I love to go a-wandering ... Newtown and Yarmouth

Day off from work, and the wife at work, so decided on a visit to the west wight, Newtown NR and Yarmouth. A chance to try out my scope again, any excuse, lol....
Had a nice surprise at Newtown car park, at the entrance to the toilets, I noticed a swallows nest. This was right next to the toilet door, what a brave/daft bird to make a nest there. It was nice and sheltered but far from private, due to the visitors using the loo! I set my camera up a few yards away and took some film of the babies being fed. Also a few stills, trying not to disturb them, using my zoom lens. A very big highlight of the day.

Many more swallows were swooping over the estuary, once again trying the near impossible task of taking a picture of them in flight. This was the best I could manage ..

The parent swallows didnt seem to mind us being close to the nest, swooping over our heads to deliver the feed for the chicks.

Onto Yarmouth ponds and estuary. I got my first sighting of a curlew ...

A cormorant flew overhead ...

An Oystercatcher was next posing for me by the shoreline ...

A digiscoped pic of a Little Egret rounded off my day nicely ...

Note to self . . . Must update my year/life list on here soon!!

Back on the mainland... Petworth House and Park

Once again ventured onto the mainland, this time to West Sussex. We decided to walk to Petworth park, which was only a short walk away from where we were staying.
As we entered the park the deer were a lovely sight.

After a few minutes walking we reached the lake, where we spotted two egyptian geese, a first for us...

The canada geese were aplenty, with their juveniles, as were Greylags.

Wanted to take this one home!!

More pics of the beautiful canada geese ...

A wonderful day out :)
The following day we visited Pulborough brooks, West Sussex.
The day was overcast and drizzly, all the birds seemed to disappear to shelter. We decided to call it a day, and went to the cafe onsite for a cuppa.
Imagine our surprise when we caught sight of the feeders outside the cafe. They were a hive of activity, with several grey squirrels, and many other birds visiting. We had many more sightings here than on the reserve!
Everything scattered when this jay visited the table ...

Another pleasant day ....

...Recent wanderings..!!

Been busy recently, at last found time to fire off another blog!
Way back in may, Carol and myself had a trip on the mainland, and decided to visit Blashford lakes RSPB in Hampshire. Had a great day and the weather behaved. We spotted 25 birds, which we were pleased with, and first sightings of Wren, Sand Martin, Great crested Grebe, and Siskin. (Did I mention I had only been a birder since January this year?)
Had a nice view of a Jay, wish I had a longer lens on my camera!!

All in all a very enjoyable day, hope to do it again sometime...
On the 30th May, had a nice day out with my S.P.O.G. friends (Sandown posties ornithological group - Dont laugh !!) We went to Bembridge for the morning, had a job getting everyone up at 8am though.

We spent quite a while trying to photograph swifts flying by at the speed of sound!! We spotted 16 species, which was pretty good. This little egret was very photogenic and hung around for quite a while.

We then went to Brading Marshes RSPB, and spotted another 10 species.
A good day was had by all, a picture of my spog buddies is below...

June 8th... I visited Bembridge again and the nearby Hersey hide, where I once again photographed a little egret, this time using my new scope, an Opticron HR 80 GA ED model with Panasonic lumix FS7 camera and digiscope adaptor. This adds a whole new dimension to bird photograpy and viewing, looking forward to getting much closer views from now on.

How fast does a swallow fly?

I would say the answer to the title above is "Bloody fast"!!!
Yesterday I ventured across Brading marshes, and decided I would try and photograph the swallows flying. If you havnt tried it before its not easy! After about 20 minutes of losing them in my viewfinder and trying to keep them in focus I managed to get some record shots. They wont win any photography contests but at least I got something!

I also managed to see the common but beautiful magpie close up 

I have had to wait for 3 weeks for my Nikon camera to be repaired, which seemed like an eternity, so now im itching to get back into the field. Carol and I are going on a dawn chorus walk at 04:30 on sunday, not done that before so looking forward to it.

Another recent tick for me was a whitethroat, also taken on Brading marshes here on the island.

Also taken recently was a house sparrow. We shouldnt take these common birds for granted, they are just as beautiful as some of the rarities, and are becomming more scarce themselves nowadays.

Hopefully I will soon be ordering a new scope, an Opticron HR 80 GA ED model with zoom eyepiece, with tripod, waterproof case and digiscoping set-up. As you can imagine im itching to get started! More to follow when funds arrive!



Ducks galore !!

Recently I saw a picture taken by a workmate of a Mandarin duck, which took me by surprise as I didnt expect to see one on the Isle of Wight! He told me he saw it at a small pond just outside Brading so last tuesday I drove the couple of miles in the hope of seeing one of these beauties!
Imagine my surprise when I got there to see lots of unusual ducks most of which I had never seen before!
The light was absolutely perfect, filtering through the overhead willow. A tufted duck was closer than I had ever seen before.

A beautiful pintail looked splendid in the dappled shade

I was in my element, my love of photography and birds was being satisfied to the utmost! The male Red-crested pochard was next.

I finally spotted the beautiful male mandarin, what a beauty!!

I had such a good time I decided to return the following day and captured lots more images. The guy who has this collection of ducks certainly has a superb selection. Next up was a beautiful shelduck.

Ringed Teal...

Chiloe wigeon...

Wood duck...

Female mandarin...

Male Pochard...

And a couple which Im not sure of at the moment, if anyone knows what they are called? ...

So, I had a wonderful couple of afternoons at this newly discovered gem! Definately going to go back soon and see how they are doing  :)

Sunday stroll in the sunshine :)

Sunday morning was glorious so wife and I decided to have a nice walk. We have heard about the old railway line between Blackwater and Shide, but have never been on it, so that was our choice!
The scenic path seemed alive with birdsong, but not much wanted to come out and show as usual!

My first tick for the day was a Carrion Crow

We kept hearing the Chiffchaffs, but like my previous walk, we were finding them hard to show. All of a sudden to our surprise one started singing above us, and I managed to fire off a few pics before he disappeared, another tick! 

 The disused line was proving to be a good choice for a walk, and I soon added to my year list with a Red-legged Partridge. A pair were in a field and started to walk away from us as soon as we sighted them, as per usual, but managed an ID and a pic or two. 

 Next to show for us were a Kestrel on overhead wires, and a Buzzard, which was well spotted by Carol. She often spots birds before me, its always handy to have an extra pair of eyes to hand!!

Another excellent day out, and 3 more ticks for my year list!!