FJ's wildlife photography and birding blog

2011...

2011-12-29T21:59:00.000Z

A lot of people are posting retrospective entries in their blogs regarding 2011. Here's my retrospective, in a nutshell...

Quietest. Year. Ever!

2012 promises to be more interesting.

Happy New Year everyone and have a prosperous, peaceful and great 2012!

Season's Greetings

2011-12-24T13:05:00.000Z

Toadstools

2011-12-06T10:07:00.004Z

I have no idea of what any of the species are, except the parasol mushroom, so if anyone knows please leave a comment, thanks. I think the fawny-coloured ones with the white gills (pics 1, 5 and 6) could be Clouded Agaric but I really don't know.

I wish the economy would recover (like everyone else, I guess). Work is non-existent and all the temp agencies come up with is crappy cleaning jobs for a few hours a week, not worth the petrol to get there. All very depressing.

Red Squirrel

2011-11-19T16:50:00.000Z

Red Squirrels are becoming ever scarcer in Britain, partly due to the introduced Grey Squirrel and partly due to other factors. Here on the Isle of Wight we are lucky in that we still have a decent Red population and no Greys. We get one or two visiting the garden although they can be hard to photograph, due to their speed and arboreal habitat. Today I was fortunate in that one hung around long enough for me to get my camera out, change to the 400mm lens and take a few shots.

Black-headed Gulls

2011-11-18T14:21:00.004Z

Beads

2011-10-16T10:26:00.000+01:00

Autumn's well under way and spider webs line the hedgerows. Early in the morning, dew forms on the webs and makes an attractive subject for the macro lens.

Click for larger size.

Yarmouth

2011-10-14T18:56:00.009+01:00

I haven't been birding since February (mostly due to the escalating and extortionate cost of petrol, and my 'patch' isn't the best), when I went over to Titchfield Haven, so, as today was a fairly sunny and mild October day, I decided to pack my camera, 400mm lens and binoculars and go over to Yarmouth. My choice of Yarmouth was for two reasons, firstly Bearded Tits (Bearded Reedlings) were reported there yesterday and, secondly, I had to do some work which would take me through Yarmouth in any case.
I couldn't get over to see the Beardies when they were reported yesterday but, needless to say, they'd scarpered by today, as there wasn't a sign of them. There wasn't so much as a moustache peeking through the reeds. Just now, I made the mistake of going to Derek Hale's page, where I found this infuriating photo. Why couldn't the little buggers have stuck around today as well?!
However, Beardies often turn up at Yarmouth, although they are more regularly found on the mainland than over here (there are quite a lot of birds which are common, or at least regular, just over the water in Hampshire yet scarce on the Island; birds such as Nuthatch, Kingfisher, Bearded Tit, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, etc. Is the Solent really that much of a barrier?) and I have seen them at Titchfield Haven but never on the IoW.

There were Cetti's Warblers, Reed Buntings, the usual common birds, plus Curlews, a solitary Little Egret and the winter ducks, including Teal (below), which have began arriving.

I took a few okayish, if not particularly good, photos. Click on each picture for a larger one.

Teal

The usual Mallards were about

The first of the Brent Geese have arrived

Curlew

I'm back among the job hunting, the tourist scene has gone quiet for another year and I now need a new job, preferably a permanent one in an office (or factory) as I have no intention of doing this job for a third summer, pleasant though it is, simply because it is far too costly in fuel. Adding one hour a day to the timesheet is wholly inadequate to cover the costs of the fuel consumed by a 1.6 petrol engine during the course of the working day.

I am not sure how bird numbers in the garden are going to fare this winter. We had a mimosa tree which the birds loved to perch in but it fell victim to two consecutive harsh winters and died so it was cut down a few weeks ago. The feeders have been put up on a metal feeder pole and the birds are still coming, but not in so many numbers. However, the garden is bordered to the north by oak trees so all is not lost.

Confused Chiffchaff?

2011-10-12T13:00:00.000+01:00

I was down by the quayside at Newport this morning, dropping off some tourist guides to one of the pubs (in the hope some visitors of the human kind are still around) and heard a Chiffchaff in the shrubs behind the car park.
Chiffchaffs often hang around late and some even stay for the entire winter, but this one was singing. Maybe he was confused by the mild weather? It's by no means sunny but it is fairly mild for mid-October.

Arachnophobia

2011-09-27T19:20:00.000+01:00

I hereby confess that I really hate some spiders, especially the huge scuttly black ones we get at this time of year, although I wouldn't describe myself as a fully-fledged arachnophobe. However, the spiders who spin their webs and mind their own business catching flies are actually quite nice and make good subjects to photograph.
The following photos are of two spiders who've made their homes on the outside of windows.

Juvenile Goldfinch

2011-09-16T20:40:00.000+01:00

This little chap was hanging round this afternoon

'All these housing estates are of Barratts'

2011-08-31T21:16:00.007+01:00

I see that yet another housing estate is being submitted to planners for their consideration. This one is for 800-1400 houses, flats, a GP's surgery and a shop (whose chances of staying in business are going to be slim, thanks to the existing large Tesco superstore just across the road), and will go on a greenfield site on the outskirts of Ryde. Do we really need yet another large development on the Isle of Wight? If the council approve it, it will go to show that none of these people will be happy until the whole place is concreted over.
Once the proposal is up on the council's website, I'll be objecting.

The Isle of Wight's motto is 'All this beauty is of God'. Well, at the rate they're going, it should be changed to 'All these housing estates are of Barratt's'. It's depressing. They say there's a demand for land and new houses in the UK but if existing empty buildings were used or redeveloped into something nicer, brownfield sites used and the ridiculous prices of property addressed - not to mention the greedy buy-to-let and second-home owners (a particular nuisance on the island) - then the problem would go a long way to being sorted. And cut immigration and child benefit...the UK's population is growing rapidly and, by 2029, will be 70 million if trends continue (had to hunt for a non-Daily Mail article ;) ). That's another 32 Southamptons, almost another 8 Birminghams or another London. I don't know about anyone else, but this doesn't appear sustainable to me, bearing in mind the housing, infrastructure, etc, needed.

________________________________________________________________________________

I have done no birding for a few months. Summer's a bit of a dead loss anyway but now autumn's here, birds will be on the move. As soon as my sprained ankle is on the mend (I'm going through an accident/incident-prone phase this past year, I have sprained the same ankle twice, torn my left knee cartilage and pulled the ligaments and had a brush with the Big C - fortunately a benign tumour) I will be out and about with the camera again.

'Ouse Sparrers.

2011-08-22T17:51:00.000+01:00

There are still House Sparrows around. We've got them. There's plenty here.

I know they're hardly exciting, but I like them.

More butterflies

2011-08-02T18:39:00.000+01:00

Gatekeeper and Holly Blue

The Beeb

2011-08-02T14:43:00.005+01:00

I think that it is entirely wrong that the BBC throws all its efforts and weight behind its Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sports Relief campaigns yet its own Wildlife Fund gets nothing but grudging lip service paid to it. Now the Beeb are going to close down the Wildlife Fund while CIN, Comic Relief and Sports Relief escape unscathed.
The BBC Wildlife Fund has, despite the lack of effort on the Beeb's part, raised £3 million since it began in 2007 while CIN for example - due to a fundraising effort that the BBC tirelessly promotes for weeks beforehand with a whole evening devoted to the actual 'telethon' with celebrities doing (even more) stupid (than usual) things and demented, in-your-face presenters from, I assume, kids' tv yelling at you to part with your hard-earned for the pweshus chyuldrun - rakes in tens or hundreds of millions.
The Wildlife Fund has done well in the face of sod-all support but I am sure that if the BBC had been arsed to put in as much effort for wildlife as they do for kids, then it would have done much, much better. Even the proceeds of the BBC's annual Countryfile calendar, featuring photos of wildlife, go to CIN and not their Wildlife Fund. From an organisation which has the best wildlife programming output of any tv channel anywhere, this is disappointing and frankly appalling.
I do not support CIN, Comic or Sports Relief, although I have nothing against them apart from the fact the Beeb makes a huge deal out of them, especially CIN, to the total boredom of all (it's worse than the run-up to Christmas), but I do support the Wildlife Fund and I think it will be a sad thing if the Beeb pulls the plug on it. If the Wildlife Fund is to get the chop then I think that Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sports Relief should also go.

Please sign the petition asking Lord Patten, Chairman of BBC Trustees, to think again.

Here's a Holly Blue. More to come later...

More insects

2011-07-25T15:49:00.000+01:00

Some more insect shots - bee, Hoverfly, Meadow Brown, Red Admiral

Flutterbyes

2011-07-24T13:16:00.005+01:00

I finally got round to taking some of the macro shots I'd been promising myself I'd do ever since I bought my macro lens way back in December. I'd bought it primarily to photograph butterflies and other insects and here are the first butterfly results. I'm quite pleased with these.
It was while I was photographing the butterflies that the weather decided that we'd had our quota of sun for the day and it promptly clouded over and reverted to the default setting for English summers = rubbish. The butterfiles decided that it was time that they, too, also left.

By the way, if you have a spare 15 minutes please take part in Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count.

The butterflies are: Peacock, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood (on the washing!) and Meadow Brown.

I had the best garden tick of all time (for me anyway) yesterday, with a pair of Peregrines displaying. They soon flew off but it was good while it lasted - the same, unfortunately, can't be said for my photos of them...!

Meadow Brown and Foxglove

2011-06-05T21:03:00.000+01:00

Yesterday (Sunday) was spent sitting in the garden here at home, as it was another lovely day and 28C (82.4F) in the shade, watching the birds and insects going about their business. As I am not particularly mobile at the moment, thanks to my bad knee, I can't do the macro photography I'd planned to do, as that involves moving around after insects and getting down low, which I can't do.
So, I sat in a garden chair and photographed what I could with my 400mm lens. The only photo of note was this one of a Meadow Brown butterfly and a foxglove. I'm quite pleased with this one.

Click for larger size.

Youngsters

2011-06-04T12:56:00.006+01:00

Tons of young birds around at the moment, of course, and I have taken a few pics of some of them. Some pics are better than others so, after weeding out the really bad ones, here's some of the not-so-bad ones.
Most of the photos, especially the tits, are substantial crops from the original. Click for larger size

Juvenile Blackbird in the garden at home

Young Blue Tit in my sister's garden at Newbury yesterday

Young Great Tit, also at my sister's:

Spot the odd item out. The distinctly unbirdlike Queen Mary 2, taken from the ferry to Southampton. Impressive - and British (despite being French built and American owned, although her port of registry is Southampton. No, I am not turning into a ship-spotter). Not bad for a photo taken through the ferry's windows. I couldn't get up on deck, thanks to a knee injury and being on crutches, so I was stuck inside, a shame on a nice day and when the ferry resembles a bear garden and you can't escape from the noise, kids running around and the all-pervading smell of chips!

Also at my sister's were Red Kites but none came close enough for a decent photo so I had to make do with distant, crap shots such as this. This kite was carrying something, a bird of some sort. There's rich pickings for them on the nearby A34, judging by the amount of dead animals we saw on the way there.

Deep red

2011-05-30T21:00:00.000+01:00

I've not done a lot of bird photography recently - read 'none'! - but I've done some other stuff. Such as flowers in the garden, including this lovely Japanese maple growing in the garden. The composition isn't up to much but the colours are fantastic.

Click for largest size.

Amsterdam Gull

2011-05-07T21:20:00.007+01:00

I went on a short cruise (on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas) from Southampton to Copenhagen, via Amsterdam, from 29th April to 3rd May. Birding opportunities were very limited, apart from the usual gull and tern species, plus Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Tufted Duck and Mallard, I didn't see much. Before flying back to the UK the following day, I had planned to go to one of the nature reserves near to Copenhagen, such as Utterslev Mose, but the weather had other ideas as it rained for most of the day.

I did, however, manage to get a photo of a Lesser Black-backed Gull in Amsterdam, with Cunard's Queen Elizabeth providing a background. This was as we were leaving Amsterdam.

I've not been birding or doing much photography lately, too much on at the moment! Soon, the breeding season will be over and things'll go quiet until the autumn when reverse migration will begin. In the meantime, apart from any baby birds that will be around, I will be aiming my camera at insects and flowers.

Oh yes, and Southampton FC will be playing Championship footie next season. The team got promoted back to the Championship on the back of a magnificent winning streak, finishing 5 points clear of nearest rivals Huddersfield and with a massive goal difference of +19 over Huddersfield. So that's two seasons we've had something to celebrate - last season Saints won a trophy, this season promotion. We only missed the title by a win and a draw. If it hadn't been for stupid dropped points, such as two defeats to Rochdale...but never mind, League One is now history as far as the Saints are concerned.

Macro shots

2011-04-10T12:29:00.000+01:00

I haven't done any birding lately, as life's got in the way a bit - as it has a habit of doing. However, with the lovely weather we've had just recently I have had an opportunity use my new Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens 'for real' on insects, which is what I bought it for.
The warm weather's brought the bees, butterflies and other insects out in semi-profusion so I took some pictures of them as well as a couple of the plants growing in the garden. Most didn't turn out right, with camera shake and bad focussing (macro is very different from 'normal' photography because you need to watch the depth of field) but I've posted the reasonable ones here. I hope that, by the end of the summer, I will have improved sufficiently.

I'm awake

2011-03-14T18:19:00.005Z

I'm still here but I've been pretty busy the last week or so, trying to make a few quid has meant I've not been out birding since the previous Friday (4th March) when I went birding in Laundry Lane, St Helens, with my friend Bob. We didn't see much, apart from Canada Geese, Northern Lapwings and the usual common birds. We were hoping for Waxwings, as some had been reported there the previous day but they'd gone. We met Danny Vokins who was also hoping to see the pink crested ones and, between us, passed the time of day and set the world to rights, so it was a pleasant day despite the lack of birds.

I've also taken up swimming again, I need to lose a few pounds anyway as I weigh slightly more than I ought to (12.5 st - or 79kg - is a bit heavy for my height of 5'9" - or 175.26 cm) but I want to get fit in order to resume an old pastime of mine that I'd done since I was a teen until I was in my early 30s - surfing. I stopped surfing in 2000, for various reasons (dodgy knee, broken shoulder and, mostly, needing some money meant I had to sell my board) but I want to start again - my shoulder healed, and swimming is strengthening my knees. At 41 I thought I might be past it but there are plenty of people resuming the hobby/way of life - or even starting for the first time - at far more advanced ages than me and some are totally ripping. I'm first going to get into bodyboarding, which I've not done before, and, when I'm a bit more flush, get a stand-up surfboard (these cost a lot more than bodyboards, over £200 as opposed to £50+).

So far 2011 is a bad year for natural disasters. First cyclones in Australia, then a terrible earthquake in New Zealand, which flattened a lot of Christchurch and killed hundreds of people then, on Friday, a really devastating 8.9 magnitude quake in northern Japan, triggering a tsunami which has destroyed whole towns and killed thousands of people. Not only that, a nuclear power station at Fukushima was so badly damaged that the staff are trying to prevent the meltdown of at least two reactors there (the reactor houses have already blown up but the reactors and their containment vessels are so far intact). Truly appalling and proof that, despite our technological prowess as a species, we are still part of nature and thus vulnerable to its power.
The UK gets right on my tits at times, with our damp climate and our society apparently coming apart at the seams, but at least we don't get huge extremes of weather and we aren't on a tectonic plate boundary - we do get a lot of bad weather but, apart from a few extreme cases over the centuries, it doesn't cause a huge amount of death and destruction. Our British earthquakes are usually not strong enough to wobble jelly, aside from the odd ones which bring down a few chimneys and break windows. Or maybe...

Experiments with 1.4x TC

2011-03-02T16:57:00.010Z

Back in November or December I bought a 1.4x Canon teleconverter but haven't used it much. At the weekend I taped the pins to try and get AF with my 400mm f5.6 on my 7D with the result that while the AF is much faster than I thought it would be, it hunts badly. It does, however, AF on the centre spot, which is a surprise because it is not supposed to be able to do that although posts on Bird Forum have suggested that this is very much a hit-and-miss thing with some 7Ds being able to do so and others not.

