Week 11 29-06-2014 Birds Spotted 2

It was a relatively quiet week for birds, mainly because I've been doing a fair bit of work. The good news though is that I was able to spend a few hours in Arne, which enabled me to spot some new birds and get some better shots of existing ones.

One thing I am noticing though is that I'm having a nightmare taking long distance shots with my new lens. Even on a tripod I'm getting fuzzy images which is rather irritating. Bird in flight shots at anything other than directly in front of me feel like a complete waste of time at the moment as well. The new lens is proving to be a steep learning curve, far steeper than I was expecting. Anyway, let's get on with the show.

Spoonbill
Never seen a Spoonbill in the wild before. I've seen them in zoos, but never in the wild. This isn't too surprising as they are typically found in Spain, North Africa and other hot climes. A few birds do tend to stay in the UK, and luckily, some of them are on my front doorstep. They get their unusual name due to their spoon-like bills, which are used to sift for all sorts of aquatic treats, from newts to crustaceans. There are only thought to be up to four breeding pairs in the UK at any one time, but they're typically seen at Arne, at most times of the year. These three were quite a long way, hence the heavy crop. Sadly they didn't do much, being content to simply stand around, rather than feed or do anything interesting. Oh well, there's always next time.

You can still make out their distinctive bills.

And here I am buggering around with the colour tints :P

Redshank

I spent most of the morning at one of Arne's two hides, before meeting my wife at the small beach found on the reserve. She wasn't too keen on me going to the second hide, giving me only 10 minutes there :(

Luckily, 10 minutes was all I needed to spot this delightful little bird, meaning another name has been added to the list. The Redshank is a tiny little wader that gets its name from its red legs. They're relatively common throughout the UK and are typically found in groups, but this little fellow was on his own. At first I thought he was a sandpiper due to his tiny size, but a friendly passerby was able to confirm it and I double checked on the RSPB forum as well. Again this is a bird I've never seen before, so was more than pleased to spot it.

Here's a cropped close-up of the fella. Note the red legs.

Here's a comparison shot so you can see just how small he is.

So that's it for another week. I thought I saw a Whimbrel, but it was one of many Curlews and I've now missed the Cuckoos, meaning I'll need to wait a whole year for them to come back! Still, I've now hit 70 birds in total, meaning I only have another 202 left to spot. I don't think this is too bad for 11 weeks, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to be a bit more pro-active with my spotting if I want to keep on hitting this sort of target. I'll leave you with some other pictures from Arne.

I spotted this Curlew from one of the hides. It's sadly missing some feathers.

And here's another one having a little preen.

Oystercatcher flies in.

Shelduck goes for a swim.

A scruff pied wagtail gets curious.

A Grey Squirrel is too busy cleaning to care about me.

A far-off Linnet says hello.

A preening Shelduck.

A flying Little Egret, way off in the distance.

And another one fishing.

Week 8 08-06-2014 Birds Spotted 1

It was another relatively quiet week for new birds, but a great week all the same for capturing interesting specimens through my lens. This is going to be my last blog before I upgrade to a new lens. I've deliberated hard about which one to go for, but the Canon 400mm prime looks to be the most sensible choice for me. I've grown quite fond of taking bird in flight shots, and this particular Canon is much better than the zoom equivalent. You'll hopefully see an upgrade in my images very soon.

In the meantime lets take a look at what happened this week. In fact, let's look at the one new bird I saw.

Green Woodpecker
What an amazing looking bird. We went to Queen's Park Golf Course as I've often seen this gorgeous looking birds there in the past. They love flying down onto the greens where they have easy access to insects and can be quite hard to see due to their colouring. After hanging around the large pond there we walked off-course and eventually spotted one quite some way off in the distance. While they are immediately striking with their bright green plumage and red heads, it's their brilliant laughing calls that really give them away. This one was clearly excited as it was making quite a lot of noise. My first shot wasn't great as he was far away and on the ground, I was lucky enough to get a nice shot of it in flight though. Woodpeckers have bounding flight paths that can make them quite tricky to shoot, so I'm quite pleased with the way it eventually turned out. Also known as the yaffle (due to its laughing call) the Green Woodpecker is our largest woodpecker with over 52,000 breeding pairs. It's always nice when you go out with the hope of seeing something and have it actually happen and while it was the only new bird I spotted this week it was certainly worth seeing.

As you can see, they're well camouflaged when they are on the ground.

And here he is in flight, look at the gorgeous patterns on the wings.

So I only saw one bird this week, which puts my grand total on 55 birds, with just 217 left to spot. A near miss this week included a Bullfinch. I got a photo, but it's terrible quality, so I won't be including it here. Maybe I'll get it next week, along with that pesky Peregrine.

So to finish off this week here's a selection of birds and insects that I saw while visiting the pond and the Throop part of the river Stour.

Even the most mundane birds look great in flight, as this Black-Headed Gull proves.

There were a family of Mallards at the pond. Lovely.

They weren't keen on getting wet though.

You certainly don't expect to see 10-inch Terrapins in the UK!

A male Mallard showing off.

A Mistle Thrush in flight.

The obligatory Robin shot.

A resting Damselfly.

A Black-Headed Gull splashes down.

A male Moorhen looking out for his chicks.

He got chased off by a duck though.

Annoyingly this Grey Heron was in a very shaded and dark area.

An opportunistic Black-Headed Gull.

I don't recognise this Damselfly, but it had a strange fluttering flight like a Butterfly.

A very tatty Red Admiral.

Hungry fish!

Hoverfly.

A final Black-Headed Gull flyover.