Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

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I have realised recently that here on the blog and also on my Pbase galleries the photographs are degraded and compressed.  This happens everytime an image is uploaded to these sites.  To see my photographs in sharp vibrant, uncompressed detail, then please visit my new galleries at smugmug.com by clicking on the link here https://charlesfleming.smugmug.com  Alternatively, my primary gallery containing 6000 images can be viewed here.  http://www.pbase.com/charlie_fleming

Charlie Fleming

Another beautiful Crossbill comes to drink

It is interesting when you look closely at a Crossbill to see that the beak crosses either from the left or the right.  This gives you the opportunity sometimes to separate individuals.  For example, I don't think that I have seen this bird drinking from my pool before because the previous male birds photographed have had beaks crossing from the other direction. I have read that there is no pattern to this and birds in the same nest can be either lefties or righties! There is probably a gene involved and a pattern of inheritance could probably be worked out. Mendel's theory of genetical inheritance is not difficult to grasp.  For example, some traits can be "sex-linked" meaning that females - in some cases - can carry the gene but only males will show the characteristic or visa-Versa.  Other rules are either dominant or recessive.  I don't believe that any study has been carried out to ascertain what the pattern of inheritance for left or right beaks is? It could, however, just be random, who knows?  This bird (below) is the partner of the male and her beak crosses to the right as well.

Male Great-spotted Woodpecker, Haldon Devon.

Crossbills at a drinking pool.

A small drinking pool that I created on the edge of some conifers close to home has become just as productive as I hoped this last few days.  Siskins drink from it constantly, Stonechats come to bathe and a few Lesser Redpoll are often there as well. However, it was created with Crossbills in mind and this last week it has been very fruitful.  We have had a spell of very dry weather with hardly any rain for a few weeks and water is probably in short supply elsewhere. This is exactly what I hoped for.  There is a pattern and the first Crossbills arrive between 1020 and midday. I would suspect that at dawn there is a small amount of dew on the leaves high in the canopy and the birds take advantage of that. Around the pool, there are some upright branches and usually, the Crossbills that come down alight on one of these to choose a safe spot to drink from. It is thrilling when one flies in, they are often brightly coloured, either red or yellow chunky birds with very noticeably strong legs and feet. They seem big, almost twice the size of a Siskin for example and of course, they have an enormous beak which crosses at the tip either left over right or right over left, there is no pattern to this.  Some birds can be quite drab because they get more colourful as they get older. This makes them very interesting because you can recognise certain individuals by their markings. A female bird has been down to drink most days, she is very attractive with a bright yellow rump. Yesterday, two different red males came down, separated by around 20 minutes so I am assuming that this was two family groups. I am looking forward to seeing more and more of them and getting the chance to take even more pictures. 

The female Crossbill again.

I had another visit from the same female Crossbill yesterday and Siskins are coming constantly to drink and feed as well. There are beautiful Yellowhammers also who must have a nest nearby, I know that because they come to collect food and then fly off with beaks full of sunflower hearts only to return to do the same repeatedly. Great-Spotted Woodpeckers are coming to take peanuts - there are 3 - an adult female and 2 juveniles. Interestingly and perhaps uniquely, juvenile GSW are more colourful than their parents with a red crown that disappears after the first post-juvenile moult in late August.

I really hope that the male Crossbill that I have seen regularly moving with the female, comes down to give me a chance to photograph him. I have no idea why he is so reticent, several times he has flown down only to circle around before disappearing back up into the high canopy. This is very frustrating.

As you can see, juveniles do not have bright crimson red feathers around the vent as adults do, instead there is just the vaguest hint of red, however, they are still one of our most colourful birds with bold black and white markings on the wing which flash when they are in flight.

This is a female Yellowhammer.

Crossbills in Devon

I very much like to get my teeth into a project and then devote as much time to it as I can.  Currently, my obsession is a small area of Forestry Commission Land on Haldon, a heathland turned in to a plantation very close to the city of Exeter, an area of approximately 1,416 hectares.  This is a great habitat, very under-watched and always quiet apart from the odd cyclist who whizzes by on the trails, they are mostly odd, to be honest. This is ridiculous really when you realise that the area is designated as a SSCI and an important area for breeding birds.  Well, apart from this annoyance it is a haven, almost a paradise and only 10 minutes from my house. Parking is not an issue because I have made friends with Martin who lives in a wooden house next to an extinct quarry right there. So, to get to the nub of this post.  Yesterday was just a fabulous success because I managed to photograph a Crossbill that came to drink from my drinking pool.  I say my pool because I prepared it especially to attract Crossbills. The pool is just a large puddle but provides much-needed drinking and bathing water to the birds that live nearby and probably further afield as well. I chose the area because in the winter and when there has been a lot of rain, this is a soggy wet area and the birds are used to drinking there. When we have no rain for extended periods, the pools and boggy areas dry out and the birds move on to find water elsewhere.  I dug out a depression in the rocky ground and used thick plastic sheeting to form a pool which I then camouflaged with vegetation to look as natural as possible.  I then used stones and pebbles to imitate a natural puddle in the path.  It looks good and the birds like it!  The only fag is that I have to cart in the water daily to keep it topped up.

The Pool.

I arrived at just before 11 in the morning and quickly set up because I could hear Crossbills nearby and that usually means that they are about to come to drink. In a little natural hide around 20 feet from the pool, I put the camera on the tripod and sat in expectation.  Normally there is a considerable wait but not today because almost immediately there was a bright yellow bird, chunky and bold right on an upright branch next to the little source of water.  It was the female Crossbill that I have seen 4 times now.  I can tell her apart because she is quite unusually yellow and also has a few tiny red feathers on her cheek patches and some on her mantle.  She hesitated on the branch before dropping down to the water to gulp beaks full of water.  Crossbills drink slowly because of the shape of the bill which makes drinking difficult. They sip water into the beak and raise their heads back to swallow.  They are very vulnerable to predation whilst drinking which explains why they are very shy and careful before coming down to drink. 

Normally, once one bird has come down to drink, others will usually follow and this female is part of a family group which includes a red adult male and a younger less colourful bird which is probably a year old from the last time they nested. With Common Crossbills, females are yellow, and males are red. All juveniles moult into yellowish coloured birds, then the next moult the males start to acquire red feathers and the females get more yellow. Consequently, there are Crossbills of different colours and plumage patterns which adds to their attraction and mystery.  I have had a few opportunities to photograph the red male that moves around with this small group but each time this bird has been too wary and not landed.

 

The common "ole" House Sparrow.

Not a tropical Ecuador bird by any means but when you look really close at the common House Sparrow you can see that they are much smarter than you realise. We have a small colony in our back garden and they scrape a living in the bushes that I leave to run wild. Its a constant battle with Jenny to leave them untrimmed but without them, there would be nothing for the sparrows to feed on. They constantly scour for small insects and aphids, sparrows eat more insects than you would imagine. It is thought that the way people maintain their gardens is the reason that Sparrows have declined in the UK by 150 million birds in the last 30 years. Is that something we should be ashamed of? I think so. I enjoy taking pictures of "my" sparrows from the bathroom window.

Blue Grey Tanager. Ecuador

One of those really beautiful Tanagers that you see in Ecuador commonly.  They will gladly come down to fruit feeders and offer brilliant photo opportunities. The males and females look the same but I think the males are more intensely coloured This one was photographed at Satchatamia Lodge one lunchtime as I say and ate lunch outdoors overlooking the feeders there. A perfect, lovely bird!

The Red-headed Barbet in Ecuador.