Here's a handheld photo of one of the garden Woodpigeons. It's cropped, keeping the photo ratio, and resized for the web, plus sharpened slightly. It's not bad for a handheld shot at the equivalent of 896mm (400mm x 1.4 = 560mm; taking into account the 1.6x crop factor = 896mm). Manually focused.

While the tc works well enough, I think it's very much a case of 'emergencies only' because the AF hunts badly and I often need to resort to manual focus. The image quality is there, so that's pleasing. However, given the hunting, I think that in most situations I'd be better off using the bare 400mm lens and cropping. The tc does, however, work a treat on my 70-200 f4 L zoom.

For comparison, here's the Woodie taken with the bare 400mm lens:

I've not been birding since last week's trip to Titchfield, mainly because the weather's been rubbish, but it is improving. Most birds are singing now and there's something of a dawn chorus, and the daffodils are out. It's less than three weeks to the official start of spring.

Note to the sports teams I follow, notably Southampton FC and England cricket - please stop being so inconsistent and/or downright shite. I had the 'pleasure' of listening to Saints all but throw away their automatic promotion chances with a dismal 1-0 defeat away at Walsall last night and this afternoon I've been listening to England make a right cock up of a cricket World Cup match, which we have just lost to that great cricketing nation Ireland (no offence to Ireland, and congrats to them but ffs, England have gone backwards since the Ashes, with poor batting and worse bowling and fielding). For the sake of my blood pressure, I am thinking of giving up following sport, it brings nothing but misery when you follow Southampton FC or England in most things.

On a more positive note, I have updated my birding website (not the photo site) with an account of my trip to Thailand in 2009. Click here to read it - that's if you want to... I am in the process of typing up old trips, I still have my two Ecuador trips in 2007 and birding in the Davis Mtns, Texas, to add.

Titchfield Haven

2011-02-24T20:38:00.001Z

It was a pleasant late winter/early spring day today so my aunt and myself took a trip over to Titchfield Haven, near Fareham. Like Blashford Lakes, this is a quick trip although Titchfield is slightly further from Southampton than Blashford is. After playing dodgems along the M27 and the A27 then getting caught in a diversion for roadworks it took three quarters of an hour from the ferry terminal to the car park along Hill Head sea front, arriving just in time for the reserve opening time of 0930.
There was a nice flock of Common Eiders on a shingle bank out in the Solent although they weren't close enough for photography.
I didn't see anything new for the year list, apart from Turnstone and Barnacle Goose; the lack of Avocets and Marsh Harrier was a little disappointing but the weather, aside from some fog that rolled in off the Solent then rolled away again, and numbers of other birds made up for that.

Something a bit different

2011-02-21T12:44:00.007Z

Before really getting into photography, I used to do a lot of drawing and sketching. This was mainly because my camera equipment then was not up to it and, besides, I really enjoyed it. I even had a blog called 'Sketching the Birds' at one point although I pulled the plug on it a while back. However, since photography has taken over more, the sketching side of things has been pushed to one side and largely forgotten - photography is in no way easier than sketching but it is more immediate and less time-consuming which suits me, being an impatient sort. Also with photography you might get daft remarks like 'I bet you can see the captain with that lens' (as I was photographing gulls and terns last summer and a cruise ship sailed past) and 'Oh my god, look at the size of that camera!', but at least you don't get total strangers looking over your shoulder at what you're doing as you do when you're sketching which, to be frank, I hate.
Last night, I was rummaging around in one of my bookcases while looking for something else and found the sketchbook I'd been using for bird sketches a few years ago so I decided to scan in and upload some of what I found. They're largely bog-standard pencil sketches, as I'm useless with colour.
They're scanned from the sketchbook, cropped if necessary and resized to make them web-friendly, otherwise they're not altered, so apologies for their grubby state!

I am going to take up sketching again, as it makes a nice alternative to photography sometimes. As I keep a notebook as well as take photos, it's nice to illustrate the notebook; mine otherwise just consists of bald, unadorned - and pretty boring - lists unless I print off photos and stick them in, which I also do.

The odd sketch might appear here from time to time but photography will remain the primary focus, after the birds, of the blog.

Despite reasonable weather the past few days, I've not been out at all, apart from to the local GP, as I caught a nasty ear infection and have been stuck indoors. The GP said it is a condition called 'labyrinthitis' which is caused by a virus and he banned me from driving until the dizziness and vertigo completely clears up. It's nearly better now, although getting up too fast from kneeling or sitting, turning my head and looking up or down too quickly still brings it on. I hope it has completely gone by mid-week as I am hoping to go over to Titchfield Haven on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the weather; I'm hoping to go over on Wednesday as Scottish and Southern are cutting the electricity off here for five hours while they do repairs to the overhead cables.

Spring is coming

2011-02-16T17:40:00.003Z

Another spring-like day, it's looking like a decent week after all with some sunshine today and sun forecast for tomorrow as well. Yesterday was the exception because it rained all day but today was like Monday with a decent amount of sunshine and plenty of bird song; Greenfinches are the latest to have started singing.
I didn't go very far, only to Seaview and Culver.

The Solent was largely birdless, apart from gulls. No grebes, no ducks, no divers and only five Brent Geese. The beach didn't have much beyond the usual gulls, including a solitary Common Gull and an equally lone Mediterranean Gull, plus some Oystercatchers but they did make for some nice photos.
As ever, click for largest size.

A group of Mute Swans flew in off the Solent.

As ever, there were plenty of Pied Wagtails:

The Hersey Reserve hide was open but there were few birds in front of it, a couple of Tufted Ducks swam past while, up the other end were some Coots, a couple of Shelduck and some Mallard. Inside the hide, I noticed a sign appealing for information about break-ins at the hide. It makes you wonder what goes on in the heads of some of these brainless cretins that they have to damage or steal other people's property. Actually, I have answered my own question with the use of the words 'brainless' and 'cretins' - brainless ergo nothing. There's probably shit where their brains should be.

After leaving Seaview, I went up to Culver Down, seeing as it was a nice day and the visibility was okay. I wanted to see if I could improve on the Fulmar pics I took the other week but, as it happened the Fulmars weren't playing, instead sticking very close to the cliff face and only briefly appearing over the top but vanishing too fast for me to focus on them.
There were plenty of very nice-looking Herring Gulls, no doubt almost ready for the breeding season.

Ravens were displaying to each other as I watched from the footpath and singing, if you can call that deep, harsh call of theirs 'singing'! Every so often, one would fold its wings and dive which I assume is its display flight. Ravens always remind me of Hercules transport planes or Vulcan bombers.

There were plenty of Jackdaws feeding alongside the footpath:

There were no sign of any migrants although I looked in hope and no expectation. However, a Northern Wheatear was seen at St Mawes in Cornwall yesterday, so hopefully they're not too far away.

I'm beginning to plan a couple of trips within the UK this summer, firstly I would like to go down to Portland Bird Observatory in the spring. Portland's only a couple of hours from Southampton and is easy to get to, while the other is a planned trip up to the Farne Islands in May or June and back via Bempton Cliffs.
I am also beginning to think of a trip to Nepal. I've been reading a couple of trip reports on the net, plus the book 'Himalayan Solo' by the late Elizabeth Forster, which have made me want to visit the region. If I do go then I guess the super-telephoto will have to wait a while longer - my problem is, if you can really call it a problem, is that I love travel and would rather have experiences than possessions, otherwise I could have afforded an L-series 500mm a long time ago! Chitwan National Park, the Jomson Trek, Everest Base Camp...all very tempting but, as usual, it all depends on finances.

Wild goose chase!

2011-02-14T18:37:00.007Z

In the hope that the Red-breasted Goose, which had been reported at Freshwater over the weekend, was still about I went over to west Wight. I had some books to do, so I combined that with the birding.
Freshwater Causeway was totally birdless, so I went to Yarmouth which was merely goose-less. There were plenty of the usual ducks (Wigeon, Mallard, etc) and waders (Curlew, Oystercatcher, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and so on) but not a goose to be seen. So where were they? Newtown? No harm in taking a gander (sorry) at Newtown. Yes, there were plenty of geese there but, on checking and rechecking the flocks, they were all Brent Geese to a bird with not a scrap of red on any of them. Other birds included Shelduck (goose-like but the wrong sort of red in the wrong places and much too big in any case), Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Mute Swan (a pair begging for handouts), Knot, Curlew, Redshank, Rock Pipit, Fieldfare, Redwing, Starling (at least a couple of hundred), Sanderling, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Oystercatcher, Kestrel, Goldeneye and Red-breasted............

........Merganser.

I had to get back to the car because I had some work to do and because my wellingtons were rubbing my heels really badly (it was either wellies and possible blisters or ending up knee-deep in mud. I opted for the former) and I couldn't wait to get the horrible things off.
The next few hours were spent identifying which guest houses were open and which were shut, and trying to persuade the ones that were open that they could really do with some more guides. In the year that I have spent doing this, in between temporary office jobs, it's struck me just how rude some hoteliers and guest house owners are. If you're going to be a miserable git then why are you in the hospitality business? I bet they don't get many returning customers.

I went back to Newport via Freshwater Causeway again and there were a lot of Brents in the distance, so I got the scope out and looked through them. I didn't get far before they all started to take off ('Oh f***, no don't fly off you buggers!' I said involuntarily and a bit too loudly), spooked by a Buzzard. They settled out of sight in a field and I was beginning to work out which was the best way of trying to see into that field when they all took off again. There was no sign of a RBG among them and I took several photos of the flock, in the hope that, if an RBG was among them I'd pick it out on the computer later - it wasn't and I didn't.
In my blog list, one blog is Hampshire Year Listing (This isn't Portland Birding) by Joe Stockwell. Joe saw an RBG over at Keyhaven in Hampshire today, with Brents. Keyhaven is literally only 5.5km (3.4 miles) from Freshwater as the goose flies so I'll bet it's the same bird. *Sigh*. I'd always been against a fixed link to the mainland, but build that bridge or tunnel and I'll be first to drive across it.

All Brents, to a bird:

The way the swan is holding its leg makes it look as if it is holding a paddle. Note rings.

I drove home through Newport and had a near miss with a bus at Newchurch. It had pulled in to pick people up so, as the coast was clear, I indicated and started to go past the thing only for it, as I was just level with the rear wheels, to start pulling out! I put my foot down a bit and got past it. No harm was done, fortunately, but the driver should have seen me. I am seriously beginning to wonder if my car really is invisible.

It was a nice day today, with sunshine and not-too-cold temperatures although it rained briefly around 4pm. It was one of those deceptive late-winter days that can make you think spring is already here.

Overdose of Cute

2011-02-13T18:28:00.009Z

Long-tailed Tits are not the rarest or unusual of birds but they are so CUTE. I have always loved Long-tails not just because they are one of the cutest things ~~on the planet~~ in the known universe but because of their pink, black and white plumage and because my first views of them were in my Nan's garden when I was a bird-mad seven-year-old. They looked quite exotic to me - and therefore magical - and to this day they remain one of my very favourite species, especially as Nan encouraged my interests and they, along with her favourites the Blue Tits, make me think of her (she died in 2001) every time I see them.
The lower pic's not much to write home about but the LT nearest the lens has just got such a sweet face I couldn't resist including it. These were at Blashford Lakes last week.

Not in the Cute category of course, this Buzzard was around yesterday (note blue sky, but today the weather's reverted to its default setting of crap - horizontal rain and leaden skies).

I've been doing a bit of tinkering with the blog and added some pages in at the top, just below the banner photo. One reason for this is to try and direct some more people to my under-visited Zenfolio website by including a link to it via the page labelled 'Galleries'. I get loads of hits here on this blog (thank you for visiting!) and I have had well over 5000 unique page views here to date, but my website has had a paltry 201 visitors since January 17th 2010 so I'd be happy if you wandered over and took a look! I've also tinkered with the blog's look, even down to changing the font style, to make it match my website - all very anal, I know, but it looks quite nice.
If my website doesn't pick up many more hits before the renewal is due in January 2012, I'll pull the plug on it and go back to using Flickr because I'm not paying £25 a year for something only I, and a few others, look at. I'm not overly keen on Flickr because of the faux matiness and slight silliness (when I originally registered with them and tried using my surname and initial I got 'Phooey! That one's taken'. Phooey?? Sod off!) but they're useful and, best of all, free if you don't upload tons of stuff.

Back to some birding tomorrow. I've not had a chance to get out this weekend but a Red-breasted Goose has turned up among the Brents over at Freshwater, so I hope it's still there tomorrow. If not, no biggie but as I will be in the Freshwater/Yarmouth area tomorrow, it'd be rude not to go and look!

More from Blashford Lakes - the small birds

2011-02-09T19:21:00.006Z

Blashford Lakes is also excellent for close up views of small birds, especially Bramblings, Siskins and Redpolls which occur there in numbers in winter. They can be found all round the car park and the education centre on the feeders but the best place to watch and photograph them from is the Woodland Hide, just a short walk from the Ivy North Hide.
Again, the hide only has two windows suitable for photography but I managed to get a seat at the one looking out on a very busy feeder. Ok, so it's a bit dude, but if I can get great photos then who cares?
The ground was literally swarming with small birds, mainly finches, so much so that it looked as if it was moving, while the surrounding trees were alive with tiny feathery bodies. The din was indescribable, mostly the twitter of Siskins which sound a little like chattering budgies.
I have tried to limit the amount of shots of birds on the feeder, trying to instead get the birds on natural-looking perches or flying. I largely failed with the flight shots but have got some pleasing 'birds on sticks'.

I have got far too many photos to post here - I have 10 of Bramblings alone - so I will post a few here, and the rest on my website.

This would have been the shot of the day, except I accidentally cut the wing tip off!

Blashford Lakes is very popular - I was surprised at how busy it was on a weekday, even accounting for the egret being there - so it pays to get there early if you're coming by car, so you can get a parking space; indeed so you can get a seat at the better windows in the hide.

I left mid-afternoon and drove back along the A31 and M27 to Southampton and got the 3pm ferry back to East Cowes. It's at times like this when I realise just how restrictive living on the Isle of Wight really is, particularly given the cost of the ferry - the cheapest fare is £34 for a vehicle and driver day return; foot passenger returns are cheaper, of course - and the time taken for the crossing: 35 minutes for the shortest crossing from Yarmouth to Lymington, 45 minutes Fishbourne to Portsmouth and 1 hour from East Cowes to Southampton plus you have to be at the port at least 30 minutes before boarding. I am thinking of moving back to the mainland at some point (I am originally from the Isle of Wight and most of my family still live here) but that won't happen for a while yet.
Of course we have some decent birding areas such as Newtown and Brading, but we don't actually have anything as good as Blashford, Titchfield Haven (which I am planning to go to before the end of February) or the reserves further up the country. Maybe the RSPB will open up Brading Marshes and add a hide or two but I don't think that'll happen any time soon, not according to what I have heard.

There's probably a lot I missed as I spent a lot of time trying to get good photos rather than doing a lot of actual birding but here's the list of birds I saw yesterday - Bittern, Great White Egret, Treecreeper, Siskin, Brambling, Water Rail, Long-tailed Tit, Redpoll, Nuthatch, Cetti's Warbler, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Rook, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Jay, Cormorant, Moorhen, Shoveler, Coot, Pochard, Wigeon, Mallard, Grey Heron, Blackbird, Robin. Seven new birds for my 2011 list and one lifer (the Bittern, as the GWE I have seen abroad) is not bad at all. The Bittern alone would have been worth the £34 ferry ticket. I would have got a bigger list if I had gone round to the hides the other side of Ellingham Drove, but there's always another time.

Once Bittern

2011-02-08T21:32:00.001Z

I have always wanted to see a Bittern and have totally failed to do so. They turn up here on the Isle of Wight from time to time, usually on the hard-to-get-at RSPB Brading Marshes but I have never managed to see one. To be fair, they are very skulking, elusive birds and are hard to see. So, as the weather forecast for today (Tuesday) was good, bright and sunny, I decided it was high time I had a change of scene and go to a place that is good for birds, including that elusive brown heron. Tired of the 'same old, same old' I booked a return ferry crossing to Southampton for my car and myself and went to Blashford Lakes, just north of Ringwood. Blashford is known for relative ease with which you can see a Bittern, plus the less common small birds such as Siskins, Bramblings and Redpolls.
After a very foggy crossing to Southampton on the 0730 sailing, with the ferry's siren being sounded every minute or so, it was just half an hour, via the M27 and A31, from Dock Gate 7 to parking the car at Blashford Lakes. The fog didn't bode well but was forecast to burn off which it eventually did.

