Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

Desert Wheatear Thurlstone Devon

I know I am almost a month behind most other serious Devon birders and even others from further field as well, this bird has been thriving here for well over a month now and it is obviously doing really well.  I have a gallery of Devon birds  and this is a new species for that gallery which now totals 220 so I really had to go and get some photographs of it and today and with bright sunshine it seemed perfect.  The plus side was that the novelty of the bird has almost subsided and when I arrived I pretty much had both the beach and the bird to myself.  To be honest, I am not too fond of chasing after birds when I am one of a crowd so this was perfect for me....a rare bird - a lifer in fact - and I had it all to my self for most of my visit. Fabulous!  The day was cold but very clear with bright perfect light and sunshine throughout.  I walked to the beach expecting to find it hard to find the bird but I was wrong.  It was as if the bird was sat waiting for me and seemed to be enjoying it's perch on a boulder in full sun as much as I enjoyed the spectacle.  I immediately got some photographs and could have turned back to the car there and then - so perfect was the light and the pose - I was thinking that I couldn't possibly get better.  In the end I stood waiting for it to do the circuit that it was obviously following and waited for it to fly to the boulders in front of me where I was hopeful of a good flight shot.  Suddenly my wait paid off, it landed in front of me and then I was ready when it flew to the next boulder and I got a nice in flight shot.  I spent a very pleasant hour or so chatting to a really nice guy who had travelled the world as much as me and we swapped stories about sea birds in the Southern Oceans and other places that we had both been fortunate enough to visit.

Desert Wheatears breed in the Sahara and also in the Deserts of Central Asia, all very harsh environments.  They are migratory of course and this one should be with the rest of it's species in warmer more southern climes. It obviously got lost on it's Autumnal travels and finished up here in Devon where the beach and rocks are not all that different from the habitat that it left behind.  What with rotting seaweed and warm rock cliff sides where insects are active,  this is quite a warm and comfortable environment in which to over winter.  It certainly was very active and finding lots of insects to feed on and also enjoying the free offerings of mealworms that someone had provided. Even though the overnight temperatures were low last night, by midday it was almost too warm for the heavy clothes that I  had worn to make sure I wasn't going to be too cold as I stood around taking pictures.

 

Redwing in the garden.

As I sat in the living room this early afternoon entertaining my grandchildren, I realised a couple of Redwings were feeding on the holly berries in my front garden.  This is by no means an annual occurrence and I have only had them in the garden a few times in the last 30 years, the last time in late December 2009 and then the next month in January.   I set up my camera in the back room and when they returned, I took the opportunity to get a couple of pictures as they crept quietly to the berries. Redwings are thrushes - members of the turdus family of birds - they are migratory birds and are one of the first winter visitors to arrive in the UK.  They move in to the suburbs only when the berries in more rural habitats have been depleted.   This is a  very attractive species which I find interesting because they have migrated all the way from their breeding grounds - a few pairs breed in Northern Scotland but the majority nest in Northern Europe and Asia and then over-winter in Western and Southern Europe.  I may get more photos tomorrow if they visit again, they may possibly but in the meantime, here is a photograph that I took when they came in to the garden the last time. Then, they were feeding on cotoneaster berries.

 

Little Egrets

First of all, a very very Happy Christmas to anyone and especially everyone that knows me.

In the last few days I have had some very pleasant outings whilst trying to get photographs of the Kingfisher that I have been concentrating on recently.  The little hide that I have put up has now settled into the habitat,  It's covered with vegetation to camouflage it and if you didn't know it was there you would walk right past it.  The secret is to blend everything in to the scene by gradually adding stems of reed mace, docks and himalayan balsam etc. and disguising the square shape to make it look as natural as possible.  The consequence is, the birds are really accepting of what just looks like a clump of vegetation and even the usually very wary resident Little Egret has given me some lovely views and great photo opportunities.  I was sat in there the other day and suddenly the Egret "plonked" itself right there in the stream, so close that I couldn't get it all in the camera's frame. I said that egrets can be very wary and I think that this is because their eyesight is extremely good. I was interested to see that this bird has a slight deformity or damage to the beak, it doesn't close properly.  This doesn't seem to have any effect on it's health or its ability to catch prey. However it does mean that I can identify this individual when I see it again.  I assume that they are territorial but today when I went for a nice pleasant afternoon there were two egrets in the vicinity but together and not interacting.  I often think about the first time I saw a Little Egret in 1992 - they first bred in the UK in 1986 -  at the time I was very excited, I had only seen them abroad before and now to see them in Devon was really good.  If you think about it, their colonisation and subsequent expansion seems to have occurred and gone hand in hand with the internet and the World Wide Web.  Now everyone has a computer and is "connected" but back in the the early 90's Little Egrets and the Internet were brand new in the UK!

Kingfisher video.

 

Kingfisher from Charles Fleming on Vimeo.

 

More Kingfisher photographs.

It was bright this morning so I went out yet again to retrieve the trail camera and then to spend a while waiting for Kingfisher.  I had just got to the stage where I thought there wasn't going to be success today when suddenly there it was.  I actually missed it at first, I hadn't realised it was there and it was just swallowing a fish when I got my camera focused on it. This was a bit disappointing after waiting for getting on for almost 2 hours and then losing my focus was a bit stupid.  Never the less, it was great to see the bird yet again and as always, it was absolutely brilliant to see it again.  It really is in perfect condition.

Just so beautiful but arguably quite an aggressive and voracious predator with messy habits in the nest as well.

Kingfisher, a glorious encounter.

At this time of year the word "glorious" gets used quite a lot so it seems fitting to describe the encounter I had this morning with a truly gorgeous male Kingfisher as glorious.  Sitting in my hide at around 110'clock I saw a Kingfisher fly down the brook towards me,  I thought it was going to carry on downstream and fly past me but on this occasion it veered to the left to land on a dead "cow-parsley" stem that I had pushed in to the bank at a really inviting angle and just in front of the hide.  The fact that it had chosen this stem as a perch was rewarding because when I placed it there I was hoping that it wouldn't be able to resist it and I was right!.  It was very close to me and in perfect light with a wonderful uncluttered background.  I could see that it was in hunting mode because it was scanning the water beneath the perch looking for prey.  However it had fed very recently because it had fish scales stuck to it's beak.  After a short while it left it's perch and then landed right on the hide I was sitting in, it was now just a few inches above my head!  Can you imagine?   It flew off quickly  although I wasn't aware that it had because just a few minutes later it was back on the perch in front of me again but now with a clean beak so it must have dived somewhere else.  This time, even though it was still searching for food, it flew off down stream again.  This was a really brilliant encounter.   I got to enjoy the beauty of this bird that is in perfect condition, bright as a button, an avian  jewel.  Kingfishers are the most spectacular of birds and are almost out of place in our cool temperate climate, birds as colourful as a Kingfisher are usually found in the tropics.

You can clearly see the fish scales stuck to his beak.

When he came back a few minutes later the scales had been washed off.

To tell the difference between the sexes, males have an all black beak.

This is possibly one of the nicest portraits I have taken of this species. Note the light tip at the end of the beak.

This white tip could indicate that he is a first year bird now coming through in to full adult plumage.  On the first picture there is just the slightest hint of black on the red legs, newly fledged young Kingfishers have blackish legs and feet which gradually fades as the bird gets older.  If you look at the picture on the link below you can see a young Kingfisher which was photographed in the summer and the blackish feet are very obvious.

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Juvenile Kingfisher with a Stickleback.

Otter filmed in Exeter

 

Otter December 2016 from Charles Fleming on Vimeo.

