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It was a bit of a full house from Thursday through to Monday with visiting family including three grandchildren, so not much opportunity to photograph any birds. Having said that I did manage to take a few photos in the garden while the rest of the crowd visited the Crocky Trail at Chester.


Greenfinch in the garden

However Tuesday was a lovely day and luckily I had booked a holiday so I went to the hide that Neill Carden and myself have set up.

The front of the hide faces north so the feeders and the few perches that we have set up should be pretty well lit most of the day.

It is only a small hide but could probably fit three people at a push however there wouldn’t be much room to move arms and legs.


Our New Hide

After topping up the feeders and throwing some seed on the ground it didn’t take long for the birds to swoop in. I think the Goldfinch were first to arrive, followed by Robin, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Tree Sparrow. Getting them to land on the feeders isn’t much of a problem, getting them to land on the other perches isn’t quite as easy.


Robin


Tree Sparrow

After about 30mins a Yellowhammer arrived, it spent some time feeding on the ground. The rest of the time in the conifers but at a distance/height that allowed it to be photographed. There were at least two Yellowhammers around for most of the morning.


Yellowhammer


Yellowhammer

The times I’ve seen Yellowhammer previously have been very few and far between and generally at some distance. So to get some good photographs after six years of trying is a real bonus.

Other birds I saw were Dunnock, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Blackbird, Lapwing, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Grey Partridge & Swallow, I was pretty sure I could hear a Skylark close by but I didn’t catch sight of it. While I was watching from the hide I also saw Orange Tip, Small Tortoiseshell and Small White Butterflies.


Grey Partridge

Of course I missed the Black Tern at Woolston Eyes that was seen on the 1st of May and from the photo I’ve seen, it landed on the perch for the gulls & Kingfisher in front of the centre hide, drat and double drat. On Saturday 5th May two more of my bogey birds Cuckoo and Grasshopper Warbler were singing/calling on No3 bed. I’ll see them eventually I suppose!

From experience I seem to wait ages to see and photograph a bird then they seem to appear with regularity for a while and then they disappear again.

The Reed Buntings that have frequented the feeders in our garden since late last year now appear to have departed but seem to have been replaced by a pair of Bullfinches, I’ve not tried to photograph them, yet!

cheers

Andy

It has been a couple of weeks since I last visited “The Eyes” so a visit was overdue.
However when I reached the parking area a Minibus was evident suggesting a visiting group of birders!

Sure enough after I crossed the footbridge, it wasn’t a host of golden daffodils that I found but rather a large group of people; so I wasn’t wandering lonely as a cloud on Saturday!

I managed to overtake them and get to the centre hide before them, I thought about setting up the tripod but with 20+ people in the hide it may have caused a SHE issue so I quickly discarded that idea.

During the Black-necked Grebe season I always visit with the hope that I’ll get my best ever photograph of one of them. However in the back of my mind I know that it will probably never happen but you have to be in it to win it as they say!

So with everything conspiring against good photography it didn’t stop me trying and pressing the shutter button when I knew I was wasting my time.

So as usual the sight of a Black-necked Grebe encouraged me to commit one of the common errors; the subject too distant. See Black-necked Grebe photo below after some very tight cropping on the computer.


Black-necked Grebe

I’ve got to say I do see an awful lot of people taking photos from the hides at Woolston Eyes with short focal length lenses and I often think that they are going to be awfully disappointed when they download the files to their computer!

Of course I don’t know what they are actually taking photos of or what their intentions are but usually it’s some distant bird. Even if the intention is to show the subject in its environment I believe they would be very lucky if the subject could be seen in the view.


Canada Geese and six young

While I was in the hide I saw four or five Black-necked Grebe, around 8 Canada Geese and a pair with 6 young, 1 Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Gadwall, Shellduck, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Cormorant and one male Ruddy Duck (not many of those around now).


Part of the Black Headed Gull Colony that breed on No.3 bed

I didn't see a Heron fly in or any Raptors but something put the gulls up.