First stop was the Ivy North Hide, from where the Bittern and a rare Great Egret have been seen recently. A couple of photographers were already there and the hide soon filled up. The one downside of Blashford Lakes is the rubbish view from the otherwise excellent hides - if you are a photographer. This is due entirely to the fact that the windows, apart from one on each side, do not open and have tinted film on them. This gives a mirror window effect so the birds can't see in but you can see out but is lousy for photography. The glass itself is optically crap and the tint makes it 10000 times worse. Naturally, this leads to intense competition for spaces among the photographers and birders with cameras at the window that does open but, unfortunately, the reserve people aren't changing it any time soon despite it being probably the only reserve in the known universe with hides like these.
Apart from this (admittedly quite major) gripe Blashford really is a lovely place.

**Warning: Terrible Bittern Photos Ahead** Click for larger, if you really have to. These are huge crops from the originals and the first one was taken with the fog still quite dense.

The Bittern crossed the narrow channel between reedbeds but, as I got muscled out of the way by a bloke with a little point-and-shoot(!), I didn't get a picture of the whole bird. That was mildly annoying but I was in a good mood and not going to let it piss me off (too much).

The other notable heron is even rarer in the UK than the Bittern, it was a Great (White) Egret that has been around the lakes for a while. We had great views of it when it flew towards the hide. I managed to burn out the whites - not used to all this strange bright weather! - but I am otherwise reasonably pleased with the pictures I got of it.

I also got some respectable shots of a Water Rail that was busy in the reeds and on the bank by the hide. Water Rails are quite hard to see, let alone photograph, so I was pleased to get these pics although they are also large crops from the originals.

I took (too many, probably) pics at Blashford Lakes and I still haven't got to the small birds yet. I will process those and post them tomorrow.

Soon be spring...

2011-02-03T22:27:00.009Z

The clouds parted - mostly - today with plenty of signs of spring. Even the temperatures got up into double figures but normal service will, I'm sure, soon be resumed as it's still only early February. At times this has seemed like the Winter That Will Never End so it is nice to see some evidence that even this winter will end at some point, even if it is still 6 weeks from this coming Sunday until the offical beginning of spring on March 20th.

I had books to deliver but I did do some birding, mostly at Ryde, Seaview and Bembridge. Ryde was mostly birdless although the tide was right in, which would explain it. What few birds there were on the narrow strip of beach were flushed by dogs, which is a big problem at Ryde and at Seaview. Seaview was better with Brent Geese - not very many though, not as many as there have been during November, December and January - Sanderling, the usual gull assortment and Pied Wagtails. No sea ducks, no grebes and no divers, though.
I got to try out my new 16GB Sandisk CF card as well, it was a birthday present last weekend but the weather has been such that I've not been able to do much. It's nice to have 550+ raw exposures available instead of 220+.
The pictures were taken from the seawall at Seaview. As usual, click on the photos for the largest size:

I also went into Hersey NR but, annoyingly the hide was locked. It was even more annoying as not only had I paid £1 to park (it's that or risk a fine) but, for once, there were actually birds in there; it's quite often birdless. The one consolation was that the sun was in the wrong place for photography.
In the parking spaces along the seawall, there were a couple of vans parked. One was sat there for at least half an hour, engine running, while the driver ate his lunch. I don't understand why people park and then leave the vehicle's engine running. It's polluting, wastes fuel and I'm sure that the company (this was a large national company) would take a dim view of their money being wasted like this. But then, do people care about something they don't think affects them? I doubt it.

Ryde and Seaview have a large population of Pied Wagtails. The one in the top two pictures has two rings, one of which is a very fetching red.

I went home via Bembridge where I began to have one of those days where I couldn't take a sharp picture to save my life. The reason for this was that I had had toast and coffee at 8am this morning and nothing since, so I had an appalling case of the shakes. I did succeed in getting a reasonable photo of a Teal sitting on a tyre (the bird must have been a bit tyred) that some idiot had thought~~fully~~lessly dumped into the water and another dodgy Kingfisher shot.

A nice perch for a tyred Teal:

I was given Photoshop Elements 9 at Christmas but it's started to do some weird stuff, such as zooming more than I want - i.e. I click to zoom from 67% to 100%, and it jumps to something ridiculous like 3200% - and also cropping in the wrong place: the cursor 'jumps' and tries to crop the wrong part of the image. It also jumps when I try and do any sort of preview. I've gone back to using PSE version 6, which I never uninstalled and which at least works properly.

Big Garden Birdwatch

2011-01-31T15:45:00.004Z

As usual, myself and my aunt did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend. It may sound a bit 'dude' but it isn't because all the information the RSPB get helps them gain a clearer picture of how our birds are doing. A lot of our well-loved birds are in trouble - House Sparrows and Starlings chief amongst them - due to development, modern farming practices, habitat destruction, predation by cats, etc, and this survey helps identify which birds are declining, or increasing, and where. Not only that, it helps get Joe and Jane Public, not to mention Junior Public, interested in birds by encouraging them to keep tabs on their garden birds and that can only be a Good Thing.

For a rural garden the total isn't high, it varies day to day what appears in the garden and when but the totals on Saturday when we did the birdwatch are:

Yellowhammer 2 (male and female)
Goldfinch 6
Robin 3
Great Tit 2 (male and female)
Woodpigeon 2 (a pair?)
Blue Tit 5
House Sparrow 7 (2 male, 5 female)
Dunnock 3
Greenfinch 4 (2 male, 2 female)
Rook 18
Blackbird 2 (male and female)
Chaffinch 3 (1 male, 2 female)
Wren 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Absent were Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Kestrel, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Green Woodpecker, Pheasant, Collared Dove, Goldcrest, Song Thrush, Starling and Mistle Thrush, all of which can be usually seen in the garden at various times. We definitely don't have as many Greenfinches around these days but I've noticed that Blue Tits and, especially, Woodpigeons have become a lot commoner as have Goldfinches.

It's the end of January (thank goodness my least favourite month is now out of the way until 2012!) and there are more and more signs of spring. Birds are singing more and prospecting nests sites. Great Tits have been singing for the past month, but now Dunnocks are beginning to sing their quiet song and the House Sparrow racket from inside the laurel hedge is deafening! The daffodil bulbs are also coming up, which is always good to see - one lot have even survived a molehill erupting beneath them.
I'm back delivering tourist guides tomorrow, after a break of a few months for temping then Christmas then waiting for new ones to come out. Obviously, it's quieter at this time of year, but there are plenty of off-season coach parties and a few hotels remain open. Even a few hours, or a couple of afternoons, a week is better than nothing; the temping has dried up completely and bills, fuel, new camera gear and planned trips to seabird islands in spring aren't cheap (hoping to go to Fair Isle but that might prove too costly). Hopefully in summer I can go back to doing this 21 hours a week which suits me nicely.
Saints acquitted themselves well against Man U on Saturday evening. The team played very well and were easily the best team for 60 minutes, going in at half time with a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately they tired in the last half hour and mistakes crept in, which led to Utd taking the initiative and the game 2-1. A good performance, no humiliation in front of the nation and giving Moan Yoo a bloody good scare, what else could we have asked for? A win, maybe, but I am not disappointed to have lost (although pissing off the Mancs with the unbelievably arrogant 'We are Manchester United, we do what we want' banner would have been funny) because Saints can now concentrate on getting back up out of what is a dismal league to be in, although I am afraid the terrible start to the season might well have cost us. Got to overhaul - again - the hugely irritating Bournemouth who are punching well above their weight, first...

Finally, it's good to see that I have gained quite a few followers and the blog stats are pretty impressive. Many thanks for reading!

A million knives made of ice

2011-01-28T19:04:00.007Z

The promise of some sunshine drew me out and over to Yarmouth for ducks and waders. The promised sun did - eventually - show and completely changed a grey scene into something much more cheerful. The trade off is that temperatures have dropped and the wind is the sort that feels as if there are a million very sharp knives in it, each of which is stabbing you in the sinouses, but I'll happily take that to have some light at last. Apparently, this winter, we have had only 41% of the average total of sunshine that we usually get in winter, and as we don't get a lot anyway that shows how miserable it has been to date.
By the time I got to Yarmouth it was still dull and cloudy and the Met Office was the subject of some dark 'Usual bollocks, they never get it right' thoughts. This flat, but bird-filled, scene was what greeted me (and my little dog who was shocked by yet another change of scene) - these are only a few of the hundreds of birds there were.

As ever, click for largest size (and view in full screen mode by pressing F11, I have included lots of photos, because I can't decide what to leave out).

Once the cloud started to break up, it did so quickly and it wasn't long before the elusive yellow disc appeared which vastly improved things.

Most of the birds appeared to be Wigeon and Black-tailed Godwits with the odd Grey Plover, Sanderling and Curlew among them.

We went further along the causeway and there was a female Kingfisher on a barbed-wire fence by the footpath. Unfortunately the sun was behind it and I couldn't walk past to get the sun behind me or the bird would have flown off so I had to content myself with these, which I have had to do quite a bit of processing on to try and make presentable. It's saying something about my non-success with Kingfishers when I tell you these are the best ever Kingfisher photos I have, to date, taken... :-/

The first time this winter I have seen a Coot in direct sunshine:

Curlew:

And another Black-tailed Godwit, this time on the scrape:

There was good news when I went for my MRI scan result on Wednesday. Thankfully, I don't have hepatitis (blood tests were all negative) or, worse, what my mother, a retired staff nurse, refers to as 'The Big C'; what I have is a golf-ball sized cyst on the left lobe - they were looking for cancer, but they refused to say so before the MRI though, even when I asked. It's now getting referred to the specialists at Southampton General Hospital, so I'll be sent an appointment to go over there at some point and then probably some kind of operation to remove or drain the thing. All very inconvenient but thank f*** it's not cancer!
Finally, good luck to Saints shovelling ManUre tomorrow. I have a horrible feeling we'll get thrashed - we'll certainly lose, but as long as the team give ManYoo a run for their money and bow out of the FA Cup with dignity intact, I'll be happy. I'll be in front of the telly, beer in hand (yes, beers are back on the menu!) and watching. No, I'm not going, I can't afford football at present.

Herring Gull

2011-01-25T18:52:00.004Z

I went back to Culver this afternoon in the hope of photographing the Peregrine in better light. Needless to say, I saw the Peregrine but it was too far away to photograph and soon disappeared out of sight, especially as the gulls were hassling it.
However I did take a few photos of the local Herring Gulls, which I am quite pleased with. I was practising taking pictures of birds in flight and these gulls were quite challenging because they were moving fast and changing direction rapidly. The 7D's AF is much better than that of the 40D for taking photos of fast-moving birds and, after the first few shots, I soon got a few good ones.
Click for largest size.

Hospital appointment tomorrow, when I should (hopefully) find out what is wrong with my liver and what they're going to do about it. I should know if I can start making some plans for the spring or not, depending on what they're going to do and what it is (eek!).

Peregrine

2011-01-24T14:25:00.004Z

I took my dog for a walk up on Culver Down, as much as for a change of scene for her as anything; normally she gets walked around the village where we live instead. As I got out of the car a pair of Peregrines flew over so I grabbed the camera out of the bag and got what must rank as the worst Peregrine shots ever because, in my haste, I inadvertently underexposed by one stop so this, coupled with the grey skies, made the shots a bit yucky. I've tried to salvage them in DPP and PSE9, then bunged 'em through Neat Image to cut down the inevitable noise but they're not great. Still, they're better than no pictures at all. The good thing is that Peregrines are around all the time, so I can go back on a better day.
Here's one of my Peregrine disasterpieces!

Birds were a bit thin on the ground (and in the air) but other species at Culver were Fulmar, Herring Gull, Buzzard, Robin, Kestrel, Blackbird, Magpie, Jackdaw and Carrion Crow.
Driving home along the Upper Road at Adgestone I saw a Buzzard on a telegraph pole. Unfortunately but entirely unsurprisingly, it flew off as I pulled over. Buzzards are hard to photograph when perched. Normally a car is an excellent hide and most birds and animals take no notice of one pulling up but Buzzards don't like them and fly off. I have plenty of photos of flying ones but would love to know how to get a perched Buzzard!

Prepare to cringe. The guy had set up his Nikon D700 and 400mm f2.8 lens remotely to photograph dragsters but one, out of control, caught the camera and completely destroyed it and the lens. Ouch! It'll bring tears to your eyes!

Brent Geese

2011-01-19T17:12:00.004Z

Brent Geese at Seaview. I had a bit of bother with the highlights burning out but I didn't want to underexpose because of noise in the dark areas, although the Canon 7D's better than most in this respect.
I love these little geese, they are small and duck-like. One day I might visit their Arctic home. Ours here in southern England are of the race bernicla which come from Arctic Russia although there has been a 'Black Brant' (nigricans) at Bembridge recently; the Black Brant breeds in Alaska and should be wintering in Baja California.

Dodging cyclists and dog crap

2011-01-19T16:04:00.007Z

For a change of scene I walked along the Shide to Blackwater footpath this morning in the hope of seeing Grey Wagtail and Siskin. It was a sunny, but cold day with ice on the large puddles left over from the torrential rain of last week and Monday night.
I walked as far as Blackwater, before turning round and walking back to Newport. There were quite a few birds about but no Grey Wagtails or Siskins; mostly Great Tits, Blackbirds, a few Chaffinches, some Goldfinches and dozens of Blue Tits. In fact, by the time I got back to the car, I was sick of the sight and sound of Blue Tits - 'What's that?', 'Oh, another sodding Blue Tit...' - and even more sick of the sight and sound of cyclists, who find it necessary to yell at each other by way of 'conversation', and dog-emptiers, although one had the cutest white puppy ever and I am totally susceptible to cute puppies! That path is a pretty walk but unfortunately is somewhat spoiled by its popularity which is why I don't go there much. I am not keen on having to dodge cyclists either, especially when I have a bell rung at me. I know the bell's there for a reason but its sole effect on me is to make me have to suppress the urge to tell the ringer of the bell to f... off! I don't, of course, but it's very close sometimes!
The path also runs parallel to a busy main road, so there is constant noise of traffic and, today for some reason, sirens - at least five emergency vehicles went past, I have no idea what had happened, probably the usual crap Isle of Wight driving leading to one of the numerous crashes that occur here daily (I don't know which is the worst county in the UK for RTAs but I wouldn't bet against the island being at, or very near, the top. People seem incapable of keeping their cars from hitting other vehicles or stationary objects or, indeed, of even staying on the road. This could, of course, be blamed on the ice, but prangs of varying magnitudes seems to be a common occurance regardless of the road conditions).

The highlight of the entire walk was seeing a Buzzard get pestered by a Carrion Crow in a field at Newport. I managed to get a few record shots, the 'best' of which are here (click for larger).

I decided to go home via Ryde, a bit of a long way round but I didn't want to go back towards Sandown the direct way, as that was where all the emergency vehicles seemed to be heading and, if there had been a crash, I didn't want to get caught up in all the inevitable tailbacks and holdups. Besides Ryde holds geese and waders. But not today. No waders and few geese either. There weren't even the dozens of Great Crested Grebes there had been the other day.
I went round to Seaview and that was exactly the same, apart from a couple of Brent Geese close to the sea wall. I took quite a few photos of these two, as Brents are not usually close enough to get a good picture of and I'll put them in a separate post in a bit.

