Dotterel, Dippers, North Wales and my past Month of Birding.

 Highlights this month: Cetti's warbler-Spotted redshank-Little gull-Leighton moss: Black grouse-Hen harrier-Worlds end: Dotterel-Ring ouzel-Pendle hill.

Whitethroat

Stonechat

Hi, it's been over a month since my last posting and I have managed to get out several times. First of all I visited Worlds End a moorland between Llangollen on the west side and Minera not far from Wrexham on the east side. My first trip was good with Hen Harrier, Red grouse and the target bird Black grouse being spotted. The second visit was brief and produced Peregrine falcon, Buzzard and Black grouse again.
Locally has been quite good with visits to Moor Peace near Bashall Eaves. On of my first visit there lately I met Anne Pollard a keen Bird watcher and wildlife enthusiast. Anne has visited Scotland's west coast many times and has posted me video footage of Pine martens, Badgers and lots of photographs of various animals and birds that I will share with you in a future posting I hope.
One of the highlights of the past month was a climb up Pendle hill.
A great place for passing Dotterel this time of year. It had been a poor wet start to the day but at 2pm I ventured up towards the Trig point. Zig -zagging my way  towards the trig point I was lucky to

find 3 birds to my left that flew 100 yards away almost immediately. Sneaking and crawling slowly towards them I managed to get within 25-30 yards of them. Keeping low the Dotterel became more comfortable with my presence and ran about feeding, sometimes coming within 10 yards of my camera.

On my way down the hill I was fortunate to stumble upon a male Wheatear along the footpath fanning his tail feathers. I suspect this would be part of his courtship display ?
If anyone can confirm this I would appreciate it. The female Wheatear was several yards away perched upon a stone wall.

Another cracking bird seen along the slopes of Pendle hill this time of year is the Ring ouzel. A bird that I had dipped on in my last two visits onto Pendle. Whilst watching the male Wheatear strut his stuff I noticed  a blackbird type bird in the field behind the stone wall where the female Wheatear had been sat. Using the wall as a shield I noticed I had two male Ring ouzel coming from my left towards a stone wall just to my right hand side....I hope you like this photograph as much as I do ! I am really pleased with this photograph it is one of my favourites.

Before Anne ran off towards her highland retreat she tipped me off on a pair of nesting Dippers in the Trough of Bowland. On her advice I visited the spot where she had said and grabbed some decent shots of both birds grabbing grubs from the fast flowing stream. I could sit and watch Dippers all day they are so unique.

 Tomorrow I am visiting Anglesey chasing Chough, Puffins, Razorbills and with a bit of luck Black guillemots.
I hope I can make a great posting when I get back home !



 

 

Early days with the Canon 300mm L IS USM.

A few days of sunshine and the Easter snow retreating has allowed me the chance to get out into the countryside. I wanted to test the new lens as much as I could and gather a whole heap of images to download, study and compare when I returned home.
Leighton Moss was my first day out, and the first proper sign that this lens was going to work for me, but you decide. Click on the image to enlarge and look at the detail in these Gadwall.

The Gadwall is often overlooked but there is no question about its beauty when you study it closely. The male is to the left the female to the right.
A good test of quality is the sharpness around the eye, if you can nail this area everything else will also be sharp.

 A Coot and a Little Egret share the same pond.This image was taken from quite a distance, but turned out well.

I love this image, birds in flight are a utter nightmare to get right. Notice the eye is sharp and the motion has been frozen using a fast shutter speed, also there is little contrast with the background making this shot even harder to capture correctly. I doubt my old lens would of been as clear as this.

Whilst walking to get a better vantage point on a Great crested grebe that I had spied in my scope this male Goosander flew overhead. I raised the camera and only managed to get 2 shots at this bird, this image is slightly better than the other one.

The autofocus of the 300mm F2.8 is quick, probably 3 times quicker than the 100-400mm F4.5. Again I doubt this image would of been captured with the older lens.

A few minutes later i caught up with the Great crested grebe.It had drifted away slightly, but it did allow me several shots before diving and reappearing some distance away.