A Lapwing also put in appearance and there were plenty of Swallows, Swifts and Sand Martins over the water. The gulls on show were Black-headed Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gull I did look earnestly for the Little Gull that had been there earlier in the week and I always have a look for Mediterranean Gulls but neither species were around. A single Pied Wagtail also landed at the edge of the pool but it didn’t face the right way.


Pied Wagtail

Of the other photographs I took, the Gadwall is hopefully the best as it came closest to the hide and it also remained reasonably still.


Gadwall

The Cormorant photograph isn’t too bad even though it was some distance away and it has been cropped quite tightly. It is however a much larger bird than the Black-necked Grebe and it doesn’t have to be cropped as much to appear large in the frame.


Cormorant

On the walk back to the car park I noticed a Ladybird that I tried to photograph with the Macro lens. As I continued my walk back to the car I became aware of 1000’s of large black flies that were on the vegetation. The Ladybird photograph isn't too bad but the fly could be better.


7-Spot Ladybird


St Marks Fly (Bibio marci)

Thanks to Alan Patterson (Woolston Eyes Warden) who identified the fly for me and who also told me why how it got the name.
Fact - The name comes from the fact that this species is often on the wing in large numbers around April 25th, St Mark's Day.

Who needs a calendar when you have nature to give you a date!

I was supposed to be going to our new hide on Sunday morning with Neill but to use a well known cricketing term it was definitely a case of rain stopped play.

I’ve seen a few photos taken from the hide that Neill’s posted on Bridguides and they’ve been good.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get there sometime this week, god willing and a fair wind; having said that it does look like the whole of next weekend is going to be taken up with things other than photography.


Andy

Neill Carden and myself visited Pennington Flash on Saturday morning as he had just acquired a 500mmNikon lens and he was desperate to try it out. The other reason being that we both wanted to improve on our existing Bullfinch photographs.

As we drove up the M6 it was raining quite hard but the weather forecast was for grey cloud with intermittent rain so we continued on in the hope that the rain would abate.

When we arrived sure enough the rain had stopped and although not sunny and bright it was light enough! The best hide for the Bullfinches is the Bunting hide but when the trees are fully leaved it can reduce the light quite a lot but luckily not too many leaves.


Pair of Bullfinch

There were quite a few Bullfinches around along with Willow, Blue, Great and Coal Tits. There were also Greenfinch, Magpies, Wood Pigeon, Dunnock & Robin and a Wood mouse also put in an appearance just for good measure.


Male Bullfinch


Female Bullfinch


Chaffinch


Dunnock


After spending some time at the Bunting Hide we had a bit of a wander around but we didn’t see an awful lot although we did find a Wren singing in a thicket that we did manage to snap. The Blackcap and the Chiffchaff that I attempted to photograph failed miserably.


Singing Wren

After that we decided to have a look at the hide Neill and I have put up back in Warrington. We put it up last weekend and filled all the feeders to attract the birds and just left it for the birds to get used to it. We know most of the common birds are around and Neill has seen a Goldcrest and a few other less common birds. We only stayed about 30 minutes but these are my first two photos taken from the hide.


Great Tit on feeder


Great Tit

We are on the look out for some more natural or photogenic perches now!!

For those interested this is what was recorded on No3 bed at Woolston Eyes on Saturday.

Woolston Eyes Saturday 21st April 2012
Highlights being: One Cuckoo, 2 Sedge Warblers, 2 adult Little Gulls on the scrape in front of the Morgan Hide, 2 Kingfishers, 3 Common Snipe, 2 Water Rails and all three hirundines. In addition Kieran Foster and his team ringed the first Grasshopper Warbler and Reed Warbler of the year.

Cheers

Andy

Although I had a 6day break over Easter I didn’t go to Woolston Eyes and I only managed a small amount of photography but I did manage some, mainly some flower photography using my Macro lens.

These are my favourites.





