so tricky to focus on, I had to use the spot focus point on the camera, and was glad of the rear-focusing button set-up I use, as I could focus, and release, and then take shots with the shutter-release, not worrying that the camera would refocus on one of the branches moving around in front of the bird.
Eventually it started to rain, and after predicting it would stop after a few mins, I gave up when it became torrential 30 mins later! Worth the drive out though - such fabulous birds.
A comment I hear often from friends about my hobby is "I don't know how you have the patience for it", and it has to be said, I do have some patience when it comes to getting photos of wildlife. I have to often wait for the subject to appear, wait for the weather to be bright enough for a photo, wait for other factors to be right, like how close the subject is, if I have a clear view, if it's not being scared off by other things, etc. etc. And I have had some seemingly insane sessions of having to wait, for example, for a bittern to show, for over 6 hours, in a freezing cold hide in the middle of winter, only to see it for about 30 seconds.
Therefore I was quite surprised at how impatient and annoyed I became when, arriving at some horse paddocks in Brownhills, to find for the second time running that the glossy ibis that had been entertaining many a visitor, had again flown off. Not to be seen again that day. The previous attempt had been with Dave Hutton, and we'd searched fruitlessly for it around the surrounding area.
Again, I'd arranged to meet Dave, and had sent him a text to warn him, but he didn't read it before arriving, and after realising the bird wasn't there, called me a Jonah, and left! I was so peed off at again missing the bird, I could barely bring myself to speak to another visitor, so scuttled back to my car. I think part of it had been because I had had a task to do earlier in the day, and having waited to do that, meant I'd missed the ibis, and in good weather.
So when an opportunity to visit the site for a third time arose, I was reluctant to bother, if I'm being honest. But I did, and upon walking through the gate I was relieved to hear from the folks there already, that the ibis was still present, albeit in the back field.
Gear grabbed, I joined the group watching it from a distance. The problem then was, I already have a good few pics of a glossy ibis from the one at Hungerford, so getting shots on a cloudy morning from about 100 yards wasn't appealing. No-one was willing to approach the second field, which may have been down to them not wanting to spook it. But then one of the girls from the stables strolled past, up to the second field with a horse, and back past us again. The ibis, much like the one at Hungerford, didn't bat an eyelid and stayed put. I asked the others if they were going to go for a closer look, and if they minded me going. They didn't mind, but chose not to follow me over.
While I was now a fair bit closer, the light wasn't great, and bits of mist drifted through. The ibis seemed content to probe for food in the small puddles made by the horses' hooves, occasionally taking flight when the gulls and magpies went up first. Whilst watching it, I tried to get something of a more artistic shot, with a horse also in the shot. Sadly, as I took the photo, the horse decided to empty its bladder, and the resulting image wasn't really worth airing!
Eventually it decided to fly over to the first field, which was where all the others were patiently waiting. I crept around the hedge to get a view, and hoped the light might improve to get at least some reflection shots, while it paddled in one of the flooded areas of the paddock. By the time the light did start to improve, the ibis had decided to take a wash, and was splashing away all the mud from the other field, from itself.
Then spent some time, strutting about with its wings stretched out, to dry them off.
And then flew back to the other field, just as the light started to improve considerably. Typical, so we all thought. I grabbed a shot when a rare beam of sunlight caught the ibis, though it was still at distance.
Would it ever come closer? Thankfully yes was the answer, and back it flew to the first field, and landed much closer than before. I have to admit to being a little envious of the photographers who were now in the best spot, but I refrained from approaching them, to allow them to reap their reward for their patience. However, when an elderly couple strolled past me and past the ibis, to the other group, I decided to chance it too, and as before, the ibis ignored me.
Now on the right side for the occasional sunlight, I could get the sort of shots I had hoped for.
It was now a case of waiting for some decent light, and ensuring the focal point was on the head of the ibis, which was now filling the frame.
Thankfully the little joystick on the back of the 7D makes moving the focal point around simple, and I set the frame up, and waited for the ibis to line its head up with the point, to grab the shot I wanted.
When it took time to pose, this task was made even easier, and I soon noticed the shot counter falling and not returning to 22, meaning I had almost filled the card!
Card swapped, and I grabbed a couple more before the ibis strolled off, further away again. But I had taken far more shots than expected, and after looking at the approaching clouds, decided to head back.
So, once again, this third visit proved that a little patience and determination, usually yields rewards. And my mood had improved with them.
After welcoming in the New Year with excessive drinking, followed by a dreadful hangover, I was hoping to get cracking on trips out and about on cold, frosty, sunny days. Hmm. 2014 started as 2013 ended. Wet. In fact, for the first week of the year I failed to go anywhere or take a single photo. All very depressing.
Sure I tried to get out in breaks between the downpours, finding a huge flock of finches on the Lickey Hills, for example. Alas, even though they were all around me, and perched on the roofbars of my car, it was so gloomy I'd have needed a spotlamp attached to my lens to even work out what I was looking at, let alone get a decent shot.
