Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

Grey Plover and Dunlin

High tide coincided with  dawn this morning so I went out to Turf which is where the Exeter Ship Canal spills in to the River Exe Estuary.  I arrived before dawn to get in to position before the tide turned so that I could get in to position before sunrise and not disturb the resting and roosting birds.   It worked really well except that the height of the tide had already risen to cover the hole I was going to conceal myself in.  I managed to hide myself under my camo stuff though and as the dawn arrived and it got lighter and lighter, I could see that there was a Grey Plover perched on one of the few nearby posts which was just clear of the water.  During the next hour or so, as it got brighter, I took lots of photos and in the end finished up with some half decent shots but there is so much more that I could acheive here if I just all came together and I am sure with a bit more effort, it will. 

 

This is  obviously a different bird, probably a juvenile.  I had some good opportunities to photograph the roosting Dunlin and I really like this picture 

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Pied Wagtail - Motacilla alba yarelii

Grey Plover and Merganser

It was almost dark when I took this picture, at around 4,25 this afternoon. I had returned to the spot at Turf on the Exe where yesterday I had seen that the Plovers, Dunlin and Lapwing were using the old posts there to roost at high tide. The problem today though was that high tide was one hour later and this meant that I almost ran out of light before the birds came in to their roost. You may, or may not be aware that wading birds don't roost at night but rather roost at high tide. So with the sun set coinciding with high tide is not all that regular. I tucked myself in the hole and covered myself with cam netting and then sat and waited for the tide to come in and for the birds to come and roost.  As you can see one Plover arrived just before the light finally faded and I took the opportunity to get at least some photos. I am quite sure that when high tide coincides with a sunny afternoon again in a month or so, I am going to be able to get some great photographs of the waders here. As I sat and waited I was pleased to see Red - crested Mergansers fishing in the rising tide and quite close to shore.

Black-tailed Godwit - Limosa limos islandica

More lovely Kingfisher.

 

Kingfisher on the River Exe

The lovely Kingfisher photographed that I photographed yesterday on the Exe Estuary near Exeter, Devon.

An unexpected Kingfisher

Having spent a while this morning looking for Water Rail without success,  I came home at midday with the intention of going out again to Turf later in the afternoon  for the opportunity to photograph the wading birds. Turf is smack in the middle of the Exe Estuary a Site of Special Scientific Interest and always a great place for birds. I like Grey Plover and have photographed them frequently at this site. There are some old wooden posts that used to support some kind of wooden structure and the wading birds like to perch on these at high tide. However its never easy to get close to them, but always worth a try. I got myself down in-between a cleft in the rocks, I was uncomfortable but I was mostly hidden and I thought I might have a chance at a photograph if and when the Plovers came back, I was pretty sure they would. I was experimenting with the camera, taking photos of the wooden pillars, rotten and decayed they were quite photogenic and full of character even without a bird perched on the top. Then suddenly there it was, a beautiful Kingfisher catching the golden rays of the setting sun. I was thrilled to say the least, who wouldn't love to see a Kingfisher and your spirits always soar  when you are close enough to photograph one. I knew it was about to dive so I set the camera to record this and then down he went….yes it's a male…… . I have seen better shots of diving Kingfishers but it was great to see. Then after it had dived unsuccessfully, there it was again and this time right next to me. I took some shots but he was silhouetted against the white sky. ……Oh and Grey Plover, yes they did come back and here's a shot or two of them as well.

 

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A test shot with the newly repaired Lens.

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A Collared Dove in the garden yesterday afternoon just before dusk, taken with the Sigma 500 4.5…. The shot below was taken with the 4.5 with a 1.4 convertor attached. Good to have my lens back after all this time. Absolutely no qualms about recommending the lens, but their customer relations needs some kind of serious overhaul.

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Sigma Lens takes more than 10 weeks to repair?