The second photograph was produced using a focus stacking technique and is a composite of fourteen shots. I used a 100mm f2.8 lens with 68mm extension rings and the exposure was f6.3 @ 13secs. To eliminate as much movement as possible I used a tripod, a remote release and also mirror lock up on the camera. The amount of detail in the centre of the flower head is quite amazing.

The Lesser Redpolls now seems to be daily visitors to the garden feeders along with three or four Goldfinch.


Lesser Redpoll

While I was watching the feeders a Mistle Thrush flew in had a drink and disappeared again. I’ve never seen a Mistle Thrush in the garden before and I’m pretty sure they don’t normally frequent garden feeding stations but there’s always a first time!


Mistle Thrush

Yesterday we had a trip to the Trough of Bowland with no particular thing in mind other than the hope of seeing some Curlew and perhaps a Little Owl.
We did see plenty of Curlew but too far away to get good photos, plenty of Pheasants and quite a few Lapwing, various Gulls, a couple of common Buzzards, a Red Grouse and quite a few Meadow Pipits fighting the wind. Where I’ve seen Little Owls in the past drew a blank this time.


Curlew


Meadow Pipit

We also noted quite a few patches of Bluebells in bloom which I believe is quite early.

I also found some Moles pegged to some barbed wire, obviously something still practiced in the country.



It's probably a throwback to days gone by when mole catchers would show off their work to get paid. Trappers hung the animals on fences so landowners could see how many they had snared and pay them by the mole. The catchers would display up to 100 of the unfortunate creatures, as well as crows and other animals considered to be vermin.

For those interested 20 Black-necked Grebe were counted at Woolston Eyes over the Easter weekend. A Siberian Chiffchaff was also netted which is a first for Woolston and only the fourth recorded in Cheshire.

Lastly one day last week I found the remains of one of the male Reed Buntings that have been frequenting the feeders all winter. I’m not sure what killed it but probably a cat although we do get a Sparrowhawk visiting the feeders quite frequently.
As it happened the dead bird was ringed and I have found out that it was ringed as an adult at Woolston Eyes in May 2009 but hadn’t been netted again at Woolston. I have sent the details and the ring number to the BTO.

Thanks for reading.

Andy

When I awoke on Saturday it didn’t appear to be a great day for photography, poor light and a slight wind to roughen the water ruining any chance of reflections.

When I arrived at No.3 bed there where about 7 cars parked up and I thought I was going to have company. I wandered round to the Rotary Hide but didn’t see anything of note, however I did see and hear plenty of Chiffchaff.

On the water I could see a couple of Black-necked Grebes, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebes, Gadwalls, Pochards, Shovelers and Black-headed gulls. Unfortunately nothing came close enough to take a decent photograph. However a pair of Lapwings where scaling the uneasy sky flapping the lapwing fly.


Lapwing flying the Lapwing fly

After a while I moved to the centre hide, where I saw more of the birds listed above and additionally Lesser Black backed gulls, five more Black-necked Grebe, Teal, Cormorant, Mallard, a single Greylag Goose, a pair of Canada Geese and a single Mute Swan. There were also Jay, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Greenfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Wren and a Pheasant.


Lapwing


Teal


Black-necked Grebe not yet in full summer plumage and too far away!

When I first arrived there was Black headed Gull on the edge of the water that didn’t look very well and by the time I left, sadly it had died.

While I was in the centre hide some of the committee members came in who had been doing a count and officially they had counted twelve Black-necked Grebe.


Black-necked Grebe

Just as an aside they had counted eleven Reed Bunting and I’ve had five or six in the garden for most of the winter! Obviously adapting to the seed available in garden feeders.


Reed Bunting one of the five or six that appear daily in our garden

Interestingly I also saw my first Redpoll in the garden on Wednesday through to Saturday, a nice little bird. I tried to make it into a Mealy or an Arctic but had to make do with it being a Lesser Redpoll in the end.


Lesser Redpoll

Sunday was a nicer day but I didn’t get out to do any photography however I did manage to take a few photos in the garden, Reed Bunting, Greenfinch and the moon.