I have been trying for the last 3 weeks - and off and on for the last 10 years -   to get some video and stills of otters close by here in Exeter with very little success except once about 7 years ago and you can see that video on the blog above on the main page.  They are elusive of course but it's not hard at all to find signs of them if you know what to look for. I always look and am a bit obsessed. I have conversations with people constantly who tell me that they have seen an otter whilst out walking the dog etc and I even met someone the other day who told me that he sees them almost every day that he goes out, probably a massive exaggeration but he must have seen them now and then I am sure.  I look constantly and never have success.  So imagine my absolute delight this morning, when I returned to the trail camera that I have been leaving out, to see tracks in the mud right in front of the camera.  I immediately checked the files and was thrilled to finally see that I had some success, albeit not long or necessarily good quality but good enough to see that an otter had come to the camera just before 7 last night, sniffed the camera and then departed as quickly as it could.  Onwards and upwards as they say because I am confident of recording more as the weeks go by. It is frustrating at times when you don't get success for whatever reason so to get a result is very satisfying.

European Robin

What can I say about the UK's most popular bird. Having travelled extensively throughout my life I always find it interesting to see how the very common birds are largely ignored by the locals in every country I visit and it's not until I return home that I wish I had taken more notice. The Robin here in the UK would fit in to that category, it's   a bird that any birder from another country would find it hard to ignore though.  They are particularly noticeable in the winter because not only are they very common in urban areas, they are also very confiding and are even attracted to any activity by humans.  They have evolved to feed on insects that have been disturbed by large animals so if you are working in the garden a Robin is likely to come and join you in the hope that you have disturbed a tasty morsel.  It's not just the males that have a red breast, both sexes are identical and even when I had them breeding in my garden this year I found it impossible to visually tell them apart.  One of the nice things about them is their winter song which is a familiar backdrop to a British winter.  Because of their very noticeable presence at this time of the year they are associated with Christmas and they are a common subject on many Christmas cards.  The American Robin is not related, or similar to the true Robin but named "Robin" because when the first settlers arrived in the New World they named the only bird with a red breast Robin - even though it is twice as big!

I photographed this one yesterday from my the hide where I was staking out Kingfishers.  I ought to be concerned about this because it would imply that the Robin was aware of my presence and probably means that my camo is not as good as it should be.  If the Robin knows I am there then surely so would a Kingfisher.

Kingfisher

I had some real success this morning.  It's great when you don't have to wait very long as well.  I had got myself settled in to the hide at 5 minutes past 11, a bit late I know but I needed to attend to a few things at home before I went out. I could see immediately that the light was brilliant, it was sunny and at this time of year, not too strong.  I was expectant but not particularly optimistic because I hadn't had a great amount of success with Kingfishers here in the last few weeks. I fiddled with the cover of the hide and I was just making sure that I had a clear view from the front of the hide looking out on to the branch that I had planted there a week ago and then - I could hardly believe it - there was a Kingfisher and it had prey. I had been there just 9 minutes!  I quickly focused on it and I could see that it was struggling with a really big fish and I realised quickly that it was a perch (Perca fluviatilis).  In my 6 or 7 years of photographing Kingfishers with prey I have never seen one with a perch.  I am quite sure that it had flown specifically to the branch here, I have known them do this before.  This must surely point to the fact that Kingfishers are capable of cognitive thought or how else would it remember that this branch was here?   A really solid branch is very important when they have large prey as they need to beat it to soften before swallowing.  It would have known that the solid branch was there and flown from the nearby pond to this spot to deal with it's prey, I think that this is remarkable and I doubt whether any real study of cognitive behaviour in Kingfishers has taken place.  The bird flying to the branch here is very good news for me, it means that there is every chance that the bird will return whenever it catches large prey again.

When a Kingfisher deals with prey it will repeatedly beat it against a branch, initially to kill it but also to soften it. It's imperative that with a perch or stickleback for that matter, the sharp needle like fins are folded down before the bird swallows it, always head first. I think it is remarkable that a Kingfisher can eat prey like this because the fins of a perch have evolved to protect them from predation.  They really are needle sharp as any angler will tell you. The beating of the prey is quite a vigorous affair as you can see in the picture below.

All in all a great short session.

 

Red Fox - Vulpes vulpes

If you have been following my blog this last few weeks you will be aware that I have captured images of a fox on a trail camera almost every day that it has been left out.  I had recorded images in the late afternoon as well as night and I had seen that it always crossed the brook in the same place.  I was hoping that with a bit of planning    I would get the chance to photograph it with the DSLR as it crossed in the daylight.  I don't think that foxes are particularly hard to get pictures of but they are usually very wary and you have to be either lucky or very careful and patient to get a good photo.  It's always very rewarding if you have a plan and then get the result that you have worked for, thats what drives me on I think.  I sat in a waterside hide that I had made from the local vegetation, my camera's lens was protruding out towards the crossing and I was ready if it should show up.  I had been there for ages and had already seen and photographed a male Kingfisher and a young Buzzard - more about that later - suddenly without any warning, there it was. I reacted immediately, pressed the shutter and captured half a dozen shots as it trotted over the brook without a care in the world, paddling in the water as it went - brilliant!  The result was not necessarily about the quality of the photos but about having a plan and for me, getting the result was very rewarding.  I think if reincarnation ever happened to me then the animal that I would least like to come back as would be a fox.  Everyone seems to have it in for a them.  Farmers and landowners shoot them in the name of wildlife management, gamekeepers shoot and trap them to protect their pheasants and so does anyone else with a few chickens and ducks.  Then of course they are hunted on horse back and with dogs.  All of this is currently legal in the UK, apart from the hunting from horseback but  there hasn't been one single prosecution for that yet even though it's been in place for the last 10 years!  So, who would be a fox?  Even on TV this evening there is a story about cruelty to foxes but in this case, at least the perpetrators were successfully prosecuted.  Here's a link to that case.

This Kingfisher was my main reason for being by the brook today and I was hoping to discover if the territory holder was male or female.  For some strange reason it chose not to perch on the branch in front of me but perched just by the crossing which was quite frustrating.  I have deliberately keep the image small to reflect how far it was from me.  It is a male and I suspect he is the territory holder.  The female that I photographed last week must have just been passing through. There is a Buzzard that I see quite often in this area, it is a juvenile and I suspect that it is the same juvenile that I have been photographing at my caravan hide, it is very wary and flies as soon as I approach even from 50 yards away. I managed to get a photograph today but  the photograph doesn't prove it's identity either way, except to say that I very strongly suspect that it is the same bird. As the "buzzard" flies the distance is only a mile or so and could be covered in just a minute or so.

 

 

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The one eyed fox.

Photographing Red Fox Dens | Apogee Photo Magazine

Grey Wagtail

I know that most British birders are more interested in rarities than common birds but I find the Grey Wagtail worthy of posting here and if you are from the USA then of course this is a rare bird. They are known to visit Alaska and they have been seen as far south as California as a vagrant.  This one is a female and a nice bird to see when you are staking out Kingfishers and other water birds. I saw this one today as well as a male, this is another species that seems to stay together in pairs during the winter.  In the past I have seen this species eating tiny newly hatched fish fry which was a surprise, their usual prey is small insects and spiders  which they find chiefly by the waters edge.  For what it's worth, wherever you find Kingfishers and Dippers then in my experience there will be Grey Wagtails.

Can anyone identify this?