Red-headed Barbet male.

The Barbets are a gorgeous family of birds.  They are bold and stocky and perhaps the epitome of a tropical bird with their bright colours and liking for fruit.  I have been lucky enough to photograph four different species including the amazing Brown-headed Barbet in Sri Lanka and I even found them using a hole in an old coconut tree to nest.  

Red-headed Barbet female.

On my recent trip to Ecuador, I saw and photographed the Red-Headed Barbet, in this species the male and females look like totally different species.  Both of these Barbet species have a fondness for banana which is odd in the case of the Ecuadorian bird because banana isn't a fruit that grows in the higher altitudes where they are found!

Brown-headed Barbet.

Coal Tit sexing.

Here is another one of our common birds - a Great Tit -  for my friends from Ecuador and the USA to see and enjoy. This is a bird that comes into our gardens and to the feeders that many people put out. This is worth 200 million pounds to the UK economy incidentally. Great Tits will also use nest boxes which many people put out. Compared to the Coal Tit, the Great Tit is a much bigger bird, literally twice as big by weight at 16grams.  In Haldon Forest, 3 miles from my home, Coal Tits are numerous and these last few days I have been photographing them as they come constantly to a feeding station that I have set up. It is a real challenge to get a good image because they are never still and with the light not being good at this time of year it is difficult to get a sharp image because of movement. I have also been attempting to separate the male Coal Tits from the females. I  have read that males have a larger dark bib which is more clearly defined but this is, as yet, not scientifically certain. It is good though to see that this species is doing so well.  Yesterday I also had a Nuthatch and female Great-spotted Woodpecker and also a beautiful Chaffinch and I am hoping for Brambling but not yet.

This is probably one of the nicest images of Coal Tit that I have taken recently.  I have been shooting in Raw and by doing this I have then been able to fully control all adjustments before saving as a JPeg.  This has helped me to increase the sharpness of my images considerably.  I am annoyed with myself for not always shooting in Raw, the reason being that the camera will take time to save the images to file in Raw and you do miss an opportunity here and there, but I do recommend shooting in Raw if you are serious about getting good photographs.  Incidentally, unfortunately, Typepad blogs compress images and some of the detail in images is always lost, so you are not seeing this image at its best.  To do that click on the link here https://charlesfleming.smugmug.com/British-Birds/Coal-Tits/i-xJWwScg/A  

Barred Puffbird - Nystalus radiatus from Ecuador.

A female?

My guide Javier got very excited when we discovered this pair of birds by the side of the road as we made our way to the river at a little place called Pedro Vicente in Ecuador. The nice lady at her roadside shop where I bought beer and cakes told us about the river nearby so it was only by accident that we arrived there. I can honestly say that this day was one of my best of the trip. A beer, a nice chat with the shop owner and then a visit to an area that other people don't normally visit. On that afternoon, I found a Green Kingfisher at a nest, I managed some record shots of a species that I have always wanted to add to my galleries as well, so it was doubly special. I sat there watching the Kingfisher and Javier kindly went off and bought me even more beer which I sat and drank as we waited for the Kingfishers, a magical afternoon.

This is a male I think.

The roadside shop where the lady proprietor told us about the river nearby. 

Silvery Grebe, Lake Mica, Antisana Ecological Reserve, Ecuador.

The silvery grebe (Podiceps occipitalis) is a species in the family Podicipedidae. It is found in the western and southern part of South America at altitudes of up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Its natural habitat is freshwater lakes and this is where I saw them on my Ecuador trip in September. I particularly enjoyed seeing this grebe because in the British Isles, apart from the Great Crested, grebe are hard to see. We have 4 species in this family and also the Little Grebe which is in a family of its own, so five species in total. These birds were nesting in a colony on Lake Mica which is in the Antisana Ecological Reserve, a massive area that is described as a region where the climatic conditions are very extreme with low temperatures, low precipitation, high blowing winds and low oxygen levels. I have to confess that this area was my least favourite to visit when I was in Ecuador. It had been hyped up quite a lot but to me, it lived up to its reputation as a desolate and cold environment. There was a great deal of birdlife but most was hard to photograph. There was also some over-zealous park staff, one even came after us on an off-road bike to tell us to keep away from the nesting grebe. But this was eclipsed by a surly bearded young man at a checkpoint reminiscent of a border post where you were asked for Passport details and locals had to show their ID cards. When you consider that in Europe you travel between France and Belgium without any checks, this seemed ridiculously out of context! Javier, my guide was cross with me for being equally surly back to the "guard" if you get my meaning, (I can do surly quite well). I suddenly realised how free we are in the UK. It is interesting to travel because you then learn how different things can be in other countries.

Crimson-rumped Toucanet at Amagusa Reserve, Ecuador.

If there was a competition for the most impressive bird seen on my monumental trip to the thrilling country of Ecuador in September, then the Crimson-rumped Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus haematopygus) would be way up there. I can easily remember what it was like when I caught my first glimpse of this extraordinary bird. I had seen photos before I left the UK and then when one put in an appearance, it was like seeing a celebrity in the flesh for the first time. I am a wildlife dweeb so things like this make a big impact on me. They are not big like the other Toucans, about the size of a moorhen, perhaps a tiny bit smaller. To say that they are green wouldn't do them justice because they have multiple shades including, turquoise and blues. The crimson rump matches the red bare skin around the eye and they have an impressive, imposing beak. I don't know if it is just a coincidence but these photos are amongst the best from the trip. I love the first picture best.

It was photographed at Los Bancos near to Quito at the Amagusa Reserve.  The host was a lovely man with an eye for business.  He had been a hunter in a former life and had now realised that his future lay in "eco-torism".  He bent over backwards to be helpful and his reserve was fabulous with dozens of Tanagers and Hummingbirds coming down to the feeding stations that he had set up.  I can honestly say that visiting Amagusa Reserve was way up there with one of the best wildlife days of my entire life!  The trip was part of a photography tour with Javier Zurita, a guide organised by Mercedes at the Puembo Birding Garden.  Contact  her to organise your own trip. 

 

 

Pera Marsh 10 years on!

A Northern Wheatear by the shoreline at Pera Marsh.

The birding here in the Algarve, Portugal is not very easy. There doesn't seem to be much thoughtful planning so the beach areas are really overdeveloped, overcrowded and cramped. It seems as though every square inch has a badly built bar on it or a dodgy hotel. Having said that, it's very clean and tidy and it's not too littered which is remarkable. Any wildlife has to cram itself into the few vestiges of undeveloped land though, for example, the White Storks on the tower in Lidls Car Park in Porté Mao !! The beaches are clean thankfully and the local people are almost nice, but you would think that as they rely on tourism so massively, they might just try a bit harder to smile and say hello now and then! At Pera Marsh today, 10 years since I last visited, it is still apparently one of Portugals most important wetland areas, it was awful to see how the creep of urbanization has pushed right to the edges of the lagoons and wetlands now. It isn't surprising therefore that it was hard to see anything resembling a rare bird. Spoonbills were feeding in the watercourses and apart from the odd White Wagtail and Crested Lark in the Car Park, that was just about it. It must have been absolutely fantastic here 50 years ago, but it is quite awful now, to be honest. But its no different to South Florida really and it always amazes me that wildlife still seems to find a place to exist.

White Stork in Lidls Carpark!!

Crested Lark in the carpark at Pera Marsh.

Last time I had visited Pera Marsh exactly 10 years ago to the day,  I had seen and photographed a Bluethroat, a really sought after little bird. My friends Dave Land and Dave Stone had looked to photograph them earlier this year in Spain so I thought I would post a picture here for them to see.

