Winter Thrushes

I awoke on Sunday to see a strange bright light in the sky, I vaguely remembered it as being the sun and had to put aside any festive chores to make the most of this rare occurrence. Wiping the dust off the camera, I headed to a holly tree that was laden with berries and was attracting a lot of Redwing. A few good hours were spent getting some nice seasonal shots. A Fieldfare feeding on fallen apples was a bonus on the way home.

Redwing

Fieldfare

Blackbird

Garden Buzzard Update

The Buzzard in my garden is now becoming a little more relaxed and I have been able to move closer to the perches. I even managed to get some shots in sunshine which is rare around here lately.

Garden Buzzards

With a pair of Buzzards having bred in the woodland next to my garden and regularly sitting in the trees nearby, it was a good opportunity to entice them down in front of my hide to try and photograph them. Surprisingly, it didn't take much effort and within less than a week I now have one regularly perching before the lens and a second bird which puts in an occasional appearance. I am having to photograph them at a distance to start with, as they are understandably wary. Hopefully they will get used to the shutter noise and I will move closer as the winter progresses. Here's a couple of the first shots. 

Red Grouse

I had a very productive trip to Yorkshire with some photographer friends last month. We had an early start to arrive as the sun was rising, this made the Grouse glow in the recently flowering heather. As the day went on I tried to get a wide range of images, from close-ups to in flight and "in habitat" shots. I have just added 79 of them to my main site, a few of which I have posted here..

Feeding Jays

I have just updated my Jay images on my main website. I hadn't realised that I had such a backlog of them and have added 73 new shots. Here are a few including them taking acorns.

My Favourite Images (5)

Part 5 in the series of some of my favourites.

Leach's Storm Petrel.
I have many shots of these birds but I particularly like this one with the low sunlight illuminating the underparts.

Little Egrets.
Flocks of these Egrets come in over the estuary to roost each evening. This was a lucky shot with a whole line of over 20 which took the perfect route between the dark clouds with the setting sun behind them.

Little Egret.
This is another shot that benefits from the low angle of the sunlight.

Mistle Thrush.
This bird was guarding the berries of a Mountain Ash tree. I was photographing it from the car and it would occasionally drop to the ground to pick up the fallen berries.

Nuthatch.
A simple shot but I like the gnarled wood on this one.

Osprey.
I have spent quite a lot of time in Scotland photographing Ospreys. The next two shots are a couple that I particularly like.

Osprey

Red Deer Stags

A few weeks ago a friend and I had a day out in Lancashire hoping to photograph waders. When we arrived it was obvious that due to the high tides, the water levels were very deep on the lagoons and the birds were feeding distantly on the flooded fields. A change of plan and a walk around the reserve didn't really produce a great deal, other than a family of Otters that briefly came within photographic range. We decided to have some lunch and then spend the rest of the day in a hide waiting for the rutting Red Deer to hopefully show. Although we could hear the stags bellowing throughout the afternoon, it was quite a long wait before a couple showed towards the end of the day, but worth the wait.

Starling Close Ups

On my travels I recently saw a group of Starlings that hang around a car park, they wait for food scraps and I just happened to have a few slices of bread with me. As they were coming so near to the car I thought I would take some close-ups of the various plumages that they were showing. Being a common species I think they are quite overlooked and thought of as a drab black bird, these shots show how colourful they are with some lovely iridescent colours and the white spots of their winter plumage.

Dunlin

Continuing with the local waders I have recently been photographing, here are a few Dunlin. I have added many more to my main website.