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SUNDAY 25th APRIL 2010

Spring moths

The moth trap at Chew had a few proper spring moths in it this morning - a nice change after what seems to be the same five species for two months. Top to bottom - Chocolate-tip, Early Thorn and The Streamer.

You can see the Chocolate-tip a bit bigger on here.

SATURDAY 24th APRIL 2010

Bee Hummer cover

What good news - my Bee Hummingbird on the cover of June's Birder's World.

FRIDAY 16th APRIL 2010

SSC sunset

Decided to take a few sunset shots this evening, and it seemed like the Second Severn Crossing from the viewpoint at the top of Over Lane would be worth a try, with the sun due to go down in just the right position over the Brecon Beacons. Isn't the internet with it's solar azimuth calculators a splendid thing?

Look at that sky, unmolested by vapour trails. I can't say that I thought the sunset itself was any different to a normal one, despite the 'ash clouds' hanging over us.

SATURDAY 10th APRIL 2010

Some more of the same

Another trip to Barrow, only with better light and some slightly closer birds this time... Nearly got what I was after, but could have done with that displaying Ruddy Duck a bit closer. You need really fast shutter speeds to catch the display without any blur.

MONDAY 5th APRIL 2010

Vermins

...or so I would be told by buffoons. Seeing as the last few years have given very few opportunities for me to take any pictures of Ruddy Ducks at Chew, I thought I'd make the most of the chance with these at Barrow before they get battered by some twat next winter.

I wondered whether the stupidity of these birds which allows them to be shot so easily would also allow me to get some shots of them today. With that in mind, I downloaded an mp3 of the display call on my interweb phone thingy, and played it back a few times to the birds present this morning. They instantly responded by swimming towards me and displaying to each other for a good 20 minutes or so. The divs. Or they did until the only two anglers on the entire perimeter of the tank decided to stroll up and fish 20 meters from where I was sat.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes also swam in whilst I was with the Ruddy Ducks. I then played some calls of their species, but they were less impressed and just gave me some strange looks. One of the birds was a particularly dusky-faced one. Quite smart.

SUNDAY 28th MARCH 2010

Grebes

Having evidently used up all of my luck yesterday afternoon on the Lesser Scaup, I arrived at Stratford hide to find that the Ferruginous Duck (which was now on the other side of the lake) had earlier been so close to the hide that you could have hit it with a loaf of bread. Never mind - I've still got loads of shots of it from last May which I haven't got round to processing yet.

There's a pair of grebes with a territory close to the hide, offering some good chances of photos as they do their celebrated courtship nonsense. The one time I get a shot with both of them front-on and in focus, the light happens to be rubbish. Luckily they both came up with some weed on this occasion.

SATURDAY 27th MARCH 2010

Lesser Scaup (better)

The Lesser Scaup was still around today - after failing to find it at the dam, I (for once) was lucky and had some close views of it at Stratford hide.

SATURDAY 20th MARCH 2010

Some grey ducks on a grey day

The aythya flock at Stratford was good value today as many of the birds were tucked up close to the hide, including the bizarre Tufted Duck x Pochard hybrid shown in the bottom two. The Lesser Scaup showed well off the dam, although getting some decent photos of it bobbing up and down on the choppy water was a bit tricky.

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