Hawfinch

Following a request for shots I went looking for a suitable Hawfinch and was blown away when this bird landed in front of me. I had the camera settings ready for a shot in the tree tops so I was really fortunate to pull this off.

 

 

Here it is feeding high in the trees on berries. I was pretty pleased with this on its own really, and a worthy reward for a total of five hours waiting.

 

Lancashire Sun

I popped over the border to visit some reserves where I spent my youth and was bathed for two days in some lovely sunshine. This colourful Stonechat managed to catch some caterpillars, which I found quite surprising in -2C.

 

 

     

 

I left the Stonechat to his lunch and headed to Marshside RSPB where an Amercian vagrant was showing well. Here are some shots of the American Green Winged Teal.

 

 

 

 

 

I desperately wanted to get some wader shots, but despite walking several miles of shoreline things conspired against me. I did find this small flock of Twite feeding on the shoreline.

 

Soon enough the mist descended and the sun never came back.

 

Happy New Year

It’s been a while, but the birding and more importantly the light have been excellent for a few days. I had to make a couple of trips south so managed to combine that with a little bit of photography. These delightful goldfinches;

 

  

 

I was actually looking for some Penduline Tits at the time, but with little success. I did manage to make the short trip to Southend to get a quick peek at the wintering Ring Billed Gull. I was also ‘impressed’ to see that ‘Rossi’ managed to swallow an entire crust in one go!

 

  

 

I met up with David Campbell aka Devil Birder to look for some Firecrests that are wintering in Surrey. A superb male bird showed almost immediately and my hopes were high, but several further visits did not yield the hoped for performance form these colourful sprites.