Not Lepidoptera ( birds) 4

[Paul]

Nice to see Bramblings in the garden again, though photos not great...

[Paul]

another Brambling, and a somewhat larger visitor..

[Dave McCormick]

Great shots Paul Brambling is not one I have seen before. Like the Jay a lot, have had a few of them in my garden as of recent.

My garden has been buzzing with birds latley had Blue, Great and Long-tailed tits, Jays, Magpies, Robins, Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Sparrows, Jackdaws and even a buzzard comes every morning for a while. I took a video at birds at my feeder balls yesterday, these are blue, great and long tailed tits. There was a male blackbird at the tree bottom which was pecking at any bird that came near it. Video is in 1080p HD and lasts 13:01 seconds. Recorded near 30mins of video of birds yesterday in garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=300eZswkSR0[/video]

Also here is a photo og a long tailed tit, I have over 10 in the garden now.

[David M]

Whilst I was out feeding the chickens yesterday I noticed several Long-Tailed Tits pottering about in the tree in next door's back garden. Funny noise they make though - like a mouse squeaking.

[Paul]

This rather dapper chappie was seeking nuts in the cold today... babe magnet

[geniculata]

for anyone who's interested,

there has been a big beautiful white tailed sea eagle knocking around in hordle on the south side of the new forest for a few days now and it seems to have put up temporary home in some local paddocks.
very viewable from the road.

gary

[Paul Wetton]

Fantastic huge birds these, like flying planks. I saw them at the nest in Mull a couple of years ago. Absolutely stunning birds when close up.

[FISHiEE]

Hm... might be tempted to head that way if it's still about this weekend. See these a lot in Norway when I'm fishing - they are my favourite bird of prey I think. Quite happy to come down close to the boat for photos if a 3lb cod is offered for dinner

[Paul Wetton]

If you have any photos of these magnificent birds FISHiEE please post a couple on here.

Forgot to say Geniculata what a great photo yours is.

[FISHiEE]

Sure. Some Pics from my fishing trips to the top of Norway. The top 2 are juveniles, the bottom two adults. One of the biggest eagles there is sometimes the 100mm end of my 100-400 lens isn't wide enough to fit them in the frame! They can pick a 3lb fish from the water no problem (and see it in the water from 2 miles away as well!). Unfortunately when fishing from a drifting boat, by the time the eagle picks the fish from the water the boat and fish have drifted some distance apart and also the eagle will fly into the wind to pick up the fish and that usually means facing away from the boat, so I've not yet managed to get any decent grab shots.

One year I did have a boat to myself with the intention of concentrating on photographing them seriously rather than just photographing them while fishing. Weren't that many around that year I could find interested in feeding though!

Sometimes we would have 3 or 4 around the boat and struggled to keep up with them. One year, late in the breeding season, we had one adult come for a fish about 7 times in the space of a couple of hours and each time it would fly back to the nest site to either feed the fish to the quite large chicks or stash it away for another day.









Unfortunately we now go to a different area where we haven't yet seen many eagles, but the fish are much bigger... bigger than the boat!

[Rogerdodge]

Fishiee
Those links don't open for me - and I am very keen to see the pics!

[FISHiEE]

Bizarre.. in the preview when I put the message together they displayed fine... Let's see what this does...

[Rogerdodge]

Still not I am afraid.
Correction - it works!!

[FISHiEE]

ok. here's 2 more... juveniles.

[FISHiEE]

It seems the links in the earlier post work only when I am logged into the website where they were linked from, hence they don't display for anyone else.

[Paul Wetton]

Ah I can see them now. Fantastic shots of a superb bird.

I remember seeing two juveniles on a tiny island in the centre of a loch in Mull when an otter turned up and ran around them. Both birds swivelled round watching the otter. Very amusing.

[FISHiEE]

I have been told that where we go now in Norway the fish eagles have learnt to wait for the otters to come to shore with a fish and then steal it off them.

[Paul Wetton]

In Mull it appeared that the otter was looking for something to steal from the eagles. A bit dangerous I would think.

[Rogerdodge]

Fishiee
Great shots - I am seriously jealous and impressed.
I have seen these on the west coast of Scotland, but alway at a fair distance.
I hear that you can do a boat trip off Mull where fish gets chucked in to bait these beautiful eagles down.
Perhaps I can tag that little excursion onto my trip up for Chequered Skipper?

[Denise]

Fantastic shots Fishiee.

Roger, I had close views of Sea Eagle on the ferry to Mull a few years back. It flew, literally right over our heads as we stood on the top deck. It was something that I will never forget. Also another close encounter on the same day as we stood at the bottom of a cliff looking for otters. The bird flew in off the sea directly toward us and then zoomed upward. It was enough to make the more nervous of our group duck!
It's easy to see why they are called, flying barn doors at that close proximity. My only regret is that I didn't have a camera then.

Denise