The quality of images taken with a Trail camera is not too good but in lot's of ways they are more interesting.  I have been leaving a camera out somewhere where I have found Otter spraint in the hope of getting some footage of them. When I checked the camera files today after it had been left out for  48 hours, it was really interesting.  No Otters but several times the resident fox passed in front, making it's way in both directions both at night and during the day.  Great to see it. I am not one of those people that doesn't like Foxes, I love them in fact. I hope this particular animal is safe here, I don't think it will be shot at, trapped or poisoned.  I have no idea what it is finding to eat but there are rabbits around so it may get lucky now and then.  They will eat berries and fruit, beetles, earthworms, rodents and of course birds, not to mention any carcass that they may be lucky to find.  Filming it on the camera though was brilliant because it obviously means that any otter passing in front of the camera would be captured as well.  Also filmed was the resident Grey Heron and surprisingly a Cormorant.  So in this small area over the last 3 weeks or so I have seen and photographed, Fox, Kingfisher - both male and female - Green Sandpiper, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Cormorant, Robin, Song Thrush, Meadow Pipit, Teal, Moorhen and of course a Stonechat pair.  I filmed something during the night and  I have absolutely no idea what it is...... can anyone out there identify it on the grainy and blurry infra - red image.  It looks like a cross between a bird and a squirrel!

Green Sandpiper

I revisited the brook this mid-morning and set myself up in a quickly constructed hide overlooking a branch over the water and then started my stakeout for the local Kingfisher(s).  It was cold - about 2 degrees -  but it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would really.  An hour or so in to the wait with my feet starting to suffer and all I had to show for it was just the pleasure of being in the bright daylight and the excitement of expectation with the occasional visit from the friendly Robin.  Something flew in and dropped in to the bankside just ahead of me but out of sight hidden by foliage   In the air I had clearly seen white, like a big House Martin and in the end this was the give away. I expected whatever it was to come in to view hoping that it was one of the Snipe that I know are in the area  but it didn't and after 10 minutes or so  I settled back down again and thought that I may even have imagined that I had seen something.  Suddenly there it was, crossing the ford just ahead. I immediately said to myself, "Green Sandpiper."   I wasn't particularly surprised to see it - but I was very pleased, it was really beautiful in the fast flowing water.  I have photographed them at this spot twice before but it's been 4 years since the last time.  Green Sandpiper are known to over winter in the UK in smallish numbers and they have a preference for concrete structures, weirs and flood defences etc. which is exactly the kind of habitat here.  In flight they are said to resemble a large House Martin with the white rump showing well so that explains the flash of white that had caught my eye. It crossed over the stream and then came back again in the opposite direction and I prayed that it would walk down towards me, my prayers didn't work and I lost sight of it after a few minutes. For a brilliant photograph I would have wanted it to be quite a lot closer but next time I visit this will be another bird that I hope to see again and of course, I always want to improve on any photographs that I take.  

I checked the trail cam to see if I had filmed anything, hoping for otters of course but today, it was blank, not even a fox like yesterday.  I have repositioned the camera now and I will check again in the morning.

A very bright sunny day.

We had really bright sunny weather yesterday afternoon, I was sat with my feet deep in the stream, under cover in a simple hide waiting for a Kingfisher to land on the nearby perch. It didn't! However, a Grey Wagtail started to work down the stream in my direction which was great to see and when it perched on the log I snapped away, always nice to photograph this species. They are photogenic and always make a good picture. I moved away to see if the Stonechats were still in the area and yes, they were exactly where I have seen them almost daily in the last 6 weeks. They are not quite so centred in one particular spot anymore, probably because their prey is much more difficult to find now it's colder and they are having to move around to get enough to eat. But the male did come ver, very close to me - I was sat in a bag hide.

I have a Trail Cam set up nearby, I am trying to get footage of the otters that are using the brook here. Recently, I discovered some really fresh spraint which had been left during the previous night so I am certain that they use this area regularly. Spraint is a secretion from glands near the anus of the otter and they use it to mark their territory. It's their signature or calling card and a sign to other otters that they are here. If you know what to look for it's easy to find. They leave it in exposed places on low walls for example next to the water. You can see an otter "sprainting" in the footage above. It is not unpleasant, it has a very distinctive smell which is difficult to describe but once you have smelt it you will never be in doubt again. It has a tarry appearance when fresh but when dry - it still smells nicely though - it looks like a small black blob on the concrete. It quite often has tiny bones and fish scales in it as well. If you find other likely looking sploges which are from other animals and birds you can tell immediately that it has not been left by an otter simply by the smell. Otter spraint always smells distinctively. I am really hopeful of getting some new footage very soon. But only time will tell. When I checked the footage yesterday I had recorded a Fox that came to investigate. This made me more hopeful because it means that the camera and infra-red trigger was working properly - now all I need is an otter. It was good to see the fox though!

The Stonechat pair survive the recent wet weather.

At the end of last week on the 20th we had quite a large amount of rain, the first serious storm of the season and my records show that there is always quite a lot of rain at this time of the year.  The brook close to my home always floods for a day or so which makes life difficult for the Kingfishers in particular.  Even though I knew it would happen I was never the less disappointed because it meant that a couple of my recent projects had to be put on the back burner until the floods had subsided. I wasn't sure of the effect that this would have on the Stonechats but I imagined that they would need to move on to a drier area where they could continue to find food - insects on the wing.  So imagine my pleasure when I returned today to see if the water had receded and found that not only it had but the Stonechat pair were there as if nothing had happened.  The reed mace had been totally flattened which meant that they were using the tops of nettle stems and driftwood to hunt from.  It was really great to see them, it's obvious that I shouldn't have underestimated the resilience of this pair of Stonechats and probably Stonechats over-wintering everywhere. They have obviously evolved to take this sort of thing in their stride.  Using a bag hide to conceal myself and to reduce disturbance to zero. The female -above - was the first bird to give me a photo opportunity and the dead foliage, with the concrete behind made for good photographs. Then the male came in to the area following his mate and perched on a branch that had been washed down the brook and been stranded on the grass in the mud.  I have to say that I have a real soft spot for Stonechats whether breeding on the moors or here on the marshes for the winter, they are always a great bird to see. I am looking forward  to seeing how long they stay here in the territory, they have been here since at least September. 

Comparing Digiscoping with conventional digital photography.

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As promised in yesterday's post, I went out full of enthusiasm with the intention of using my digiscoping equipment to both practice and to enjoy the nice bright sunny weather. I drove out to Cockwood Harbour on the lower Exe Estuary because I know that there are always some birds around, mostly Redshank - (Tringa tetanus) and this would give me the opportunity to hone the skills necessary. These skills basically involve fine tuning of the focus ring on the scope which is very sensitive and with a moving subject like a bird, it's hard to be really accurate. The advantage of the digiscope over a digital SLR camera is that you can obtain photographs of birds at distances that would be impossible to achieve with a DSLR camera even with a 500 lens. Even if you attached a 1.4 convertor the subject would still be much too far away and look like a small dot in the frame. The picture above - taken through the scope and captured on a Lumix 4 thirds camera is not cropped and I must say that I am impressed with the result even though it is not as sharp and crisp as I would really like, it's a nice picture and not just a photograph.  Here is a photograph taken of the same birds at the same distance taken with a DSLR and 500 lens, it's a pointless photograph of course and now you can immediately see the advantages of the scope in situations like this.

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A totally pointless photograph taken with DSLR to 500 lens!

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The Redshank that we get over-wintering here on the River Exe are interesting. Ringing projects have shown that they are here from various breeding sites in Western Europe including the Netherlands. Ringing projects have been able to prove that some Redshank continue much further south in to Portugal and Spain and in other cases even Africa.There is apparently no pattern to this migratory behaviour, some birds just choosing to continue much further south. They are very busy birds, seemingly feeding constantly on mostly ragworms it would seem. Muddy harbours and estuaries are perfect for this which explains why they are here of course.

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The same bird through a scope (and below)

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From time to time I see birds that are sporting leg rings, I always look out for them and then report back to the BTO to find out where they have come from. One particular female bird - I haven't seen her for a year os so though - carries a ring number 73 and the ringer and man who runs the project in the Netherlands is always anxious to here reports of her. She is several years old and always spends the winters here on the Exe.