Corry's Shearwater, Sagres, Portugal.

. The other day I went out on a fast rib with 5 other birders from Sagres to try to photograph the seabirds that are resident or, over-winter at the continental shelf about 12 miles offshore. In actual fact, we didn't need to go out that far before we encountered a large raft of Cory's Shearwater with the odd critically endangered Balearic Shearwater amongst them as well, what a sight. Photography was particularly difficult because of the chop, speed of travel and limited space.  That said, it was an awesome, wonderful experience. The highlight turned out to be the numbers of dolphins that we saw. For an hour of the 3-hour trip, we had dolphins, mostly Bottle Nose, with us constantly. They were leaping and breaching and I even saw them carrying fish and also calves swimming alongside their mothers. It was just absolutely brilliant!!!! The best €45 I have ever spent and literally 2 thirds cheaper than the equivalent out of Cape Town.  (Come on Cape Town Pelagics...reduce your prices!) This morning I wandered around some wasteland behind our hotel and bumped into a fabulous Hoopoe in the rising sunlight just after dawn and I managed to get really close before a local man looking for his lost guard dog disturbed it. He told me the dog would attack me if it saw me so I left ASAP.

 

Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)

I traveled out to Dartmoor this morning, the weather was absolutely beautiful, bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky.  I went specifically to look for Ring Ouzel that had been seen recently but unfortunately, probably because it was a beautiful sunny Sunday and therefore a bit too busy, there was no sign whatsoever of the ouzels. In actual fact, the only birds I saw was a single Mistle Thrush and the nice little Wren (above). Did you know that the European Wren is one of Britain's most common birds?  This is because they are found in just about every habitat from our tallest Mountains and on the seashore as well as gardens, parks, and farmlands.

The Blog is back up and running. I was at Prawle Point yesterday!

I haven't been blogging this year because I wanted to see if I could post better quality pictures displayed via Facebook. However, I was reading through the Blog last night and decided to resurrect it again because I really liked the way it was presented even though the quality of the images wasn't as good as the originals.  So here is a photograph of a Northern Wheatear that I saw yesterday at Thurlestone on the golf course.  I had been to Prawle Point to see if there were any interesting birds to photograph.  I had read the other day that it had been "alive with birds".  But I have to say that it turned out to be an almost complete waste of time and effort, it was absolutely birdless and the only birds I saw were the usual residents that you would expect on a South Devon site.  Raven, Kestrel, Rock Pipit and Stonechat being the only birds seen. Very frustrating.  On the way back, as I was passing, I called into Thurlestone because I wanted to photograph the Wheatears that I had seen previously on the golf course there, migrating south for the winter.  Sitting down very quietly I managed to get some great close views and good shots even though on one occasion, golf balls were whizzing past my head!

 

Bank Vole

Its not often that you get the chance to photograph a vole but today was an interesting one.  I took myy scope on to Haldon in the hope that I may have the chance to "digiscope" the Crossbills if they came to the high trees by my feeding station.  The weather was bright and sunny so it was a perfect day for that.  Recently I have been putting out much more food for the birds in the hope that I might be able to attract Bramblings to feed there.  It has deffinitely made a difference with lots and lots more birds coming to the food but they were mostly Coal Tits so far. As I stood watching the tree tops I noticed a vole come to spilt seed under the feeder and I concentrated my efforts there to try and photograph it if it came again.  It did return quite quickly and because my Lumix camera was attached to my scope I used this set up to get a few photos.  Not ideal of course,  I had to manually focus the camera and it wasnt easy. This was really interesting becaus I had seen and photographed a vole there way back on September 4th, thats about 22 weeks ago!  Of course it's not possible to know if it is the same animal but its bound to be related if not the same individual.  I would really like to investigate how many voles there are here. Both times I have seen them was within  inches of the same spot so they must have a nest right there or very nearby.

Hawfinches - All Saints Churchyard, East Budleigh Devon.

It's worth noting that all of the images on this site are slightly degraded,  to see images that are as I took them then please link to my Smugmug galleries here hawfinch gallery and other birds.

 

 In the churchyard at East Budleigh - East Devon which happens to be the birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh.  The church dates back to Saxon times - the existing building was constructed in the 13 century - and the church bells are the same ones that Sir Walter Raleigh would have heard 500 years ago!  Raleighs parents are interred in the churchyard here. 

There had been reports of Hawfinch feeding on yew tree berries, (probably). The Hawfinch, under normal circumstances, is a very, very difficult bird to find let alone photograph but this winter there are more Hawfinches in the UK than in living memory. Never the less they are still hard to locate. We were pleased to actually get some photographs this morning, albeit not my best ever bird photographs but worth posting because of their "celebrity" status. It will probably be years before I get the chance to photograph them again. As you can see they have massive beaks which can even crack open cherry stones by the way.

Common Crossbill, Haldon Forest

Yesterday afternoon I had a nice encounter with a small group of Common Crossbill. There were 5, one adult male and one female and what looked like 3 juveniles.  This looked to be a small family group and would mean that the pair may have bred very late in the year.....or very early in the season depending on how you want to look at it.   Of course, I can't be sure but it could be the case, they do breed when feeding conditions are right and for them, that is when there is an abundance of pine seeds to feed on.  They were at the top of a very high pine tree and seemed to be taking water from the wet foliage.   I have suspected that they do drink in this way but I have never read about this and a quick internet search drew a blank as well. 

This image seems to show the bird taking something from the needles as described.  The image below shows the small group.

 

Lumix G9

I know it's only a little Robin again but I just needed to get out - between the showers this afternoon- with the new camera. If you know anything about cameras you will be as amazed as me that the shutter speed for this photo was only 1/30 of a second, how can that be and it still be sharp? This image is straight from the camera, not manipulated or cropped in Photoshop. With most long lenses you need to be around 12 feet or more to be able to focus but with this setup, a Vario 100-400 lens you can focus down to 3 feet, amazing! I am really staggered by my new Lumix G9, a mirrorless camera instead of the usual DSLR. This is a watershed moment in wildlife photography I think. Just imagine when we have some good light.  Here is the EXIF which you may find interesting if it's not for you then please just ignore it.  "Please note: Due to some compression on this Blog there is some slight degrading of the original image".

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Date Time Digitized: Jan 15, 2018 at 15:36:27
Date Time Original: Jan 15, 2018 at 15:36:27
Exif Version: 2.3.1
Exposure Bias Value: -0.33
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Exposure Program: Normal program
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Focal Length: 400
Focal Length In 35mm Film: 831
Focal Plane Resolution Unit: centimeters
Focal Plane X Resolution: 8,452.633
Focal Plane Y Resolution: 8,452.633
Gain Control: High gain up
Photographic Sensitivity (ISO): 400
Lens Model: LEICA DG 100-400/F4.0-6.3
Lens Serial Number: 27JIF30G044P
Max Aperture Value: 5.312
Metering Mode: CenterWeightedAverage
Pixel X Dimension: 5,184
Pixel Y Dimension: 3,456
Saturation: Normal
Scene Capture Type: Standard
Scene Type: A directly photographed image
Sensing Method: One-chip color area sensor
Sharpness: Normal
Shutter Speed Value: 1/30
Sub-second Time: 580
Sub-second Time Digitized: 580
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White Balance: Auto white balance
Lens Model: LEICA DG 100-400/F4.0-6.3

Bird images taken with the Lumix G9 to Vario -Elmar 100-400 Lens.