Postscript: As I mentioned in the first part of this post I totally failed to see any Siskins on the footpath earlier. But bird-related failure and me are well-acquainted and Siskins aren't rare, so there's always another time (and a possible trip to Blashford Lakes soon) so I wasn't too bothered. On getting in the gate here at home however....
...I heard a call, looked up and what was in the neighbour's trees? A female Siskin. Of course, she promptly flew off when I got the camera out. It's the first time I have seen one here since Joe (one of my aunt's dogs) brought a dead one, that had hit the windows, into the house about 10 years ago. It's nice, after all this time, to put 'Siskin' on the garden list as dead ones don't count. Yes, she was in the neighbour's trees but I saw her from this garden so she counts. My list, my rules! ;-)

I was pretty much opposed to the war in Iraq where the West went in, trashed the place and removed - the admittedly nasty - Saddam Hussein from power, feeling the West was just acting on a pretext, that it was a case of 'unfinished business' after the 1990-1991 Gulf War and that Iraq, despite Saddam being a nasty bastard fully deserving of a sticky end, was not a threat to us. However, on watching some of (I was out and missed the start) Natural World: Miracle in the Marshes of Iraq on BBC 2 last night, I've changed my mind. Saddam drained the Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq in a effort to wipe out the Marsh Arabs, and all but totally destroyed the habitat. The programme showed the work of Azzam Alwash who is trying to restore the habitat and, by and large, he is succeeding. Seeing the beautiful birds in the newly restored habitat made me realise that it was a bloody good job Saddam and his government was removed.
Maybe one day, once the country has been stabilised and the last of the insurgents gone (one of the problems the film crew ran into in the programme were members of the paramilitary Mahdi Army), Iraq could become a top eco-tourism destination. I certainly hope so, on seeing that programme, I want to go there...

A strange yellow disk among the clouds

2011-01-17T20:46:00.000Z

There was a slight improvement in the weather today, but because it poured with rain all morning I left it until the afternoon before venturing out. It was still cloudy although a strange bright yellow disk appeared from time to time.
I walked from St Helens to Bembridge, alongside the lagoons and there were a lot of birds, mostly geese - Canada Geese and a few Greylags - and ducks - Mallard and Teal - plus flocks of Lapwings which took fright at something every few minutes and took off. That scared everything else as well, but there was no sign of a Peregrine or Marsh Harrier.
After walking back to the car, and seeing a Kingfisher as it flew across the river by the road bridge, I went to Foreland to see what was about. There were large flocks of Brent Geese (but I didn't see the Black Brant that has been reported among them) Red-breasted Mergansers, Little Egret, Grey Heron and Oystercatcher plus the usual gulls. I was hoping to see harbour seals on the rocks but none were there.
I didn't take many photos as the light, while improved, was still rubbish. What ones I did take are poor, just illustrative shots for the blog really. I had terrible problems with the Herring Gull, I tried to prevent the highlights burning out when the sun fleetingly appeared, but got it wrong.
As usual, click for bigger pictures.

The weather is supposed to be good for the next couple of days so I'm planning to go to the cycle track at Shide, where there are Siskins, among other places. It is good though to see early signs of Spring, on the path between St Helens and Bembridge there were Great Tits singing and Rooks in the rookeries, and catkins are out. In eight or so weeks, spring will be here.

A Few Changes

2011-01-16T19:11:00.008Z

Nothing too drastic, just that I have had an early spring clean on my blog and websites. I have got rid of my old PBase photo website, killed off the short-lived SmugMug one and have made myself a new website, using Wordpress. This is in the same place as my newish birding website, but will feature my best photos. I wanted more of a website 'feel', rather than just an album, and also a greater degree of control over the page layouts, etc, as well as a more 'personal' aspect to the whole thing. The new website can be found here. Let me know what you think. However, my Zenfolio album is still very much in use and contains all my photos; it could also do with a few more visitors.

I've tidied up the other blog links at right, cutting the visible ones down to 25, the other blogs are all still there, and if you want to see them all, click 'see more'. This was to cut down on the amount of clutter in the side bar, caused by loads of dormant, semi-dormant and infrequently-updated blogs. The reason I keep them is that there are some good ones there and I hope they'll be updated soon.
I've also changed my user name. 'Fay' is a diminutive of 'Faith' and the name I prefer to be known by, simply because I dislike the name 'Faith' because of religious associations and bad jokes. However, I've decided I may as well put my full name on here.

I've got a hankering for a new lens. Trouble is this new lens I want just happens to be the Canon 500mm f4. Someone had one at the IWOG walk last week and I kept looking at it with covetous eyes. Yes, it's a beast, but that doesn't stop me wanting one and I'd get one if it wasn't for a slight snag - the £5000+ price tag. That's the price of a small car. Why is photography gear so damned expensive?! It's going to get worse, too, with rumours of a 16% price rise on Canon stuff.
Seeing comments like this on forums doesn't help: "Xxxxxx is absolutely right, though, about the 500mm f/4 being a game changer. I just went through a similar experience to his, having used the 400mm f/5.6 for a year and recently acquiring the 500. I'm now capturing images I only dreamed about with the 400." Not helpful to those of us with lens envy and a savings account with 30 pence in it!
I might have to set my sights a little lower and look at the Sigma 500mm f4.5, which is £2k cheaper; saving £3k is still a bit of an ask but it seems more doable than £5k+. I was also looking at the Sigma or Canon 300mm f2.8 and using it with a 2x converter; that's almost 2 lenses for the price of one (300mm and 600mm) but they're not inexpensive either.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is improved and I am hoping to get out with bins and camera. The weather has been absolute crap since last Monday with no let up in torrential rain and gales. I have not even been outside the back gate, it's been that bad. All right, the weather's not the whole reason I've not been out, I caught a touch of 'the lurg' earlier in the week and have been in a state of semi-hibernation but, apart from anything else, endless murk and grey skies don't inspire a desire to get out.
Going to make up for that this coming week, I hope! The forecast calls for the rain to move south (there you go, France, a present) and high pressure to spread across the country. That should mean better light, although I am expecting a grey cloud ceiling and not wall-to-wall sunshine. However, a caveat - this is a Met Office forecast via the BBC so it may very well be wrong!

Mallard

2011-01-13T21:32:00.004Z

Mallards are often overlooked because they are just so common and on just about every body of water there is but they are pretty ducks, especially the females with their blue wing patches, light browns, creams and spots and streaks on their bodies.
On Monday, I was down at Sandown canoe lake which is a good place for photographing water birds, and this female Mallard came across in the hope of food (which I didn't have) and I was able to take some nice shots of her. The light wasn't too bad (although my Coot shots were, to a picture, all useless - it's that red eye in a grey/black background not showing up) and, so far Monday has been the only reasonable day this working week; it's been high winds and torrential rain ever since.

As an aside, I went home via Perowne Way and saw a solitary Waxwing in a tall tree off Central Way. I pulled over and took a quick look through the binocs to make sure but as soon as I went to get the camera out, it flew away and out of sight. Usually, where there's one Waxwing, there's more but I couldn't see any more. Still, it adds Waxwing to my 2011 bird list - but still no decent photos of them. I think the opportunity is now almost gone; the best opportunity would have been on 17th December when I got a text about them being in Perowne Way and it was a reasonable sunny day too, but I was frustratingly stuck at work. If nothing else, I'll remember the 2010-11 winter for Waxwing hunts (all except two of them fruitless), hospital appointments, Australia's cricketers being taken to the cleaners on their own patch by England in the Ashes and plenty of snow and ice.

Ducks 100's Waxwings 0

2011-01-09T19:52:00.006Z

The weather today was a massive improvement on the grey crud of the past few weeks and it coincided with the first IWOG walk of the year, at Yarmouth. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and there was bright sunshine all day which made a nice change, despite the chill, as I planned to take some photos as well as add to my 2011 list.
There were plenty of ducks on the river, as usual there were plenty of Mallards, with Wigeon and Teal while up at Rofford Marsh were my first Shovelers of 2011, along with a couple of Gadwall (which always sounds to me more like a place name than a bird species name: 'Gadwall 8, Portsmouth 0') and the most Snipe I have ever seen in my life. Usually these little waders are seen in ones or twos but, today, there were dozens of them. This is only a few of them, a tiny representative sample...

Click for larger size.

There was a Water Rail and Reed Buntings calling (Water Rails always sound as they are being horribly murdered!) from deep inside the reeds, but the buntings weren't as elusive as the rail was.
The walk back to the river didn't produce much on the ponds and scrapes but the river itself was busy with ducks and Brent Geese, as well as waders.
The Brent Geese all took off and, while it is not in the same league as some of the wildfowl spectaculars in north Norfolk or the Solway Firth, it was still an impressive sight.
I did photograph the geese flocks but the 400mm lens doesn't quite convey the sight as well as a wider one would have done. The sky looks grey but that's my rotten post-processing.

The ducks also took off, when a helicopter flew low over the river, heading west, thus ruining my plans to photograph them when I was on my way back to the car park. The only duck that didn't bugger off at the sound of rotors was a male Goldeneye and he was too far off for a photo! I especially wanted pictures of the pretty Wigeon on the very reflective water but had to make do with these instead:

Other birds also took off, such as Lapwing (top photo) and Golden Plovers (with Lapwing flock) in lower photo:

Some Mallards also flew the other way, looking like the plaster ones on Hilda Ogden's living room wall in Corrie (those under 40, ask your parents):

Despite the chill and the fact the calendar says that today's date is 9th January, there are a few signs that spring is a few weeks away. A pair of Mallards were engaged in a 'bit of the other' and making new Mallards; I thought the drake was going to drown his Mrs, but she soon reappeared, none the worse for being held under water for a bit.

The light was a bit harsh for photography (yes, I know, some people are never satisfied) but I did manage this shot of a Mallard flying past and it's a photo I am very pleased with indeed. The head is sharp while there's some nice action blur in his wings.

I had to be in Whitwell at 1pm (family gathering) so, as I wanted to see if I could find the Riverway Industrial Estate Waxwings I left the group and headed back to my car.
Needless to say, there wasn't so much as a pink crest to be seen on the industrial estate, despite looking high and low all over the place for them. The industrial estate, a busy place from Monday to Saturday, was quiet except for the fact it was crawling with people armed with binoculars and cameras all hunting for the birds and the question 'Seen the Waxwings?' was met with sorrowfull looks, shakes of the head and 'Not a bloody thing'. I gave up and left, although I did get a nice photo of a Little Egret down on the river behind the estate.

In the dark

2011-01-07T20:47:00.001Z

To say that there was light today, indeed even recently, would be overstating the case. Less dark than at night might be a better way of describing it and, needless to say, it's useless for photography. That doesn't stop me taking pictures though and I went out this afternoon in the hope of getting photos and additions to my 2011 list - ok, the real reason is that I hate being stuck indoors all day.

I went to Newport first in the hope of seeing Waxwings, which had been seen on the industrial estate yesterday - I was there yesterday, although I was on my way to a hospital appointment and couldn't stop to look for birds and, besides, there was torrential rain, making looking impossible. I couldn't hang around after my appointment as I had another one to go to!
I didn't see the Waxwings today either, despite a good look round so I got some petrol and drove to Sandown in the hope of getting some reasonable pictures of birds on the canoe lake. Not long afterwards, the heavens opened again but before they did I managed a few photos despite the poor, flat light. The bad weather meant that small birds were largely absent.

Click for larger photos

The brightness in the January gloom is Australia 1 England 3. Three innings defeats inflicted on the once-invincible Aussies helps banish any winter blues. :)

2011 list up and running

2011-01-02T20:46:00.006Z

As the forecast called for a bright day with sunshine, I decided to go to Newtown to get the 2011 list properly underway. The promised sun didn't fully materialise but the cloud cover wasn't as thick as it had been and conditions were much brighter than they had been for the past few days.
I stopped at Shide, on the outskirts of Newport, as Waxwings had been seen there and I wanted to improve on my four birds and bad photo of the other week. Totally unsurprisingly as they're fidgety little sods, there were no Waxwings still present so after half an hour I got fed up with the cyclists and dog walkers and decided to carry on to Newtown.

Newtown was surprisingly quiet people wise but there were some birders around, guys I knew, so it was nice to have a chat and birdwatch with them for a bit. There were hundreds of Brent Geese on the reserve, along with Shelduck, Golden Plovers, Red-breasted Merganser, Ringed Plover
After leaving the reserve, I drove down to Cassey Bridge where, for once, there were no cars parked, so I was able to park and look through the Lapwings for the Ruff that has been seen there. No luck with the Ruff (bit of ruff luck, that. Sorry), but there were plenty of Black-tailed Godwits and Curlews among them. On the water, and the banks of the creek, were the usual ducks; Wigeon, Pochard, Mallard, (a lone drake who, on seeing me, immediately came over in the hope I had food. Sadly for him, I didn't. I hadn't even brought my wallet to buy any food as I forgot it), Teal, and three or four Pintails.

Click on each photo for larger sizes

Brent Geese take off

Little Egret (two different individuals, note very muddy feet of the bird in the top two pics)

Pied Wagtail, Newtown

Pintail, Newtown

Robin, Newtown. A very confiding little chap

Teal, Bembridge

As I left Newtown I didn't feel like going home so considered Yarmouth; 'Don't bother, it's heaving with families with kids and dogs, plus cyclists' I was told, so I decided to give it a miss until a weekday when it would be quieter (not having a job now means I have time on my hands). I decided that St Helens would be a better bet and I would be in with a chance of seeing an otter or a Bittern.
I left the car in St Helens and walked along the footpath which runs alongside the marshes. I didn't see much apart from Canada Geese and a couple of White-fronted Geese which flew over. The river was heaving with ducks, mostly Pochard, but no Bittern and no otter either.
On reaching the lagoons at Bembridge, there were some Teal around and I ran into Danny Vokins who owns the boat that the bird group use for pelagic trips around the island's coast. Danny was waiting for the Kingfisher which frequents the area. The bird did eventually show but didn't come very close for a reasonable photo, so I took a long distance shot showing it in its habitat.

After waiting for the bird to come closer, we gave up and I had to get home to feed the animals anyway so Danny kindly gave me a lift back to St Helens where I'd left my car.

I am now on 50 species, which I am not going to bore you - or me! - all with by listing, which means that I have seen over half as many species in two days as I'd seen during 2010. I was told today that someone from the IWOG group had seen 150 species on his usual New Year bird race yesterday. That's not surprising in itself but the fact he'd done it by using the buses and not in a car is and he does it every January 1st. It's impressive, but I'm not about to give up my car in favour of the horrors and expense of the island's public transport system any time soon.

I spent most of the daylight hours out and about and it was a success both for amount of birds seen and some pretty nice photos I managed to get.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T19:13:00.005Z

So, here we are, just hours away from the turn of the year. I can't believe how fast 2010 (two thousand and ten, twenty ten, however you prefer to say it) has gone; it seems like only five minutes has passed since the change from 2009 into 2010, the snow of last January, my trip to Texas and what passed for summer this year.

My plans for 2011? For various reasons, including financial ones, I am not planning on doing any long-haul travel but I am planning various short trips within the UK. In January or February I am planning to go to Blashford Lakes or Titchfield Haven over in Hampshire; in spring the New Forest, in early summer Mull (for eagles and otters) and a seabird island for Puffins, etc, which I'll combine with the Mull trip to break up the long drive to or from the South Coast, autumn will hopefully see a visit to north Norfolk, a place I've not yet managed to get to and maybe, despite not being a twitcher, I'll satisfy my curiosity and see what 'Scilly-season' is like in October. All of which should make this blog less boring.
I don't think all these trips will come off - particularly as I will be camping, to try and save money - and driving from the South Coast to Scotland might also prove to be one great idea too far, mostly because I will be doing it - like everything else I do - on my own (and, frankly, I am getting tired of doing everything on my tod).
Something else I'd like to do is go on a nature photography course. I have never done a course, just doing things by trial, error and asking stupid questions on forums. All these grand plans are dependant on my financial situation but, hopefully, I can go back to the delivery driving in summer as well as temping.

Aside from all this, I am planning to do far more photography in 2011 than I did in 2010. This includes macro photography using my new Canon 100mm f/2.8 (non-L) macro lens. Bring it on!

In the meantime, Happy New Year everyone - have a peaceful, prosperous, photography-filled 2011.

Photos from 2010

2010-12-28T17:55:00.000Z

There weren't many to choose from, because I've been largely idle this year but here are some of my favourite photos from 2010. Click for larger sizes.