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So to summarise, it's horses for courses, if your subject is close enough then you will always get far superior photographs with conventional digital SLR cameras and the right lenses but with a subject that is at a distance, there is a place for taking pictures through a scope - digiscoping.  I am glad that I have been able to add a scope to my photographic armoury.

Digiscoping

Last May I had bought a Swarovski spotting scope and all the necessary items to connect to my Lumix camera to effectively use the scope as a very long lens.  This form of photography is called digiscoping and considered a good way to capture images of wildlife from extreme distances. I am licensed to photograph at a Peregrine Falcon nest site and the scope was purchased to help capture better images of the nesting activities there.  During the Autumn my cataract started to develop and it became impossible to use the scope because without the help of automatic focus it is imperative to be able to see well to correctly focus. Now that my cataract has been removed and my eyes are recovering I went to use it yesterday just to see what I could come up with.  I was quite pleased with the results because I was able to get photographs of the the birds that were too distant to photograph with my DSLR camera.  Today, with better sunnier conditions I am confident that I will be able to do a little bit better.  Oystercatchers are a common bird on the Exe Estuary and at high tide they move on to grassland nearby to feed on earthworms in the soft turf.  There is usually  a large flock of several hundred birds amongst Curlew, Brent Geese and Godwits. Digiscoping is obviously an art in itself and I need to practice much more if I am going to be 100% happy with the images.  I heard a great quote the other day, when a photographer had been asked if he had taken lots of pictures he replied that  "I have taken lots of photographs but only finished up with a few pictures" I love that quote and I think this sums up these photographs. I will be disappointed if I can't get them slightly sharper when I try again.

A few Kingfisher species

Number 1. Common Kingfisher - Alcedo athis.

 it has been very wet this last 36 hours and we have floods which is not very pleasant and makes birdwatching and photography a bit difficult. I was looking at my galleries of Kingfishers and realised that I have taken photographs of 13 different species of Kingfishers. I have posted them here for you to compare.

Number 2. Pied Kingfisher -  Ceryle rudis

This one was photographed in Cape Town South Africa but I have also photographed them in both Gambia and Sri Lanka.

Number 3 Giant Kingfisher -  Megaceryle maxima 

Photographed in Gambia but I have also seen this species in South Africa, this one is a male.

Number 4. White throated Kingfisher -  Halcyon smyrnensis  

This is a very common and quite noisy kingfisher in Sri Lanka where this photograph was taken.

Number 5. Belted Kingfisher - Megaceryle alcyon

The common North American Kingfisher.  This one is a male, the female has a patch of rusty red on the belly.  They are not easy to get close to in my experience but this one was photographed from my car at a truck stop in the Everglades National Park just after dawn in March.

Number 6 Malachite Kingfisher - Corythornis cristatus.

A very small kingfisher that looks quite similar to the Common Kingfisher but is even more intensely marked.  Getting a photograph of this bird was probably one of my most satisfying birding experiences because I had failed on several trips previously.  

Sri Lanka Common Kingfisher - Albedo athis taprobana

 

Success from a waterside hide.

I absolutely adore Kingfishers as you may be aware. Over the years they have been quite an obsession for me. On the local brook in early autumn I had photographed an adult male - the resident this year  - quite a tatty bird who was in a moult and had a claw missing, it looked as though he had experienced quite a hard breeding season but he would probably be looking quite good by now. The photo above is a female and she has led me a merry dance.  I first saw her exactly 33 days ago and have been trying to photograph her ever since. Persistence and patience is something that I am quite good at but I didn't expect it to take this long to get a photograph of her.  I was keen to photograph this bird because it would give me an insight in to the size of the territories of the Kingfishers on my local brook. In fact the nearest I had got to her was the first day I saw her, but, because of my cataract I couldn't tell whether it was a male or female.  I didn't have my camera with me at that time and when I returned several times on the following days, expecting it to perch in front of my camera, it just didn't happen.  I "ramped up" my quest and placed a heavy branch across the brook and was absolutely certain that any self respecting Kingfisher would not be able to resist it.  Yesterday when I arrived, there it was on the perch as I expected but as soon as she saw me, off she zoomed.  If I wasn't in tune with Kingfishers I wouldn't even have seen her, as is always usual with Kingfishers, she saw me first and flew off immediately.  I was confident though that if I sat down quietly nearby and camouflaged of course, I would certainly be lucky. I saw her return but she didn't land on the branch and I was certain that she saw me, my camo wasn't good enough apparently. This called for some serious action!  Using some dead Himalayan balsam and dock, I built a crude hide by pocking them in to the mud in a rough square and bent the tops over to make a roof. Then when I went back today I also covered myself with a back hide and I was pretty sure that this would do the trick.  At first, after just 10 minutes or so, the resident and very wary Grey Heron flew in and landed in the stream just in front of me and I knew that the camouflage was working well.  The Heron stayed for 20 minutes without finding anything to eat and eventually tried on the grass behind before flying off to try elsewhere but not before giving me some good photo opportunities.

As my wait for the Kingfisher continued - with my feet starting to lose feeling with my wellies stuck in the cold water - I saw a Kingfisher twice and she still didn't perch where I wanted it to, then I heard one calling nearby, it was getting quite frustrating.  I decided to give myself until 2.30 which would have been a 2 hour 30 minute session. Then, suddenly there it was. The light was about the worse it had been in the entire time I had been there, but I was thrilled verging on the ecstatic when my patience and planning had yet again paid off.  She didn't stay long but long enough for me to take some photos and see that it was a bird that I hadn't seen before. It was a great result and I was very pleased with the end result of a cold an uncomfortable session.

Stonechats in flight.

I have to say that over the years I have,from time to time, really enjoyed photographing Stonechats in flight. I always find them really accommodating  and with just a little bit of patience and care it's possible to get really close to them.  At this time of the year here in Devon there are always a few pairs over-wintering on the marshes and other quiet areas close to the coast.  They use the highest perches in their chosen territory to sally forth and catch flying insects, sometimes just tiny gnats but also hoverflies if there are still some on the wing.  Obviously warm weather makes it easier to catch prey and to be honest I am wondering how they manage to catch enough prey in this way when the weather gets really cold and prey becomes scarce.  I have been seeing one pair for at least 6 weeks, always in the same spot and always using the same reed mace to hunt from. This makes photography quite easy but all the usual elements need to be in place, obviously bright light is essential. I spent a couple of hours watching and photographing them today and I am 100% confident that I didn't distract them from their feeding which incidentally, with the shortening of the length of daylight was pretty constant. It was interesting to see that the male always had use of the highest reed mace with the female, now and again "grabbing" the best spot when the male vacated it. Unfortunately the good light started to go and I had to call it a day but managed some really nice shots with more to come whenever the light is good in the next few weeks. I am going to be interested to see how long they remain here feeding in this way or if they will move on when it gets colder.  Incidentally, I have now had my cataract operation and it has massively improved my eyesight.  The National Health Service in the UK comes in for a lot of stick, every bit of it unnecessary and unjustified. The success of my cataract operation is proof that if you are ill here in the UK and need treating then you will get it done with the very best of care and professionalism. A massive thank you to the doctors and nurses at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and in particular the West Of England Eye Clinic.

 

 

Comparing the size of Buzzards.

As you may know I have been photographing the Buzzards at my "caravan"hide these last few weeks.  On my last session on Wednesday it was the first time that 2 Buzzards had visited - almost - together.  One came in from the right and stayed for 3 seconds or so to be followed almost immediately by another fro the left.  They had probably seen the bait simultaneously and then coincidentally arrived almost together.  However, it did give me the chance to see the massive difference in size between them both.  The first one is an adult - probably a male - and the other which I think is the juvenile, is huge in comparison.  It appears that the one on the right is closer to the camera but I can assure you that this is not the case, they were both taken on the same clip of video footage and I have extracted these screen shots.  Check the size of the log and the background.