The Moon - taken in daylight

Sunday was another very pleasant day, sun, blue sky and no clouds, I resisted the temptation to go back to Woolston Eyes and visited Houghton Green Flash in the hope of finding some Black-necked Grebe that I could photograph.

When I arrived I stood at the top of the embankment and scanned the water with my bins I was quite disappointed, I couldn’t see any. A couple of birders joined me and set up their scopes, they were also looking for the elusive Black-necked Grebes!

They had visited on the Saturday and they said two had been there then.

If last year is anything to go by the Black-necked Grebe appear to favour the edges of the flash so I decided to walk around just in case. The sun made it very difficult to see the far end of the pool from where I was standing so I was still hopeful!

I wandered lonely as a cloud but I didn’t stumble upon a host of golden daffodils or Black-necked Grebe! So here is a photo from last year.


Black-necked Grebe

All I saw on my little wander were Carrion Crow, Black-headed Gull, Coot, Lapwing, Great Crested Grebe, Mallard and a handful of Wigeon.


Great Crested Grebe

Disappointed I thought I’d go home and put some bedding plants in the borders.

However on the way back I decided to have a look at the Mersey just to the East of the M6.

As I got out of the car a Buzzard was drifting over and was soon joined by another two. At one point they were quite low and directly overhead. I’ve got to say it is quite difficult to hold the 500mm lens vertically and keep it steady. I did get a few decent photos however. One of these Buzzards was the one I’d seen on No3 bed the day before.


Common Buzzard


Common Buzzard


Common Buzzard

As I walked along the footpath towards the river, I heard a Chiffchaff in the in a small copse just off the path. After a few minutes I eventually found it at the top of a tree, aren’t they always! The bonus being there wasn’t any leaves yet and although it didn’t stay in one place for any length of time I did eventually get a clear view of it through the branches.

My best photograph of a Chiffchaff, yippee; I’ve waited 6 years for it.


Chiffchaff

I continued on to the river and just gazed and gazed with little thought at the lordly river, broad and deep, dimpling along in silent majesty.

It’s amazing how clean the Mersey has become compared to how it was not too many years ago.

Anyway after my moment of solitude and reflection I made my way back to the car and home.

In the afternoon my wife and I went to the Wirral, big mistake; I think the fine weather had brought the whole of Liverpool out to play.

New Brighton was heaving and we couldn’t find anywhere to park and even the car park at Leasowe lighthouse was nearly full. They had an event on at the lighthouse and people were abseiling down it.

Anyway we went up to the walkway as there was an empty seat; we soon found out why the seat was empty! We’d only been sitting about 30seconds gazing out over the tranquil blue waters of the Mersey estuary and a swarm of horrible large flies descended on us. After a few minutes we gave up and escaped back to the car.

We moved on to Hoylake at least we could find places to park along the front, there wasn’t any flies and there were birds to see, mainly Redshank. I could also hear the evocative call of a Curlew and I eventually picked him out in the distance.


Redshank

I also thought I’d found my first Curlew Sandpiper but on checking in various books and asking a friend I was disappointed and it was a Dunlin. A not very good photo appears below. Excitement over!


Dunlin

We moved on to West Kirby and I know it gets busy but the number of people on the beach was ridiculous, I’ve never seen it so busy.

We decided to head home but then we heard that there had been a crash on the M56 and turned to head back to the tunnel. Only to be confronted by roadworks and queues and my wife complained all the way home about the traffic.

Thanks for reading,

Andy

Having heard that some Black-necked Grebe had returned to “The Eyes” it was a bit of a foregone conclusion about where I would be going on Saturday.

I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning with not a cloud in the sky probably the best Saturday of the year so far, so it wasn’t very difficult for me to raise myself, get my gear together and get out and about.

Whilst driving along the canal to the reserve there were plenty of Great Crested Grebe and Cormorants to be seen; the Cormorants seemed to be having quite a bit of success fishing, returning to the surface dive after a dive with some rather large fish. I tried pointing the camera in various directions but couldn’t really get a decent shot, the light was far too contrasty.