Bring on 2011

2010-12-28T13:29:00.006Z

2010 hasn't been a bad year although it's not been a great year either. Just...indifferent; a bit 'meh' as the modern expression goes, along with a gallic shrug too, if I were French. Most of it was spent in a condition known to birders as 'having fazed' when one's interest in birds and birding is precisely zero and the desire and inclination to get out and do anything is non-existent; a situation caused, I think, by my trip to Australia and SE Asia in April to June 2009.
The one highlight of 2010 was a two-week trip to Texas, to the Texas Star Party which is held every year near the little town of Fort Davis. As well as spending all night looking into deep space through a giant Dobsonian telescope I also went birding during the day.

January 2010 was notable mainly for the first significant snowfall here in many years. It's started snowing late one afternoon and snowed all night leaving over 6 inches of the stuff which hung around for ages afterwards. The small bird population took a hammering and it was a long time before I saw wrens in the garden again. The island's population of Dartford Warblers, never numerous at the best of times, also got thinned out and I think we ended up with a grand total of four birds left.

Snow on Queen Bower hill in January

February saw the cold theme continue. There was no more snow but the weather was very cold and mostly grey with few clear days. Redwings and Fieldfares were more abundant because of the cold and were frequently seen feeding in the field at the front of the house.

March was notable for non-birding or photographic reasons. On the 28th Southampton FC won their first trophy since beating Manchester United in the 1976 FA Cup Final, beating Carlisle 4-1 at Wembley to win the JPT Trophy (League Trophy). Yes, Portsmouth fans might - and did - take the piss and call it 'mickey mouse' but who cares what those cheats think. Silverware is silverware and, mickey mouse or not, it's very nice to win some.

In April the weather finally improved and it was largely warm and sunny. The most interesting thing about April was the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, a volcano beneath a glacier in Iceland, which sent volcanic ash all over north-western Europe and the eastern Atlantic, causing disruption to flights and general travel mayhem. Fortunately my flight to the USA a couple of weeks after, was only slightly affected in that we had to make a long detour up to the Arctic Circle to avoid the ash.
One afternoon, a few days prior to the ash drama, I took some of my best-ever garden bird pictures. I was just sitting in a garden chair, listening to the football on the radio (we won), while the birds went about their business. I'll put the best photos in a separate post later.

In May, I dodged the ash, which was still causing a nuisance in the first part of the month, and flew to Texas for the one highlight of the year which was the annual Texas Star Party, held at the Prude Ranch near Ft Davis in the south-western part of the state. The flight from London Heathrow was diverted north of Iceland which meant we flew up the British Isles, over the north coast of Scotland (there was still a lot of snow in the Highlands), past the Faroe Islands and just north of the Arctic Circle (I only have the North Pole, the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole to 'collect' now! I've 'done' all the other major lines of latitude. Sadly, the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole are highly unlikely but the North Pole could happen if I ever fly to Japan and it's one of the flights that goes via the pole, as a lot do). We flew over the Denmark Strait, Greenland where we had cracking views of Arctic scenery, then down over Canada and the United States before touching down at George H Bush Intercontinental at Houston four hours late.
I did some birding around San Antonio before heading out to the ranch. I didn't do a huge amount of birding due to all-night astronomy combined with very hot days but I did make an effort one day, didn't go to bed then birded round the local State park at Indian Lodge.
There were some cracking birds, the highlight of which was a lovely male Vermilion Flycatcher at the Ranch which I managed to photograph after stalking him while at the same time making sure I didn't step on a rattlesnake, which there are plenty of on the Ranch.

Turkey Vulture at the Prude Ranch

Male Vermilion Flycatcher at the Prude Ranch

After May and returning home, the birding went downhill. June, July and August are always quiet months and even my astronomy hobby went quiet thanks to the short summer nights.
I did try insect photography in August, with mixed results, the dragonflies turning out the best of them. The 70-200mm lens turned out to be very good for this sort of photography but the 400mm, unfortunately, wasn't so good thanks to the 12ft minimum focussing distance.

Migrant Hawker dragonfly

In September, I finally saw a Spoonbill (Eurasian Spoonbill). Spoonbills do occur on the island but I'd never previously managed to see one. Annoyingly it was too far away for a photo but I got reasonable views with the scope so I was happy with that at least. I also caught up with an Osprey at Newtown; I was hoping to get a photo of it as I've seen Ospreys many times before but they have always been distant and unphotographable - unfortunately this bird was no exception.

October began with me feeling that photography was a complete waste of time, my photos are all crap and my equipment should be decanted forthwith into a skip. It ended with me having a moment of weakness while 'window shopping' in Jessops and spending (wasting, according to my mother) £1100 on a nice Canon 7D.
In between times, my period of being 'fazed' was beginning to end and I got out birding a few times. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary but it was nice to get out and about.

November was spent, when not at work in my latest temporary job, playing with the 7D and hoping Waxwings would turn up on the island. They were beginning to appear in droves in the north and east of Britain and were heading south but none arrived here. After a period of terrible weather, with torrential rain and Severe Gale Force 9 winds often gusting to Storm Force 10, it turned colder, a lot colder, with snow forecast and November ended, and December began, on a freezing and snowy note.

So, here we are in December, with the year having vanished at a remarkable rate and it is ending as it began, cold and snowy, although it's warmed up a bit here and is now actually raining. On the 18th I caught up with Waxwings, at last, as some arrived in Sandown and I drove through the snow to find them.
2010 is finishing on a bit of a downbeat note though, a friend's mum died at the end of November, I've got liver disease possibly caused by tetracycline poisoning or through contaminated food or water in Asia last year and my sister's little dog died this morning at the age of sixteen.
I'll be glad to swap the calendar over on Saturday morning, as I have some interesting and hopefully exciting plans for 2011.

I will post my best/favourite photos of 2010 either later today or before the weekend in a separate post.

Still cold

2010-12-26T20:45:00.011Z

It is still very cold and, apart from last Monday when the temperatures did struggle above zero for a couple of hours, melting most of the snow, it has been that way for what seems like ages. The ice on the ponds is a good three inches thick and the bird baths need to have hot water poured on them twice a day to try and keep them ice-free. From almost no birds a couple of weeks ago we are now seeing lots of Redwings and Fieldfares, among my favourite winter birds, especially the pretty Redwings.
Unfortunately though, these birds are suffering in the cold weather and I am afraid that there are going to be a lot of casualties come the spring. Our Isle of Wight Dartford Warblers suffered during the January cold spell and that was just a couple of weeks. This has gone on a lot longer and is much colder; the garden thermometer read -10C this morning. It's predicted to warm up to 10C during next week - t-shirt weather after this lot! - but then easterlies are predicted to return and the temps will fall yet again. I hope that my car has enough anti-freeze in it or I will have a very expensive repair bill...bit late now if it hasn't!

There had been reports of a Little Gull literally just up the lane from me, at Queen Bower, during the week and then again on Christmas Day, but I hadn't had a chance to go and look for it until today. It wasn't there but a Common Gull was, perched on a chimney at Channel View Farm. Black-headed Gulls were also around, as were the inevitable Woodpigeons (is it just me or does anyone else get sick of panicking Woodies scaring off every other bird?), Fieldfare, Redwing, the commoner tit species, Dunnock, Robin and Blackbird.

Back at home, this unhappy-looking Blackbird was sitting low in a bush. He sat there for ages and I thought he was on his last knockings because of the cold but, happily, he recovered then flew into the garden and fed his face on meal worms and suet pellets.

This Dunnock was singing from a high perch in next door's trees. Practising for spring?

That's another Christmas over and done with. It was just as average as the rest of them. My aunt and I visited my mum (aunt's sister) and stepfather at Niton and then it was home for present-opening but, in my case, sadly no booze due to the ongoing liver problem I've got. I did well for presents this year, an iPod Touch (which for internet and apps blows my crap Blackberry Curve right out of the water), an external hard drive to replace yet another one that had failed, Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and other bits and pieces.
Mentioning the liver problem, on Christmas Eve I got 'summoned' to my GP in Sandown (but there were no Waxwings in the car park there, although there had been a few days earlier) for the scariest dr's appointment of my entire life and, thankfully, I don't have a cancer or a 'mass' but I do have an enlarged liver. This is possibly due to hepatitis, likely caused by Doxycycline I've had to take long-term for a recurring infection or picked up in Asia last year through contaminated food or water. I'll find out more about it on Wednesday when I have a hospital appointment - this probably means more blood tests and more scans. Oh good, I am going to be modelling the 'pincushion look' by the time I've had more needles stuck in me. But after fearing cancer for weeks hepatitis, although nasty, feels like a nice let off! At least I've not gone yellow. Yet. I don't like myself in yellow.

Come on England, don't collapse overnight, put on a huge total, skittle out the Aussies and retain the Ashes before the series ends! I would love to see us retaining the Ashes in this Test then rubbing Aussie noses in it in the final Ttest in Sydney at New Year. They've rubbed our noses in it long enough.

Steve Seal - I am sorry to see your blog go. I enjoyed reading it and looking at your wonderful pics. I hope it's not too long before you're back in some form.

Season's Greetings

2010-12-23T18:56:00.001Z

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all who read this blog or who are just dropping by. I hope you all have a very happy and peaceful holiday.

Sunset and snow

2010-12-19T19:05:00.001Z

There was a spectacular red sunset this evening, made even more picturesque by the presence of the snow. I used my 40D and the old 18-55mm for this one (still not got round to replacing it yet, and it looks as if I won't be for a while). I tend to use the 18-55 on the 40D, as the 7D's better sensor is likely to highlight the lens' deficiencies even more! I can't do much about the wires, too fiddly to clone out.
Click for larger size.

I think the lone figure up on the hill by the nearest tree was another photographer.

Third time lucky

2010-12-18T11:44:00.004Z

At 0900 I got a text saying that there were some Waxwings still in Sandown so I was determined that, this time, I would catch up with the little pink, crested buggers, so I chucked the bins and camera in the car and drove - very carefully - in the snow to Sandown. We'd had an inch or two overnight so instead of my normal route into town via the back roads I went out to the main road (we still have a couple of miles of country roads to drive on to get to the main road, but the other route's probably impassable) and a journey that usually takes less than 10 minutes took 20.
After a slippery drive I parked the car (the beauty of snow is that double yellow lines are hidden) where the Waxwings had recently been seen and it took 5 minutes to find them, perched in a tall tree behind houses. There wasn't the large flock that had been reported the previous day, but four would do nicely.
I felt conspicuous on a housing estate with binoculars and a long white telephoto lens so, once I'd seen the birds and taken a few poor shots, I left.

A 'record shot'. There are three Waxwings (plus Starlings) obvious in the photo, with a fourth low down at the bottom right. Click for the largest size.

I was up the garden just now and heard a call which sounded like a Raven. That's because it was a Raven, which flew over the field next to the house. A great garden tick (yes, flyby's and flyovers do count!).

Frustrating!

2010-12-17T14:37:00.000Z

I have just had a text from the IWOG rare bird network, saying that there are 27 Waxwings by the Spar shop in Perowne Way, Sandown. I live in Sandown but I am currently stuck at work in Newport, 9 miles away and don't finish until 4. Bugger, bugger, bugger! Will I ever get to see Waxwings this winter?! I hate it when this happens, it's why I don't normally twitch. >:-(

A hardy moth

2010-12-16T20:56:00.004Z

I found this moth on the outside of the kitchen door this evening. As the temperatures are rapidly falling towards negative figures (Celsius) this is a tough little moth. I have no idea what it is, so any IDs, via the comments, will be welcome.

The little chap - or chapess - was difficult to photograph because it was dark and the 40D's AF wouldn't work properly in such low light, so I resorted to MF and Live View. This was the best of the bunch.

Edit: Thanks to replies to a post on Wild About Britain Forum, it's a male Winter Moth or a Northern Winter Moth.

I had a CT scan on my liver on Tuesday and have an appointment to see a surgeon on the 29th. I have a feeling that birding, photography and astronomy activities are going to be a bit curtailed in the first month or two of 2011.

First forays into macro photography

2010-12-14T18:45:00.003Z

I tried out my new macro lens (Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro) for the first time on Sunday. As it was getting dark, I used various objects in the house as subjects, plants in the kitchen, fruit, book covers, etc. I used the 40D's built-in flash, so the lighting's harsh but I was more interested in what the lens could do than in taking pretty pictures.
Click for full size.

African violet:

Orchid:

Grapes

The cover of Burnham's Celestial Handbook - the shallow depth of field at macro distances is seen well here, the book on the left is sticking out of the bookcase a few millimetres further than the one I have focused on and is out of focus. The fingerprints, cracks, blemishes and other marks on the covers show up really nicely.

I am pretty pleased with the lens so far. Roll on summer when the bugs come out!

Ryde beach

2010-12-12T20:16:00.000Z

After a wasted morning hunting for Waxwings in the Ventnor/Whitwell/Niton/St Lawrence area I spent part of the afternoon at Ryde and Seaview attempting to photograph birds on the beach there. I had better luck at Ryde than Seaview although I got distant views of Red-breasted Mergansers, Great Crested Grebes and female Common Eiders at Seaview.

The tide was in and the Brent Geese were close to the beach at Ryde, just east of the pier, while on the beach there were Pied Wagtails and Sanderling. It was the Sanderlings I was trying to photograph, not easy when morons let their dogs and kids run at the birds.
I knelt in the sand and managed to get some nice low-level shots, both of Sanderlings and Pied Wagtails.
Click for slightly larger size (sizes vary) and improved sharpness.

During this morning's fruitless search for Waxwings, I did see plenty of Redwings, the first I have seen this winter. They were in the Botanic Gardens at Ventnor, as well as in the hedges along the road to Whitwell. There was nothing else of note.

Southampton line-up

2010-12-11T16:32:00.007Z

I made a quick trip over to Southampton for a new lens (of which more in a bit) and for some Christmas shopping, plus the possibility of going to the Saints game at home to Brentford. I took the camera with me, both to try the new lens out on it and also in case there was anything around - I was hoping for Waxwings but none were forthcoming.

There weren't many birds about, not even in Southampton Water which is often good for a diver or sea ducks. The only birds about were Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls and the ubiquitous town pigeons so I turned my 70-200mm zoom on them in Mayflower Park instead.

Here's the Southampton line up on a dull, grey day:

The Christmas shopping was a bust as I couldn't locate any of the items my sister said my nephews want, namely a gold football (no less. Gold coloured, as opposed to actual gold, I hasten to add, an actual gold football would be positively dangerous) and some things called Match Attax cards. I can get the cards in packs of 10 or in huge £50 tins, yes, but in £10 tins (which, allegedly, they do)? No. Same for the gold football. I am beginning to think these don't exist. Next year I hope they ask for things that are easier to procure. Things such as an Asian elephant and the crown jewels maybe...

At least I managed to get the lens I wanted. I have wanted a macro lens for ages now, for butterflies, dragonflies, that sort of thing, and, after some research and stupid questions on Bird Forum and other forums, I decided to get the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro (not the L version, which was a bit too pricey for me). That, like my nephews' Christmas presents, proved easier said than done. Warehouse Express have some but can't deliver on Saturdays, blaming the recent inclement weather, and, as no-one is in during the week this was no good as I didn't want to chase the thing round the various Royal Mail offices in the area, like I had to do with my Wildlife Watching Supplies bean bag I recently ordered from WE.
I ordered one from Jessops but they said it was on backorder and unlikely to be in before the New Year. In the meantime I tried the Southampton LCE Civic Centre branch and they had three in. LCE say that this particular lens is very hard to get hold of and it took them two months to get these three specimens in. They also told me they had a rush of people wanting them, so it was just as well I phoned beforehand. Needless to say I bought one and cancelled my order with Jessops.

The blog title sounds almost football-related; in fact I think the birds would do a better job than today's team who are currently losing 0-2 to Brentford (no disrespect to Brentford, but ffs. I now know how ManUre and Liverpool fans felt when we regularly nicked points off them in the Premier League). I decided against going, due to having just spent £400 on a new lens and also because I was carrying camera gear and shopping, and I am glad I did.

_________________________________________________________________________________

They're here at last....25+ Waxwings were reported in the Whitwell/Ventnor area at lunchtime. Waxwing hunt tomorrow, I think!

My first published wildlife photo!