 

Mute Swan

 

Back in late September I fell and damaged my Sigma 4.5, 500 lens.  It was a disappointment and I was quite upset about it.   It's an expensive and over-priced bit of kit that cost me 10 x's more than my car, at a penny under £5000. A ridiculous price really and it was a massive leap  of faith when I bought it.  So, as soon as I could, I sent it off to Sigma UK for repair and was told that it was going to cost me the best part of £650, but what could I do but accept this inflated and avaricious cost.?

So off it went for repair and I was hoping to have it back within the month because I would have liked to take it Sri Lanka with me.   It didn't happen though, Sigma said they were waiting for a part from Japan and deliveries from there were only once a week. An almost acceptable reason but I was disappointed and went to Sri Lanka under equipped with just my 300 lens and a converter.  So back from Sri Lanka 3 weeks later and I heard nothing from Sigma, in itself a quite unacceptable state of affairs and a gross neglect of customer relations on their part in my opinion.  Weeks turned in to months and I kept my distance just to see how long it would be before they contacted me..... and they didn't.  In the end my confidence began to wain and I started to worry that the lens could have been lost in the post on it's way back to me. So after 10 weeks I called, after a few minutes of explaining my situation, I was put through to the department and told quite calmly without apology that the lens was being worked on right now and I would have it back within the next day or so.

Absolute bunkum!   I am expected to believe that coincidentally the lens was almost ready and they were working on it as I rang.  In my opinion, what happened was this.  So poor are  their customer relations, systems and also their concerns about the customer that it had probably been finished for weeks and was sat in a pile with other finished jobs and they just couldn't be bothered.   Or, are they are just so rushed off their feet, or who knows what else that  they only react when a customer finally has enough and rings to complain.  How do I come to this conclusion?  Because I have a photographer friend who's lens took six weeks to repair and he only got it back after he rang and guess what they said?  "Oh, we are working on it and you will have it in the next day or so"   Make your own mind up, but do you think that in any other industry a customer would be kept waiting for a repair for more than 10 weeks?  This is not meant as a slanderous post about Sigma UK but I make no apology for stating the facts as they happened. It's neither a criticism or insult to Sigma UK.  Its the way it happened and it's up to you to formulate your own opinion.

 

I have now contacted Sigma UK and told them that I have blogged the story, given them a link to this post  and asked them if they would like to make a comment and explain their side of the story?  Their response is below.  

"We try to turn our repairs around in 1 to 5 days. In the case of your lens which is a Pentax, spare parts are hard to come by from the manufacturers and if it had been a Canon or Nikon repair then it would have been quicker.  Once the repair was underway we had to re-order parts from Japan which we had to wait for."

There was no apology from them.  There was no comment about the lack of contact with me except to say that they always try to expediate repairs for professional photographers.  In other words, had I been a pro photographer they would have pulled their finger out, can you believe that?

Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

I sat waiting for an elusive Water Rail to make an appearance this afternoon.  They are incredibly cautious at times.  I saw two though and heard their calling several times but didn't have the luck to get a photo today in spite of sitting there in the rain and drizzle for almost 3 hours. I was quite surprised when suddenly this Cormorant surfaced right in front of me. It proved that my camouflage was working I suppose. I normally don't have a problem with Cormorants, especially if I see different species when I am abroad but when I am in he UK, I always feel a bit sad to see them when they are fishing in the many freshwater courses and lakes. They take a very large amount of fish and in a single day they can consume a few kilos of fish. If you multiply that by the growing numbers of Cormorants here then I would be right to think they are doing a fairly large amount of damage to freshwater fish stocks in the UK. No wonder that anglers hate them.

Water Rail, a great success and the first Blackcap of the winter.

I am going to mention my favourite little saying again today....thats "The 6 P's .......Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance........ that's almost the Royal Marine Motto, (of course it isn't....its Per Mare Per Teram, but you get the point).