Adult Buzzard - probably  male on the left. Juvenile - probably female on the right.

This is a photograph that I took the day before, it appears to be the adult female - she is fantastic!

I recently purchased a book by Dr Peter Dare entitled "The Life of Buzzards".  The author is a local West Country man and I have found it a brilliant, informative book packed with scientific facts and stats and a few  photographs,  I can thoroughly recommend it. Shop around because, if you buy online I have seen a massive difference in price depending where you buy.  I bought the Kindle version because I can enlarge the text to size that I can read while I wait for my cataract operation!  Anyway, one of the interesting facts that I discovered was that  it is very common for just one juvenile to survive in a clutch. ( As in the situation in this territory). Due to chicks hatching on different days there can be a massive difference in development and the older chick will always get fed first leaving younger chicks to gradually deteriorate and weaken if there is a shortage of food.  This is a good strategy because it ensures that at least one chick survives to fledge the nest - obviously if there is an abundance of prey then 2 or more can be successfully reared -  a young bird can't be half fed!  If they were all the same size and age in the nest then the available food would be shared and the outcome would be - presuming a shortage of prey - a nest full of half fed youngsters who would ultimately not thrive. Nature has worked out a successful strategy that gives a better chance of success for at least one youngster.  This is called asynchronous egg laying - where eggs hatch on subsequent days sometimes 48 hours apart depending when the eggs where laid. Incidentally, other birds commence sitting after the clutch is complete which means that all eggs hatch on the same day and obviously the chicks are then the same age and size and fledge together.  The reason for this is that for some species it important for young birds to spend as shorter time as possible in the nest where they are at their most vulnerable to predation.

Here is the front cover of the book. If you are interested in Buzzards then it is a must.

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I If you want to get the opportunity to photograph these birds then please let me know.  There is a charge but ALL monies will go to a great cause. I am collecting  in aid of cataract operations in the 3rd World.  I have seen what it is like to be visually impaired and it's not a lot of fun.

I can be contacted on [email protected]

 

3 Buzzards come to call.

 

I took a friend along with me to the caravan this morning and I was hoping that I would get at least one Buzzard to come down and to be honest, I was quite confident that would happen. We had only been set up for 15 minutes or so when one suddenly arrived.  I had one of my cameras linked to my field monitor and recorder via an HDMI cable and when it landed on the log I had chance to press record before my friend had chance to react and record anything on his DSLR.  It came in, stayed 3 seconds, grabbed a chick and flew off!  Then after a short while it happened again, this time he was slightly more prepared but didn't get a good shot then either.  The 3rd time it happened he did get a shot which pleased me - and of course - him too. The 4th time when a bird came - can you imagine 4 chances to photograph a Buzzard - the bird, a magnificent creature got spooked by something and left immediately.  You can see all this on the video above.  It was a great morning and I massively enjoyed sharing the experience with someone else and giving them the chance to see Buzzards really close which is not something that you get to see all that often.  I have started to take it for granted!

 

Stonechats and Buzzards

 

As I am finding it quite hard to write due to my cataract so I am concentrating on videos and Podcasts for the time being.

Stonechats in flight.

Apologies for not posting this last few days, my cataract is having a big effect.  I have been out most days though but with varying amounts of success.  I have been trying to photograph a Kingfisher locally, I sat and watched one very close up for around 20 minutes on Monday, I didn't have a camera with me which is Murphy's law, because when I returned the next day- twice - and then again yesterday, it didn't show at all?  Nearby I saw that there was a pair of over-wintering Stonechat that were using the top of a reed mace as a look out point. They catch small flying insects such as hoverflies.  I went and sat very close to the reeds and covered myself with my cam netting and it was just seconds before they came back again.  I used both of my cameras to get both in flight shots and portraits - very successfully I might add.

Here's the male,  flying from the reed mace to grab a passing insect.  I used the Lumix camera on pre-burst to freeze the birds wings in flight chichis something that really "floats my boat".

Amazingly the camera needs a shutter speed of at least 1/3500 sec to freeze the action.  I am looking forward to  another session today, the weather is going to be bright and sunny which is perfect.

 

This is the female.  Both birds are in fresh plumage and as the winter progresses the plumage will become worn and expose much brighter underlying colour and the male will have a jet black head.

 

 

It was must easier to get good portraits.  They are such beautiful birds.

 

Buzzards yet again.

I am continuing with my quest to get the perfect Buzzard photo and it's a struggle.  The light is just so difficult to deal with but I have continued trying.  Yesterday I set up my spotting scope which I connected to the lumix camera and positioned some bait quite a distance from the caravan.  I had been surprised by the Buzzards behaviour this last few days.  For example, they were absent from the site on Thursday and then when I returned on Friday morning I could see that they hadn't visited either.  I set up some bait, positioned a gopro camera and then left.  When I returned a few hours later I could see that they still hadn't been in to the bait and I wondered what was going on. Then, after much longer than I expected and in a rain shower, the juvenile came in to the bait and I filmed it through the digiscope set up.  It wasn't perfect, I couldn't get all the bird in the viewfinder but It was an experiment that proved to me that it is another way to film the birds especially in low light. 

I have continued trying to get more footage of the Polecat that came to take a rabbit carcass earlier in the week.  I am hopeful that it will return and I will be able to get a better image. The camera fires off constantly and each shot shows wood mice which proves how common they are around the site.

 

Buzzards inflight.

The Buzzards are now very accommodating and coming down to the bait much more quickly than they did previously which is exactly what i was hoping to achieve.  I have discovered that they spend more time in the woodland than I had known.  When they come to the bait they will quite often appear from a spot well under cover.  Quite often they will fly low over the bait, then land nearby having assessed that all is safe. I have been trying to get shots of them flying in and out and yesterday I was quite successful.

This one was taken with the Lumix camera set to 4k burst shooting.  I this way every frame at 30 frames a second can be extracted as a large megapixel image, meaning  that you have a good chance of at least one or two decent shots.  I am getting there, hopefully more to come.

Polecat photographed in Devon.

Excitingly I was fortunate to film what appears to be a Polecat at the caravan hide the other evening. The image is a still from 5 seconds of infrared footage on a camera trap.  I had seen that parts of a rabbit carcass had been taken the other evening and I assumed that a fox would be responsible, which I was pleased about anyway because it would mean that at least one fox had escaped the recent culling of them.  I re-baited the next night and placed a camera trap next to the bait.  When I checked the files the following day it was a shock to discover the culprit was a Polecat.  I have done some internet searching and discovered that Polecats are spreading rapidly and are known to breed here in  East Devon now.  In 2010 after a survey they were thought to still be absent here  but by 2015 their presence had been confirmed.  Dead roadkill animals locally, as recently as 2014 turned out to be true Polecas. I say true Polecats because of the obvious difficulty of separating true Polecats with the domesticated Ferret.  Genetically, Ferrets and Polecats are identical so they do obviously interbreed.  Regardless of this Ferret/Polecat distraction, I am massively excited and thrilled that a Polecat like animal took bait from next to the caravan. Obviously, I set up the cameras again the next night and I was hopeful that the animal would return.  However, I could not believe it when I had recorded one of the Buzzards, just before dark, had come down on to the back step of the caravan and taken the bait.  Can you believe that a Buzzard would come down literally 6 inches from the caravan door?  No - neither can I.  On the picture above, it looks as though the animal is white but this is just reflection on the infrared camera. Going back to the confusion between polecats and ferrets, we need to use the terms phenotype and genotype. Phenotype means that two animals look identical, genotype mean that two animals share the same genes.  Polecats and Ferrets are always genotypical but they are not always phenotypical. Ferrets - domestic polecats in other words were bred and interbred for light pelts - this helps the ferret handler find his animal when he is hunting with it, the animal is easier to see if it is white not brown!  When and if a domesticated ferret escapes back in to the wild and goes feral it can then interbreed with the wild polecat population and the resultant kits would be genetically identical to the wild Polecat and therefore share the same genotype, but phenotypically they could differ.  In other words, you may see the young animals inheritance.  But, it is no less a Polecat. This is all very messy unfortunately.  Another massive "cockup" caused by our uneducated and unthinking forefathers! The same mess is happening and has happened with the Scottish Wildcat but in a more catastrophic way.