These images were taken with the new Panasonic Lumix G9.  I have used it today for the very first time....it's simply amazing. I was expecting it to produce good images but I wasn't expecting it to be so light and portable when compared to my previous heavy Sigma 500 prime.  Whats more, because of the very powerful and effective image stabilisation I was able to take pictures handheld with a shutter speed of only 1/30 of a second.  This is an amazing breakthrough for me and will be for every photographer that I know. It means that you can also take pictures with low ISO and therefore there will be less annoying noise on the pictures, something I hate and always spoils loads of my pictures..  So today when the light was too dull to get out and take pictures normally, with the new G9 I still able to get out and I had incredible success.  The sharpness and detail of every image taken today noticeably exceeded the quality of photos taken with my previous Pentax. This is good news when you have invested so much money.  One of the problems with camera equipment is trusting online reviews and advice from people with a vested interest but I had seen some brilliant images taken by people I trust. Never the less, it would have been really good to be able to test it out for myself in the field.

 

 

One of the big features of the camera is the really fast focusing speed, supposedly the fastest of any camera on the market and therefore, presumably the fastest of any camera in the history of photography.  This was really useful today because it meant I hardly missed a shot.  There is so much more to this camera and I will write about it more when I have used the various features.

This is a Dunnock by the way.

Red backed Woodpecker, Sri Lanka

I have been sorting through my pictures from my December trip to Sri Lanka. One of the highlights was the close views that I had of Red backed Woodpecker. This bird is interesting because it was recently declared a species in it's own right. Formerly it had been thought to be a sub-species of the Flame-backed Woodpecker. It is a bird only found in Sri-Lanka - therefore, and is an endemic species. These birds seem very fond of coconuts and two were in the garden regularly during my stay recently and I had great photo opportunities. I have discovered that it is possible to sperate the sexes and I dont think this has been illustrated by many people before, if at all. If you look at the photos you can see that just above the beak on the forehead, one bird has white spots on a black background and the other bird has red spots on the same black background. The white spotted bird is the female.

Bullfinch - Pyrrhula pyrrhula

We have been for a couple of long walks this weekend. One from Powderham to Cockwood on Saturday took us through Starcross. I would love to live there by the way. As we walked, we were lucky enough to see Bullfinch on two occasions, both times they were feeding on roadside berries. You can always tell a Bulfinch - probably more common than you realise - by the flash of white rump which is always really obvious in both the male and the female and also in juveniles, but by now they will have acquired their adult plumage. It's a sweeping statement but the Bullfinch has got to be one of our prettiest small birds. I have a real soft spot for them. When I was a young pre-school child my dad would take me for walks to find their nests in rural Derbyshire and it's one of the first birds I was aware of. He used to breed canaries and it was usual to also pair your canaries with British Finches way back in the 1950's and I recollect that he would put the odd egg under his sitting canaries. It was different days then and still legal to collect birds eggs until 1954. Thank heavens it's illegal now.

The Redwings are still in the garden and what a treat.

The Redwings are still visiting constantly throughout the day, particularly in the morning which is as you would expect. Birds are quite hungry in the mornings after long hours of darkness and in a hurry to feed at first light.  I have done a quick internet search to try and find the nutritional value of holly and discovered that holly berries are poisonous to humans which was a surprise.  They also contain a large percentage of caffeine, perhaps this is why birds seem so obsessed with them?  At the moment though, the apple pieces seem to be more attractive than the berries.  There has been some problems with a near neighbors horrible hairy grey cat, I have watched it stalking the birds on a couple of occasions and I am a little worried that it may eventually be successful.  So far so good and whenever I see it in my garden I chase it away, it is intelligent enough to know that - to say the least - we are not friends!  Nothing against cats, more about irresponsible cat owners.  Several million British Birds predated by domestic cats every year, one of the reasons we don't have as many birds in gardens as we used to. 

It's not every year that we get Redwings in the garden so I have been making the best of the opportunity.  I am very fond of them, very dapper and handsome birds.  I have been trying to separate individuals and to be honest I haven't been finding it all that easy and I am only guessing at the age of those I have photographed.  Is this a 2017 bred bird for example. The light edges to wing feathers would seem to suggest this. 

Redwing

I have had Redwings feeding in my garden for the last few weeks. Who would have though that one holly tree could supply so much food? The Redwing is our smallest thrush species, it looks a little bit like a Song Thrush but when you get a good enough view you can see the red flanks and the creamy white eye stripe and then you know immediately what you are looking at. They arive in the autumn from the continent and spend the next 5 or 6 months with us. When the going gets tough they move in to the suburbs to feed on the berries of ornimental garden shrubs and this is when you will get your best opportunity to see them close up. They seem to prefer Rowan, Holly and Cotoneaster....probably in that order, in fact in my experience they ignore the cotoneaster until everything else has gone. As you can see, they also take apple, usually windfalls. I put this apple half on my lawn just to see if they would come to it and the obvious answer is yes! I was really pleased to see this one on my lawn today after I had been away up norgh for the last week.

The European Robin.

Well, it's Christmas week so what bird could be more appropriate than our lovely Robin, synonymous with this time of the year. I always photograph them when I see them, usually as I wait for something a little bit more exotic. If you were seeing "our" Robin for the first time, perhaps you live in Sri Lanka or even the USA then I am pretty certain you are really impressed. I hope we don't take them for granted but I think that we probably do. Males and females are identical by the way and young birds, straight from the nest, don't have the familiar red breast but by autumn they have acquired the emblematic red colour that we are all so familiar with. I would be surprised if there was just one single person living in the UK that couldn't name a Robin.

It's interesting that the Red, Red Robin that was "bobbin" in American culture is not our European Robin, its actually the American Robin which is in fact a Thrush, a member of the Turdus family. Early European settlers named the vaguely red-breated thrush a "Robin" because they remembered them from the former homes in Europe. Robins are highly territorial and will even "attack" a ball of similar coloured wool.  However in the winter our popluation is swelled by birds from the continent.  These migratory birds move through an area and a bird ringer in North Devon managed to catch and ring 54 different Robins in his garden in one single winter!  Prior to that he had assumed that it was the same individual and the suggestion is that they are more mobile than originally thought but this is open to much more research.

"Apple-eating" Jay.

So, if you are taking an interest you may be pleased that I have an answer to the question, "what bird is eating the apple?" I went up to Haldon just after dawn this morning and when I arrived I disturbed at least 5 Roe Deer right by the drinking pool which was good to see again but a slight disappointment that I had disturbed them. However after a while, once I had set up, a buck came in to view not too far away and I managed - just about - to get a photograph but there was always a bit of foliage getting in the way. Then after an hour, suddenly a Jay arrived and landed right on the "apple log" and immediately started eating the apple! Fruit-eating Jays, who would have thought it! Not only did it eat a few beakfuls but then it picked up a piece and flew off with it. As I walked back later, I was thinking what word would describe how I felt about this because I was hoping that a Green Woodpecker was responsible - I even heard one close by yet again - I was thinking that a good description was "my hopes were dashed" but trashed, crashed or bashed also work really well! Still it was a fun session never the less.

A Jay and Roe Deer.

