End Of Year Blow Out. 3 New Birds

First off, apologies for the complete lack of updates.
It's been a difficult few weeks, due to terrible weather and lots of freelance, and all of a sudden it's the end of the year. I'll try and get some more regular updates going forward and will most likely rethink my strategy, as it's proving difficult to get away to see the birds I need to see.

Anyhoo, you don't want to hear about that, you want to see the new birds. Well here they are :)

Slavonian Grebe
I headed off to Blashford Lakes today in the hope that I would see the Ring-Billed Gull. It eluded me, but I still got some crackers.
First up is strictly a record shot, but it's a great finish to the year. The Slavonian Grebe is arguably our most beautiful Grebe thanks to its gorgeous summer plumage that makes it look like a more majestic Black-Necked Grebe. Sadly, this one was in winter plumage and proved incredibly tricky to spot due to being on the other side of a huge lake. It was kindly pointed out to me by some more experienced birders. Just over a 1,000 birds are thought to winter here, with a handful breeding (typically in Scotland). This one was on its own, diving for fish and other goodies.

LOL, here's the original uncropped shot.

And here's a cropped shot. Thank goodness I have a decent lens!

GoldenEye

Next up was a GoldenEye. This is a fantastic looking duck, but I missed every single one that showed up this year. Annoyingly, the drake was on the other side of the lake, so it's strictly a record shot again, but luckily a nearby female proved to be slightly more photogenic.

GoldenEye are medium sized diving ducks that spend the winter months with us (although they are more common in Summer in Scotland where they breed). They are very distinctive looking birds thanks to their piercing yellow eyes and white head patches (on the drakes). They are lovely looking birds and I'm pleased to see these ones, even if they were really far away.

He's very far away, but you can see the distinctive patch.

This female got slightly closer, but was constantly diving!

Brambling

Every time a Brambling appeared at Arne last year I missed them. Luckily, I saw one of Blashford, although I had to go to lengths to see it. Because the Woodland Hide at Blashford is used for children, only the two side windows open. And annoyingly, the Brambling wasn't visiting the feeders near either window. Luckily for me, my new lens has decent reach with the teleconverter added, so I was able to take shots from a side fence about 50 foot from the feeder. Something I couldn't do with my old set up.

Anyway, the Brambling looks like a more beautiful Chaffinch, with lovely markings and colours. It typically appears in the UK from September onwards and likes to flock with other finches. Typically a ground feeder, I was unable to see it in its natural habitat, so settled for when it landed on the feeder.

What a smashing bird it is. I love the colours on it.

And here's an uncropped image to give a sense of distance.

So that's it for the end of the year. I've now spotted a total of 143 different birds, which I feel is pretty good going. I may restart my list next year as it keeps you fresh for identification, but I'll see how it goes. I was going to include a Redpoll, but it appears to be a Lesser (which I spotted last year). Still, it's a much better shot mind :)

Coot enjoying a swim in the rain.

A distant Tufted Duck.

A Robin, with cropped feet :(

A gorgeous Lesser Redpoll. This one's a male I believe.

A Greenfinch contemplating whatever Greenfinch contemplate.

A Bank Vole, which I've never seen before. It was after seeds from the tables.

Goldfinch crop. Too harsh?

A very fluffy Blue Tit.

I love the detail on this Chaffinch.

And here's a female Chaffinch.

Happy with this Great Tit :)

Love this male Siskin.

And here's a female Siskin.

More Goldfinch love.

A Kestrel which received over 10,000 views on Flickr!

This was on the same feeder as the Brambling, so not bad considering the distance.

Possibly another Bank Vole. There were four of them in total.

Lesser Redpoll hiding behind a branch. Boo!

Another close Robin.

And a Blue Tit.

Kingfisher Blow Out

I headed down to Blashford Lakes this morning as I wanted to test my new lens and was hoping to get views of a kingfisher. Lots of people had the same idea as the hide was completely packed with just enough room for me to sit down. Once I got there I realised I'd forgotten my tripod, meaning I struggled to get super sharp shots. A couple of Kingfishers did turn up and despite the noise from many of the other lenses, they happily fished for a good couple of hours.

Initially it turned up at the far end of the hide.. I was glad for my 1.4 teleconverter.