Some great success with the Buzzards.

 

At last I managed some success with my Buzzard project today.  I haven't given up trying over the last week but I hadn't had much luck this week..  Either the cameras were not working properly or they ran out of power, or there was a memory card error and when I was sure that I had got everything set up properly the Buzzards didn't show, all very frustrating to say the least.  With every problem encountered, I found a solution, rectified the problem and then moved on to the next one.  For example the cameras ran out of battery life when in standby, it was just a case of connecting them to power packs.   Today, I just about had everything sorted I felt. I have purchased a good item of equipment, an Atomos field recorder.  This allows you to take the feed from a camera which is set up remotely and then I can record uncompressed footage from the camera.  I have to say that I am massively impressed with it.  Videos when recorded on cameras is apparently compressed but the Atomos recorder records in uncompressed 10-bit HD which is very superior.  I think you will agree that straight away there is a noticeable  improvement.  Basically, you connect the camera - which is in stand by mode - to the recorder via an HDMI cable.  The recorder is left in monitor mode and shows exactly what the camera is seeing, useful in itself. Once there is something in the viewfinder of the camera, record is pressed and up to 12 hours of video can be saved.  The field recorder can also be mounted on to a camera and used as a live view for the camera when you use it normally which is a massive improvement.  They are expensive but not as costly as a good camera so, in actual fact very affordable.

Anyway, this afternoon I set the lumix camera up, connected it to the field recorder, I set up my Gopro to record any bird flying in and set it to record.  I also had my Pentax camera set up with the 300Da prime lens and pointed on the pole. I had it all covered.  Suddenly after about an hour one of the adult Buzzards flew in and landed on the baited pole. I prodded record and then went to the Pentax to take photos there.  It all turned out just about as fellas it could have.,  A good result.

Notice the worn feathers on the wing coverts of the bird.  You can clearly see that the bird has undertaken a partial moult.

Please don't be too upset about the day old chick that the Buzzard has come in to take.  These chicks arrive frozen in a box of 240.  They are a "by - product"  of the poultry and egg industry.  Chicks are euthanised on hatching if they are not the correct sex.  For the egg laying flock, all the newly hatched male chicks are destroyed and for broiler "meat" birds, the female chicks are destroyed.  It's all pretty nasty.  

Video cast from 5th October.

 

Wednesday the 5th turned out to be a great session.  One of the dark Buzzards - or it may have been both of them - came to the bait.  I had the small adventure HD cameras set up and recording so. even though I missed the first bird that came in and took the bait and then  left in about the time it has taken me to write this sentence, I still recorded the event which you can see during the video cast above.  Then, after thinking that it wouldn't return again during the session and as I  recorded the videocast on the Macbook  - see above -  I had taken my "eye of the ball" so to speak - a Buzzard then returned.  This time the gopro was running and I managed more footage of it as it zoomed in to the log where the bait was placed.  If you run the videocast to the end, tagged on is a clip showing this sequence.  All in all a great session.

4th October video podcast from the caravan hide.

 

I talk about gopro cameras and the frustrations with the onboard wifi, power packs and of course, Buzzards.

Buzzard project, the latest update.

 

My latest Podcast from the caravan hide.  Yesterday I visited at dawn but without success. I returned after 1600 and could see on the trail cam files that 2 different Buzzards had visited during the day. One bird had flown in even though there was no bait left.  This is a good development because it implies that the Buzzards have become to associate the area with a food source. Here is the trail cam image of the bird, one of the adults.

A podcast from the caravan hide.

I hope you enjoy the video where I talk about the caravan hide, Lumix micro 4third cameras and buzzards at the drinking platform.

 

Comparing Buzzard individuals.

An update to this post.

Back at the caravan hide this morning and then later on in the afternoon, there had been some great action on the trail camera which proved that the Buzzards are regular visitors now. My persistence has begun to pay off and I am now in to a situation where I can almost guarantee a visit if I stay long enough.  Here is an image that I created earlier on.

 There was some success yesterday with Buzzards.  I sat quietly in the caravan with the Lumix connected to the iPad and in pre-burst mode.In this way as soon as a Buzzard landed on the baited log I would press record and the previous second would be filmed frame by frame. I would be able to get a shot of the bird coming in to alight on the log with talons extended.  After almost an hour, suddenly, there was a Buzzard.  After sitting watching the iPad screen for that length of time my reactions were slow, I thought I had missed the chance but then thought "oh well, I'll press the shutter anyway" which is what I did. I was successful after all but the lighting was so unhelpful that the bird seemed as though it was in the dark.  As well as that, I had still underestimated how large the wingspan of a flying buzzard actually is and they were not in the frame. So it was a combination of very good and very bad with the excitement of success soured by the disappointment of partial failure.  However, the images appear to show a different dark bird, in fact they certainly do.  This one is probably the adult female.   Have I seen her before?  I am not certain but I am certain that I have photographed 3 different individuals now.   After the bird had departed I went out to retrieve the camera and sat there sorting through the disappointing image files.  I have been able to make something of a few of them.  I hadn't realised that the bird had returned and there it was again, feeding on the bait as before.   Eventually it flew again.  Time to come home and as I left the caravan this time, yet another Buzzard -  the light juvenile was sat on the low fence line. It's possible that the second bird to feed was the original dark bird so all 3, but at least 2 came to the bait during this session.  Here is footage of the bird flying in - I have slowed that down - and then it feeds voraciously and quickly on the remains of the bait all the time looking around cautiously to remain safe.  The fact that the bait is small pieces of food separated means that that the bird cannot lift it and fly off with it.  If it were larger I am sure it would.

If you look at this still below - not of the highest quality I am sorry to say - you can certainly see that there is a difference in the markings on the breast, To me the head shape is different as well. 

Then if you compare to the other dark bird, you can clearly see that there are differences in the shape of the white/buffish markings on the breast and the belly markings, which are much more extensively light are different confirming that these are different individuals.

All in all, this is turning in to quite a success.  It has taken me weeks to get to this stage and I am certainly getting good results now. 

The long staying Slavonian Grebe.

An update to this post.

 We went back to Cockwood yet again on Friday just to see if I could get a better photo of the Grebe with the high tide coinciding with a nice early evening. The right combination offside and late afternoon sun won't be here for another couple of weeks and who knows, the weather may not be suitable then. As soon as we arrived I could see that it was very close in and I hoped that it would stay once we had sat down on the sea wall. It didn't initially like us being there and moved off slowly but surely, it wasn't long though before it came back in though and with the sun shining nicely I managed some really nice photos - slightly clearer than yesterday, there is no substitute for getting close to your subject.

Here is some information I have gleaned fro internet searches.

On 18 Feb 2007 this Slavonian Grebe was  was picked up on the tideline and taken into care after the  oil spill from the MSC Napoli.  It was rehabilitated and released back on to the Exe on 15 April.  It remained in the estuary until 5 November that year, although it was absent for a while in the middle of the summer. It was not seen back in the estuary until 30 April the following year (2008).  Since then, it has remained and it has rarely been absent for more than a few weeks.  One wing is reported to be damaged but it didn't appear to be damaged when I saw it stretch it's wing yesterday?  Apparently it does not ever quite reach full winter plumage and it moults back in to breeding plumage early in the winter. In early 2013 it moved up the estuary and lingered  at Topsham and then returned back in late April of that year. Since then, I have not been able to find any more information.

