www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Love the images, Bugboy. The synchronised Swan rear-ends are particularly amusing and those teal are positively stunning!

Wurzel wrote:I did some checking for you on the Wetlands Centre sightings page and your gull is a Caspian Gull Hence the robust looking bill and why I suggested Herring ( I was following the usually useful advice of 'if in doubt go with the commoner species ). I've not seen one of those you jammy Bugboy

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Possibly should have been my first port of call

Thanks David, they are a lovely species aren't they. Oddly they are apparently more closely related to our Gadwall than our Teal

Great shots and detail Bugboy, keep it coming, it's too cold to move outside here, even the birds are hiding.Goldie

Great stuff Bugboy, good job with the gifs. Love the Shoveler sequence.

Interesting reports and photos Bugboy. I must admit I don't know much about waterfowl or gulls but it is good to see stuff that I don't usually get to see myself

Cheers,

Neil.

Wurzel wrote:I did some checking for you on the Wetlands Centre sightings page and your gull is a Caspian Gull Hence the robust looking bill and why I suggested Herring ( I was following the usually useful advice of 'if in doubt go with the commoner species ). I've not seen one of those you jammy Bugboy

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hi Wurzel, I stuck the pictures on a Facebook birding group and the consensus seems to be that it was a just common or garden Herring Gull... feel free to retract your mrgreen!

Goldie M wrote:Great shots and detail Bugboy, keep it coming, it's too cold to move outside here, even the birds are hiding.Goldie

Thanks Goldie, the birds are being really bold in this weather, most of the natural winter foods (berries etc) have already been eaten and open water is becoming rather sought after, so they're 'willing' to come closer than would be normal.

Andrew555 wrote:Great stuff Bugboy, good job with the gifs. Love the Shoveler sequence.

Thanks Andrew, I watched Mr Coot for quite a while from the relative warmth of the hide, he was getting so wound up. Everytime he went into the group they would just coalesce again behind him

Neil Freeman wrote:Interesting reports and photos Bugboy. I must admit I don't know much about waterfowl or gulls but it is good to see stuff that I don't usually get to see myself

Cheers,

Neil.

They're not my strong point either Neil. When it comes to birds I prefer the small woodland and meadow ones but they're all interesting to watch

I've been having fun with Gif's recently so in an attempt to take this diary back to our lepitopteran friends here's a couple more using some pictures from last year

Good work Bugboy.
You really have your 'nose to the ground'.
An example to be followed.
Chris

The gifs makes the Grayling look even more Alien like

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Excellent work, Bugboy. She's quite a contortionist by the look of things. I'll look forward to more of these images as the season unfolds.

13th March, Walthamstow Marshes

Ok so I have a confession to make. I may have had a little splurge on some new kit last week. A few household bills that were significantly lower than expected, combined with a nice whack of overtime at work recently created a little bit of extra cash burning a hole in my pocket. I’ve been eyeing up various zoom lenses to get better pictures of birds when the butterflies aren’t around, and I plumped for the Sigma 150 – 600mm. My finger did hover over the buy button for more than several seconds but today was the day to take it out for it’s first test drive. Suffice to say I’m very happy with the results. To give an idea of what it can do no photo’s have been cropped in the making of this post (although some exposure tweaking may have taken place).

The day actually started off rather nice, with good sunny spells giving a nice spring feel to things and I began hoping I’d find a few butterflies, but it wasn’t to last. Cloud thickened, temperature dropped and I was left focusing on the birds, of which there were plenty This was a soppy tame Kestrel, first seen as she plopped down in the grass barely a foot from where I stood, was easy to stalk when she perched low down. These two shots of her half way up a poplar tree are either end of the zoom range. Bird of the day came at the end of my wander, a species you rarely see and one I’ve never seen here, a Water Rail. I would have got even better shots had it not been for a Cetti’s Warbler landing next to me in full view distracting me, I think they were working as a team! I certainly won’t be making any more camera themed purchases in the near future, but I fully expect to get a good few years use out of it and it will definitely come in handy during Emperor season if they decide to stay up high.

Nice bit of kit Bugboy! Sounds like a beast of a lens.
Great shots, looking foward to more.

Great shots of the Water Rail and Woody Bugboy This is a strange time of year as it’s possible to photograph butterflies and winter bird visitors on the same day

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hi! Bugboy, I use the Sigma, 70mm -300mm F4 - 5.6 DJ Macro and its great, I must think about your 150mm - 600mm I could use another lens just for Bird's I love the shot of the Kestrel Goldie

That's a handy piece of kit judging by those images, Bugboy. It'll be interesting to see the results when you reacquaint yourself with butterflies...which surely can't be too far off now?

Yes Andrew, It is a bit of a beast of a lens, quite weighty to, the OS system on it is pretty essential if you do mostly freehand photography like me!
Thanks Wurzel, not much hope of butterflies at the moment, only winter visiting birds over the weekend me thinks !
Thanks Goldie, it's a big lens, weighs nearly 2 kg and not cheap either. It does seem to be worth the money and effort of lugging it around
Thanks David, once this final cold snap is out the way we can only be days away from getting our fix although I'll be sticking with my macro for most of that photography. If I were to be carrying this beast around on all my day trips I'll be having a hernia op before the year is out. It may come in handy if I come across another Large Tort or if HIM stays up high this year though.

Hi±! Bugboy, sounds like the lens would be far to heavy for me, still!! I could shove it onto my Husband to carry Goldie

I'm lead to believe that is what husbands are for Goldie

I have to say this is one of the most extreme changes in weather conditions over 24 hours I've witnessed, even by UK standards and it does seem to keep up with my run of bad luck so far this year, with this being the start of my 4 day weekend . I've had my camera at work all week, hoping my year would start as it did last year with a Comma sighting but I've still only got two Red Admiral flybys to show for this year so far.

It did however give me the chance to have a close inspection of the White-letter Hairstreak egg, to my naked eye it's just a grey pin head. With my camera however I could see that it had hatched: As I suspected the sucker it is laid on is too young to flower so if the cat is still there it's going to have to hunker down and wait for the buds to break (I understand there's some evidence that they are capable of doing this if their Elms don't flower)

In related news, here's the new Elm (the hybrid cultiver 'Letece') recently planted by my horticulture dept at work specifically for WLH so if all goes to plan there will be a thriving colony in years to come

This has been a dire start to the season Bugboy but at hopefully things will get back onto a more normal footing soon, they have to don't they Good to see the hybrid Elm - we need many more of these

Have a goodun

Wurzel