The Jay is a really colourful member of the crow family. They are, however, cunning and intelligent in equal parts. I was sat today, well concealed in some cover trying to discover and then photograph the bird or birds s that are responsible for eating the apple that I have been putting out on a log in Haldon Forest. I suddenly heard an unusual, quite musical call that I wasn't familiar with and I was expectant and hopeful that whatever it was would come down to feed. Then, it was only seconds when suddenly this Jay landed on a log just in front of me. I love to see this species, they are stunning birds. What had happened was not unusual. Jays are great imitators and regularly copy the calls of other birds. Quite what species this one was imitating I am yet to find out but it was another very interesting encounter and worth sitting there in the really cold and miserable conditions. It grabbed a crop full of peanuts before flying off again to stash the nuts which is what they do. They are known to actually remember hundreds of places where they have stashed food, usually acorns incidentally. Some acorns get missed and this is a way that new Oak trees grow. I went back up to the woods just before dusk to see if anything had taken the apple and yes, it had but still not while have been there. Perhaps tomorrow? However, it was just simply lovely to see a little group of Roe Deer, including one of this year's fauns feeding on Bramble leaves not too far in front of the hide. A great end to my day.

There were many, many Coal Tits coming to the feeder today, it's quite remarkable that in the last 10 years, or perhaps even less than that, Coal Tits seem to have become the most common tit species and are far, far more often seen than Blue Tits by me at least. They were formerly one of our most common birds.  I have done a bit of a quick internet research to see if this is reflected in any publications but I couldnt find any information to confirm this. But for example, today I counted more than 50 visits to peanuts by Coal Tits and not one Blue Tit.....yesterday there was one! 

Back in the UK.

 

 

I am back "birding" in the UK again now. I have this plan to try and entice a Green Woodpecker to come and take apple that I have put out on a log in front of a hide on Haldon Hill. I thought it was going to happen this morning because there was one calling very nearby. I wouldn't have thought it was that easy to find food at this time of year, something is taking the apple and I just hope it is a Green woodpecker.....fingers crossed! While I waited this morning, a Dunnock came down and fed on tiny pieces of peanut. Dunnocks are an unobtrusive little bird with an interesting Latin name.... "Prunella modularis"

 

A nice interesting bird day.

I had another session out on Haldon this a.m.  This is a coniferous woodland which is high on a ridge to the south of Exeter and is bisected by the main Exeter to Plymouth A38 and close to the Exeter Racecourse. It is home to a good selection of birds and other wildlife, even though it also hosts outdoor activities, both cycling and climbing activities for adults and children - it even has segue rides, it still remains largely peaceful. Out in the lovely bright sunshine, it was always going to be quite successful. If you have been reading this page for the last few months you will know that I have been following the woodpeckers there since July. I am quite confident that this bird is the same individual that I have seen on almost every visit since then. It had to fend for itself while I was absent for 6 weeks but it soon learnt that there is a regular supply of peanuts again. Today it came down and perched right where I predicted it would and this gave me the chance to not only take a few photographs but also to see that it was the same young female and all was well. When I arrived I disturbed 2 Roe Deer quite close to my drinking pool and I suspect that they were the reason that all the apples disappear constantly. After just a short while and with a nice photograph or two in the camera I decided to go back out to Dartmoor - as I was halfway there -  to try to get more Fieldfare photographs. It was intensely cold with a biting wind but there were some Fieldfare about so I decided to make the effort to walk down to the spot where I had snapped them before. After a longish wait in the cold, hidden under some cam netting, one of them perched high on a hawthorn bush in front of me. They are very pretty, but I just wish that I could get closer to them. The old medieval name "Fieldfare" apparently refers to their habit of travelling through fields. That didn't make much sense to me until I made the connection with the word "travel" and the word "fare". When you buy your bus or train ticket you pay the "fare" so here is a connection that I had never made before. If you think about it, it does make quite a lot of sense.  I think the photo above and the one below is a good lesson for successful photography. There is no substitute for getting close to your subject.  The image above is hardly cropped I.e. zoomed in on whereas the one below is massively cropped hence the difference in the quality of the final image.

 

Fieldfare - (Turdus pilaris)

 

I have been absent from the Blog for the last 2 months due to an operation which I am glad to say I have mostly recovered from now and I am able to get out and about again.

I have spent the last few days trying to get close enough to Fieldfare to get a good photograph.  For some reason, they seem to be very, very wary. Even when I thought I was really well concealed under a hastily built hide made from scrim, they still seemed to be aware that something wasn't quite right.  Compared with kingfishers for example who will perch just inches from you when you are in a hide, the fieldfare's skittish behaviour is difficult to explain. However with some real patience and perseverance, eventually you may get some success.  Today just one bird was in front of me, in itself quite unusual as they tend to move around and feed in small flocks. 

From Wikipedia."TheFieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is a member of the thrush family Turdida.  It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter. It is a very rare breeder in the British Isles but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.

Fieldfares often nest in small colonies, possibly for protection from predators. The nest is built in a tree where five or six eggs are laid. The chicks are fed by both parents and leave the nest after a fortnight. There may be two broods in southern parts of the range but only one further north. Migrating birds and wintering birds often form large flocks, often in the company of Redwings.The sexes are similar in appearance but the females are slightly more brown. The male has a simple chattering song and the birds have various guttural flight and alarm calls.

 

Action from the Crossbill drinking pool.

Things are really starting to liven up now at the drinking pool. It was a really good session this morning with comparatively lots of birds. The most interesting was a very brief visit from a male crossbill that immediately left without drinking. Unfortunately, there was a loose dog that charged in towards me and right past the pool scattering the birds in all directions. There are deer here, including very young fawns as well as the birds and I wouldn't have thought it was acceptable for dogs to run free and uncontrolled?  The Crossbill, which was just about to drink and was perhaps the first of it's group to come down, then immediately flew back up into the high trees. I have seen Crossbills now an each of my last three visits,  not coming  confidently but definitely interested in the water. Probably in with the flock of Crossbills was the Siskin above, another small finch that feeds in the same way as the Crossbills and probably needs to drink just as frequently. A lovely little species. This is a female, the males are very brightly coloured with yellows and black. I also had a few tiny little Coal Tits visiting the feeder constantly and then also coming to drink.  It is really worth mentioning that every time I have had a Crossbill come to the pool, a Coal Tit has always come down first.  It's probable that the Crossbills watch to see the Coal Tits drinking and use them as a "marker" to check for safety. I wonder if this interspecies association has been recorded before?  But for me, this cant be just a coincidence.

A Coal Tit comes to the pool and below, drinks just before both the Siskin and then a male Crossbill that I was too slow to photograph.

I'm not a great fan of birds on feeders but it is a good opportunity to get close to them.

 

 

Crossbill success after 8 weeks of trying!

Juvenile Crossbill.

Way back in July I created a drinking pool in Haldon Forest to try to get the forest birds to come there to drink. There is a small population of Crossbills resident there but they are virtually impossible to photograph unless you make some plans and preparations. I have been trying for around 8 weeks to entice them to use the pool. Crossbills are entirely seedeaters and the only real opportunity to get close to them is when they come to the ground to drink. However, this late summer and early autumn has been really wet and we have hardly had it dry enough for any other standing water to dry out which would leave "my" pool as the only drinking source. After a few days without rain, today seemed to be a good one to go and "stake out" the pool. As soon as I arrived and after disturbing 4 Roe Deer just by the pool, I sat in the hide next to it and heard Crossbills very nearby noisily moving in the conifers all around me. I had a really good feeling about my chance of success but with quietness returning very quickly, my optimism started to fade. After an hour, suddenly a Coal Tit landed in the pool and I took a few photos. Then bingo, after 8 weeks and perhaps 50 hours of trying, there in the tiny pool was a small family group of drinking Crossbills including one adult male, more than one female and juveniles. They drank quickly and after 15 seconds or so, all of them lifted off from the pool and the encounter was over. I managed just one half decent photograph!

