A Quick Sunday Skive

Still in the midst of Boxes, empty freezers, trailer loads of plants and general removal duties, I didn't get chance to get out at all in the beautiful weather we had this weekend. I did however manage to grab these 3 shots whilst skiving from my duties, the Peacock Butterfly & Mallard Drake both at the bottom of the new garden, the Calf whilst driving back through the local farmyard.

Peacock

Mallard Drake

Spring Calf

Relaxed Rooksbury

With Spring officially here and some scorching weather descending upon the UK last week, I took a trip down to Rooksbury Mill on friday lunchtime, basking in gorgeous sunshine. The normal dark and dingy lakes now crystal clear and as calm as a millpond. Half a dozen pairs of Tufted Duck & Gadwall are paired up on the smaller Barlows lake, and joined by 4 outcast Mute Swan Cygnets. The Grey Heron was also stood in his/her normal spot beside the River Anton.

Mr & Mrs Gadwall

Mrs G in a bit of a flap 

Gadwall Female

Grey Heron

The sound of the A303 was drowned out by the gorgeous chorus of singing birds, most noticably Chiffchaff and Wren. Whose song really seems to become more prominent and noticable at this time of the year, well I think it does, I also have found it extremely hard to get a decent photograph of a Wren in the past, so I couldn't believe my luck when this little fella landed in-front of me and started singing his/her heart out.

Wren

Mid Song

Taking the short path over the streams out on to the board walk and the bigger Mill lake, I spotted a couple of Coot milling around near the lake edge, and the Great-crested Grebe out in the middle of the water, with the sun positioned perfectly behind me, and the shadow from the trees behind hiding any of my own, I crept down and sat on the bench by the waters edge, and waited.

Great-crested Grebe 

Great-crested Grebe

Great-crested Grebe

Monster Coot? 

This part of the lake seems to be adorned with surface weed, which Im guessing is the main attraction for the Grebe whence feeding, just a pain for photography as it was preventing some cracking reflections. Another thing that really did surprise me as when the Grebe swam over next to a Coot, 

in-comparison it looks a lot smaller, now for some reason I've always thought of a Grebe in all its elegance to be somewhat one of the bigger waterborne birds in the UK. I now feel a bit stupid, and like I don't really pay attention to the species I am photographing at all.

Also I've been thinking more and more lately, how my photography has kind of hit a wall, I feel im now pretty proficient with my camera skills, but need to change the composition and how I construct an image, so Im gonna try to make a more conscious effort to make the subjects shot a little more engaging mainly by getting lower or more on the same level. Also maybe in the past I've relied heavily on editing to boost the image, I think a little more natural look and feel maybe more suitable

Woodlarks & Sunshine (Amended)

With the night off from moving, once home from work at 5pm  I headed out around the garden and the field beyond in some gorgeous late afternoon sunshine to see what was about. Loads of Blue Tits visiting the feeders at the moment, along with a couple of rather huge Great Tits. The House Sparrows seem pretty happy to be making so much noise as well at the moment, Only a few seen but dozens heard.

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

I was however pretty surprised to see a pair of Woodlark (First thought they were Skylarks but after a very helpful comment and some google-ing I can see in my identification ignorance that they were Woodlark) dusting by the side of the road on the rough area we use for car parking. They soon joined others in the freshly worked down field in-front of our cottages. I counted 6 Woodlarks in total from the comfort of my car, joined by 13 Yellowhammers the cock birds almost luminous in their plumage ready for the breeding season.

Woodlark

Woodlark

Yellowhammer

Mad March Hares

With the home move still in full flow, finding time to get out with the camera is proving a little tricky at the moment. However from the time spent working in the garden weekends my new garden list is looking impressive with all these species seen to date :

Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Kestrel, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Little Grebe, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Jay, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Blackbird, Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Moorhen & Goldfinch

So when my weekend gardening contract finished at the new place, I thought I might try out an old poaching technique I'd seen recently (Not literally) Calling in Brown Hares, except I shot mine with a camera not a catapult!

Turns out it works a treat, I spent about an hour in the Wheat field behind the house, squeaking, 4 or 5 out of the 15 Hares coming to within 20 Yards of my camera! Several did engage in a brief spell of boxing but remained at quite a distance, Just a shame the sun had started to set as they approached.

I'm convinced this Hare is giving me the 2 fingers!

Barn Owl & The 2012 Century

With a good hidden spot scouted out for owl watching, Nat and I set my 2 man real tree hide up on the Common late on Sunday afternoon in anticipation of Short-eared's the result to which I wrote about in my previous post.

