Brand new lifer seen on patch (07-14 May) 73 birds

On the 7th I headed off to my local patch.
I'd been invigorated by the many new birds that had been seen and was eager to find more so I took my 600mm prime lens as it gives me the best chance at record shots.

The car park was relatively full when I got to the lakes, but it didn't register really as I was quite late in the morning and model boat enthusiasts were normally there. Wondering around I casually walked up to a man and asked him if he'd seen anything of interest. "Well the Black Terns are over there".

Several Swallows and a House Martin on the right hand side.

"You what?" I replied, immediately excited because I'd never seen one before. He kindly let me look through his scope but as the birds were moving too quickly I couldn't see one. Quickly getting frustrated my rising anger turned to sudden elation when one flew straight past me.

Shaking with excitement (because it is exciting when you find a brand new bird I thanked the man for his help and hurried off to the far side of the lake, notifying my rival Martin as I went.

The Black Terns were resting on a bouy, but a high crop and heat haze stopped me getting anything better than this.

I found lots of Swallows resting on some branches in the middle of the lake, as well as my first Sand Martins of the year. Rushing around the side of the lakes were the terns were flying I finally caught up with some more birders. And that's were it all started to go wrong...

No matter how I tried I simply couldn't lock onto the birds with my camera. I couldn't work out whether it was poor technique, the dull weather or my lens, but I was struggling to get any sort of decent pictures.

Not the greatest of shots, but it does highlight what beautiful birds the Black Tern is.

Incredibly frustrated I kept taking snaps, eventually filling my card and decided to head home. I'm glad I saw the terns as they're relatively rare and incredibly graceful birds, but I was greatly upset that my gear had seemingly let me down.

Still I'm now on 73 birds for the year on patch and now have a total of 151 birds for the blog.

This juvenile Herring Gull highlights just how small the Terns are.

I headed back down to Longham on the 14th as a Bar-Tailed Godwit had been spotted the previous day, but I saw very little of interest aside from a singing Whitethroat and around 5 Cetti's Warblers.

Another shot of the Black Tern in flight.

I'm glad I have a prime, as I wouldn't have got this shot otherwise.

And here's a non-cropped shot to highlight just how far out they were.

I had no problem locking onto fast-flying Swifts in the evening, so I think the poor light was against me.

Week 23 21-09-2014 Birds Spotted: 1

This weekend was one where work inevitably got in the way, so I was unable to do as much birding as I wanted to. I did manage a quick trip to Hengistbury Head. I was aiming to capture photos of some of the birds I'd seen, but not taken photographs of last week. While I didn't see any blackcaps or Whitethroats I did manage to spot one of them!

Sparrowhawk
This pretty much made the trip for me. The first Sparrowhawk I saw last week was quite distant, so it was great to spy one that was a little closer to me this time. It gets its name because it main prey is Sparrows, Finches and other small birds. I'm pretty sure this was a female bird due to its colouring, but would be happy to be corrected.
Sparrowhawks are one of the UK's most widespread raptors, although its 35,000 breeding pairs see it trailing both the Buzzard and Kestrel. It does look like a bulky Kestrel in flight, but its flight patterns soon give it away. This one was flying near to the visitor's centre, before heading off in the direction of the woods. No doubt on the look out for a tasty treat.

It's a heavy crop but the wing colouration and size suggest a female bird.

Another shot, this time a 50% crop.

So that's it for another week. I'm now up to 114 photographed birds with 158 left to find. Here's hoping I get a bit more time to go out next weekend.

I saw this drake Teal on my walks.

A small group were startled by some walkers.

While another returned to the field I was standing in.

Collard Doves were plentiful.

I spied a couple of distant Greenfinches.

Spied a low flying Magpie.

And what I'm assuming is a black-headed gull.

I spotted a well-hidden Jay on one of the trails.

And a very noisy Dunnock.

Little Egrets and Redshanks were out with the tide.

While a Black-Headed Gull pretty much ignored me.