As I walked along the path past the first screen and hide I was hit by the noise from the Black-headed Gulls but as I walked into the trees it changed to birdsong and I heard my first Chiffchaff of the year; spring has definitely sprung.

I normally go straight to the centre hide but I decided to start at the Rotary Hide because I’ve had reasonable success there photographing the Black-necked Grebe but there wasn’t much to be seen or at least no Black-necked Grebe. While I was there Brian Martin came into the hide and told me he had counted eight or nine Black-necked Grebe from the new hide, around the middle of the pool, which wouldn’t be too bad distance wise for a few shots.


Black-headed Gull from the Rotary Hide

So I moved on to the new hide and it took a while before I found some BNG’s anyway I counted six and then another three drifted in from the south channel, so nine in total.

Unfortunately they mostly kept to the far side of the centre pool so no real chances to photograph them, even with the 1.4x teleconverter attached. However I couldn’t resist trying a few shots so a very heavily cropped photo appears below.


Black-necked Grebe

It was quite busy on the water, lots of squabbling and noisy Black-headed Gulls from the colony that nest on “The Eyes”. There seemed to be plenty of young gulls as well as the full-grown adults presumably last years young. A couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls also appeared adding their voices to the cacophony of sound.


Black-headed Gull


Lesser Black-backed Gull

Other birds on show were Gadwall, Great Crested Grebe (at least 4 pairs), Little Grebe, Pochard, Cormorants hanging their wings out to dry, Mallards, Coot & Moorhens. A pair of Greylag Geese also appeared and I could here Canada Geese somewhere but I couldn’t see them.


Mallard mating


Greylag Goose

A pair of Teal and a Lapwing spent some time in front of the hide and gave me some nice shots.


Lapwing


Teal

A pair of Buzzards drifted over circling on the thermals as they do, plenty of Carrion Crows with Magpie and Jays flying through.

As I walked back to the footbridge I could hear Chiffchaff everywhere and I could also hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming but could see neither species.

I found a Brimstone butterfly on a Dandylion: the 500mm isn’t the ideal lens for butterfly shots but by lying down on the path and resting the lens on my bag I just about managed to get some shots before it fluttered off like confetti on the breeze. There were quite a few butterfly on the wing mainly Brimstone and Tortoiseshell.


Brimstone butterfly

As I crossed the footbridge a couple of Great Crested Grebe were not too far away on the bund resulting in a few nice shots with almost mirror-like reflections in the water.


Great Crested Grebe

Tempus fugit: I could have spent the day there it was so nice but the real world beckoned and I had to leave this little island haven and the natural world and I took the steps back into reality.

Apparently Marsh Harrier had been present on No3 bed almost every day last week and a Bittern (from the Lindley hide) has been seen on more than one occasion over the last few weeks.

Thanks for reading.

cheers

Andy

I have it on good authority that five Black-necked Grebe have been seen at Woolston Eyes. Guess where I'm going at the weekend!

cheers

Andy

Frequently the Black-necked Grebe that breed at Woolston Eyes spend some time at Houghton flash before moving on to Woolston Eyes so I just thought I'd have a look there just in case.

I wasn't the only one that turned up thinking there may be some there but no luck today.

However there were quite a few Great Crested Grebe, probably around ten, quite a few Wigeon (10+), Coot, four Oyster Catcher, many Mallard and quite a few Gulls.


Great Crested Grebe


Mallard


Oyster Catcher

The light wasn't brilliant and it rained at one stage but only for a few minutes.

I found interesting to watch the Great Crested Grebe dive for fish and then be dive bombed by the gulls in an attempt to get an easy meal!


Great Crested Grebe/Gull

Due to the poor light I had to use a fairly high ISO to get a reasonable shutter speed and I had to resort to using the teleconverter as most of the birds were a fair distance from the edge of the flash.


Great Crested Grebe

Even so I did manage to get a few reasonable shots.

Thanks for reading.