I did try for the little owls one morning, though it was cloudy. Found them both, got some pics of one before it flew off, and almost, despite having a 4x4, got stuck on the verge.
Thankfully after the slow start, I managed to find time to get out when the sun was out, even if it only allowed a break at lunch, to visit the local great grey shrike. This has proved to be a real draw for visitors, and it's rare to drive past the area without seeing at least one person, scanning the fields for the bird.
After starting out at the back of the plantation, the shrike began to favour the area nearer the road, which was not only better for the light for photos, but also meant no need for a very muddy walk along the canal, an even muddier hike around the fields, and of course prevented me from being labelled an egotistical, money-shot-grabbing *insert expletive here of your choice*, as I was so generously called after my first sortie into the public area.
If the shrike wasn't around though, often the buzzards, kestrels or local sprawk would provide some entertainment. The latter usually pursued by crows.
I didn't solely focus on the shrike though - with one sunny day forecast, I decided to head over to Draycote Water, to see if the smew and great northern diver were around. It was relative calm for the area, and whilst walking along the path, I took advantage of some goldeneyes fishing close to the shore, with both male and female present.
The smew was easy to find, as it glows in sunshine.
And was lovely to see with some blue water, unlike the last one I photoed.
Alas the diver remained distant, but I managed to capture some mergansers, both bobbing around, and also taking flight.
Back to the shrike challenge. Getting a shot of it was still a case of being there at the right time, and in the right place. My first decent shots came after deciding to wander up the path, away from everyone else, to see if I could see it from the top of the hill. I could, but it was still distant. Then, as another birder scrambled up the embankment to join me, the shrike chose to fly much closer. I grabbed some shots, and tried (in vain) to wave to everyone down the road, to come closer. God knows what drivers going by thought of someone stood facing a hedge, waving an arm around frantically...
It was still nowhere near as close as the one at Napton, but flew a bit closer still, and I finally bagged some half decent shots. Far better than those from late last year, when the light was at such a nasty angle.
And with a blue sky behind. Arguably rarer than the shrike!
Walking back down to rejoin the others, after the shrike flew off, of course, I felt bad that I hadn't been able to attract their attention - if only I could whistle! I can't. I've tried. I just blow air and look more stupid than usual.
Thankfully the shrike flew closer again, but this time where everyone was waiting, and allowed more shots to be taken, although not quite as close as before.
That changed when it flew into the lower field, and landed right next to the hedge. Agonisingly though, the wrong side of the sun, so it was backlit. With a fair bit of post-processing, I managed the shot below, but not great.
Most subsequent visits were brief, usually helping new visitors to locate the bird if they didn't know where to look. When it was staying distant, I'd just go home. But on the last visit, again the bird was sat at the back, I spotted a group of birders at the wrong layby, so called them up and showed them the shrike. Annoyingly I hadn't got my gear out when the shrike flew at us, and over our heads into the fields behind. I drove round to see if I could locate, failed, and returned to find the birders had left. It was then that I spotted the shrike had returned, and was sat, pretty close to the path! And with the light behind me too.
With the place to myself, and no-one to offend, I took a few shots, walked up the path to get closer, took some more, and so on, until I was as close as I could get, without being in the field. Like the bird has any perception of the hedge as being an acceptable boundary! But, it does provide something of an object to hide behind, perhaps.
From here I could take a few shots, as the shrike maintained balance on the thin perch, moving in the breeze.
I moved around slightly to get a different backdrop to the shots.
I even took some video footage of it, but like a muppet, forgot to tighten my tripod head in place, and halfway through the clip, the breeze blew the lens off target, sending the shrike off the left of the screen. I don't think John Aitchison has anything to worry about just yet!
But at least 2014 was finally up and running.
It's the last day of the year and I'd better get something written down here of recent trips out. Aside from dipping on the parrot crossbills at Budby Common (Notts) - that was fun, standing looking at a puddle for about 6 hours and seeing no sign of the birds - I have had better luck with their two-barred relatives, a velvet scoter and also a great grey shrike which has decided to (hopefully) over-winter down the road from home.
Two-Barred Crossbills
The two-barred crossbills caught my attention, as there was little else around locally, and they were in a part of the Wyre Forest I'd not explored before. With the help of other interested folks, I was soon peering through a scope at a fine male crossbill, as it fed on one of the cones. Moments later I had it in view through my lens, and despite the distance and low light, bagged some record shots of it.
It was one of maybe 5 around, and amongst a large flock of common crossbills. Best views of these I've ever had.
They soon dispersed, along with some friends I'd bumped into up there too, and I was left hoping the flock would return. After about an hour, I decided to head back to the car, but along the way saw a small flock of commons feeding, so hung around an area and hoped.
My luck was in, they flew over to where I was waiting, and the two-barred crossbills joined them.
Much closer views this time, though typically they were on the wrong side of the tree.