The pool seems to be successful after quite a wait.

 

 

Sexing juvenile Great - Spotted Woodpecker

These 2 photographs are of different juvenile Great - Spotted Woodpeckers. Juveniles can be told by red feathers on their forehead, interestingly this red is absent in adults. You can identify 4 different colour forms of Great - spotted Woodpecker because t's possible to separate juvenile males and juvenile females. The bird above is a female, it has comparatively few red feathers on the head and is a different individual than the one pictured below which is a male. You can clearly see much more red on the head on this bird. I have been interested in birds since a child and it's only this year that I have discovered this difference. Weirdly, I find this very interesting!! By next spring all this year's juveniles will have lost their red heads and young males will develop red on the nape but the females will remain plain black and white. I am interested to see for myself when this moulting process will start to occur.

Also, interestingly from a photographers point of view, both birds were photographed in the same place and the direction of the light has totally changed the background.  You can take the same photograph 1000 times and each one would be different. 

Bank Vole

Is this a Bank Vole or is it a Field Vole?  I think the give away is the length of the tail.  An alternative name for Field Vole is "Short-tailed Vole"  and although in this picture, not all the tail is visible, in my experience the tail is far too long to be anything other than a Bank Vole.  I may have expected it to have more reddish fur but they are variable apparently. Getting the photograph was interesting.  I am still trying to photograph Crossbills and I went to the area where I have set up the drinking pool. I have been leaving peanuts on the log stumps which attract the woodpeckers and also it seems, Bank Voles! The Roe Deer probably eat them as well as the Squirrels.  I suddenly saw some movement where I had put the nuts and as I concentarted, out shot this dark shape, grabbed a nut and retreated back like a streak, so quick you could hardly tell what it was. I waited again for just a short while and it was back to grab another. This time I was ready and I pressed the camera shutter release.

 

A lovely dark Roe doe.

Talking of Roe Deer, I had a few early starts this week trying to photograph drinking crossbills at the pool that I have set up.  Sadly the wet weather that we seem to be getting constantly is making this hard.  The only times that they have been down to it has coincided with consecutive days of dry weather and these are few and far between at the moment.  I am sure that as soon as it dries out for a week or so I will get the reward that my planning may deserve. It was very nice to watch this very pretty and dark Roe doe the other morning.  She was feeding not too far from the little shelter hide built from natural vegetation. She had no idea that I was watching her.  I squeaked the squeaker very quietly and immediately got a reaction.  She lifted her head and stayed motionless. I squeaked again and she moved forward with purpose towards me. Had I been a hunter that would have been all it took.  I was able to press the shutter of my camera repeatedly rather than a trigger on a rifle. I guess common sense dictates that if there are too many deer in an area they may need controlling but it is so sad to think of something as beautiful as this getting shot.

Now talking of another doe, here are a few doh-ray-me's.  I am a musician and spent yesterday playing the Tuba with the South West Comms Band at the Exmouth Festival of Brass.  The band is awesome and won most of the prizes.  You might be surprised to hear just how good they are.  Have a listen and wait to be amazed!

 

 

Another Woodpecker in flight.

I continued my quest to photograph the Crossbills this morning and I will be returning later today for another session, I feel that early evening is going to be more likely.  This morning though, I came really close to success, a large group of the finches were in the tree right above my head and obviously, therefore, also very close to the pool.  I was sure that they were going to come down to drink, I could hear them very noisily calling. Then suddenly, it was quiet and they had moved on again, did they see me, were they disturbed?  I feel sure that it's just a matter of time before they come down predictably to drink.  I am looking forward to this happening not only for me but I also want the opportunity to take along a few bird watching friends.  Crossbills are not that easy to see so it will be a treat for us all.  In the meantime, the Woodpeckers put on a nice show again and I managed to get one of my best in flight shots.  This was the juvenile that seems to be in residence here along with an adult male.   For a photographers perspective, you might find this interesting.  I have come to the conclusion that a minimum of 1/4000 of a second is a must to freeze the wing beat.  To achieve this I set the camera to shutter priority and not the usual aperture priority.  In this way, the camera will constantly change the aperture as the intensity of the light fluctuates. Sometimes the f-stop will be 6.5 and in very bright sunlight might even be 9.5  The shutter speed is the obvious priority and the depth of field comes second.  I choose an ISO that will make it possible to achieve the 1/4000 shutter speed and if the light is really good the depth of field will vary but the "constant" will always the shutter speed that I require.  Here's today's shot.

Crossbills in Haldon Forest

I have been staking out Crossbills in Haldon Forest for the last 5 weeks unfortunately with no photographic success so far.  I scraped out a small drinking pool and lined it with plastic to make the perfect drinking spot for them and have visited regularly since.  Apart from my 5 days in West Yorkshire, I have been most days, sometimes just for a short while admittedly but only once have I seen them drinking from the pool. That was 15 days ago now and in the early evening.  I had gone without my camera on that occasion which is Murphy's law to say the least and I have vowed never to do that again! Crossbills were feeding above the pool very high in the pines and I could see them above me alongside siskin.  Suddenly they came down, mostly individually or in pairs and I counted 26 which was a healthy number.  They were mostly females and youngsters with just 1 or 2 adult males.  It was thrilling to see them and very rewarding that my preparation and planning had paid off. I really thought I had "cracked" it then but that hasn't been the case. It has been frustrating since then because I expected, once they had found the pool that they would come down regularly.  They probably will eventually especially now that we are into a period of dry weather and water might be getting harder to locate elsewhere in the forest.  As I have waited for the Crossbills I have continued to photograph the woodpeckers and I have had some good success with that but even though I have heard Crossbills on most visits, I haven't had any success yet. I will keep trying.

 

Weasel, a brilliant encounter.

I have just returned from a week in Huddersfield West Yorkshire.  I am quite sure that if I lived there I would be able to find some great wildlife to photograph.  August is the worst time of year for birding so I didn't see too much, but enough to whet the appetite.  The highlight was an interaction with a Merlin when, at the same time that I noticed a small group of tits, so did the the raptor.  It swooped in at breakneck speed and I am not sure if it was a successful foray or not, but it was a thrill to see it.  Then, at the RSPB Reserve at Old Moor - near to Rotherham - I saw Tree Sparrow and had my very first glimpse of a Bearded Reedling or Bearded Tit as they are alternitevely known.  This was a massively lucky sighting, 2 pairs bred there this year for the first time so to see one of them was pretty lucky to say the least.  But my best encounter was with two Weasels.  We took the dog for a walk along a very long and not often used track come road towards Deer Hill Reservoir on Marsdon Moor.  There was a large flock of finches feeding on thistles just over the wall and in to a field which was bordered by a typical moorland stone wall. I decided to see if I could photograph them because I knew it would be a good photograph with Goldfinches precarioulsy balancing on the thistles. I ducked behind the wall and waited - my wife  walked on to the car and I said I would follow on in 10 minutes.  After an unsuccessful wait for the finches I stood up and suddenly 2 weasels were moving accross the track like quick silver towards the stone wall, I could clearly see that they were tiny and noticed the russet redness of their coats before they  quickly disappeared in to the brick work. Now I wasnt too disappointed, I had seen them and I doubted that I would get a photograph anyway.  But I froze with my camera at the ready, I had the 500 lens on and also a 1.4 converter but I was hand holding. I have read and been told on numerous ocassions that if you freeze when you see either a stoat or weasel they will quite often return for a look at you.  I made a few sqeeking sounds to imitate a hurt rabbit (hopefully) and then after jsut a few seconds, one of the tiny mustelids pocked its head ot of the grass and peered at me. This was just wonderful and I snapped away.  It seemed like an age before it disappeared again but it was perhaps just a few seconds, long enough for me to take a dozen or so pictures. For some really odd and annoying reason I had the cameras sensitivity set at 2500 ISO.  If you are a pjhotographer you will know how ridiculous that is and surely any pictures would be aweful.  But in this instance this was a big help because it meant that I had achieved 1/5000 of a second and as I was handheld, this is probably the kind of shutter speed that I needed..... a stroke of luck indeed.  The results were nice and I managed photographs of a weasel for the very first time in my life, brilliant!

