Grey Partridges & The Silhouetted Hobby

My apologies for the lack of updates in the past fortnight or so, I've been away in Pembrokeshire for a week and the few days leading up to departing seemed to be full of other things on the agenda. So whilst I spent all day yesterday going through various photos I took last week whilst away I remembered that I still had some encounters from the last weekend in may to share.

Whilst heading towards the Cricket pitch on the friday evening, I thought I'd have a drive through Apsley (the old home) its a bit of a divert from St Mary Bourne but a nice quiet single track road with open fields either side. Much to my delight as I rounded the corner to drive past a couple of freshly drilled fields a pair of Grey Partridge dusting / gritting in the road, they didn't at all seem bothered as my camera lens appeared out of the car window. In my opinion easily our most gracious of Game birds, and one you see all that often so I was happy with my first opportunity to get some shots I was pleased with, However no sign of any youngsters, so Im guessing she hasn't sat yet or if so they were unsuccessful.

Grey Partridge Male 

Grey Partridge Pair 

Grey Partridge Male

As always never far away was the Pheasant, a lone cock with his hareem of 6 hens strutting his stuff out on the dry maize sown ground. As majestic as ever in some nice soft orange light.

Cock Pheasant

As I headed down towards the cricket pitch, I had a quick scan over the water meadows, desperate to pick up a hunting Hobby, as Im still yet to see one that hasn't been miles away. I thought my luck was in as looking towards the sun a falcon shape silhouette headed straight towards me, I snapped off a lot of pictures and wasn't able to tell it was in fact a Kestrel until it had disappeared overhead. You cannot believe my excitement and then the disappointment when I found out it wasn't.

Hunting Kestrel

With cricket pitch mown, rolled & marked out, I headed back down the back road to Longparish, again finding the Spotted Flycatchers in the same spot, this time 4 showing well in amongst the trees. The light pretty poor in the shade I did manage one notable shot at least so you can tell what it is. Ignore the orange crest that makes it appear like a female Blackcap, this was intact the sun.

Spotted Flycatcher

Its pretty apparent to see why these migrants enjoy this particular area as about a 100 yards down the road, another fly hatch adorned the sky with various others from the spell of dry warm weather we had been having. I quite liked how they twinkled in the setting sun.

Blacksmith's Bridge

http://www.facebook.com/MartinClayPhotography I'm tending to use my Facebook page a bit more frequently at the moment, so all views and "Likes" would be hugely appreciated. 

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

With packing pretty much all done, and unpacking half finished, I thought I better grab some more time with the Brown Hares in the back field, before the move was finalised. I managed to work 20mins free time on Thursday evening, so positioned myself commando styley on the edge of the field, totally in the wrong place for the sun, but within seconds I'd called a Hare from the far side of the field about 400 yards away. It came pretty close, and although totally into the sun, I really like the shots I took. The light rings around the shape of the Hare look pretty cool.

I got up for work a little earlier than planned on Friday morning so headed out again up the field, trying to position myself with the rising sun behind me this time. Like before though the Hares don't really want to come to that side of the field, which I find strange, there is more cover there for starters. I did get a couple of Ok-ish shots with a nice backdrop, including "The Stretch" which was one of the slowest wakeup stretches I've ever seen. All in all not a bad 45 mins spent over the too sessions.

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!

9 Below

-9 the Thermometer read when I took the dogs out at 8am yesterday morning, however the sun was shining and the Birds were going mental on the feeders. Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Sparrow, Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird, Goldfinch & Great-spotted Woodpecker all regular visitors.

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

A long walk across the snow covered fields, didn't really reveal anything else, a Kestrel flew from pole to pole along the telegraph wires. A Grey Heron and several Teal flushed from the flight pond, and lots of Brown Hares noticeable out on the hard ground.

Brown Hare

Brown Hare

An afternoon walk over Newton Hill and the neighbouring Westmores Wood didnt bring forth any Short Eared's or Barn Owls in the after noon sunshine. A bit disappointing really consider the weather, and how we saw them a fortnight ago.

A quick stop by the River Test in Longparish on the way home revealed a dozen or so Greylag Geese. And a Little Grebe on the river, which on closer inspection has a fish in it bill.