2010-12-09T19:04:00.000Z

Ok, so it's in the in-house paper of the company I am temping at until Christmas and not a wildlife or photo magazine, but it's nice to have my name next to one of my photos in print, as I saw from the proofs this morning. A few weeks ago, the staff member who produces the paper asked for squirrel pictures so I sent her one I'd taken of a Red Squirrel a couple of years ago. It's not a very large circulation, about three thousand at most, but I'm pleased and have been promised a copy when it comes out in the next day or two.
Shame about the wire (which was too hard to crop out because of the squirrel's whiskers in the way) but, at the time of asking, it was the best pic I had of a Red Squirrel.

Wow

2010-12-04T12:58:00.002Z

I wasn't sure if anyone read this blog or not and I am doing it as much for myself as for everyone else, so it was a pleasant surprise to actually look at the stats (for once! I'd never bothered before) and find that the blog is doing much better than I'd anticipated, with 664 hits for last month alone, not including my own. People have visited recently from the USA, Germany, Poland, Isle of Man, Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark, South Korea and Australia as well as the UK.

Thanks for reading!

Snow's all melted. There was a gale last night and I got up at 0245 to 'pay a little visit' and looked out the window to see if the snow might be drifting in the wind. It wasn't. It was raining and the snow had mostly gone. Part of me's a little disappointed but part of me knew it had outstayed its welcome and was glad to see it going.

Winter photos

2010-12-03T21:06:00.004Z

Some photos from Alverstone today. The birds were in the public hide at the Mead, and the river is the Eastern Yar. I couldn't resist some cliched 'Robin in snow' photos, either! They're not great but will do - and have sorted my Christmas cards for this year!
Click on each for full size (and improved sharpness).

Other birds around were Goldcrest, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Woodpigeon, Mallard, Moorhen and, a surprise at Alverstone village, a Snipe in someone's garden by the river which flew before I could take its photo. Otherwise it has been very quiet the past few days. Disappointingly there have been absolutely no Redwings or Fieldfares, unlike back in January when they were everywhere during the cold spell.
The temperature first thing this morning was -8C, getting up to a positively warm -4C during the day before dropping back down to -7.5C this evening. It's getting milder because, during the evening, it has gone up to -3C. Rain is forecast, although they are not sure what will actually happen, whether it will be rain, sleet or more snow. They're hedging their bets and who can blame them?

Birds in the snow

2010-12-02T14:48:00.007Z

It's too cold to hang around outside for long but I did grab a few shots of birds in the snow, the best of which is the female Blackbird.
The photos were taken from the relative shelter of the back door, so I have cropped them quite substantially, especially the wagtail and the Robin.

The Pied Wagtail is an unusual visitor to the garden. I've not seen one here before.

Russia gets to host the World Cup in 2018? What a stitch up, especially as our (England's) excellent bid was eliminated in the first round, apparently we came fourth out of four. You can't tell me our bid was worse than Holland and Belgium's! Maybe the BBC were right all along.

The White Stuff

2010-12-02T09:13:00.001Z

After flurries all week and the promise of things to come not materialising, morning brought a changed world. This was the scene at 5 o'clock this morning. I am not usually up at 5 but my aunt knocked on my door to ask if I'd like to see the garden 'before the dogs spoil it'!

This was as it got light:

One of the neighbours doesn't think much of it:

It's still snowing and I don't think it's going to stop this morning. Needless to say I didn't think twice about not going to work and one of the benefits of temping is that you aren't expected to do such tragic things as working from home! The only downside is that I'm losing £80, ~~probably~~ more if I don't get there tomorrow.

All the photos were taken with the 40D and 18-55mm EF-S lens.

Snow, squirrels and a sparrowhawk

2010-12-01T16:04:00.002Z

We got some overnight snow and now have a 1 inch covering of the white stuff. The roads are icy and I took one look and promptly chickened out of driving on them, so I ended up not going to work this morning. Instead, I gathered up my camera gear, dressed up like Scott of the Antarctic, and headed for Alverstone Mead Nature Reserve which is a brief walk away.

I spent nearly an hour at the hide and I was fortunate as someone obviously hadn't shut the door properly behind them, so I went into the hide proper (you need a combination code, which I have long forgotten as I haven't been up there for months) which was more sheltered from the snow flurries than the outer, public, part. When I left, I ensured the door was securely shut and the latch fastened. The funny thing was, I got better pictures in the public part - all the photos here were taken from the public part, which gives greater visibility.
You will notice that no pictures (apart from the top one) show a squirrel in snow or an entirely natural setting. No, they were too busy demanding nuts from me and would not stay in the trees, far preferring the roof of the hide or the shelves just inside. The second picture down, the squirrel ran along the fence at me and I had to back away from it; it's not often that you have to back away from a wild animal because it's coming towards you. It was so dull and dark, I had to resort to using the flash - the squirrels are used to this as it's a very popular place for the public to come and see them, hence their tameness.

At one point, there was a commotion, both squirrels and small birds vanished like smoke and this Sparrowhawk was the reason why. I had to use the 70-200mm to take its picture as there was not enough light to use the 400mm, so these are big crops.

And lastly, a Woodpigeon in the garden at home, taken through the kitchen window:

The Arctic conditions, or 'big freeze' to give it its daft media-cliche tag, are predicted to last for a few more days yet with more snow forecast for here and all along the south coast overnight tonight. This is going to be a long winter and it's only 1st December. It is alleged that something called 'summer' occurred at some point in 2010; I believe that might have been the few nano-seconds of hot and sunny weather we got at the end of June. This year's gone fast, too fast for my liking.

Snow, scans and leaky shoes

2010-11-30T18:18:00.006Z

We finally got *some* snow today, with flurries producing a thin coverlet that lay on roofs, cars and walls. I had an appointment at the hospital this afternoon and, in my infinite wisdom, decided to leave the car in the town centre and walk to the hospital, which is 1.4 miles from my current place of work. This wasn't so much for sound environmental reasons or that I needed the exercise (although, in truth, I do need the exercise!) but because parking there is a lottery, free spaces in the middle of the afternoon are about as common as Waxwings on the Isle of Wight (still none!) and you have to pay through the nose once you have found one of those precious, elusive spaces.
As I walked through the hospital grounds, I passed the duck pond, the middle of which was frozen and the Mallards, Black-headed Gulls and Moorhens which frequent it were all standing around, no doubt wondering why the water had suddenly gone hard. No, I don't usually carry a camera to hospital appointments, my compact happened to be in my coat pocket!

Once the appointments - a scan and a blood test - were done, I left the hospital in a snow storm and walked back down to the town. Halfway back the bus passed me and I wondered if I shouldn't have got on it at the hospital, especially as my face was frozen and I made the joyful discovery that my shoes were both leaking. I'd repaired the right one, which I knew was leaking but the repair didn't hold and the left shoe decided it was a good time to come out in sympathy with its sibling. Shopping for new shoes tomorrow lunchtime, I think.

I got back to work, logged back into the computer, looked up the ailment I've got (the good news is it's not gallstones but the bad news is that there's a mass on my liver. Oh fuck. However, more good news is that it's 99% likely to be benign, something called a liver hemangioma - sounds disgusting but if it is benign then it can sound as disgusting as it likes - but I have to have another scan. This should be interesting. Oh and more good news - if it's not a gall bladder problem chips, butter and cheese are back on the menu!), took a couple of pictures out of the window of the snowy scenes and buggered about until kick-out time at 4.30.

Still no Waxwings. Although there *was* a Chough at the Needles on the 23rd. How come we only found out now?

Red Squirrel

2010-11-28T16:04:00.007Z

One of "our" Red Squirrels made its regular visit to the bird feeders this afternoon, we think it's a regular visitor although, as no-one's in during the week, it's hard to be 100% certain. This one is very dark reddish-brown rather than the light gingerish red of the others we see.
I managed to take a few low-quality shots of the squirrel, it was snowing and the light was poor so I put the ISO up to 6400 which, normally, on the 7D is of acceptable quality, certainly better than the 40D at any rate. However, I forgot that the filter, which is one I bought with the lens, was on the 400mm and it has the effect of softening the shots. After I originally bought the lens I discarded the filter as I hated the fact it adversely affected the photos by softening them but recently I put it on again as I got a little paranoid about damaging the front element. These shots have definitely suffered from the presence of the filter.
The white blotches are snow flakes.

My aunt bought a new squirrel feeder this morning because the old one's in a bad position but can't be removed and repositioned without falling apart. Hopefully Messrs. Nutkin will go for that and leave the bird food for the birds although, having said that, we're happy to see it in the garden.

The promised snow didn't materialise yesterday, not in any great quantities that is (a friend of mine posted on Facebook 'Where's this bloody snow we were promised?!'). I opened the curtains at 8 o'clock this morning to see a green and brown world and not the (sort of) hoped-for white one so the 'inner child' was definitely a bit disappointed. However, we have had snow showers, some heavy, throughout the day and it has remained very cold indeed, it was -5C when I let my dog out this morning and has not got a lot warmer as the day's gone on.
This was the scene near me this afternoon. Heavy snow showers, but nothing more than that.

My mum's place over at Niton has had a light covering but Niton and Ventnor areas always get snow.
We took the dogs for a walk on Culver Down this morning and we could see a light dusting of snow on Ventnor Downs. This is the highest point on the Isle of Wight and always gets snow before anywhere else does.
There were very few birds around on Culver this morning, only a single Robin, a Kestrel and various members of the crow family.

This Wren was one of very few birds in the garden this afternoon.

I think the Blackcap might be back. I caught sight of something in the hedge which had a similar 'jizz' to a Blackcap. It'd be nice if one or both Blackcaps (we had a male and a female here in January this year) returned for the winter.

Snovember!

2010-11-27T13:20:00.006Z

It's snowing, not much at the moment because it's a bit stop/start and showery, but it's forecast to get bad later with the Isle of Wight bearing the brunt of the wintry conditions, which is very odd for November, especially as it is still technically autumn. I've nicked the following from the BBC weather pages (yeah, I know it's in degrees Fahrenheit, it's my little anti-EU rebellion! No, not really, you can change the settings betwen metric and imperial; I'd changed mine as I was telling some Yank friends about our weather and they don't *get* metric, and forgot to change it back) and it looks 'interesting', especially overnight tonight, particularly as it says 'Snow will be sometimes heavy, especially over the Isle of Wight and along the south coast'. That won't please my mum, who lives on a hill farm at Niton, they'll get properly snowed in, being up a steep long drive which is bad enough at the best of times!

If it does do what it says in that forecast, then I'm planning to get some good snow shots over today and tomorrow. Part of me's hoping for snow both because I want snow photos and because, even at 40, there's that inner child who still gets excited by the prospect of the white stuff! On the other hand, part of me's hoping it's not too bad because it's not good for the birds and also because I'll miss a few days of work - us temps don't get flexi-time and all the perks that permanent staff get, lose days from work and you don't get paid - and a scan I have to go for at the hospital on Tuesday (I have suspected gallstones, very painful).
I spent the morning cleaning out and washing the bird feeders before refilling them because, if conditions do get bad then the birds are going to need feeding. On a less altruistic note, I want to get pictures of them in the snow, so the food will keep them coming.

So far, the birds have been few and far between with Blue Tit, Robin, Blackbird (female), Woodpigeon and a small group of Starlings the only visitors. I'd expect that to change if the weather comes in nasty.

Recent pix

2010-11-23T19:44:00.003Z

I haven't had much opportunity to get out recently due to a combination of getting a temp job which is 8.30 to 4pm Monday to Friday (this is in addition to my delivery driving job at weekends) and the bad weather, so the 7D's not had much use recently. However, I did go out on Sunday, to Sandown canoe lake, to photograph the gulls and ducks down there. I also wanted to try out a new Canon 1.4x II extender I'd bought on Saturday.
Unfortunately the weather was dull and gloomy and it wasn't really successful but I managed to get the following couple of Mallard shots. The extender works well, the AF on the 70-200mm f/4 L is just as fast and accurate as it is without the extender. I haven't tried it with the 400mm yet although, irritatingly, there'll be no AF with the extender and any lens over f/5.6 (only on 1D series bodies will an extender allow AF at f/8 and more - sorry, Canon, but that is crap). On the 70-200mm, there's still plenty of quality, although I do need to put a little more sharpening on as, inevitably, there is a slight loss of quality caused by the extender.

Click on the pics for the larger (and sharper) versions.

I also went out on Monday lunchtime, down to the river that runs past Sainsbury's and is a tributary of the Medina. The pics here weren't as good, and I should have left off the extender, except I forgot it was still on the camera, but I did get a nice shot of a female Mallard and a couple of amusing ones of a melee among Black-headed gulls, courtesy of a couple of women chucking bread to them.

An unexpected surprise at Sandown on Sunday was a male Black Redstart on the roof of the Sands Hotel in Culver Parade. Unfortunately I don't have a photo because I was delivering pocket guides to the hotel at the time and my camera was in the car.

At the bottom of this post, I mentioned Waxwings and a lovely, promising-looking berry-laden tree outside the back window of the office I am temping in. Well, there are still no Waxwings but, unfortunately, there is now no tree either because the buggers who own the land the tree is on (a furniture store next to the office) have had it chopped down. That annoys me on two fronts; firstly it denys birds food during winter and, secondly, it turns a remote possibility of Waxwings appearing there into no chance of Waxwings appearing there at all. The whole area has been boringly tidied up and made 'nice'.

The weather is forecast to get colder later this week, with the four letter 's-word' mentioned in various forecasts. Whether we'll get it down here or not remains to be seen but, if we do, I'll try and get some wintry bird shots.

Lastly, I have finally got round to redoing a birding website and putting accounts and photos from my various birding trips on it. You can find it here.

Decisions, decisions...

2010-11-16T18:43:00.002Z

I've decided that I want to go somewhere that's warm (preferably hot), sunny, not too expensive, south of 20 degrees North (for some Southern skies astronomy), relatively safe and where I can see and photograph lots of bright and colourful birds fairly easily. Because I also want to see the skies at night the rainy season is definitely out.

So far, I've narrowed it down to The Gambia (I have never been to Africa), Goa (not done India, yet, but want to), Costa Rica and Panama. Panama also has the added attraction of the Panama Canal and, as I like ships, I'd be interested to see it. I have also considered Australia because I've got friends there but as it's now quite expensive and I have been twice before, maybe I'll give it a miss until 2012. At the moment, I'm leaning towards The Gambia due mostly to it being only 5 hours flight time away, reasonably cheap and safe and also on the same longitude as us so no jet lag.

Puppies

2010-11-13T17:25:00.004Z

Not birds and not remotely wild but so very cute. How can these adorable two week old standard long-haired dachshund pups fail to cheer anyone up (even me after an abysmal Saints loss)?
Click for slightly larger size.

Moorhen (edit)

2010-11-09T17:58:00.004Z

Here's an edited, and more closely cropped version of the uppermost Moorhen picture from the last post. It's the result of a suggestion on WildPhotoForum, where I posted the pic in the Image Critique section. I like this version better. Thanks go to forum member Kiri for the suggestion. :)

And, on an entirely unrelated note, why are Waxwings just about everywhere at the moment - except the Isle of Wight? There's a promising-looking berry-laden tree just outside the window of the office I am temping in this week and which I am keeping a close eye on but, so far, it's held nothing more exciting than a couple of Blue Tits...

Moorhen

2010-11-06T17:40:00.001Z

A family gathering at a pub with a stream running through the beer garden this lunchtime meant I could try the Canon 7D out on some birds, which I'd not had the opportunity to do up until now.
A friendly Moorhen was the subject today. I managed to bugger up most of the shots thanks to a stupid error I made with the settings, but I got a few decent ones, the two best of which are here. The top photo was taken at 1/1000 at ISO 800 because of poor light in the beer garden. No noise reduction was necessary!
Click for largest size.

Twitchers, A Very British Obsession

2010-11-02T19:29:00.005Z

I missed the BBC TV programme Twitchers, A Very British Obsession last night, so I've been watching it on iPlayer before the Saints game comes on the radio in a bit.