This is probably one of the best shots I took and it's barely cropped too. I love the reach of this lens.

I'm a little too high for this shot so he looks dumpier than usual.

This shot was just after he did a little poo. It's probably a little too soft if I'm honest.

This is the first time I've ever been too close to a Kingfisher. It was right at the low end of my lens. Moving back I ended up getting some of the hide in the bottom of the shot :(

Look at the size of this fish! Annoyingly, the focus seems to be on it :P

He  spent a good couple of minutes beating it to death and the other photographers were going crazy with shot.. I still managed this with just a couple of shots at a time.

You'd think that after this he wouldn't be hungry, but he was back about ten minutes later. Greedy bird.

While some of the shots are good I'm still in need of a lot of practice with this lens. I think I need to keep practising and choose an acceptable shutterspeed too. 

My focus was pretty much on Kingfishers all morning, but I did head to Longham in the afternoon. Sadly, many of the birds were far too far away, being 60-70 feet out. No new birds this week, but hopefully that will change for the weekend.

This Reed Warbler was hiding in the reeds.

I quite like this Mute Swan shot, but it might be a little overexposed.

A Black-Headed Gull. I wouldn't want to say how old though.

Lots of juvenile Coots were active.

Adults were rarely far away.

Tracking gulls in flight isn't easy.

A group of distant Tufted Duck.

Lazy Cormorants on one of the floating rests.

Very distant Great Crested Grebes. I must have saw around 15.

I find exposure on Swans really tricky.

A pair of Black-Headed Gulls.

Year Two Week Ten - Birds Spotted 2

Sorry for the lack of updates but the weather really has been terrible.
I'm back though, with a new update as well as a new lens. A beastly 600mm canon L prime which I'll hopefully be getting to grips with over the coming months.

I've got two new birds this week, both of them thanks to a trip to my sisters in Wales.

Tawny Owl
While I saw Tawny Owls a few months ago at my sister's house, I couldn't get a good shot of them.
They live on her property, often sitting a foot or two from her window as she does the washing up or watches TV. There are 5 in total, with three of them being juveniles. I didn't take too many shots as I didn't want to disturb them, but I'm happy with the images I managed to get.
Tawny Owls are relatively common throughout most of the UK and efficient, deadly hunters. They are amazingly quiet and it was incredibly eerie to turn around and have one looking at you without even hearing it land nearby. They were waddling about the grass looking for morsels and seemed completely uninterested as I drew close by to them.
It's thought that around 50,000 pairs live in the UK and as a result it enjoys green status from the RSPB. It's obviously a hard bird to see in the day, but sometimes like to sun itself on branches. This now marks the second owl I've seen in the wild, with the Little Owl being the first.

This little fellow was perched roughly 25 feet away from me.

Dipper

Every time I've visited my sister's I've wanted to see Dippers. After all, they actually nest in the river that runs through the bottom of her property. Every time I go I never see them, so much so that my nickname is Dipperless.

This weekend looked no different and despite seeing one fly across our landrover as we made the horrible ascent over a local mountain, I didn't see one. My brother in law did, prompting me to endure lots of gnat bites and some cold hours in the Welsh drizzle, but after three days it was to no avail.

I stopped off at one more location as we were travelling home and there it was. Sitting loud and pretty and calling out to a no doubt hidden mate. I got my Dipper!

These birds are incredible. They have boney bits on their feet that allow them to grip the rocks of riverbeds so they can hunt for food. They can even swim under water, where the look for caddis fly larvae and other delicacies.

This one is strictly a record shot as it was a good 50 odd feet away and I had to view it through a bridge. It's easily identifiable though thanks to that big white breast.

Here's the record shot. Not the greatest, but that's easily a Dipper!

A bigger crop through a gap I found.

And just to give you a sense of how difficult the shot was.

Despite these two awesome birds, Wales was a little too overcast and wet for anything else.

Luckily I headed off to Blashford on the way home :)

Common Sandpiper. The closest I've got to one.

I forgot my 1.5 TC, so this is a crop. Still happy with the detail though!

Pleased with this crop.

Little Grebes are tiny.

Black-Headed Gull.

Black-Headed Gulls and a Lesser Black-Backed Gull.