Whilst watching them from a distance I was always hopeful that if the Barn Owl joined the fray it might stray a lot closer to the hide than the Shorties would. My hopes didn't prove to be disappointing as after about 30 mins of watching the Barn Owl hunt the long grass beyond the River Dever, it started to work either bank back and forth towards the hide. A few well placed squeak calls on the back of my hand, and he / she was heading straight for the hide. I have to admit in my amateuristic state of Owl attraction, I tempted it so close that I couldn't focus my lens in time, and was beginning to wonder if it might join me in the hide.

None the less a fantastic afternoon spent watching the Owls, and a real privilege to see such an awesome bird in the daytime. Plus I reached 100 Bird Species for the year with a Male Reed Bunting.

Barn Owl 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl 

About To Drop 

My Favorite 

In Flight 

As Close As "Barnie" Got Before I Lost The Focus :-(

99 Without The Flake

Having got some detailed directions to the location of the Short-eared Owls at Bransbury, I set the alarm for 5.50am on Friday morning and headed off in the darkness. After a 25 min trek from the Car to the given location I arrived about 6.35am, already the light gaining on me fast, it proved too fast really as a pair of Barn Owls were already out hunting as I emerged from the path on to the common. Waiting till they disappeared I crept further up the fence-line to the recommended spot overlooking the River Dever and the distant River Test. A Short-eared Owl soon joining me in the same field before quickly disapeering

My mornings Owl spotting was soon interrupted however by the local Deer Stalker who trundled up the River bank in front of me, seemingly spooking said Owls as I never saw them again. A couple of Buzzards flew over the area unperturbed, and just as I began to think about packing up and heading off to work at 7.15 am a Ring-tailed Hen Harrier glided over the top of the grasses in the distance. Number 99 on my bird Species list for 2012 and the first I've seen in England let alone Hampshire.

With the weather marginally better in the afternoon I headed down again, finding an alternative entry footpath and reducing the walk too around 10 mins. With Camo hide setup I enjoyed some cracking views of 4 Short-eared Owls and 1 Barn Owl for a good couple of hours. The light however preventing any of the photographs to anything more than a Noisy blur.

With Sundays afternoon awash in beautiful golden sunlight, and the weekends work moving just about done, Nat and I headed down and were setup again in my hide by 4pm, the first Shortie showing around 15 mins later soon joined by another 2. With both Rivers in between getting closer to them is a bit of a task especially as it seems like private ground, so all photos are from the edge of the common quite a distance away, some cracking views mind!

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

Spring In The Step

With the weather pretty indecisive last week I only managed to get down to Rooksbury Mill the once, everything seems to be paired off, and the arrival of a second Great crested Grebe looks good for this springs nesting. A few shots taken on Tuesday lunchtime, in some really bright conditions. I love how the sun hits the water and sparkles around these Swans!

Mute Swan

Mute Swan Sparkles

Mallard Duck

Water Vole

Teme Dipper

Waking up to a wet morning on sunday wasn't the best start to the day, but by 11am the skies seem to have lighten a bit and the rain subsided. A short drive into Ludlow for a walk along the River Teme, plenty of Mallard & Mute Swans seen on the Weirs, a pair of Bullfinch by the path side, branches preventing me from a decent picture. But the star bird, the one I was hoping to see, the Dipper!

We first saw it from the bridge by the Charlton Arms Hotel, as to which I managed some distant pictures, before making full use of the pubs riverside garden and car park to get closer. As he/she left and revisited its rocky perch several times. Also spotted a Kingfisher flying low over top of the river when walking back to the car.

Probably the best weekends birding I've ever had, with 2 new species and 4 newbies for the 2012 Year list. Which is up to 98 now.

Distant Dipper

Distant Dipper

Dipper

Dipper

Dipper

Clun Kites

Heading back to Craven Arms on the back of a mornings walk with the Crossbills & Great Grey Shrike about half way along the road from Clun I had to do a pretty quick pull over again, this time in a gateway to the side of the main road. Hazards on I jumped out of the car armed with the camera, able to lean on the 5 bar gate and shoot the 5 Red Kites that had been soaring over the road a minute or too previously. The light was absolutely perfect and I don't think I've ever seen Kites fly so low in a place where they haven't been fed for the purpose. They all seemed to be after a bit of white plastic as you can see below. We had awesome views and at one stage thought one particular Kite was heading through the window of the Car.

Red Kite

Red Kite

Red Kite

Red Kite - Rubbish Collector