Not Lepidoptera (Birds) - 3

[johnb]

Brambling from local reserve

[Charles Nicol]

Hi John

I love your wagtail & brambling pics !! The wagtail especially is superb

Charles

[Shirley Roulston]

Bramblings and Grey Wagtails are one of my favourite birds and these two photos are brilliant, lovely colours with both of them. If you have any more bring them on.
Shirley

[sahikmet]

Hi,

A ring necked parakeet at WWT Barnes today

[Shirley Roulston]

Birds still coming to the feeders and managed to get this female Chaffinch to-day. Also a Goldfinch.

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[eccles]

Nice shot of the goldfinch, Shirley.
Herons are starting to nest in tall trees over the River Avon near me. This individual was taking a breather from nest building duties. It was the other side of the river and at the top of a very tall tree so quite a way away. Not expecting much, I stacked two 1.4x teleconverters together, a Sigma and a Kenko, and mounted the Sigma 100-300 F4 onto them. This gave me 600mm f8 which I further stopped down to F11. Autofocus worked but it wasn't very accurate and backfocussed quite badly so I manually focussed to get the shot. I used a monopod.

[FISHiEE]

Very nice Heron shot. Especially considering the setup with the two TC's.

I think the heron needs to work a little on it's nest building skills however

[sahikmet]

Excellent picture of a heron Eccles, does the scruffy look around the neck suggest that the heron to be already nesting? Sezar?

[eccles]

Thanks both.
The heron was nest building but had moved away from the nest for a breather and to tidy up its scruffy feathers. It was busy preening while I set up for this shot. I waited until it looked up before I snapped it. Manually focussing a heavy lens on a monopod is a bit hit and miss, especially considering the distances concerned as the slightest movement of the focus ring was enough to go way off. This is a substantial crop as well, about 1/8 by area. I took about half a dozen shots, refocussing each time and got about a 50% hit rate.

This is the third year that I've visited this location which is a wonderful spot at this time of year, and very noisy. There were rooks starting to nest in tall trees on the side of the river that I stood, the herons on the opposite bank, and also a large colony of around 200 jackdaws decided that the heron location is a good place to roost. On top of that, there was evidence of a nesting pair of buzzards a couple of hundred yards downriver with frequent calling by them, drumming of a GS woodpecker, the laughing call of a green woodpecker, teacher-teacher calls of a great tit, and a cormorant fanning its wings nearby.

[Gruditch]

Would you believe, today I saw a Bullfinch in my village, for the fist time since I was a kid, later I saw it again, dead, as it had smacked into a window.

Kestrel from the weekend.

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Gruditch

[eccles]

Nice. From the 120-400? Shame about the bullfinch.

[Gruditch]

Cheers Eccles

Canon 40D, focal length 400mm using a Canon 100-400 Dust pump, F/8 handheld.

Gary

[nick patel]

Would you believe, today I saw a Bullfinch in my village, for the fist time since I was a kid, later I saw it again, dead, as it had smacked into a window.

Kestrel from the weekend.

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Gruditch

Hi,

Gruditch was that Kestrel taken in the UK - looks almost like a Lesser Kes, but probably just the light.

Saw c.80-90 of these beauties yesterday, they're great. apparently the ringed bird's from Aberdeen.

more on the blog.

Cheers, Nick.

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[Dave McCormick]

This is a kinda bad shot as I got this quickly with my video camera (still frame from a video), my first red kite, never seen them in wild before now:


Also saw a few buzzards in nearby area too.

[Shirley Roulston]

Next to the new marina in Pwllheli is an area when the tide goes out its a sort of mud flat, you can't say its sand but the waders and the sea birds love it, to-day even though it was a lovely day the light was almost too bright. There were a lot of Redshanks, it was a bit of a struggle with a 'compact' . The battery has arrived for my 'new' camera, I'll start off with sea views, I have noticed it makes a bit of a noise when taking the photo.

[eccles]

Nick, the red nose charity drive is getting everywhere. Even the waxwings are getting in on the act. Great photos.

You did well to get that close to a redshank Shirley. Nice pic.
I wouldn't worry too much about the shutter noise on the new camera. In my experience it doesn't seem to worry birds. There's something about my A700 shutter that seems to startle marbled whites though. I still have my A100 and that doesn't seem to affect them anywhere near so much.

@Dave, I haven't seen a red kite yet, but a visit to Central Wales to a feeding site is on my agenda of things to do.

[Gruditch]

Gruditch was that Kestrel taken in the UK - looks almost like a Lesser Kes, but probably just the light.

Taken locally Nick.

Gruditch

[sahikmet]

Eccles I have been to the red kite feeding centre, it is well worth the visit. Is on a farm with a large hide. M40 around Stokenchurch never fails, always some red kites flying about. Maximum I have seen is 34 in one hour.Sezar

[sahikmet]

Today jackdaws at Saville Gardens. Cheers Sezar

[eccles]

Two new bird ticks for me today, brambling and siskin at the feeding station, New Fancy View, Forest of Dean.
Also seen several buzzards plus at least one adder.

Sony A700 on monopod. Brambling: Sony 500mm F8 AF Reflex, Siskins: Sigma 100-300 F4 + 1.4x matched TC.