When I went for a walk at dusk yesterday I had seen a Water Rail and heard others calling to each other nearby and then I saw one swim across from a little island to another.  I stood motionless for an age waiting for it to happen again but all that did happen was the bird emerged  from the island and then ducked back in again once it had caught sight of me.  So I needed a plan.  I went back this morning in really nice sunlight and sat myself near to the spot that I had seen it yesterday and used my favourite camo stuff to act as a screen.  Well it was brilliant. Firstly, wearing waders I was sat  with my legs dangling in the water.  I was hidden behind the screen suspended on bamboo canes.  I made a  hole through the material to push the lens through and then another to peep out of.   It was very pleasant even without birds and I enjoyed watching the Blue Tits who were feeding on the Reed Mace opposite. A kingfisher came in as well and perched on a sapling but was disturbed by some people not too far away.  But I knew that my subterfuge was working well.

Then I heard a Water Rail "squealing" from the foliage just in front of me and then another to my right answered immediately. This gave me the confidence to remain still in my position.  Then suddenly and after quite a wait, there was the Rail paddling through the water between the two mini islands.  I snapped off shot after shot and then the bird paddled on the surface of the water for the last few feet before disappearing in to the foliage to my right where it had no doubt joined the other bird that I had answered.  Success!!!!  It's brilliant when I have a plan  and it comes to fruition and what a lovely bird.

If the Water Rail wasn't enough, the garden suddenly came to life a few minutes ago.  I had my very first Blackcap of the year, a Male amd then a Goldcrest, so a good garden bird day as well.

Stonechats overwintering in Devon, photographed with stacked 1.4 converters

These are interesting photographs for me, not because they are unusual birds but because of they way they were taken which happened by accident. At the moment my main 500 lens is away at Sigma being repaired and has been for at least 8 weeks and I think, perhaps 10…..that is a terrible example of customer service by Sigma, diabolical really. Anyway to get around it I have a Pentax 300 lens which I have been using along with 1.4 converters. I hadn't realised that I already had one 1.4 converter on the camera so I attached the other and then snapped away. I think this is called stacking. In the end the photographs were not too bad given that I pushed the boundaries and I wouldn't have ever tried to attempt this combination, but it is interesting to see the results.

Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

A nice pose of this common but more commonly overlooked and taken for granted species.

Pacific Black Brent Goose…..in Devon.

Pacific or Black  Brent Goose (Branta bernicla nigricans)

 

I have had a really enjoyable day today even though it could have been better given just  a bit more luck. I had a phone call from my birding mates at just gone 11 to tell me to hurry to Darts Farm because the Penduline Tits (that have been around for the last week or so), were showing really well, close to the hide on the reed mace.....that's bullrush to you and me!  I got there as quick as I could only to miss them by a minute or two!  Davem Stone took  great photos which you can see on his blog here.  But in spite of that slight disappointment, I finally latched on to the Black Brant Goose (Branta bernicla nigricens) that's been here for several weeks as well.  At one point the entire flock of overwintering Brent Geese (Branta bernicla) was stretched out in front of us in the meadow, quite a sight with around 500, or maybe even more. They reminded me of the grazing herds of the Serengeti. 
Black bellied Brent Geese (thats the usual Brent Goose species,  breed in Northern Russia  and spend the winter in suitable estuaries in Southern England and East Anglia.  They are a small goose with a contrasting white neck band that is incomplete on the throat. The Black Brant however, which is a sub-species,  is a slightly larger bird with whiter flanks and a neck ring that is complete. It seemed today  as though this bird was also much darker on the neck and head which is probable why it's called a Black Brant.  The neck ring, as well as being complete, was also larger and more defined.  Black Brant , or Pacific Black Brant  breed in Alaska and overwinter in California with most of them wintering  around Baja California in Northern Mexico.  So having a Pacific Black Brant amongst the massive flocks of our  "usual" Brent is quite an event really. 

So, on this picture can you see the neck band that is like an expensive  necklace and goes around  on to the throat, unlike the normal Brent Geese that we are familiar with where the neck band does not extend on to the throat.  Also look at the white, brown edged, flank feathers which are much darker in the normal Black bellied Brent.