Haldon Forest

A Roe Buck eating brambles.

 

My pleasure continues at Haldon, although it has been slightly tarnished.  Did you realise,  if you live locally you may be aware but I certainly wasn't, that there is a charge to park?   The Forestry Commission encourages you to use their car park, fair enough I can hear you saying and I would, to an extent certainly agree, that is until I discovered that the exorbitant charge to enjoy this bit of glorious England, this wonderful wild environment that we all own and have a share in is £7 for the day!!!!! Yes, you heard it £7.  Now I have only rarely parked in the carpark because there is only one and it is around a mile from where I want to be.  Haldon Forest is a massive place, if you want to have a chance to see and photograph wildlife then the built up area around the visitor's centre isn't the place to see it. So what are you to do, well park wherever it is safe to do so.  The roads around the park can be quite busy and in the main, car drivers do drive too fast so it's not very easy to find a spot.  I am disabled at the moment, waiting for my knee replacement so it just wouldn't be possible to park in their car park and walk several hundred yards or more to where I want to be.  In addition, being close to the throngs isn't what I enjoy and it totally contradicts why I enjoy taking wildlife photographs in the first place.  OK, so parking where it is safe, and I emphasise that this is important is you would think very straightforward except for this.  Here is a statement from the Forestry Commission website:

Sustaining and maintaining all these developments relies on income generated by our car park. 

 So basically, the car parking charge is an entrance fee. Now, this is all well and good if you want to use all of the facilities that are really just a blight on what used to be a quiet and peaceful place.  There is all manner of things for kids to do and that's fine I suppose and perhaps it's justified that they should pay £7 to swing on a rope or look for the Gruffalo!   There are Mountain Bike trails that scar the landscape and people shout to each other as they race along to keep in contact with their mate in front or behind, even if the distance is 100 yards! In short, I don't want to use any of those facilities and I have long ago stopped objecting to the existence of the buildings that have damaged the environment here, in the UK we are over-populated and people have to go somewhere.  But don't insist that I pay £7 to sit under a tree quietly all day in the hope that a Crossbill comes down to drink!  

The Highway Code is very clear and it states that as long as there are no Bye Laws that state differently and your parking isn't obstructing the Highway then you are perfectly legally entitled to park by the road.  The unfortunate thing is, the Rangers have been briefed by their superiors to harass people in to thinking that they have not got the law on their side.  They want you to park in their car park to contribute to the upkeep of the trails and the slides and all the other paraphernalia. Very sad but that is the situation we find ourselves in. We are being bullied by belligerent, aggressive surly Forestry Commission employees who think very highly of themselves and who swagger around in pseudo "American police shirts" and drive expensive 4x4s.   They have assumed command of the roads there which they have no authority over in their efforts to force you to keep away from the forest unless you pay the £7!!  In the words of Boris "well you can go and whistle".

Even more woodpecker photographs.

These pictures should really be part of the previous post, they were taken on Thursday on my last visit to Haldon.  As you may or may not know, I have been trying very hard to photograph the woodpeckers in flight recently.  It's kind of my thing at the moment and once the obsession passes I will be able to concentrate on something else.  I have been trying to coax the birds to fly in a predictable straight line from the food to the tree and eventually when they do and eventually when it is bright enough,  I will get the perfect photo - it hasn't happened yet but I am getting there and I have the patience to do it.  I think our woodpecker species - all three of them - are beautiful, as nice as any bird anywhere in the world so it's well worth the effort.  The Great - Spotted Woodpecker is something of a star for US birders. It is a very rare visitor there and twitchers are very excited if they get the chance to add it to their USA list.

 I had spent quite a while there and during the late morning the light was from behind me and mostly sunny, I almost got a crisp clear shot as the adult male flew up into the dead tree.  The wing is sharp and in focus but the head for some reason is not!  Quite frustrating but an interesting shot.

 

 

 

Exciting close up with Roe Deer

Roe doe only 10 feet from me, attracted by a Buttolo call.

The  European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is now a common species here in the UK.  When I was growing up in the 1950's they were rare and now it always excites me when I see one. Whilst trying to photograph the woodpeckers in Haldon Forest recently, I have regularly encountered them and I decided to make an effort to get some good photographs.  I purchased a Buttolo call which is basically a squeaky toy that imitates the voice of the  Deer.  I had seen this on You Tube and it looked very promising.  When the package  arrived in the post I couldn't wait to try it out.  I was quite optimistic but sceptical to be honest, but I had nothing to lose.  I arrived in the forest yesterday morning and as luck would have it a deer was in the distance feeding amongst the long grass.   It popped its head up and I froze and then managed to tuck myself behind a stout tree.  The doe carried on feeding and with the wind blowing towards me everything was fine.   It was time to use the Buttolo call!  The first squeak made the doe immediately raise its head and stare in my direction but when I repeated it she put her head down and seemed to ignore me, disappointment!  I carried on as per the instructions and what happened next was staggering. Suddenly another doe appeared bounding through the long grass and over the dead branches towards me.  Then very purposefully she continued in my direction.  She kept coming and kept coming until she was literally just 10 feet from me.  She had been attracted to the call which had been imitating a  young fawn, they are left in the long grass by their mothers when they go off to feed.  Being this close to the doe was a lovely encounter.  It made me realise how vulnerable they are and how easy it would be for a poacher to do his worst.  I took some lovely frame filling shots with the camera that literally filled the frame as the doe realised I was there and bounded away to relative safety and disappeared from view.

The doe from a distance looks up when she hears the first squeak.

 

A plan to get the perfect in-flight photo.

I'm still trying to get the perfect photo of a flying Great - spotted Woodpecker.  It wasn't until almost 4 o'clock that the weather improved and it became bright enough to bother but when it did clear up I went back up to the site at nearby Haldon Forest.  As I walked from the car towards the area that I have been baiting with peanuts a woodpecker was there on the remains of the nuts!  I was pleased to see it but I also knew that the bird would be spooked for a while.  I waited for quite a while before any birds returned, both a juvenile and then an adult male. Two birds that I have got to know quite well, they both come regularly whenever I am there. I was particularly excited because I had prepared things really thoroughly and I was hoping that the plan would work well.  I have learnt that the birds like to take peanuts back to the favourite tree in a direct line from the stump. I  loosely tied twine around the tree and led it down to the stump about 30 feet away.  I could then see the height and trajectory of the flight down. Half way along this line I then inserted a stick to the height of the twine and then removed the twine.  I now had a marker at the right height and distance to mark the correct flight path.  Once I was sat behind the camera I could focus accurately on the stick and therefore have the camera set up perfectly so that when the woodpecker flew along this plane it would be in focus.  Now with a woodpecker on the tree, I waited and waited for it to fly down.  When it eventually did, I pressed the shutter on burst mode and hoped that it had passed through the viewfinder. It grabbed a peanut and flew back in the other direction and I pressed the shutter again. For some obscure reason, I didn't capture the flight on the way in but on the way back I was pleased to see that I had achieved success.  believe it or not, even with the shutter speed set to 1/4000 sec it still hadn't frozen the wing movement, and there was some motion blur, woodpeckers obviously fly really quickly.  Today, at last, we have sunlight so I am hoping that later in the morning I will be more successful when I have another try.