And I took the chance to get some shots of the common crossbills too - wasteful to ignore them!
Velvet Scoter
The next bird to tempt me was a male velvet scoter, seen over in Leicestershire. I had managed to get shots of a female earlier in the year, but the male is much more of a striking looking bird. A birder wandering away from the reservoir kindly explained where he'd seen the scoter, and it meant a long(ish) walk around the edge to the other side to view.
Alas after driving over in sunny conditions, the weather had deteriorated and the water was grey and choppy. Even so, seeing the scoter so close up was a treat.
It gradually moved across the reservoir which was good because the water was calmer over the other side, and it was on the way back to my car!
Watching it feed gave me an idea. It seemed to dive down, maybe 75 yards from the shore, and chase its prey under the water, surfacing much closer in each time. Kneeling in wet mud and goose droppings (lovely) I waited by the water's edge and hoped.
It appeared right in front of me.
Would have been nicer to have had some decent light, but I was pretty pleased with the images of it.
Redwings
Bramblings have arrived in good numbers again, and whilst I was hoping to get some half decent shots of those, I had a look around the immediate area and found a small cul-de-sac with flocks of redwings feasting on some berries in a hedge.
With good light for once, I was able to take dozens of shots at close range of these lovely winter thrushes, plus blackbirds too.
Definitely my best redwing shots to date.
And rather festive looking too!
And I got a brambling in the end too...
Great Grey Shrike
The great grey shrike was reported some days back and I watched it from the roadside one afternoon, followed by an early start to watch from dawn. I've seen several of them now and had very good views of one at Napton some years back. They're flighty subjects if approached, but as they cover (usually) quite a large area, if you position yourself within range, hide and hope, you might get a good view. After taking a long route to the area, to deliberately avoid the bird, I set up behind a thorn bush and waited.
The bird seemed to favour the fields near the road, but had a larder within one of the thorn bushes, to which it would return to, every so often. It wasn't bothered by buzzards, herons or kestrels, but the magpies liked to mob it.
After about 3 hours I got some reasonable views, but the light was in the wrong direction really, and I rarely got a close, clean view.
When it wasn't being chased by magpies, it got scared off by other folks in the fields, which was annoying but often the case in this game!
Aside from trips to local reserves, I've been kept in by the weather of late, so anything caught in sunshine is a bonus. Still no sign of any shorties yet, though they often don't appear until February, so still time yet.
Nothing else to say other than hope you all have a great 2014! Happy New Year!!
The beauty of Nature's Feast's Twist feeders is that you can easily see which food offering within them is proving most popular with the birds. Hence, when Nature's Feast asked me to test out three of their seed blends, I already had an idea of how to do it.
I was given:
* High Energy No Mess 12 Seed
* Supreme 8 Seed Blend
* Everyday 4 Seed Blend
I have two Twist feeders, so put the 8 and 4 seed blends into two sections of each, and for the third section of each, filled one with the High Energy mix, and the other with a supply of black sunflower seeds.
Then it was simply a case of observing the feeders, which at this time of year isn't that easy, when you go out to work or with the Festive season approaching, have to attend get-togethers, away from home.
I'm quite lucky with the array of birds that visit my garden. I generally see decent numbers of house sparrows, blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits, green, bull, gold and chaffinches, nuthatches, robins and dunnocks, wrens and goldcrests, blackbirds, starlings, collared doves, wood pigeons, song thrushes, magpies, jays, carrion crows, plus at the moment, a most welcome pair of blackcaps.
Last winter, I found that the High Energy Supreme mix from Nature's Feast attracted a siskin to my garden for the first time, so I had high hopes of spotting something new with these mixes.
Unsurprisingly, the High Energy No Mess mix went first. It was popular with finches, tits, robins and the nuthatches, though that made a change from them taking several black sunflower seeds each visit, before darting off into the apple trees at the rear of the garden to stash them.
The 8 and 4 seed blends were a hit with the sparrows mainly, and when I tried some of it on the tray feeders, it was taken by the greedy wood pigeons and collared doves over a few days.
I think at this time of year though, when the bite of winter hasn't yet set in, the birds still have other food sources around, so aren't so reliant on the food we put out. To test this theory, after the 4 and 8 blends had been consumed from the Twist feeders, I refilled with a mix from another supplier, to see how that fared. It would appear to be even slower to be taken, as it's been out there for almost 2 weeks now, and is not in need of being refilled.
So based on this rather unscientific test, the 4 and 8 blends, are less popular than the high energy ones, but in my experience, better than similar mixes available elsewhere.
Having found a local stockist of their products, I hope to test more over the winter, when the weather deteriorates and the birds are visiting the feeders more often, to see if these new blends, as well as the one from last winter, attract siskins again, and maybe something unusual. A redpoll would be nice again.
Disclaimer: Images used for this blog are mine and from my garden, but from before this test took place. Had such dull weather during the test that I couldn't get anything worth airing.