Compare the two species below, quite obvious differences....Black - belied Brent on the left and Pacific Black Brant on the right. Incidentally this is the first photograph of this species for me and I have added it to my gallery of  Devon Birds  which now number 213 species.

Kingfishers close to home.

I have spent the last couple of days staking out kingfishers on my local brook.  Yesterday morning, I planted an enticing perch in the mud  and then returned to set up the camera just down stream from it.  I sat under some camouflage material that covered both me and the camera equipment  After a couple of hours, cold and stiffness had set in so I came away with no success (yet).  I returned later that day  for the last hour and half  for another try but again without any success. I am not to be deterred though and by 10 this morning, I was back for another try.  I was massively encouraged  when I got there because on and beneath the branch, three separate lots of white droppings stood out like a beacon, a sure sign that a Kingfisher had used my perch. So, it's just a matter of time and patience before I get a nice photograph of the resident Kingfisher to add to the hundreds and hundreds of close up Kingfisher photographs that I have taken there previously.  It's always exciting to speculate about the "resident", male or females, adult or juvenile? Hopefully, I will have the answer in the next day or so. In the meantime, here are photographs of Kingfishers from previous years and taken from this very spot.

Coal Tit in the garden

It isn't unusual of course, to get Coal Tits in the garden but I was pleased this lunchtime to actually have the first for several years. My neighbours have removed lots of foliage and trees from their gardens over the last couple of years and this has had a massive impact on the amount of birdlife in my garden this year. So, very pleased to have a nice Coal Tit today. Coal Tits are a species that seems to be doing well in the UK and now can be found in lots of different habitats, including regularly in gardens on feeders. This is a very small species smaller than a Blue Tit and now possibly just as common?

 

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…and a nice Dunnock, a resident in my garden most of the time.

 

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I have a collection of pictures on PBase. There are 6500 pictures of birds and other wildlife from all over the world. So far, these galleries have had more than 750,000 views..…three quarters of a million views….. incredible…..here's a link to the site.....

Greenfinches fighting in flight.

Well what can I say about today? It's been a good one for me and my bird photography. I mentioned the other day that there had been a "eureka"moment in my photography when I had discovered a way to get fast shutter speeds without causing extreme amounts of awful noise…… that's basically unsightly speckles on my pictures. I just knew that this would mean that my shots would move up to the next level and that is exactly what has happened. For example, one of my photos of a Greenfinch in flight was chosen as the Birdguides "photo of the week". This is one of the most sought after accolades for bird photographers, hotly contested and sought after by bird photographers in the UK. Then today I managed to get some great flight shots of greenfinch fighting. I have been trying for shots like this for years so I am pleased with the great results.

My Birdguides Photo of The Week

Birds flying in to a feeder.

 

Sri Lankan axis deer (Axis axis ceylonensis)

Whiskered Tern - (Chlidonias hybrida)

One of the best reasons to go to Sri Lanka is the opportunity to photograph the tern species that are stunning, common and beautiful and for an Englishman abroad, very exotic. The fish market in Negombo is one of the best places to photograph Whiskered Tern, they are attracted to the beach here because of the White Bait industry that goes on there on the beach.

On my last trip I photographed Whiskered, Gull-billed, Caspian, Roseate, Swift, Lesser Crested and Brown Noddy Tern, 7 different Tern species.....more Tern photos to follow in the coming days. 

Cirl Buntings in my home county of Devon.