Greylag Goose

Little Grebe With Fish

One For Sorrow Two For Joy.....26 For?????

Now I know the old song as well as most, but anybody got any ideas what 26 Magpies are for, I thought the 17 sat in the one Ash tree was a high amount but the other 9 Magpies that were sat further down the hedgerow concluded that number.

Only a trudge around the estate today, resulting in Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Robin, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Corn Bunting, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard, Red-legged Partridge, Pheasant & Carrion Crow.

Also this rather brave Yellowhammer, the first one I've been able to photograph.

Yellowhammer

Yellowhammer

Up The Garden

A quick wander this afternoon with the camera around the Garden brought Blue Tit, Great Tit, House Sparrow, Coal Tit, Wood Pigeon, Goldfinch, Song Thrush, Fieldfare, Blackbird & Yellowhammer.

A couple of pics to mark the occasion.

Coal Tit

Goldfinch

A Late Xmas Pressie

With the routine pretty much back to normal, after a New Year visit to Shropshire. And a another serious bought of Cold, I was able to get back out and about with the Camera at lunch time today. Now having been on about it for about 2 months to close friends, family and work colleagues (Particularly my Girlfriend) I forked out some serious saved Cash to upgrade my photographing distance. Take a look at this bad boy!

Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM

My Christmas present to myself! So off I popped at lunch today lens attached and fitted to the tripod, the only problem with upgrading.....It weighs a lot more than I had previously had to carry. And before I get carried away as a moany photographer I'll shut up about it.

On the Wildlife front though a pretty disappointing trip, the weather, as I guess it was in every other part of the UK today was pretty darn windy. All the water borne birds underneath the shelter of the overhanging branches. Canada Goose, Black-headed Gull, Mute Swan, Mallard, Tufted Duck & Little Grebe all sheltering from the wind. The only birds brave enough to ride the quite choppy waves being the Coot & Moorhen.

No signs of any smaller birds, 2 or 3 Robins flitted about around the path, along with a couple of Blackbirds, I did get a brief glimpse at the first Kingfisher of the year, as he flew into the reeds. So all in all not really a great chance to try my new bit of kit out.

Talking of stunning pieces of kit. My Mum bought Dad a Trophy / Stealth Camera for Christmas this year, after setting it up on the Bird Table in the garden and soon realizing that the Birds are too small to set it off. He maneuvered it too his Barn Owl Box across the field in front of our house. With all this windy weather it appeared that an ivy branch 40 yards away seemed to cause the most common movement in setting the sensor off. 3 Days & 1000 Pics later - All I can say is not bad for a first attempt! It's now repositioned and ready for a second go.

Andy Clay. Copyright 2012

And A Partridge In The Hedgerow

Well my apologies first of all for the lack of posts this week, haven’t had the chance to get out at all, the weathers been pretty rubbish and more annoyingly I’ve been suffering from a serious bout of Man Flu! And we all know what that means!!!

Feeling near enough alive again, and having a surprisingly quiet day planned I used the excuse of walking the dogs, to trek around the estate. And I must say a very festive result, 25 species of bird for Christmas, and no im not just making that number up.

Below listed are the Bird Species spotted today around the estate and on the garden feeders:

1.Blue Tit 2.Great Tit 3.Blackbird 4.House Sparrow 5.Dunnock 6.Grey Heron 7.Green Sandpiper 8.Wood Pigeon 9.Carrion Crow 10.Treecreeper 11.Goldcrest 12.Long Tailed Tit 13.Buzzard 14.Yellowhammer 15.Chaffinch 16.Red Legged Partridge 17.Coal Tit 18.Great Spotted Woodpecker 19.Sparrowhawk 20.Little Egret 21.Mallard 22.Common Teal 23.Pheasant 24.Tawny Owl 25.Robin

Also spotted – Roe Deer, Brown Hare, Rabbit & Stoat

Hopefully I will be able to get out and about again before the New Year, may even get a chance to pop up to Slimbridge during next week. So I shall take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, may you all drink and eat too much and give and receive plenty.

Female Great-spotted Woodpecker

Christmas Lights

Female House Sparrow