Andy

Th weather and light on Sunday Morning was reasonable so a trip to "The Eyes" seemed appropriate.

As I was driving along the canal bank there were a few Great-crested Grebes making their way along the canal along with plenty of Tufted ducks and the obligatory Black headed gulls.

I couldn't see anything on the bund as I crossed the footbridge to the reserve, there's usually something to see; I could however hear the Black-headed Gulls in the distance. I made my way to the first screen and there were plenty of Black Headed Gulls and a few Tufted Duck on the South Pool.

After that I made my way to the Centre Hide, it is a lovely hide and quite close to the waters edge at the moment while there is plenty of water in the pool.However most of the birds were on the far side of the pool.

On the water there were three pairs of Great-crested Grebe displaying intermittently. Black-headed gulls a plenty along with coots. There were also plenty of Mallard, a group of five Cormorant, Teal, Shovelers, Tufted Duck and a few Pochard.



I was hoping that a wader might have dropped in but no such luck and everything stayed put on the far side of the pool. Even the Grey Heron that flew in landed in the reeds on the far side of the pool not to be seen again!

Even the finches that regularly visit the feeders seemed few and far between.

Another of the regular Woolston watchers came into the hide and told me that there was a Toad on the path outside so I went out and grabbed a few photos before it disappeared into the undergrowth.





After that I had a wander around the bed and other than seeing a few Dunnock, Wood Pigeon, Crows, Magpies and a Buzzard circling over No4 bed, I didn't see much else.



There was however plenty of blossom and buds on the various trees and bushes heralding the onset of spring and hopefully warmer days, not to mention the return of the Black-necked Grebes.







The last two photos are in HDR and are generated from 3 shots. HDR is something I've been playing around with for a while but whether they work or not I don't know.

Thanks for reading.

Andy

Sunday morning was spent preparing to take some photos of two of our grandchild and mum and dad.

It takes a bit of effort to move the furniture around so the background and lights can be set up but the results were well worth the effort.



Certainly mum and dad were happy with the results.





And even the dog got in on the act.

Finding time for wildlife photography seems to be increasingly difficult these days usually managing only a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday morning. This coupled with poor weather doesn’t help at all, especially when you’ve spent a lot of money on equipment that is just sitting in a cupboard somewhere.

On the Friday Neill Carden phoned to see if I wanted to go out and get some photography in on Saturday as we have both been struggling for photography time recently.
Neill didn’t know what he wanted to do and as he currently hasn’t got anything longer than a 300mm lens we decided we would try some landscape photography somewhere, anywhere.

We set off on Saturday morning with nowhere in particular in mind but we decided we would head off towards Macclesfield as there are some nice areas out that way.
The weather wasn’t helping and it was pretty grey and miserable so as we passed through Chelford, I suggested we take a look at Redesmere. As Neill hadn’t been there he thought it was a good idea.



It’s a good place to go to when you haven’t got a long lens as the waterfowl come in pretty close to the road as they’re used to being fed.



We thought we would spend our time trying to photograph birds in flight and perhaps capture some splash landings.



Birds on show where the common ones, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Coot, Grey Heron, Great-crested Grebe and a Pink footed Goose put in an appearance.



The time passed very quickly and although we didn’t manage any landscape photography we had an enjoyable time and the sun did come out from time to time.

Even though it was raining for the early part of the day I had an excellent day on Saturday in the company of Neill Carden and Charlie Owen at Charlies’ hide on the outskirts of Warrington.



The hide itself isn’t large but big enough for two people and Charlie, it is quite comfortable with chairs and some carpet on the floor.



Charlie is very pleasant and easy to get on with. He has a wealth of birding knowledge, some amusing anecdotes and gives talks at various events in the area. He is also an excellent photographer in his own right but is yet to take advantage of the digital age and he is still using film!!



If you want to get up close and personal with some of the common woodland birds with some natural looking perches this is the place to go.

I think this is my 3rd visit and I’ve not been disappointed yet.

