Old Moor RSPB

Paul Pennington, Kevin Forde, David Shallcross, George Pike and I went to Old Moor RSPB in South Yorkshire this week to do a reccy for an upcoming L.O.S. Fieldtrip next week. The weather was great and there was a good variety of birds from woodland and farmland to wildfowl and water birds. We met up with two of the local birders there (Dek Roe and Ian Unwin) who were very friendly and helpful.

Unfortunately none of the three star attractions (Bittern, Bearded Tit and Peregrine) showed up for us but we did have two Green Sandpipers, Water Rail, Kingfisher, Tree Sparrow, Brambling, Pochard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Little Grebes (in abundance), a distant Barn Owl plus all the 'usuals' and a very interesting three-way spat between a Lesser Black-backed, Black-headed and juvenile Great Black-backed Gull. A grand day out as they say with a few decent shots and some record shots below.

Old Moor RSPB has good facilities including a visitors' centre, toilets, cafe, flat paths everywhere, at least six hides and mobility scooters can be hired if needed.

Barn Owls are Flavour of the Month

For some reason Barn Owls have unwittingly become my flavour of the month this February. I've seen them in seven different locations around the UK and got decent photos from three of them. These were taken today at Blacktoft Sands RSPB near Goole. I actually went for Marsh Harriers, but this delightful female Barn Owl provided me with my best shots when it hunted right in front of Singleton Hide this afternoon.

She hunted up down the ditch in front of the hide for five minutes or so, giving us great views in the late afternoon sunshine.

Eventually she caught some prey along with a talon full of grass and took it a nearby tree to eat it.

UPDATE:

 The top photo was given a 'Notable Photo' award on BirdGuides this week.

Parkgate Over High Tide

With the prospect of a high spring tide over 10m I headed off early for Parkgate on the Wirral this morning, as I wanted to get a space easily on the Old Baths car park.  When I arrived, the weather didn't really seem to be conducive to a good tide, with very settled sunny conditions, high pressure and no wind.  All these things are needed to produce a spectacular wildlife event.

 

 

A Trip to South East England - Day 1

Last week Sarah and I went south-east to Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, where we joined up with the Leigh Ornithology Society on their annual winter field trip.  We started off on Day 1 at Burwell Fen in Cambridgeshire looking mainly for Short-eared Owls and also a Barn Owl.

Star Attraction at St. Aidan's RSPB

This little male Bearded Tit has become the star attraction at St. Aidan's RSPB near Leeds recently. It's a fearless little bird and will often pass very close to your feet as it picks up seed heads from the margins of the causeway path between two water courses.

But just like so many small birds that are actively feeding in reeds or other vegetation, it's very hard to get a clear photograph most of the time.  My best photo-opportunites today were looking straight into the sun which always provides a challenge in terms of exposure.  The shot below is probably the best I got of the whole bird.

Here's a more tightly cropped version of the same photo, I'm not sure which one I prefer, but probably the original one.

So here are a few more partial shots taken in the four hours I was there:

 Here's a few other shots I took whilst I was there:

My Rarity Photo Pops Ups Again

My photo of the rare Blyth's Reed Warbler which has been found in Leigh is starting to pop up everywhere. First of all it was given a 'notable' award on BirdGuides this morning here:

https://www.birdguides.com/articles/photo-of-the-week-30-january-5-february/

And then later in Rare Bird Alert's weekly roundup here:
https://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/weeklyRoundup2019_06.aspx?s_id=327745667

 Fame at last!

Waxwing Photo on BBC North West Tonight

I was very pleased to finally get one of my photos on BBC North West Tonight this evening. It's a Waxwing taken in Banks near Southport in Lancashire last month.

It's not one of my best shots but at least it's up there. Here's the original which looks much better:

This Rarity is a Spirited Little Blyth-ter

I've been waiting to use that title for three weeks now, ever since the rare Blyth's Reed Warbler was first sighted at Hope Carr Nature Reserve in Greater Manchester. Blyth Spirit - geddit?

The day after it was found by Phil Rhodes I was messaged by Simon Warford who was asking me if I could go and take a photograph of the bird.  As the reserve is only fifteen minutes from where I live, it wasn't a problem and so I was soon on my way.

This began a saga of four visits each lasting over three hours trying to find the little blyth-ter.  The weather was generally awful on most of my previous visits, ranging from rain, sleet and then proper snow, but this didn't deter me or the 50 or so birders who turned up on one of the days.

Over the next few days the weather slowly improved and eventually some photos started to appear, some of them very good. It's a very tricky bird to see, never mind photograph as it skulks around the bramble patches looking for food.  I was starting to give up of hope of even seeing it though.

It wasn't until my fifth visit earlier today that I actually connected with the bird and luckily managed some decent photos as well.  I happened to be doing some volunteer work around the corner at a school in Lowton, and as it was bright and sunny, I just called in on the off chance on my way home - so glad I did.

Lifer, Year and Greater Manchester tick all in one, with photos to boot - Things are looking up!

If you'd like to read a short report about how the bird was found and its ID confirmed by sonogram, head over to Simon Warford's report on the Leigh Ornithological Society main website here:

http://www.leighos.org.uk/2019/02/blyths-reed-warbler-hope-carr-nr.html

UPDATE:

Simon messaged me today to say that BirdWatch, the magazine from BirdGuides would possibly like to use one of my photos in an article he has written for them. Well that would be good, wouldn't it?