Wednesday, February 24, 2010

another Bittern session

no apologies for some more Bittern images; although I live within 2kms of the clay pits where Bitterns are resident and breed seeing them in the open is still a notable event so being able to watch this bird fishing for 4 hours this afternoon was a treat; I would guess that many birders have never actually seen a Bittern fishing; this bird had two strategies today the static wait and see and the active head in the water search routine -- the latter seemed to produce most fish -- when sighted the bird starts to quiver and then plunges forward with all of the head and neck sometimes disappearing into the water usually emerging with a fish -- needless to say the light was poor but at least the poor weather limited the number of dog walkers passing by and there were no birders!

Great Crested Grebe and fish

a dull afternoon -- I was surprised at how easily it swallowed this fish

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Barn Owl in nice light

a brief spell of sun after the snow on Sunday produced a few images of this regular Barny

first 2010 sighting of Green-winged Teal

this bird has been extremely elusive this winter with just a single sighting since November probably in the most part due to the hard weather moving ducks around -- a few record shots from this morning before it was flushed by the first walkers and dogs!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Bittern day

well most of the day spent watching 3 Bitterns feeding and one apparently going to roost -- not something you see every day even on a patch like mine

Friday, February 19, 2010

Marsh Harriers on the patch

in the cracking light I hoped to get some shots of the local Marsh Harriers but after nearly 2 hours with no birds it looked like a lost cause; then the male passed by and the female started hunting -- not a bad result -- I have taken to using the 500 f4 without the converter of late and I think it certainly shows in flight photography not only in AF operation but in image quality; it is easy to fall into just leaving the 1.4 on all the time but there is a downside to it

Pochard looking springward

in spite of the cold weather the local Pochard were already starting to display this morning - and it was cracking light Gromit