On Saturday there were Robins a plenty, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Tree Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tail Tit, Nuthatch, Jay, Pheasant, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Sparrowhawk swooped in a couple of times but unfortunately didn’t land.



In the trees along the lane to the hide Yellowhammer could be seen but I wasn’t lucky enough to get any photos of those. I should have stopped and tried to get a photo as it is one of my bogey birds. I think I’ve only seen Yellowhammer twice before and the photos I managed to take should be in the bin.



If you want any further information regarding Charlie and his hide send me an email.

cheers

Andy

Sunday was a pretty grey and miserable day and about par with most of the weekends we've had so far this year. At least it wasn't raining and I wasn't shopping for wallpaper, lighting and what have you to decorate or visiting the hospital. So an opportunity to nip down to the eyes and and get some photography in.

After crossing the footbridge over the bund I spotted some Long-tailed tits in the trees, probably a little too far away but I did manage to get a few shots in before they disappeared.





A look over the first screen revealed a frozen south pool without a bird in sight!!

I'd met Brian Martin by one of the gates and he had told me that there were a number of Shovelers on an unfrozen patch of water on the centre pool. So I didn't waste any more time and moved on quickly to the warmth of the new centre hide.

As I was told, a large area of the the centre pool was frozen but not too far out there was some open water with about twenty Shovelers on it. More or less on the other side of the pool there were more Shoveler, Teal, Coot and Gadwall.





There were also plenty of finches, tits and Dunnock around the feeders, no Brambling though. A single White Wagtail also flew in for a short time.



I'd spotted some Snowdrops on the way in so I stopped to take a few photos of them and I'm pretty sure there was a strong smell of wild garlic in the air so perhaps spring isn't too far away.





cheers

Andy

It's been ages since I visited "The Eyes", it's long overdue but other demands on my time have reduced the amount of photography time I've had and unfortunately I can't see it getting much better for a while.

Anyway I visited "The Eyes" on Saturday morning, poor light, icy cold, hail/sleet and ice on the water but I felt great getting out with the camera again.

As the light wasn't great I set the camera at ISO1000 which was a poor start and the only birds were congregated in a small patch of water on the far side of centre pool.

The birds were mainly Teal and Shovelers plus two or three Wigeon. So really the best I could hope for was getting a few photos of any birds that landed in the trees by the hide, on the feeders or just to get some general shots of the pool and try cropping them.

There were a few Greenfinch & Chaffinch in the trees and around the feeders but as usual they tend to sit behind a strategically placed branch but one or two did expose themselves.





Is it my imagination or do Greenfinches look grumpy, they never seem to look happy.

The feeders are just that bit too far away in my opinion but there were quite a few Pheasant around feeding on the seed around the feeders.



A few photos of the comings and goings on the small pool of open water!







Hopefully it won't be as long between visits this time.

cheers

Andy

I was just getting ready to go to “The Eyes” and Neill Carden rang to see what I was doing as he had some free time.
After a bit of discussion we decided to have a look at Rixton Claypits which is only a short drive up the road. It’s probably closer to home than “The Eyes” but I don’t go that often and I probably should. Previous visits haven’t been that successful from the bird photography point of view and I’ve usually ended up photographing butterflies, dragonflies and plants but it is quite a large area and anything could drop in any time.

Anyway Neill had a plan and he had brought along an MP3 player with bird calls and a speaker that he promptly set up and started playing a Wrens’ song/call. It certainly did the trick and within a few minutes a Wren had appeared from the undergrowth and was even in a photographable position.



There were also another three moving around the undergrowth close by but didn’t fully reveal themselves and those efforts have been deleted.

A Buzzard landed in a tree a few hundred yards away and Neill changed the call on the MP3 player to that of a Buzzard but even though I could see it was interested, unfortunately it didn’t venture any closer.

After that we went for a bit of a wander and found some obliging Common Darters that didn’t mind being photographed in possibly the last of the summer sun.



We also had a look for some of the fungii that Neill had photographed not long ago but it had disappeared.