The last image that  I have added was not a intentional shot, it was taken as a test when I saw these Mallard ducks flying low over the water. I rattled off half a dozen frames purely to test if I had my camera set up correctly.When I downloaded them later at home I thought this one looked quite good and a little artistic.

It just goes to show that sometimes luck is with you and sometimes it aint . So far I am really pleased with this lens and feel that it has more to deliver yet, but obviously more practice will bring more rewards.None of these images have been enhanced in anyway, just cropped to size.

 

 

 

 

 







 

Test of Quality. Canon 300mm L IS USM F2.8

Two weeks ago I purchaced the much sought after and highly rated Canon 300mm L IS USM F2.8.I had become more and more frustrated with the Canon 100-400mm L IS USM F4.5. It had served me well for three years but I had noticed the autofocus struggling far too often especially in low light and at distance.

All the reviews I read placed the 300mm F2.8 amongst the best Canon lenses ever made, but with a 5k price tag it was out of my range.Pristine second hand ones on ebay can sell for around 3.5k. Luckily one evening I noticed one for sale on a birding blog site and struck a deal for less than 2k by swaping two lenses I no longer used into the bargain.
My first outing with the new lens immediatly told me that this was a piece of quality glass. Quite heavy but not clumbersome . The large objective lens allows tons of light to flood in and the autofocus works faster than a pissed off woman texting.
So far everything was looking good. The ergonomics of the lens and camera together work well allowing my right hand to work the camera and my left hand to cup and support the lens comfortably.
Though it is still early days for me using this lens iI am very impressed with it's performance. The first thing that hits you is that at close quaters its fantastic....as the photos below shows...please click to enlarge and notice the subtle tones of the feathering on this Lapwing, taken out of the car window under a pale grey sky.

Take a minute to look at the detail in the feathering and also the sharp edges along with the very subtle tones and colours.
The Lapwing is part of the Plover family, it has been called Northern Lapwing, Lapwing, Green plover and also Peewit.

Goshawks .. The phantom of the forest !

Amidst the beautiful rolling countryside somewhere in Lancashire stands a large mature conifer plantation.
Planted over 20 years ago these Sitka spruce, Norway spruce, European larch and Scots pine trees stand twice as tall as a house.

Surrounded by farmland and open countryside the wildlife of this area is outstanding.My first visit was mid February and the weather was mild for the time of year. Still very cold but dry with clear skies.
Arriving around 8.30am we stood in a felled part of the forest where new saplings had been planted between the old stumps and disguarded logs.
Siskins and Chaffinch flitted between the trees in front of us and two Song thrush showed just to right for a brief few moments.

Two skylark flew over us and out of view whilst Curlew called from fields behind us. Around 10.30am we moved into a secluded corner of the lower woodland that gave us open views of the farm and a good view of the main part of forest. The only drawback was the limited views to our left. We didn't have to wait long until a raptor rose from the large conifers just to the right hand side of the area we were watching.
Similar to a Sparrowhawk but as large as a buzzard this raptor was huge and powerful. A female Goshawk was soaring higher and higher and slowly out of our view. We waited fourty minutes or so and from the same place another similar but smaller raptor appeared circling  over the trees climbing in height but staying in view. This was the smaller male he climbed and climbed until he became a dot even in my binoculars......suddenly he plumeted like a Peregrine, faster than anything i have ever wittnessed. He dived towards the tree tops pulling back upwards a few feet above the canopy, climbing again he was half the height again in a instance before diving again towards the same spot.Rising again he climbed less and flew above the forest giving us views of his pale underside.

At the same time the female rose from the exact same lacation flying upwards for a brief few moments before descending back into the same trees.
Over the next few visits I was lucky enough to have views of Green woodpecker ,Grey partridge, Bullfinch, Raven, Snipe,Lapwing, Woodcock,Fieldfare, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, and Goldcrest also a white cock pheasant was unusal.

 

 

Raptor Poisoning Map.

Raptor poisoning map from 2007 - 2011.

Defra have just released a map of confirmed raptor poisoning incidents in England and Wales.
The map for Scotland is below please click on images for a larger view.

Defra claim that 101 such incidents took place in this 4 year period.
What is astounding is that all these finds had been made accidentally. These incidents had been reported by people that had stumbled across poisoned birds in suspicious circumstances.