A quote from the RSPB which does not mention grebe or divers stated that on  23rd January 2007 that 200 gulls and 900 guillemots had been found suffering from the effects of oil, some as far away as Torbay, roughly twenty five miles from the site of the wreck.  Animal rescue teams battled to save as many birds as possible.

Back at Cockwood yesterday,  I went to see if the Slavonian Grebe was performing close in again.  For a good photograph there needs to be the correct combination of high tide, sunshine and an absence of disturbance which then gives the grebe the confidence to come to the fresh water that flows in to the estuary  from the harbour.   The only time when the conditions are perfect is at the end of the afternoon just when the tide is fully in and the sun is low..  The sun floods from behind and on to the estuary, the water is flat and calm and then if the bird comes close, there is a good photo opportunity.  I find it odd that this bird is largely ignored by the majority of birders locally.  It  just gets a mention here and there in comments which usually refer to it as "the long staying" Slavonian Grebe or something similar.   No one seems to make an effort to photograph it or record it's presence.  I think that it's story is a remarkable one.  It's been here, both summer and winter for at least 9 years and probably longer.  It was taken in to care as an exhausted migrant sometime before 2008.  It made a recovery and was then released back in to the estuary where it has remained since.  It's pattern of migration was interrupted and it has therefore, remained here through the seasons since.  It is a single, quite sad, lovely and lonely individual who, since its re-release has not bred or interacted with any other member of it's species.   It moults from glorious summer breeding plumage,e complete with golden "horns" - in the US they are called Horned Grebe" - back in to dapper, smart black and whites only  to turn back in to breeding finery again in spring when the black is replaced by reddish brown.  I have never seen it fly, I wonder if it is capable?  This may explain it's faithfulness to the area. It is extremely mobile on the water and paddles against the incoming tide with ease. It is not particularly concerned by human presence but will move steadily away to a safe distance if people are present on the harbour wall.  I plan to try to photograph it regularly this winter and in to spring to record it's plumage change at the very least.  I will also make an effort to watch it feed.  In the past I have seen that it takes pipefish but it would be interesting to get some more photos of it with prey.

 

In the meantime, I did manage some slightly better photographs yesterday before it drifted slowly away and out of camera range. Here it sleeps on the water which is what it does, I am not sure that it has ever been seen on land either.  So many unanswered questions about this bird and like I have said, no one seems to want to know the answers.

 

Slavonian Grebe

This is the long staying Slavonian Grebe tat has been resident "year round" on the River Exe, usually around the mouth of the harbour at Cockwwod.  It's history apparently as far as I am aware, is that it was taken in to care sometime prior to 2008.  It recovered well and was released back in to the estuary where it has remained ever since.  It seems to do well and moults in to and out of breeding plumage.. qt the moment it is in a moult in to winter eclipse plumage.  I haven't been specifically to look for it for a few years but on Sunday I spotted it off the mouth and decided that I would go and have a look for it one day this week when we had some sun from the right direction and the tide was high.  I wanted to try out my Lumix camera connected to my spotting scope just to see if I could got some results that would be acceptable.  I ought to mention that I am struggling really badly with my cataract too it made everything really difficult to use but here and there, I managed to focus everything by looking through the viewfinder withy my week eye. The pictures look as they they have been cropped by me afterwards but no, this is the way they were captured, they are really quite promising and good enough for me to go back and try for some improvement.  

Earlier I had been "dig-scoping" the mallards and swans just to practice and the results here were better which is very encouraging.

 

An opportunity to photograph adult Buzzard and very close.

After a really nice day today which involved breakfast, a walk to the Exe Estuary at Cockwood - the resident Slavonian Grebe was very close in - and a walk back to the car via the Ship Inn and a tour of an amazing garden complete with Grass Snake and incredible grape vines, I rushed out to the caravan hide for the final 2 hours before dusk.  I knew that a Buzzard had come in at 5 yesterday and I am beginning to see a pattern developing.  As I have said repeatedly, it’s pleasant even without birds, the anticipation is palpable, the peace and quiet is always very pleasant and add in a cup off coffee and Classic FM and it’s almost heavenly.  It was just touching 6.30 when suddenly  there it was, the dark, presumed adult Buzzard.  It glided in from behind the gate, landed on the trunk and the bait and remained motionless while it checked for safety. The camera was set up, switched on and adjusted for the light and of course,  pre - focused.  It’s the first time I have had a good look at this bird and it was interesting to see how it differed dramatically from the other that I photographed on Tuesday.  See here. Because Buzzards are so variable, as long as I get good photo’s it will be a simple task to identify individuals. After remaining motionless for exactly 2 minutes 30 seconds, it suddenly picked up the bait with one foot - 3 half frozen day old chicks - held them collectively in it’s talons and flew back to exactly where it had come from.  Brilliant!! Interestingly, the juvenile on Tuesday had spent around 30 minutes clearing up every vestige of anything edible whereas this bird seemed more reluctant to stay around. This had been a great encounter and a real success after many hours without any and at least a dozen visits without any Buzzards whatsoever.

Update:  Tuesday 27 September.

I am pleased to say that my Lumix camera is back from repair - it suddenly stopped working - and I couldn't wait to get out to the caravan hide to use it to capture the Buzzard in flight.   I went just for the last hours of light and saw on the trail cam that the Buzzard had visited 5 time during my absence for a day. vey satisfying. I set the camera up quickly and connected it wirelessly to my iPad, sat down quietly and waited.  I am trying to capture pictures of the Buzzard just as it lands on the bait.  When I am successful it will be a corking shot. I didn't wait long, the darker adult bird came but I missed the opportunity to get it in flight and I had underestimated the size of the bird and most of it was not i the frame of the camera, a bit of a frustration. I did however get one decent photo which is worth posting.  Disappointing really that the photos taken with the Lumix are just not quite as good as with the DSLR but there are so many other things that you can do with the Lumix, it's worth it because you finish up with pictures - albeit of slightly inferior quality - that you would find hard to achieve with the DSLR.  For example, this low perspective shot here. I went back this morning before 8 and didn't have a visit which was disappointing obviously.

 

 

Test

Just a test!

Saturday at the caravan hide.

Before I start, you may remember that I posted about the Lesser Grey Shrike from Jennycliffe Plymouth during the week.  Tim Worfolk is a well respected professional illustrator who lives locally. He is an extremely knowledgeable professional and someone I admire greatly. In the past he has worked on a publication The Shrikes of the World  and his opinions of the bird in Plymouth are well worth reading about. He talks about the age and sex of the bird and it is extremely interesting.  Have a look at his photos and words here. http://2birdtheory.blogspot.co.uk 

On arrival this morning, the light coloured juvenile Buzzard was next to the caravan and it flew up to the ridge as soon as it sensed my arrival. On inspection there was no evidence that it had taken any bait and it had shown no interest in the woodpigeon and there had been nothing recorded on the trail camera. It was very good to see the bird still showing interest in the area though.  Hopefully it will return in the next hour, disturbance on access to the caravan is unavoidable and very unfortunate, however it may condition the Buzzards to associate my presence with a food source?  Another early morning visit is necessary to be in position before the bird arrives perhaps.  On disturbance on Tuesday, the two buzzards returned very quickly with one staying to feed, I therefore expected the bird to return again.  It will certainly be aware that there is a food source here.  A Sparrowhawk flew over, the first for the site that I have recorded  

About an hour in to the session, as I sat in the caravan, something plonked itself on the roof, I sat with bated breath, I was listening to Mahler on the radio and getting emotional about the beauty of the music, the 4th movement is just a wonderful piece, but I had to take the headphones off to concentrate. Whatever was on the roof moved around a little and I could hear scratching and clicking as it moved around….. a Buzzard or a squirrel but I was thinking Buzzard. Then I started to hear sibilant noises, could it be a Jay. But whatever, something was about to show up. I sat still and waited, then it all went quiet and whatever had been there seemed to have departed.  How frustrating.  After a while a squirrel was feeding on peanuts spilt on the ground, probably the visitor on the roof of the caravan, it sounded much larger.

