Garden Warbler - A Bogey Bird Finally Captured!

I don't know why but Garden Warblers have been one of my main bogey birds ever since I started birding. I've been told I've seen them as they flit past as well hearing their wonderful song, but I've never nailed one down until today. It was all down to my friend Dave Wilson who had been told of one singing and perching quite well in a favourite tree at Pennington Flash. So off we went early this morning to find it and, as if by magic, there it was! Well, for a short while anyway, until a dog walker inadvertently flushed it. 

Dave had actually heard the bird quite a long way and as soon as he pointed it out I'd latched on to it's song. I've probably heard this song countless times in the past, but without seeing the bird, I've not recognised it for what it was. Some say it's a bit like a Blackcap, but Dave disagrees and says it's quite different when you listen carefully. Apparently Blackcaps sing a snippet of Dvořák's New World Symphony at the end of their song. Trust Dave to hear that! 

Anyway, Dave was going to a meeting of the Young Birders Club (which I coudn't make due to a prior appointment) so off he went leaving me to try for some better shots, as my initial attempts were only record shots. I stayed around two hours during which time the bird came and went a few times, but I managed something fairly decent on it's last visit to the favourite tree. I can now tick one of the remaining two birds in my child's bird book which I've been keeping since I started. Just need a Storm Petrel now.

Not a Great White Egret

With the prospect of adding a new bird to my Greater Manchester Life list, I set off fo Pennington Flash mid-morning in search of the Great White Egret which had been present since yesterday.  This is the second time I've heard of one in Greater Manchester and I had the same result today as I did last time - dip.  The bird had been present in earlier in the morning but apparently had flown an hour or so before I arrived.  It seems the local Grey Herons were giving it a bit of gyp.

So you can only take photographs of what's there, and that's what I did.

Kingfisher Upstaged by a Duck

Back to Penny for another attempt at the Kingfishers, this time with a longer lens.  However the bird of the day proved to be this female Garganey which was present at Tom Edmnoson's Hide.

Eventually I did manage to get some Kingfisher shots, but it never really came that close for me today.

 

There's a new weather vane at Penny too!

Faster than a speeding bullet - it's SuperKingy!

Well I didn't think this shot was particularly special, but people seem to like it on Facebook, with over 200 'likes' over four hours in just one group alone.

I didn't even process it for posting with the other photos I took as I thought the image was too small and not very sharp.

Just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste!

All this attention has spurred me on to trying to get a better shot similar to this one but with a longer lens so that I don't need to crop it as much - this one was taken at 420mm but I can use up to 700mm next time.

UPDATE:

This photograph got a 'notable' award on this week's BirdGuides 'Photo of the Week' and I've just been asked if it can be used in a 'Birds and Poems of the Water Meadows' presentation at www.uffordartsfestival.org.

Pennington Flash - Day 2

So for my second trip out to Pennington Flash I decided to take my 300mm prime lens, 1.4x teleconverter and crop sensor body camera to give me a bit more reach.  What - you don't understand all this technobabble?  Well it just means that I can get a bit nearer to my subjects than with my previous camera and lens setup, and that's what you generally need for birds.  This near:

Well maybe that's a bit over the top, because Grey Herons are big birds and they often come quite close. But that is unusually close so here's a more usual set of shots:

 

 

I met up with another local photographer, Paul Samuels, in Ramsdale's Hide.  We had a good chinwag about many things including photography, birds, scuba diving, the Forest of Dean, Murcia and the Kingfishers for which we were patiently waiting.  Fortunately for him, Paul had got some cracking shots from Horrocks' Hide two days previously, because today they weren't coming close.

This Kestrel was calling in the treetops above the water before eventually flying off:

The Kingfisher only appeared briefly and in the distance here today, so we moved on to Tom Edmonson's hide where, although you are farther away from the birds, the light is much better.  When it first flew over me I wasn't sure if this was a Gadwall or a Mallard - it's a Gadwall.

This Buzzard flew across the far side of the water but was difficult to photograph because the windows in this hide are only narrow slits with not much room to manoeuvre.

A pair of Mute Swans  with four beautiful cygnets appeared from the pool in front of Pengy's Hide. Here's one of the adults:

Now this one is a Mallard:

And then the Kingfisher started to appear, staying quite distant at first.

We had visits every 30 to 40 minutes or so, often dropping of the posts to catch very small fish.

This was the closest he came, but as it was in the shade there's no real detail.  I really could have done with my 500mm lens at this point, but there will always be another day.

During the afternoon we had a brief visit by this little chap who bounced his way across the from of the hide. I've seen less red in a Red Squirrel than in this Grey Squirrel - cheeky little bounder!

 

And to finish off two Teenage Mutant Ninja Heroes - they'll be eating all the pond life, the  little terras!