The worrying  fact about this number is that for every dead bird discovered there must be 10 maybe 20 or even more that are never found.

If only one bird in 10 is found and reported that would be more than 1000 birds poisoned in a 4 year period.  This is just poisoning there is no mention in these pages about about illegal trapping or shooting.
The RSPB claim that we have enough moorland in England to support 300 nesting pairs of Hen Harriers. In 2012 we had only one pair successfully breed.






The Yorkshire dales blackspot.

Mr Magpie and his family !

Probably the best known member of the crow family. The Magpie is often overlooked by many.
If the Magpie was less common or a rare visitor from distant lands could you imagine the fuss that would be made about its beautiful plumage, the striking markings and the iridescent green shimmer upon its darker parts ?
Often seen scrounging from rubbish or bullying  smaller birds away from the bird tables we easily forget what a stunning bird the Magpie really is.
The Crow family also known as Corvids has 7 common members in the UK.
The largest being the Raven, often used in horror films and the guardian of the tower of London. Plumage is completely black and it has a heavy bill. It is about 20% larger than the Carrion Crow.
Its call is deep croaky and it calls in flight. Very agile for a large bird.
The Carrion Crow is also completely black and seen everywhere.
Probably the most common bird seen of this family.
The Hooded Crow is the same size as the Carrion Crow but has a grey body with black wings, head and bib. It is confined to northern Scotland and Ireland.

The Rook is similar in size to the Hooded and Carrion Crow but has a bare grayish skin area at the base of its bill. Roosts in numbers in Rookeries high in tall trees. Often seen on farmland and fields searching for earthworms.

The Jackdaw is about 20% smaller than the Carrion and Hooded crow. The plumage is black all over but the hood is grey ( not very visible in this photo).
Eye colour is watery grey, it's bill and legs are shorter than Carrion Crow. Often seen feeding on farmland, sea coasts will scrounge through rubbish.

The Chough is slightly larger than the Jackdaw. It has a distinct red slightly down curved bill and bright red legs. Confined to the rocky western coasts of Ireland, Wales and south west Scotland. It is also a very agile flier. Feeds on short grasslands often probes, digs and turns over stones.

The Jay. The most colourful of the Crow-Corvid family.Similar size to the Jackdaw.Has a small pale streaked crest that can be raised.  Buff-Pinkish body. It has a bright blue patch and a white patch on the wing. Tail is black but the rump is white and very obvious in flight. A mainly woodland bird seen in parks, copses also cemeteries where there are mature trees.

Bohemian Waxwings in Burnley !

                                                               Throughout the week I had been keeping my eye on the East Lancashire Ornithology Website.There had been several sightings of these beautiful birds in and around Burnley and one sighting in Blackburn. I had a chance of catching up with these colourful creatures on Friday 8th of February 2013. Allen Holmes had kept us all up to date on the numbers and places where they been seen. On Thursday 7th a worrying  posting on the website read something like this , " 11 waxwings only... one tree has berries but they are dwindling fast "! This was a huge drop in numbers from 50 or so the previous day.

Arriving at Viking Place in  Burnley where the birds had been seen I sat in the car scanning the nearby trees. After a few minutes high in a tree close by several Waxwings appeared. The outline of their dumpy shape and visible crests made the identification easy.

The name Waxwing comes from the tiny blobs of red on the birds wings, If you look closely they really do look like droplets of red wax.

The birds stayed high in the tree for several minutes until being joined by more Waxwings, 29 in total now !
Below was a solitary type of Rowan tree that had berries It  was being guarded jealously  by a single Mistle thrush.The Mistle thrush was quite aggresive and was  not going to give up its food supply easily, it chased and harassed every Waxwing that came close.The Waxwings knew that the Mistle thrush could not chase 29 different birds at the same time so as the thrush chased one away the others descended and a feeding frenzy ensued, but only until the Mistle thrush returned.

Watching the Mistle thrush chase away a Waxwing gave us the green light to prepare for the arrival of the main group of Waxwings  upon the Rowan. Trying to focus on one bird amidst a hectic feeding frenzy was far from easy, but i am quite pleased with the results from that day !