PS:  Young Great - spotted Woodpeckers have red on the head and adult males have a red nape but no red on the head.  It will be interesting to observe when the juvenile males start to show the red nape, it is probable that there will be a period when young males have both red heads and a red nape.  

Ramblings about Woodpeckers

The focus for me this last 3 weeks or so has been Great-spotted Woodpeckers, a bird that deserves more attention not only by me but other photographers who don't seem to focus - there is a pun there - on them, either.  Is that because they are hard to photograph? I dont really think so. I have been putting peanuts out on a log and as many as 5 different individulas have visited regularly - who knows, perhaps even more than 5, but at least 2 juveniles together and 2 males, again together and one solitary female. There is a dead isolated tree which is nothing but a 15 foot high trunk riddled with holes made by the birds, it is their "go to" tree.  They come down to the nuts and usually take them back to the tree, stuff them in to one of the pre-drilled holes and then feed on them at their leaisure. This is interesting to see them use the tree to also store food.  On my visit yesterday it was interesting to see one of the juveniles fly on to the stump where previously nuts had been on other days. It seemed really ticked off that there were no nuts there today, it bobbed around excitedly before flying to the stump close to me where the freebies were.  Proving behond doubt that woodpeckers have a memory! The new "table" is going to be a really good opportunity for good photos, yesterday it was a little bit obscurred by foliage which I have now cleared away.  Never the less it was thrilling when the juvenile landed and I took some great photos which filled the frame. The little hide is perfect, it's supported by stout cross poles and then covered with conifer branches from the forest completely covering it looking like a small bush. It's important that it blends in perfectly with the habitat not only for the obvious reason but also because at a casual glance any passing walker will miss it and as it happens, any passing Roe Dear because when I emerged yesterday there about 50 meters was a lovely buck.  It froze and stared in my direction without moving, I did the same and we were in a stand off situation.  I have read that their eyes are good but they percieve things in a different way and detect movement in a much more effective way than humans, as long as you stay still they will usually remain and stare at you trying to work out what you are. Make the slightest movement and off they go.

 

This area is a great habitat for Crossbills and they can be heard regularly throuout the day. high in the conifers.  They have a need to drink regularly and in the past I have been fortunate enough to photograph them low down and on the ground. I have prepared a pool to collect rain water in the hope that I can encourage them to use it and give me a good photo opportunity.

Adult male Greater spotted Woodpecker

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Still trying to photograph Woodpeckers in flight.

The weather has not been bright enough these last few days.  I long for some bright sunlight!  It's almost August and the weather is like a dull November!  Never the less, as I have got the woodpeckers coming constantly - 4 individuals -  to the peanut log I carried on and tried to photograph them regardless.  I decided to try with a Pentax prime 300 lens rather than the Sigma prime 500 because this would give me a better depth of field and the subject would be in the frame for longer, well, that was the plan at least.  It seemed to work perfectly,  I could achieve 1/4000 of a second, the minimum requirement for this very fast flying species, by putting the ISO up to 1600 and then under stopping as well, not a bad plan as this helped to stop the white areas of the bird being burnt out.  Back home on the computer, I could adjust the exposure In photoshop but the resultant photographs were now very noisy.  Using the 300 lens meant that I had to crop the image more than I would like and then the noisy factions were then exaggerated - tricky stuff this photography!  If only there was brighter light and the chance to use a lower ISO.  I did manage a couple of decent "characterful" shots though and the one above is about the best after I worked hard to get rid of the noise!

I have been reading as much about Greater spotted Woodpeckers as possible and have discovered that it is possible to separate juvenile males and females. Males have a red cap that stretches almost on to the nape and female juveniles have just a small red patch on the crown.  This is what bird photography can do, it gives you the means and opportunity to study your subject and then learn from your observations.  I will sort through all the photographs taken recently and post pictures of two individuals to show the differences.  I now know that there are 4, not 3 plumage variations in this species.  My "project" for want of a better word, has been rewarded recently because for two weeks running my pictures have been recognised as "notable" on the famous Birdguides web site. I am very pleased with this, I have now had 56 "notable" photographs on Birdguies "Photo of the week" competition and  5 winning "Photos of the Week"!

Woodpeckers again.

The light was much better today. This meant that I could set my camera to have a combination of fast shutter speed - at least 1/3200 and a good depth of field.  This is the combination you need to freeze the action of birds in flight.  Usually, anything less than 1/3000 will not be fast enough. Quite often you may have to adjust the sensitivity of the camera - this is the ISO - and then you will get speckly images, this is called noise.  To get rid of this you need small ISO numbers but then you won't get a fast enough shutter speed, hence the need for good bright light for flight shots. Today it was bright.

Woodpeckers in flight.

 

My obsession this last week or two has been Greater - spotted Woodpeckers, or to be more specific Woodpeckers in flight.  I have been putting out peanuts on a tree stump in a clearing in Haldon Forest.  To get some photographs I constructed a crude cover from tree litter and leaves and from this vantage point waited and watched the woodpeckers coming in to feed.  It took several visits and a couple of hours each day to get to know the birds and to learn about their behaviour and habits.  There are three - perhaps four - birds visiting the free peanuts regularly, an adult male and female with one, but possibly two juveniles. I have seen that all of them would first fly to a nearby dead tree before flying down to the peanuts on a lower stump.  I would suggest that this is a strategy to check for safety and once the coast is clear, then they fly in.  This was perfect for me but the positioning of my makeshift hide was totally wrong if I was to get the perfect flight shot. Drastic action was called for - a total repositioning and rebuild of the hide!  I used stout branches from recent fellings which I gathered from the forest floor.  Then I created a wigwam- like frame structure to support leaves and branches.  Once finished It was a tight squeeze for me and difficult to get in and out of especially with my damaged knee but it concealed me perfectly.  It wasn't long before the birds started to arrive but unfortunately, now the light was very poor with dreary, overcast conditions.  But even so, I took the best in flight photographs that I have taken of this species.  I am looking forward to some sunshine and the chance to get a fast shutter speed and a good depth of field.

 

 

Kingfisher close to home.

This is the 9th year that I have had the absolute privilege to photograph Kingfishers very close to my home on the nearby brook. At the end of the breeding season, young birds take up residence - there is usually a tussle between siblings and the winner gets to claim the territory.  This makes for some very interesting photo opportunities. The first youngster usually shows up around the middle of July.  They breed on the River Exe not too far away and also on the brook further up stream and it's anyone's guess where the youngsters originate from. But what is for sure, the brook is a perfect habitat for the lucky territory holder.  Over the last week I have been keeping watch and waiting for the first bird to show up.  Yesterday evening on my 4th stake-out session of the week, suddenly from up stream a gorgeous jewel like young male flew in and landed on the perch that I had planted, protruding from the bank and spanning the narrow watercourse. Any passing bird would surely stop there and so it proved. I was excited and it proved yet again that there is no substitute for patience.

I went back this evening at around 5 and by 5.40 there he was again in exactly the same place but last night it had been obscured by the thick growth of Himalayan Balsam. I had cleared it away before I sat down today and hid under camouflage netting. I had the chance then to watch, study and photograph the young male over the next hour and a quarter.

A short video, Juvenile greater - spotted Woodpecker.