Desert Wheatear

I took a trip to North Wales today. Part of the day was spent photographing the Desert Wheatear at Rhyl.

Sparrowhawk

I managed to creep up on this Sparrowhawk in the garden and get a few shots. It was busy watching the birds on the feeders, although it did look round at me a couple of times, it didn't take flight. I read that they only respond to movement and maybe my stealth like way of freezing every time it looked in my direction paid off.

Buzzards in Flight

With some sunny weather the Buzzards have been circling above the trees in the garden. The low winter sun now gives the opportunity to achieve some good flight shots. As they bank round, their underparts being nicely illuminated.

A Late Hobby

Just over a week ago I spent some time at my local RSPB reserve - Burton Mere Wetlands on the Wirral. A juvenile Hobby had been there for several days and with the wind in the right direction, was giving some close up views of its aerobatics, whilst catching Dragonflies. Over the five days I spent there, only a couple of them really had the bird close enough for some good shots, including it perching up in a tree. There were plenty of Dragonflies around which I assume was the reason for it not being on its way south, as it should have been at this time of year.

Garden Buzzards - 12 Months On

It is almost a year since I started to feed the Buzzards in the garden and the pair are coming down daily now. They recognise me to the extent that I only have to go outside and they will suddenly appear, calling and circling around, hoping that I am going to feed them. They now get quite frantic when I put the food out for them, noisily sitting in the trees nearby and will swoop down to feed as soon as I go back to the house.

North Wirral Coast

A few shots from a couple of weeks ago. The winds weren't quite strong enough or in the right direction to bring the Leach's Storm Petrels as close as hoped, although I did get a couple of "at sea" images. Here's some of the species that were close enough for photography.

Leach's Storm Petrel

Little Egret

Little Egret

Oystercatcher

Common Redshank

Black-headed Gull

Red Grouse

In August a trip was arranged to the Yorkshire moors to photograph Red Grouse in the flowering heather. The majority of the birds were in family groups, with the younger ones still not in full adult plumage. We did manage to get some shots of male adults though. It was a real contrast to the previous years visit in October when the heather had finished flowering. I now have a total of 150 Red grouse images on my main website.