Lean times

The last few weeks have been very poor for spotting birds as there has not been too many to be seen. The weather may have been a factor as there has been high winds and Baltic temperatures much of the time.

After last month's large variety of photos there have been little or no opportunities to snap birds these last few weeks. Even the common Herons which I normally see lots off have been posted missing for several weeks though I did manage to see one this morning. That is possibly due to the fact that their breeding season can start in February. Anyhow sightings on the river have been restricted to Mallards, Goosanders, Gulls and the occasional Dipper and Grey Wagtail.

The one highlight was a sighting of a Kingfisher two days ago, the first for several weeks and in a spot where I have seen one before. It is quite possible that the nest is very close by.

It has been equally quiet in the garden though we are now getting a lot of unwelcome visits from Rooks. They and the Starlings are managing to see off the fatty balls alarmingly quickly! We still see a couple of Robins now and again and today we had rarer visits from a Wren and a couple of Siskins. There have been Blue Tits at the nesting box briefly but I haven't seen them return so far.

Good weather for February!

February was a very mixed month as far as weather was concerned. However there were several days where a hard frost in the morning was followed by beautiful sunny conditions with blue skies.

I took my DSLR with me on my morning walks on these days and was duly rewarded by several photo opportunities which I was happy to accept.

The highlight for me was seeing a pair of Kestrels though unfortunately they were just a little too far away for me to get the best of photos.

Now we are in March and the weather has deteriorated again and there is little point taking my DSLR out with me at the moment. Fingers crossed that things will improve soon.

Spring is near!

It was such a beautiful day today that I decided to take out my DSLR with me on my morning walk with the dog. It did not take long before I saw the Kingfisher by the river and I followed it upstream for a good distance before losing sight of it. I was quite pleased with the photos as my digital compact is just not able to produce the same kind of results when it comes to depth of field and shooting at high ISO for faster shutter speed. However I have still not got as good a shot of the Kingfisher or Grey Wagtail as I am aiming for. I think there will be a few early rises once we start getting sunnier weather regularly again as that is the best time to photograph these birds.

A little bit of history in the garden today when I spotted a Brambling on the Sunflower Hearts feeder for the first time ever. Previously they have just sat and watched as the other finches fed.

Kingfisher

This week I got closer to a Kingfisher than I ever dreamt possible. As I was on my morning walk I discovered it sitting quite happily on the river bank just above a cauld searching in the shallows for it's staple diet of small fish. I must have been no further than 20 feet away from the bird which was completely unfazed by several passers by including a jogger who passed within 6 feet.

Couple of pics

I was delighted to get these photos of two elusive birds in the snow. Although the Dabchick can regularly be seen it has a habit of diving underwater at the wrong moment. The Brambling is a seasonal visitor and from my past experience can say that this bird doesn't stay in the area too long. In fact it only seems to appear when there is snow on the ground, hangs around with the local chaffs for a few days, then disappears again.

Little Grebe

Finally managed to get a photo of a lone Dabchick which has been around for the past few weeks. Not an easy task as every time I got it in focus it decided to dive and then reappeared several yards away!

We saw the old year out with a brief visit to the garden by a small squadron of Long Tailed Tits which disappeared again before I had a chance to grab my camera. As their previous visit to the best of my knowledge was just after Christmas 2006 we are probably in for a long wait for them to visit again.

Today we had a decent fall of snow and I was able to identify a lone Brambling amongst the many Chaffs which gathered at our much in demand feeders. Once again my attempts to grab a photo failed miserably partly due to the fading light as it was mid-afternoon when I saw it.

Fantastic Experience

What a way to end 2007!

Returning from walking the dog today I decided to go to a spot where I had seen a Kingfisher on several previous occasions. As I reached the location the first thing I saw was the Kingfisher flying low above the water towards me. It landed on a tree branch on the opposite side of the river from me, a distance of around 15 yards.

For the next 20 minutes I stood transfixed as the bird dived into the water several times, returning with a small fish each time. It completely ignored me and a couple of other passers by as it sat patiently watching the water waiting for it's next catch.

Fortunately I had my digital compact TZ3 with super duper 280mm zoom lens with me and although the sky was very overcast and there wasn't a lot of light I did manage to get some half decent shots, certainly the best ones of the Kingfisher so far.

I will be returning to the same spot with my DSLR when we get some decent sunlight to try for some much better shots.

Incidentally I have changed the title of my blog to more truely reflect the subject content.

To anyone who may read this I would like to wish you a Happy New Year and best wishes for 2008.