One bloke described the top listers as 'Premier League' birders, he described himself as 'Championship' level (the Championship is the second tier of English football, the old Division 2). If that's the case, then I'm in the Conference South and, to be honest, I am happy that way. I can't be doing with all the pressure, dip potential and hammering up and down the UK's motorway network and, besides, it takes time and money in equal (large!) quantities, neither commodity of which I possess at the same time. If I have money it means I'm working so I have no time, but if I have time it means work's scarce and I have no dosh! I love seeing rare birds - who doesn't? - but to chase up and down the country is not my idea of a nice stress-free pastime because I can't bear either the nerves of potentially dipping and the anguish of actually dipping. Not only that, birding to me isn't a sport and isn't supposed to be stress-filled, because life's full of bullshit as it is without dragging that into hobbies as well. Well-known twitcher Lee Evans has appointed himself the 'policeman' of twitchers and adjudicates the list and the twitchers with an iron rod and that's something else I couldn't be doing with - I have enough of being appraised at work, let alone while doing one of my hobbies. Bugger that.

More importantly, birds are too precious to be reduced to numbers and names on a list, it devalues their worth as living things. Turn up, see bird, tick it, and off again. Do hard core twitchers actually stick around to enjoy the birds?
Sure, we all list birds to keep tabs on what we've seen, this is human nature, but I get the feeling that some twitchers - by no means all - are just collecting their names for kudos of being the first to xxx or xxxx or to have a bigger list than anyone else. I find it kind of sad that birds are reduced to statistics in a competition. Still, at least in this 'sport', the birds remain alive, unlike in times gone past when more than just their names were collected.

There's a little girl, Mya-Rose, featured in the programme who is also a twitcher; however, I can't help feeling that she'll be burnt out by the time she hits her teens and never wants to see another bird again, especially as she's actually accompanying her parents on their twitching trips. I hope not though, but it does make you wonder, especially as it's really her parents' hobby and probably not hers because she didn't look that interested to me. It seems that LGRE thinks so too, and I would agree with him. I've certainly never taken on my mother or stepfather's interests and I don't know of any other people who have followed their parents' interests either. They were a nice family though and honest enough to admit that year-listing every year was probably not a good idea!

It was an entertaining and absorbing programme but I hope that Joe and Jane Public don't judge the entire birding community on a few obsessives. We're not all like that and while I wouldn't consider myself to be a Robin-stroker because I enjoy seeing unusual and rare birds and I go birding, I am at the opposite end of the birding spectrum from this lot because I am ~~casual and more laid back~~ lazy about it. All twitchers are birders but not all birders are twitchers.

The programme is repeated on BBC4 on Thursday 4th November at 2230 and is also available on BBC iPlayer for another six days.

A moment of weakness

2010-10-27T16:18:00.025+01:00

I went into town this morning to see one of the agencies about a temp job (which begins on Monday, all being well) and, afterwards, I went to Jessops to do some window shopping. Of course, being afflicted with an itch to buy new kit at the moment, I weakened, then totally caved in and bought myself a Canon 7D. I've been having a play with it this afternoon and reading through the thick little manual, the contents of which makes me think that maybe the flight manual for the USS Enterprise (NCC 1701) would be less technical!

I had a look at both the 7D and the new 60D (released this month) and although I liked the 60D it takes SD cards while the 7D takes Compact Flash so, as I have loads of CF cards, varying from 2GB - not much cop with an 18MP camera, though, it has to be said - up to several 8GB ones, I decided to spend the extra dosh and get the 7D, despite it being an older model (2009) and a lot heavier and bigger than the 60D. In fact the 7D with my 70-200mm f/4 L attached weighs as much as the 40D with the 400mm.
So, I've blown my savings and have to start again! Selling the 20D will help, even if it is only £150 or so.

I hope to take some shots over the next few days and post them here. However, I tried it out on the cat, whose mugshot was taken at 6400 ISO in a fairly dark room. The noise was nowhere near as bad as that on the 40D or 20D at 800 ISO and many times better than my old Nikon D80 at anything above 400 ISO. It's not perfect, there is some chroma of course, but it's manageable and results after tweaking in PSE 6 and NeatImage are pleasing, although there's some grain. Click for largest version.

As a side note, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Jessops are no longer more expensive than anyone else. They are on a par with Warehouse Express and, in some cases, cheaper. In fact, the 7D is only £1 cheaper on WEx.

To upgrade or not to upgrade...

2010-10-25T16:11:00.004+01:00

...that is the question.

My ripping off of old Will there is not to try and be clever but because I am thinking of upgrading my equipment. It's nothing (well, not entirely) to do with my post a day or two ago that I can't seem to do anything right, and the green-eyed eyeing up of sexy gear such as 500mm L-series lenses and 1D Mk XXX cameras, but more to do with getting something with better AF and more up-to-date.
I am thinking of getting a Canon 7D which has improved AF, better noise control and is more up to date than the 40D, which came out in August 2007 and the 20D, which was released in 2004 (I currently use a 40D, with a 20D as a back up). The 7D still has an APS-C sensor, giving a 1.6x crop factor which is useful for wildlife photos. Unlike some people, I like the crop factor as it effectively makes my lenses longer although, of course, it doesn't actually alter their focal lengths; the image is bigger on a smaller sensor.
I am also considering finally binning the pretty awful Canon 18-55mm EF-S zoom which I picked up in a local camera shop for less than £20 and getting the 17-40mm L. Okay, a 17-40mm zoom has fairly limited use for wildlife pics, but I'd like to do some landscapes and I also do maritime photography where a wide angle zoom is very useful indeed, especially in ports such as Southampton.

Almost too fat

2010-10-25T14:30:00.001+01:00

It's an atrocious photo but I couldn't resist posting it. This Greenfinch was stuffing his face at a garden feeder and was there so long I thought there was something wrong with him but, as I approached the feeder, he squeezed through the bars and flew off a bit slowly. He was almost too fat...

Photography blues

2010-10-22T18:36:00.000+01:00

I am going through a period of 'all my stuff is crap and I think I ought to sell my equipment and take up something easier, like nuclear physics'. I can't seem to take a decent photo any more. They're either not sharp or there's something else wrong with them and even the ones I have posted recently aren't great, lacking a 'wow factor', in fact they're even lacking a 'that's quite good' factor. I have not taken a single wildlife photo I am happy with for quite a while now and looking at stuff such as Rich Steel's Wildlife Photographic Journals does not help - these are awesome photos and instil great feelings of inadequacy!
Ok, having 500mm lenses and 1D series cameras also help, especially when the AF on a camera such as this is far superior than on the prosumer models such as the 40D which I currently use. But, as I can't change my equipment - I can't afford to! - I have to find other ways of sorting out the brick wall I have hit.

Autumn birds

2010-10-21T21:41:00.001+01:00

Some recent pictures: Black Godwit, Brent Geese, Carrion Crow, Black-headed Gull, Oystercatcher and Black-headed Gull. Click for larger versions.

Winter's (almost) here

2010-10-14T10:42:00.001+01:00

Sanderlings and Ringed Plover on Ryde beach yesterday. Click for full size.

Dull. Grey. Boring

2010-09-28T19:09:00.004+01:00

A brief stop in West Cowes this afternoon, while working, produced not much more than a few gulls and a couple of Sandwich Terns on the beach. As usual, I'd taken my camera along just in case but the lack of birds and the dull weather meant that I didn't get much in the way of shots, just these Sandwich Terns (juvenile one on the left).

The Equinox has come and gone and autumn is here. With some luck a few scarce or rare birds might show up but hopefully, there'll be no Brown Flycatchers that turn out to be Spotted Flycatchers. It just goes to show that chasing rares can be an activity fraught with peril, as even people who have more knowledge about birds in their little toes than I have in my entire body can slip up sometimes. Ouch. Painful.
On the subject of rare/scarce stuff, I really must get my arse up to north Norfolk one of these days, or to Scilly, or to Shetland. Plenty of good stuff turns up there, north Norfolk has had a great August and September according to Joe Cockram, while on the Isle of Wight we get the sum total of bugger all. Trouble is, every time migration season rolls round again, my bank account is empty! Next year...?

Going birding in my invisible car

2010-09-16T17:23:00.020+01:00

Today was very quiet work-wise (hardly anybody wanted anything), so I jacked it in for the day in the early afternoon, came home, picked up my stuff and went out again to see what was about. Because there's not much petrol in the car and I couldn't be arsed to do anything much I went to Seaview, which is relatively nearby.
Seaview is either good or poor. Today it was poor. Hersey NR, which often doesn't hold much of anything anyway, was very quiet with nothing more than a handful of Coots, a Herring Gull, a Little Egret and three Little Grebes.
The beach was slightly more productive with Mediterranean Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, a solitary Common Tern (complete with out-of-breeding-season 'receding hairline'), a Grey Heron, two Little Egrets, Carrion Crow, Jackdaws, Pied Wagtails, Rock Pipits and a brucie bonus Wheatear.
A little touch of the Australian Outback came to Seaview today, lending a bit of surrealism to an English seaside village, with the call of a Laughing Kookaburra echoing across Hersey reserve to the beach. This, of course, is one of the residents of a nearby wildlife park.

Heavily-cropped photos of the Wheatear:

Three Mute Swans flew west, no doubt heading for Ryde and the large population on the boating lake there.

I have come to the conclusion that I am driving a car which has the power to make itself invisible on occasion. It may be small and grey but does that mean people can't see it? It seems so, judging by the amount of morons who cut me up and pulled out in front of me today. One bloke in a Land Rover pulled out in front of me in Alverstone Road at lunchtime, causing me to slam the brakes on, some dopey woman saw me coming but still pulled out in front of me at the roundabout by Bishop Lovett School, Ryde, despite it being my right of way (the brakes got tested yet again, and so did the horn) and yet another driver did the same to me at Tesco.
It's a pity my car's cloak of invisibility only works with dopey Isle of Wight drivers and not with speed cameras and traffic wardens.

Terning up at East Cowes

2010-09-06T21:41:00.005+01:00

I said this blog would again show new, (sort of) relevant, ~~exciting~~ stuff! I went out again today - and now need to lie down in a darkened room to recover - although this was actually a result of doing something else. No, not working, I couldn't be bothered today. I might drag myself around the people on my client list tomorrow instead only to be told that no, they have enough guides thank you and when are the winter ones out as they'd like some before they close until April.

A friend of mine over in Hampshire mentioned on Facebook that she was popping over to the island, because there was some cruise ship she wanted to see visiting the Solent, but which was not going up to Southampton Docks. So, for a change of scene as much as anything, plus it's always good to meet up with friends, I went to meet her from the Southampton ferry.

We went to the seafront at East Cowes and while my friend waited for the ship to show its face (it was anchored down towards the western Solent somewhere) I photographed the birds, mostly Sandwich Terns and Black-headed Gulls.

Above - A Sandwich about to make a u-Tern and go back the other way

Above - this Sandwich's Tern to go fishing

Above - Black-headed Gull posing most prettily for his picture to be taken. As it was his tern to be photographed.

Ok, I'll knock off the tern puns now, as they're not big, clever or funny. And I've shamelessly stolen them. Although I would like to say my pics terned out quite well despite the weather not having terned out to be very good.

Above - the ship my friend was waiting for, Europa
Below - the paddle steamer Waverley

The weather was getting progressively worse (the summer, or what there actually was of it, is now most definitely over. We now have unsettled weather and the tail-ends of hurricanes to look forward to. I wouldn't mind the latter too much if they actually dumped some rare Yanks on the Isle of Wight. Trouble is, they never do, other - more fortunate - isles to the west get them instead). So, once Europa had vanished round the corner we left, my friend back to Red Funnel and onto Southampton and me back home to see if any of my gull-and-tern practise shots were any good. To see if they had terned out, in fact.

Spoonbill (revisited) and a trip to Newtown

2010-09-05T19:15:00.011+01:00

Apart from the Spoonbill twitch-ette on Thursday ~~while I was supposed to be working~~ before I started work, it's been ages since I seriously went birding. In fact I've not done any since going to Texas in May. So, I went out.

First, I went back to Bembridge as the Spoonbill was reported still there on the Dynamite Pool and, this time, I took some scoping firepower with me, a 20-40x zoom eyepiece. The views were much improved over those I had the other day, although still distant. The Spoonbill was asleep with its bill tucked firmly into its back, but did wake up when a gull landed too close to it. When it turned round, I could see the big bill with the spoon-shape on the end of it.

I took a very long distance shot with the 400mm lens, as I couldn't get a decent picture with a compact camera or mobile phone held up to the eyepiece. The bird has an arrow under it, otherwise it's just another blob, although it was easy to pick out as it's the all-white bird, standing on rather a long leg. The pic is massively cropped and the quality is dire both because of this and because the weather's reverted to type and turned crap again. You need to click on the picture for a larger version.

Something else I saw at Bembridge was not so nice. Yesterday, there was a fatal air collision on the Island, with one plane crashing into woods at Havenstreet and the other crashing at Bembridge airport. I could see one of the crashed planes at Bembridge, from the footpath where I was watching the Spoonbill, with a police van next to it.
While I was at Bembridge, I received a text message to the effect that there were two Ospreys and a Curlew Sandpiper at Newtown, so I headed over there. I was already out and about, so why not? The Curlew Sandpiper was reported to be on the island in the scrape in front of the main hide, which was open, so I went there, arriving just after 1500.
Derek Hale and some other people were there. Derek showed me a photo he'd taken of the 'Curlew Sand' but told me it'd gone round the other side of the island in the scrape although it would eventually reappear.
I waited until nearly 5 o'clock but the Curlew Sandpiper did not put in an appearance. Someone told me it had been seen shortly before I arrived. Thanks. There's one thing I really hate and that's being told that something's been seen earlier or that 'you should have been here 5 minutes ago'' and, in these circumstances, the temptation to tell someone to 'Sod off' is almost overwhelming, no matter how nice the person is! At least I wasn't the only one who dipped. And there where were no Ospreys either although...
I left just before 5 as the hide was being closed, but before I did, I took one last look over the reserve to see an Osprey coming in with fish in its talons. It landed on a post, too far away for a photo but I got acceptable views with the scope and 20-40x eyepiece.
So, with the Spoonbill (revisited) and one Osprey, two from three isn't bad and there were plenty of good birds about, the best of the rest were Grey Plovers, still in their striking black and white summer plumage, and a Peregrine which was sat on a post the far side of the lake.
Bembridge (Dynamite Pool):
Spoonbill, Cormorant, Greater Black-backed Gull, Wigeon, Teal
Newtown:
Osprey, Grey Plover, Common Sandpiper, Shelduck, Peregrine, Redshank, Greenshank, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Curlew, Greater Black-backed Gull, Oystercatcher, Carrion Crow

Spoonbill

2010-09-03T19:27:00.006+01:00

For once, I was in a position to go and see a rare bird almost as soon as I heard about it. Over the past couple of days a Spoonbill had been seen at the RSPB Brading Marshes reserve. The bird was on the Dynamite Pool (and so, of course, totally impossible to see close up) so I went to Bembridge Windmill (Mill Farm public footpath), which is where it had been seen from. I did see the bird, which was among a group of gulls although, of course, I had wholly unsatisfactory long-distance views.

No pictures, I'm afraid, it was too far away for that. While I see the RSPB's point in not allowing access to the reserve it is a shame for Island birders that there isn't at least a footpath and a hide alongside the Dynamite Pool as some good stuff does show up there. But never mind, at least I saw it.

Oh yeah and it's about bloody time too! I've dipped on previous Spoonbills. Next time, can one considerately land on somewhere a bit more publicly accessible than the Dynamite Pool so we can get (a) a better view and (b) some piccies? :-)

Please tern round and look at me

2010-08-25T16:35:00.005+01:00

At Cowes this morning, this Common Tern was hanging round on top of this marker post. It was an atrocious day, wet and pretty nasty, like August has been this year (surely there's isn't a Bank Holiday coming up? Bank Holidays, as we know are always hot and sunny...!).

I'll be glad when we get into September, the holidaymakers will have largely gone home, the roads won't be as congested and the weather might even improve for a time. We can hope, because, as I type, yet another Atlantic depression is dumping tons of water on us, the garden is rapidly flooding and I have just got drenched going up the garden and back.

Keep visiting the blog because, as we go into autumn, I will try and get out more and something interesting and relevant will eventually appear on here.

