Wednesday 30 May 2012

Greater Manchester Birds Flickr Group

I've recently reactivated my interest in using Flickr to publish my own photos to a wider audience. In the process of doing so, I've created a new Flickr group for any bird photographs taken in Greater Manchester. Here's a sample digest of some of the more recent additions from the many great photographers we have in the region:

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)Black Tern (Chlidonias niger)Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii) with youngMale Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)
Coot 1Coot 3Sparrowhawk 4Sparrowhawk 1Sparrowhawk- Up close and personalSwallow- Lift off!
Black Tern Elton Reservoir 27th May 2012 CR 2012 A.Dancy 128abManchester's Peregrine Falcon (female), Falco peregrinus, 18th March  2012 A.Dancy CR 084aBlackbirdWhinchatWren 2Swan Family
Juvenile Long-tailed Tit 1Juvenile Long-tailed Tit 1Peregrine in Flight 1Peregrine in Flight 2KingfisherKestrel

Please feel free to join the Greater Manchester Birds group on Flickr.

Sunday 27 May 2012

Dunham Massey Park

While the weather was still so good, Sarah and I decided to go out for an evening stroll around Dunham Massey Park tonight - we'd been laying drainage pipes in our back garden in sweltering temperatures for the last two days and so we deserved a break!

There weren't many birds about but at least Sarah got to hear the Green Woodpecker if not actually see one.  She was quite taken with a noisy little Wren and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers feeding young, as well as the countless cute baby chicks, squirrels, rabbits and deer.  It now seems spring has long since sprung.

I didn't take many photos (for once) but here's a selection of some of the best:


















Friday 25 May 2012

Peregrine Falcon

Summer's here (at least for a week) and so it's time to get out and about. I've known about the location of this Peregrine Falcon for quite a while now, and so today, on the hottest day of the year so far, I decided to have a look for myself.  As soon as I had parked up I saw it flying around the chimney.  To the casual eye it could easily be mistaken for a pigeon, but on closer inspection it is unmistakable.

Here's a few shots taken using my new (secondhand) 1.4x teleconverter on a f2.8 300mm lens:




Just to put the bird in context, here's where it hangs out.




What's he looking at?

Ah, babies !

I need to sort out the formatting of these pictures:



Home alone ?


 
Imagine this being left on your doorstep.

I also saw this beautiful juvenile Long-tailed Tit




Nest building