We are very fortunate here in South and East Devon to have a population of around 1000 breeding pairs of Cirl Buntings, apart from a small population in the adjoining county of Cornwall, this is the only place in the UK where you can see them. In the last 14 years the population has incressed from a hundred or so pairs to where we are now. This is due to work by the RSPB and local land owners and, credit where credit is due, the RSPB should be heartily congratulated. There are a few places in the county where food is put out for them to ensure their survival during the winter. I went to one of those feeding areas today to see how they were doing this year and obviously, to take some photographs and it was a very successful session. The males are certainly very distinctive, with a boldly patterned face; black and yellow, and hints of red on the back and red over yellow on the breast. A very pretty bird. Females could be confused with a Reed Bunting female but there is no white on the face.  Even though birds were coming down to feed on the scattered seed almost constantly while I was there, it wasn't all that easy to get good pictures. Any movement would send them back in to the safety of the hedge so it was imperative that you stood very still.  They are very well camouflaged in spite of the yellow face and they blend in with the earth and grasses very easily. It was also very interesting to see how they would react to an alarm call from other birds not on the ground. Just a single note would send them all, including the Dunnocks, Greenfinch and Robin, back in to the hedge only to reappear again one at a time until the area was covered in little birds feeding, to be repeated over and over.  At one time the alarm was raised and they all hastily disappeared and didn't reappear but then I noticed a Buzzard soaring above and it was obvious that this time it wasn't a fa;se alarm.  However it is most unlikely that a Buzzard would try to predate a tiny bird like this.

Pale-billed Flowerpecker - (Dicaeum erythrorhynchos)

This is a tiny species, just 8cm long, around 3 1/2 inches. It is the Indian sub-continent's smallest bird species. They are quite a common bird in Sri Lanka but I hadn't seen them before my recent trip when I encountered them on three occasions this time.  It seems that they are related to the Sunbirds but feed in a totally different way. Each time I saw them they were around, or attracted to the small wild flowering shrub called Lantana, (see above).  This little plant is common in hot climates and in other parts of the world, where it is considered to be an invasive species and cleared. Judging by the amount of insect and bird life attracted to the shrub, it would seem wrong to eradicate it but understandable.   For the same reason and In the same way that Ragwort is cleared in the UK, Lantana is also poisonous to livestock and here is the problem of course.  Lantana is spread and propagated by the Flowerpeckers who feed on the pulp of the seed, discarding the pip to germinate nearby and there  is an important relationship between the bird and the plant.  You can see in the picture that the Flowerpecker is in the process of dealing with a seed.

I found this species to be a noisy little bird that was constantly calling and the call was very much like a sunbird.  You can see that the bird is quite nondescript and aptly named. The beak is large for the size of the bird and downcurved, strong and powerful. This species is also called Tickell's Flowerpecker. 

Small birds in flight, a bit more success.

I have been trying off and on for the last few years, to take good photographs of small birds in flight. I have even at times thought that it is almost impossible to get the kind of results that I want with any consistency because cameras are just not capable of it, but of course, that's not true. Today I managed a lot more success by setting up the camera in a much different way. The problem is that having a fast  shutter speed of at least 1/4000 of a second and a depth of field that is not too shallow (because small birds so easily move out of of the point of focus), you need to adjust the sensitivity of the camera, which in digital cameras is called ISO, in old film slr cameras it was asa. To achieve the high speeds needed and also to attain a depth of field that is going to give success…and today I had more success at  f9, you need to have the ISO set to around 2000. But the problem with that is that there is such an annoying amount of noise on the image that it looks awful. Today I managed to set the camera up to avoid most  of this  noise which was a revelation, a eureka moment  and I am very pleased with the results.

True Buteo Buzzard species.

Looking at my galleries of birds of the world I was interested to compare my images of Buzzard species in the family Buteo.  In the UK the resident common Buzzard is Buteo buteo but there are many more Buteo species throughout the world.  I have been fortunate to photograph several of them and I have seen several otheres.

This is Buteo buteo, the Common Buzzard, a species that is doing very well in the UK, due no doubt to gamekeepers and the rest of the shooting fraternity being forced to act more responsibly. There have been some unfortunate acts of poisoning recently where Buzzards and other birds of prey have been targeted and the punishments in the courts have been ridiculously lenient. There are always calls from Gamekeepers running shoots, particularly in the North of England who try to get licenses to be allowed  to control Buzzards that predate, probably only in tiny numbers, young pheasants. The Common Buzzard is a magnificent bird of prey and great to see and perhaps the Government should subsidise or reimburse Gamekeepers for the loss of their stock, everything comes down to money in the end after all.

