A flock of mixed winter thrushes, around 60 or so, seen at the sheep pasture adjacent to the Tree Nursery, was mostly made up of FIELDFARE, but there were a few REDWING amongst them too. The Tree Nursery hasn't produced the Barn owl since I saw it at the weekend, maybe it was just passing through, only a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS and a GOLDCREST were of note there today.
Four more Goldcrest were seen in the Wet Woods, probably the four seen yesterday, with them were two TREECREEPERS. Also in the woods, a pair of MALLARDS, a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, at least 4 SISKIN and a few BLACKBIRDS were the only birds seen.
On to the lakes, and the COOT pair remain, they look on course to make a breeding attempt in a few weeks time, just the second ever on my patch by this species. Eleven CANADA GEESE, and the BARNACLE GOOSE were also present, as were four GREYLAG GEESE, a pair of Mallard were the first seen here this week, but not a single Moorhen was recorded this afternoon.
A pair of BULLFINCH were seen well in the adjacent Scrubby Woods, where a few more of the common birds were encouraged to call or sing in the better conditions today, GREAT TIT, BLUE TIT, COAL TIT, DUNNOCK, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, and CHAFFINCH attempted some springlike noises :-)
I walked back over to the Tree Nursery, to give the Barn owl another chance to meet me, I hung around for half an hour, it was still chilly in the wind, so I huddled up against a line of shrubs and awaited, but it didn't show, maybe i'll try later in the day tomorrow. One of the KESTREL pair was up hunting, and a few BLACK HEADED GULLS went over, not long after that I headed home for a warming cuppa.
I did manage a few distant Geese photo's today, and also took some more Long Tailed Tit images from my garden whilst I had lunch, i'll keep the tit images for another post.
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| Canada Geese |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| The Feral barnacle Goose |
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| Not a Goose :-) One of the COOT pair :-) |
7 comments:
At least you are getting to use your camera Warren. I don't think mine has been out of the bag for a while.
Marc,
I'm so used to using the camera in sub-optimum conditions, that once the better light comes along, it all becomes a learning process again!
Warren ,
The good thing is that the dreaded February is almost out of the way , it's all downhill from here , I hope !
Shame the Barn owl didn't hang around .
I think the Barn Owl is playing hide and seek with you Warren :-) You do get some good photos in dull weather, are there any magic settings you can share? My favourite today is the Canada Geese.
Songbird,
In dull weather dont be afraid to use higher ISO, I use up to 1600 at times.
Look at the background of the subject, if it is a dark background, set the exposure compensation to minus one third, if bright try plus one third, not guaranteed to bring success, but it's what I use!
Hi Warren,
Good range of goose species there, looks like a decent session all round. Hopefully that Barn Owl turns up for you again, although maybe it was just passing through as you say
Thanks Warren :-). I do try upping the ISO but so often suffer with the old enemy, noise :-( I always forget about exposure compensation so thanks for the reminder :-)
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