They're back

2010-08-19T20:48:00.005+01:00

Once the breeding season was over, the birds vanished from the garden. There's nothing wrong in that, July and early August are usually quiet as food is plentiful out in the countryside and birds always keep a low profile while moulting and the young ones are growing up.
There are now more Greenfinches and Woodpigeons than ever and there are also a lot of Goldfinches this year. The young ones don't have the bright red faces of their parents, so they often cause you to look again 'What's that?'.

It'll soon be time to pick the camera up again and go out and about. It won't be this week though, as I've buggered up my ankle slipping over in the kitchen. One puddle of unseen dog pee and there you go, ripped ligaments. Not good.

'This isn't really my kind of subject' part 2

2010-08-02T20:47:00.009+01:00

After saying that I can't get enthusiastic about dragonflies and moths a few posts back, I was out in the garden this afternoon and these chaps were flying about so I grabbed the camera and took a few shots. The top one is a Migrant Hawker, while the following two are, I think, of a female Common Darter.
I'd like to take more photos of these, and butterflies too, except you can't get close to the little sods! I think I'll invest in some extension tubes to use on my 400mm and 70-200mm lenses.

Insects and flowers

2010-08-01T19:37:00.007+01:00

This isn't my usual sort of subject matter but, as birds are a bit thin on the ground at present, I decided to experiment and see if I could get any acceptable pictures of insects despite lacking a macro lens. For these pictures I used my 400mm Canon f4 L and my Canon 70-200 f4 L lenses. These were taken back in early July, in the garden and they've not come out too badly.
I particularly like the top photo, as there's some nice colours and a bit of action happening and I am especially pleased with the little hover fly entering the photo at right, I think the photo might have been lacking without it. I didn't notice it at the time I took the photo, only when I opened the picture in Photoshop.
Click for enlargements.

Ventnor lizards

2010-08-01T17:02:00.004+01:00

Last week I went to Ventnor Botanic Gardens, it's a nice place, I hadn't been there for years and it made a nice change of scene. The Botanic Gardens are also a good place to see lizards. We have a couple of species on the island, Common Lizards and the (introduced, I think) Wall Lizards.
They're quite hard to photograph as they scuttle away and vanish into cracks at the slightest hint of anything they don't like, but if you're quiet and still, they will reappear fairly quickly.

Shed skin

2010-07-03T12:38:00.005+01:00

I found a snake skin up the garden this morning. It was lying beside the log pile by the small pond. I am not 100% sure what species it is but we only have two species of snake here (I don't think the Smooth Snake occurs on the Isle of Wight) so it comes down to Adder or Grass Snake, and after Googling it, I think it's a Grass Snake - I have a 50/50 chance of being right!
Feel free to post a comment though, if I'm wrong.

I was pleased to find the skin, I like snakes and to see evidence of them in the garden is brilliant. I have kept the skin to show my aunt later, as I know she'd be interested in seeing it, but I think I'd better not mention it in front of my sister, who is visiting for the weekend with her kids, as she hates snakes and is known to scream, go pale and run from the room when one appears on tv! I'll show her kids the skin, because they'd probably like to see it and, as my aunt (a primary school teacher) will no doubt point out, it's 'edyookayshunal' - seriously, though, it's good for the brattish element of society to see things like this as, most of the time, children - including my nephews - seem to be more interested in their PSPs and X-Boxes than in the world around them. Surely no little boy (these are 7 and 9) can resist something so cool as a snake skin?!

Out and about

2010-06-23T14:14:00.009+01:00

I have been out and about doing deliveries and, as usual, my camera comes with me as there are usually plenty of opportunities for photos.
Yesterday I was in Bonchurch and there was a Grey Heron sitting by the pond. It sat there for a while, and was still sitting there when I left. There wasn't anything wrong with it, it was just having a sit down.

Today, I stopped at Gore Cliff to see what was around. Unfortunately I did not see any Peregrines, Little Owls (sometimes seen roosting on the cliff) or Ravens, but I did find a male Kestrel, Fulmars and plenty of Jackdaws. There were also plenty of people, the car park was nearly full and there was a lot of noise, mostly screaming from the people on the roller coaster, coming from Blackgang Chine. There appeared to be a school party and you could hear the staff yelling at their charges from three hundred feet up. Too noisy for me so I walked along the cliff path away from the chine.

Jackdaw with nest material, but look closer (click to enlarge the pic) and there appears to be a problem with its eye, unless it just happened to be blinking at the instant the photo was taken.

Fulmar - I couldn't get a single decent shot of these, they move at quite a speed, it's like trying to photograph a Tornado jet speeding past. I have included these, although I'm not at all satisfied with them.

Bumble bee on thistle. I know nothing about insects, so I don't know what species it is.

Some attractive yellow flowers, I have no idea what they are. Horseshoe Vetch, perhaps (after asking my aunt and consulting a book!)

I got myself the afternoon off because of the most important event of the week, involving a certain national side who are at the last-chance saloon in a certain tournament. Knowing England, it will be the usual singular torment that only they - and also Southampton, the club side I follow - can inflict on their fans. Lose and we're out. Draw and we're more than likely out. Only a win will do. Looking at the way they played in the last two matches and the rumblings coming from the "camp" over the past few days, I am not at all confident. That's why I am not going to gloat about the French, as it could be our lot following them to OR Tambo International Airport over the next day or so!

Edit, a couple of hours later: I love being wrong sometimes, England are through to the knockout stage and it was a much better performance all round. despite only scoring one goal which was due to some great saves by the Slovenian keeper. We've been pipped into second place by the USA on goal difference but who cares.

Mellow yellow

2010-06-17T17:34:00.006+01:00

Male Yellowhammer in the garden a couple of days ago. He positively glows in the June sunshine.

And a Goldfinch - who also has yellow in his colour scheme, not that you can see it in this pic. By the way, the one in the background isn't dead, he's in a dip in the grass so can't be easily seen.

Parus caeruleus - and euchlorus!

2010-06-16T19:16:00.011+01:00

Yesterday morning, I was waiting for a carpet fitter to arrive so I had to get up early to let him in, assuming he was arriving sometime between 0900 and 0930. In the end he arrived at 1020, so I could have had a lie in but I am not going to complain too much because the trees were full of young Blue Tits, so I went and I fetched my camera and took some photos of them sitting in the dead mimosa tree in the garden.
The pictures aren't that bad, although I am annoyed about the twig which ruins what would have been a pretty decent photo of the parent Blue Tit and three youngsters but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it; move and I'd frighten them away which I wasn't prepared to do and I could not clone out the twig, too fiddly and it looked a total mess when I tried it. The parent bird is looking a bit of a mess; I think he or she must have visited the bird bath, although the tit parents are looking a bit dishevelled now. And, despite my woeful attempt at a smart-arse post title, the babies aren't that green, they're more a muted, greenish version of the adults.

There are so many tits in my posts over the past week, I have a suspicion that this blog is going to be showing up in search engines when people are searching for an entirely different type of 'tit'. If you arrived here via such a search and you weren't looking for the birds, sorry to disappoint! ;)

Parus junior

2010-06-14T19:44:00.004+01:00

There are plenty of young Great Tits and Blue Tits around now. They are green versions of their brighter-coloured parents probably because, as inexperienced youngsters, they are vulnerable to being picked off and being in more subdued plumage makes them less obvious to predators. I don't know, I am guessing.
There were Blue Tits feeding their young ones outside the kitchen window but before I could go for my camera, a Woodpigeon landed and scared them off. Later, a Great Tit brought a young one to the fat feeders under the palm tree and I managed to get a picture, although the light was bad. The photo is a bit soft, but it was salvageable.

Unusual visitor

2010-06-13T19:44:00.009+01:00

A Bullfinch came to the garden today. We very rarely see them, once a year usually, so they are particularly welcome. Bullfinches don't seem to be so common these days, probably because of persecution for eating buds off fruit trees, so it is always good to see them and their rich pink colour, more vibrant than that of a Chaffinch, makes a male Bullfinch a lovely sight. I couldn't get a decent shot of him, despite my 400mm lens, and he didn't budge from the rat-proof feeder to a more photogenic perch so I had to make do with these photos.

There are also some nice field poppies out; who can resist a lovely red poppy against a green(ish!) background?

There are plenty of young birds about, the most obvious ones are Blue Tits, Great Tits and Goldfinches. Young Goldfinches don't have the colourful head, although they do have the yellow and black wings, so when you first see them it's a case of 'what's that?' before you realise what they are. The young tits are hanging round in the neighbour's oak trees, so it's difficult to photograph them because the dark surroundings makes the exposures awkward.

I must get out birding more. The price of petrol, being busy doing other things, apathy, lack of enthusiasm (birders call that 'fazing') and downright laziness have prevented me doing much this year, apart from my visit to Texas, which was not actually a birding trip - in fact I have done practically nothing since I got back from Australia and Asia last year (exactly one year ago today, I think). June's a bad time to get back into things as the breeding season will soon be over and it will all go quiet until late August and autumn migration starts. It's a bad time for my astronomy hobby, too, because of the short, twilit nights. But I just can't get enthusiastic about moths and dragonflies, unlike other birders...maybe if I got myself a macro lens I'd feel differently.

More Texas Birds

2010-05-29T14:22:00.009+01:00

Some more pics from Texas:

White-winged Dove, Indian Lodge State Park, TX

Say's Phoebe, Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, TX

Mourning Dove, Indian Lodge State Park, TX

Lark Sparrow, Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, TX

Female Black-chinned Hummingbird on nest, Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, TX

Inca Dove, River walk, San Antonio, TX

Great-tailed Grackle, San Antonio, TX

Texas Birds

2010-05-23T20:56:00.013+01:00

I have just returned from a couple of weeks in Texas, both the city of San Antonio and the Davis Mountains in the west of the state. I did manage to take quite a few pictures and the best of them are here (most are fit only for the recycle bin). I had a few problems with the camera's auto-focus, so I think I am going to have to send it to Canon for an overhaul or trade it in for a 50D when I have a bit more money.

Anyway, the weather was good and there were plenty of birds. It was not a birdwatching trip but I saw around 50 species which is not too bad for a non-birding trip.

Vermilion Flycatcher, Prude Ranch, Ft Davis, Davis Mountains, TX

Turkey Vulture, Prude Ranch, Ft Davis, Davis Mts, TX

Lesser Goldfinch, Indian Lodge State Park, Davis Mts, TX

House Finch, San Antonio, TX

Blue Grosbeak, Prude Ranch, Ft Davis, TX

Blue Grosbeak, Indian Lodge State Park, TX

Black-headed Grosbeak, Indian Lodge State Park, TX

Acorn Woodpecker, Indian Lodge State Park, TX

I am definitely going to do a dedicated birding trip to the States one day.

Some more photos from yesterday

2010-04-25T16:04:00.005+01:00

Nesting season

2010-04-24T21:03:00.007+01:00

The nesting season is underway and everywhere there's activity, with numerous birds nesting within the boundaries of the garden. This afternoon I sat outside, with the birds going about their business and ignoring me as I was sitting in my chair in the garden (see previous post).
Among these are Blue Tits, with at least two nest boxes occupied. I managed to get a couple of photos of one with nest-lining material (feathers, dog hairs, etc) in its beak.

A pity about the annoying foliage being in the way, but it couldn't be helped, although I will have to sneak out with the secateers one night and do something about it!

I also have a photography blog which gets the odd visitor from time to time, judging by the spam comments I keep having to delete, but I am thinking of merging that one and this one, especially considering the fact that there is a lot of duplication involved and time involved in maintaining two blogs.

Some photos

2010-04-24T18:26:00.006+01:00

Some photos from the garden, this afternoon. It was another pleasant spring day and I'd been stuck indoors at work all week, so it was nice to sit outside and photograph the birds, who went about their business, ignoring me sat in my chair.

Volcanic sunset

2010-04-17T15:03:00.006+01:00

The only benefit of the volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull that is causing major disruption over the UK and Europe is that some pretty sunsets have resulted. The above picture was taken on Thursday evening as the ash cloud drifted over the south of England. Some of the ash has also come to the ground, there was a sulphurous smell in the air last night and ash on the cars this morning; the ash is mixed with common-or-garden Isle of Wight dust, but there's a slight whiff of sulphur to it so it's not all common dust.
I hope that the 'Eyjafjallajökull European Tour' is soon over, though, as I am off to the US in three weeks' time and it'd be somewhat galling if I have to cancel or alter my plans.

There's plenty of nesting activity well underway now, we have Blackbirds nesting in the garden (adults are diving into the hedge with food) and one of the nest boxes is occupied by a pair of Blue Tits.

I have not done any birding recently, as I been too lazy as well as working. Besides, the costs of fuel at the moment (c. £1.20 per litre) makes driving expensive and that's a disincentive. I didn't even go to see the Black-winged Stilt at Yarmouth, but as I was at work that day I couldn't have gone anyway.

Caught in the act

2010-04-07T18:04:00.005+01:00

Just recently the bird feeders had been emptying faster than we could keep them filled. We do get a lot of the bigger birds such as Rooks and Woodpigeons stuffing their faces, but this level of consumption was more than even they can usually achieve.
While looking out of the kitchen window yesterday my aunt saw the culprit - a Red Squirrel. It has returned several times since and, this evening, I managed to get a grabbed shot of him through the window:

Hopefully he (or she) will keep on coming back, it's great to have such a rare mammal, although locally common round here (sorry, can't resist rubbing it in a bit!), visiting the garden.

Go West...

2010-02-21T12:05:00.004Z

Despite not actually intending to take any flights this year, as I wanted to go to one of the UK seabird islands instead of going abroad, I fell to temptation and booked a flight to Texas in May. As well as being a birder, I am also a keen amateur astronomer and one of my favourite vacations is the annual Texas Star Party, which is held in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, close to the Mexican border. This is a huge gathering of amateur astronomers from all over Texas, the wider United States and even some of us from overseas - there are usually a few UK citizens and other Europeans there; one guy from London always has a huge Union flag flying from his tent, keeping the British end up. So far, I have been in 2006 and 2008 and when I received emails from friends out there asking if I was coming over for this year's TSP I caved in and decided to go, and the fact that I have very itchy feet again also made the decision to go very easy.

Despite having visited Texas twice before, I have managed to do bugger all, or very little, birding there, apart from listing from my friends' back gardens and ambling round Brackenridge Park in San Antonio. The Davis Mountains are in the Trans-Pecos area and are good for birding, so I will make an effort to get out and about. In 2006 I didn't bother and in 2008 it was 117 degrees in the shade and way too hot, especially after being up all night looking at incredibly faint Herbig-Haro objects and MAC galaxies (the latter is a quite famous catalogue of galaxies put together by my friend Larry Mitchell and are fun, if challenging, to see - they'd be near impossible in the UK with my 12 inch Dobsonian, but are 'easy' under dark, dry skies in huge telescopes of 25 inches and up), so the birding fell by the wayside on both occasions.

A friend from California, who is a keen - and expert - birder and photographer is also going to the TSP and we have agreed that we must try and put one morning aside to get up (or not go to bed!), get out and get some Davis Mountains birds. I am hoping that, this time, I come home with a swollen list and some good photos!

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The signs of Spring are becoming more evident. The daylight hours are lengthening and more birds are singing. A Mistle Thrush was singing from the top of a tree next to Sainsbury's yesterday and I heard a Song Thrush here at home on Friday morning as I was leaving for my latest temp job. Great Tits and Woodpigeons have already been singing for two or three weeks now and I heard a dawn chorus of sorts at 0630 the other morning when I let the dogs out.

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On a less pleasant note, I have broken a tooth, a sub-molar tooth in my top jaw, so I am going to have to go to the dentist sometime this week. It doesn't hurt that much, just stings a bit, and fortunately it's only the back of the tooth which has come away and not the front, but it's annoying as a good third, maybe half the tooth has broken off. And just try getting an emergency out-of-hours appointment on the Isle of Wight, our dental service here is crap; I spent 20 minutes on the phone from the opening time at 0800 and then couldn't get an appointment for today as the emergency clinic is open only between 0900 and 1130, which is about as much use as a chocolate oven. I'll just go to my own dentist, which is an NHS dentist so won't cost me so much - I hope.