I have enjoyed some magnificent views of another Buteo species, thi time in the USA,  the Red-shouldered Hawk - Buteo lineatus. This is a slightly smaller bird, more brightly coloured and in my experience not quite so wary and therefore easier to get closer to. In the Everglades they are particularly approachable from a  boat.   I was literally just under the bare tree beneath this bird.  It remained for 20 minutes or more with no fear whatsoever.

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Then we have the Jackal buzzard - Buteo rufofuscus, which I have seen in South Africa.  I have only managed to photograph this species in flight but even in this distant photo and of a young adolescent bird you can see what a colourfully and strongly marked bird this is.  There is just the faintest start of black around the neck which will eventually cover the entire head.

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The next image is a Forest Buzzard - Buteo trizonatus which is an endemic species to the Cape region of South Africa and the most frequently encountered there  I believe.. This is a small Buzzard in comparison to the others.  I saw and photographed this species as it soared close to Table Mountain.

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…..and finally to compare, a Common Buzzard again, this time in flight as well, photographed at Budleigh Salterton, Devon UK.  Incidentally, Common Buzzards are very variable in plumage and come in different shades and patterns of browns and whites, particularly on the breast and belly.  For example, I saw a very pale bird the other day with an almost fully white front. This explains why they can easily be confused with other birds of prey, Osprey for example but the Osprey is a larger bird.

 

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Small common birds at Darts Farm wetland hide.

This is a female Chaffinch a small common finch in the UK.   At feeders they don't often perch  but instead, either feed on any spilt seed on the ground beneath the feeders or hover and try to grab a grain of seed in flight.  This provides a really good photographic opportunity if you are interested in birds in flight…..as I am.   As you probably know, to freeze flapping and fluttering wings without blur you need to have the fastest shutter speed possible, only available in really good light.  With the advent of the latest digital cameras its possible to achieve 1/4000th of a second which is the speed you need to achieve anything worth keeping.  You will also need to take hundreds of photos in a session and then, out of that,  you may finish up with 1 or 2 percent that you are happy with.  I have to say that I am extremely happy with this photo, just one out of 300!

In this photograph,  two male Greenfinch are engaged in a spat and I mangaed to get a nice photograph of the action.   I don't normally include photographs of birds on feeders as they are not particuarly photogenic but today, I have decided to make an exception.

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Greenfinches are a species of bird that hasn't done too well over the last 5 years but it's good to see them seemingly doing a little better now. The males and females are quite easy to separate and in the next picture you can clearly see the difference......female on the left.

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On my recent trip to Sri Lanka……hundreds more photos to sort through by the way, I was struck yet again at how easy it is to forget to photograph the common birds, thinking that , "oh well I will photograph them tomorrow" and in the end you never do. By the same token, birds that we take for granted here are largely ignored by photographers and for sure, by the twitchers. I am thinking of Starlings, our common finches of course and in particular our Moorhen and Coot. Well its worth remembering that to people from other countries, a Greenfinch would be a brilliant bird to see.  In Sri Lanka the White breasted Hen is the Moorhen equivalent and I well remember how excited a professional guide in Sri Lanka became at the sight of a Eurasian Coot!   So I have made a vow to photograph common birds whenever I see them.  To that end here is one of our most familiar UK birds the humble Moorhen. A very attractive bird when you take a second glance.

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Shame about the Electric Fence warning. …....oh, and here's a Great Spotted Woodpecker, this one is a female, she came down to the feeders regularly while I was waiting to photograph the small finches. This is the UK's commonest woodpecker species.  Female's are distinguished by the absence of red on the head by the way.  All in all, a pleasant but freezing cold morning and a nice way to ease my way back into birding and photography on an English winter's day.  Not as exotic as Sri Lanka, but if you were are Sri Lankan birder you would say exactly the opposite!

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