Monday 8 November 2010

As feared, the weather took a turn for the worse today, rain and strong winds right up till dusk put pay to any meaningful birding. I did however brave the elements this afternoon after work, just to check the lakes out, I needn't have bothered though, just 3 pairs of MALLARD and 6 MOORHENS were on the water.

It was already dusk-like at 14:45hrs, so I reluctantly gave up and headed home, at least I could spend some time stripping down the garden feeders and dis-infecting them. Walking home through the Small Holding I bumped into a flock of LONG TAILED TITS, with a pair of GOLDCRESTS with them, at least I saw something of interest :-)

Whilst at the kitchen sink scrubbing the feeders, I saw a ''blob'' in the tree at the end of the garden, it turned out to be the SPARROWHAWK, as ever it sat and waited for something to turn up for supper, giving me the chance for some sort of photo. It was practically dark when I took these photo's, its amazing how bright the camera makes it look, although I have tried to clean the images up a bit.


More rain is forecast tomorrow, but i'll wait to see if I can get out or not.

8 comments:

Chris said...

cool pictures Warren. We are getting cold days with sun and you know what... I got the 86th mate... I saw the bohemian waxwing tonight... They were five minutes away from work so I went there before picking up the little lady at school!!! That was cool and I will go back tomorrow!

Chris said...

Sorry mate, I used the google account of my wife, it was chris of course so you can delete the previous comment. I got the 87th species not 86 ;-)

ShySongbird said...

Only 6 degrees here today and never ending rain :(

That 50D certainly performs well in bad light Warren! I'm so tempted, but so put off by the heavier weight compared to mine. I just can't afford to make an expensive mistake, I already have a long lens which doesn't get used much as I can really only use it comfortably with a tripod.

Anyway you got some good photos there!

Chris said...

Hi Again,
This is the second best year. Last year was 94! But with all the crazyness that is going around now I might even beat that one!!! Gosh you should see that, that's impressive, even a yellowhammer has been spotted (the 5th in Iceland!!).

Bob Bushell said...

We didn't have a drop of rain all day, so that must be a first. The pictures of the Sparrowhawk are really good.

Monika said...

Wow, very neat photos of the sparrowhawk. Especially given the weather and light conditions!

Anonymous said...

That Sprawk looks as miserable as i did and i didn`t even get wet.

Unknown said...

very Nice shots of the Sparrowhawk.