We eventually made our way back to our starting place and manged to get a photo of a Kestrel in flight, a Jay and some of the black sheep that have been introduced to the reserve.







A very pleasent morning.

Later on in the day I thought the moon looked pretty impressive and had a go at photographing it. It’s something I’ve done on quite a few occasions but I’ve never been that impressed with my previous efforts. I’ve got to say the resulting photographs are the best to date and the uncompressed photos look almost 3d. Whether the uploaded photos will look as good I don’t know.



cheers

Andy

Born this morning 2 weeks early a lovely new grandaughter(5th.) Charlotte Rose weighing in at 71b 7oz.








Mum & Daughter


Brother & Sister

I had a very pleasant morning on Saturday with my friend Neill Carden trying to photograph the Fallow Deer at Dunham Massey National Trust Estate. Perhaps an earlier start may have been appropriate to capture the deers breath in the air but I'm still happy with the shots I took, I even managed to get a couple of shots of the deer leaping over a small ditch.
Apart from the deer we also saw Green Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Crow, Tree creeper, Wren and Buzzard to name just a few.

Cheers

Andy

We’ve just returned from a well-earned holiday in Scotland, visiting Inverness to see family and then driving east and south to the Deeside area.

I'm pleased to say I did manage to take a few decent images and also saw my first Snow Bunting, Black Grouse and Goshawk, not together I hasten to add.

We also had a great day out with Craig Westlake of Deeside Nature Activities, seeing Roe Deer, Red Deer, Peregrine, Buzzard, Goshawk, Red Grouse, Black Grouse, Dipper, Red Squirrel and most of the commoner species of bird. Unfortunately not many of the things that we seen were within a photographable distance but the highlights were at least two Buzzards, two Peregrines and a Goshawk all viewed through the scope/bins at the same time. The other was seeing around eight Black Grouse on a known lekking ground. Unfortunately Golden Eagle didn’t put in an appearance and Crossbills eluded us but they could be heard up in the tree canopy.
Thanks Craig for a great day out.
www.deesidenatureactivities.co.uk

I also managed to get a few landscape shots including some of Bow Fiddle Rock at Portknockie. I also caught a few glimpses of the Autumnal colours that I was hoping for but I think I was about 7 – 10days too early. I don’t need much of an excuse to return to Scotland but it’s just that bit too far to make the journey again, unless someone else pays for the petrol. I can feel a trip to the Lake District coming on instead though!!

Cheers

Andy

I decided I would take a holiday on Friday which going by the weather of the last two days was a good move. I didn't really know what I was going to do on my day off other than try and photograph some birds. I didn't fancy going to "The Eyes", so I drove down to Moore Nature Reserve, which covers quite a sizeable area and has a number of pools. After parking up I made my way to Lapwing Lake that has three hides/screens. At the first hide there were a few Coots and Mallards that were quite close but I could see a Little Egret on one of the islands a bit further out, too far away for a good shot. So after a few minutes I made my way to one of the other view points that I thought may give a clearer view of the Egret. I did get a clearer view but still too far away for a great shot but as a general scene it's not bad.



Little Grebe and chicks were on view along with Coots and Mallards. But nothing was coming close enough to get a decent shot so after a short while I decided to move on to the feeding station area.

I'd only just arrived there and in glided a Common Buzzard and landed in a tree just above me but could I see it could I heck. As in most reserves the feeders aren't in use during the summer months and I didn't see anything in about 30 mins so I decided my time would be better spent at Birchwood Pool.

Looking out across the pool the level of water was the lowest I'd ever seen it. I was hoping to see some Little Grebe and there was one around but it didn't come anywhere near the screen and neither did anything else. I think the image of the feather reflects the scene nicely.





There's usually loads of gulls on show but I could hear and see them circling in the distance over the landfill site. The only bird of interest that I could see a bit further up the pool was a Black Swan so I made my way round to one of the other hides. By the time I'd got there it had come out of the water and it was standing on one of the little islets and just about within photographing range. The light was very contrasty but I got a few shots of it and that was my morning over.




cheers

Andy