I spent the afternoon listening to and being depressed by the football club that i support and then returned to check the trail camera to see if there had been any "action" this afternoon. It was great to see that a Woodpigeon carcass - the remains of the peregrine kill from the other day - had been removed from right in front of the camera......how exciting was that.  There was bound to be some photos and footage.  The saved files showed that a Buzzard had come for a look at just before 4 and then returned 40 minutes later to take the carcass. I think I got the very best out of the trail camera and the image below is what it is, an image taken on an £80 camera. But it's never the less interesting for that.

It was fascinating to watch a Blackbird feeding on the remains of the blackberries during the morning.

 

Peregrine next to the Buzzard hide.

 

I had spent the afternoon in the caravan hide, just relaxing really and half hoping for a Buzzard to come like one did on Tuesday. I have had a few days of worry with my eyes and it's not been a great deal of fun to be honest. It was quiet and pleasant, I listened quietly to the radio and drank coffee, what could be better?  At 5 I decided to pack up and leave. Outside, I began to sort the trail camera when I suddenly heard the unmistakeable scream of a Peregrine. It took me 5 seconds to react, I rushed to the gate to see a Buzzard leave the middle of the field and fly strongly away..... a Buzzard?  I had heard a Peregrine. Then I suddenly I saw it!  It was holding a wood pigeon down and I watched it pulling feathers from the fresh kill.  I have watched Peregrines for hundreds of hours at the site  where I am licensed to photograph and have seen them with kills on numerous occasions  but seeing this bird here, so close to my caravan and in an environment where I hadn't expected it was exhilarating.   I snapped off a few photographs and then shuffled on my backside towards it using my knees as a tripod for the camera.  I took more photos, it was quite an encounter.  It seems that there had been an attempt by the buzzard to grab the kill from the Peregrine, some interesting behaviour. This is the Buzzard's territory for sure which might explain why the Buzzard had the confidence to approach the Peregrine in an aggressive way.  The Peregrine was a juvenile "brown" rather than bluish/grey adult. I looked very carefully for any sign of coloured leg rings because it would be interesting to see if it was potentially one of the Exeter St David's Church juveniles from this year, or previous. However, it definitely didn't have a ring.  It would be even more interesting if it happened to be the bird from my licensed breeding site which is only a few miles away but of course I have absolutely no way whatsoever of knowing that.  All in all, a massively interesting and thrilling sighting.

Even more Buzzard photographs.

As you may have read, I had some great success with the Buzzards the other day managing to get some close up photos as a buzzard flew down to the bait right in front of the hide.  It was wonderful to be honest and well worth the waiting over the last month.  I have had visits from 2 different birds - possibly 3.  The first one I saw regularly was a dark bird with a dark eye, a relatively small bird with a small head.  Another, which I had seen less but in the end gave me the best views, is lighter and a juvenile for certain.  It has a typical juvenile type breast, white and boldly streaked. The eye is noticeably lighter, in an adult it would be dark and the edge of the tail would be differently marked.  When I eventually manage to photograph the darker bird more effectively I will be able to compare properly.  In the meantime, here are even more photographs from the session the other day.

You can clearly see the lightly streaked breast and the lighter eye on this magnificent individual.  What a beautiful specimen. It has a full crop which bulges with meat from the various bait items that I had placed to attract it. I took the photograph on the 20th and when I went back early on the 21st it was there again looking for more food which is a great result for me. The only downside is that if the bird is disturbed as I approach the area, it can be quite an extended time before it returns again.

In this photograph you can see that the tail looks unworn, obviously fresh but it is also edged with lighter feathers, again an indication of a juvenile bird. 

So what's next with this project? I will continue to try to observe different individuals and then capture good photographs for comparison.  I am trying to get more photographs of them in flight as they fly down to the bait.  I picture in my mind the amazing spectacle the other day as the bird left the telegraph pole and glided down to the carcass.  It really was wonderful to see.

More Buzzards from yesterday's session.

I haven't had time to look through to find the best photos from the really exciting encounter that I had yesterday. It really was a good result and now I know that I am getting the birds used to the idea of free offerings, I am sure I will have even more to show you in the days ahead. I have an idea to use the iPhone camera and a movement sensor app. which will use the great resolution. iPhones have a tiny lens and the camera will be able to be hidden away with just the relevant lens part of the camera exposed. Experiments are looking good. Imagine being this close to a Buzzard, they are very wary of course and this bird waited for 150 minutes on the telegraph pole above before it decided that it was safe and then down it came.  Once down feeding it remained for more than 30 minutes so obviously very confident that everything was safe.  From the safety of the caravan hide and various "peep" holes I was able to watch and photograph it without the bird being aware or being disturbed. 

Video - Buzzard feeding.

 

 

I get some Buzzard success at last!

In spite of struggling with my cataract I went with Dave Stone to Plymouth yesterday afternoon - he drove - to see if I could photograph a Lesser Grey Shrike that had appeared at Mount Batten Point. We had success and it was exciting to see a rare bird, the first one in Devon this century, and then get some photos even though I struggled massively with my sight.  We were there for a couple of hours with the bird showing well but usually not in a very photogenic position, eventually most of the other birders had left and the bird, as is usually the case in situations like this, then gave much better photo opportunities and I had some great success as you can see. This was a nice little Shrike, described as a female. One of the features of this species is the slight hint of diffused pinkish on the flanks which was evident but hardly noticeable,  it is amazing the way these migrants arrive on our shores having flown in the wrong direction, in this case East rather than South. This is a bird that breeds in Central Asiia and should be heading for its wintering grounds in Southern Africa.  It is a long distance migrant and a scarce bird in Western Europe.

Southern Grey Shrike.

Now.....all about Buzzards - Buteo buteo. I had been to the caravan earlier in the morning to continue with my buzzard quest.  The bait hadn't been touched and as I waited for the wished for close encounter and appearance, the session was ruined by the presence of a tractor in the adjoining field which was going to have an impact on the cautious behaviour of any self respecting buzzard.  I came home early and left a smelly rabbit carcass out, mainly to get rid of it.  Before the foxes were shot this would have been cleared up during the night for certain. However, when I got here this morning - it was quite late at 10.30 - I immediately saw a buzzard at exactly the moment it saw me and even from 300 yards it flew away calling.  This  is proof that the buzzards are all seeing and just like the crows, don't hang around for even a second  once they know a human is around.  As I approached the gate,  another Buzzard flew up from the ground in front of the caravan, obviously feeding on the rabbit from yesterday.  It was the lighter and larger much more handsome bird that I have seen a few times. (See below).  It flew away, not particularly quickly, perhaps it was stuffed with meat and an inspection of the remains showed that it had eaten most of it!   This was good news even though I had missed it again!  I quickly moved what remained of the rabbit on to the high trunk and added some day old chicks as well.  i though that even if the one bird had fed, perhaps the other smaller one - the darker bird -  that I have seen much more often would still be looking to feed.  After sitting writing for 20 minutes, all the time keeping an eye on the remains,  I noticed that quietly, there was a dark shape on the top of the telegraph pole which overlooks the hide.......my eyes are that bad that I could hardly  tell what it was at first,  excitingly, it was the dark Buzzard. Surely it was going to come down to the remains now. I waited with anticipation and then continued to wait!  It stayed on the pole above for at least half an hour, staring down at the bait until I saw it leave the pole.  It circled around  and it looked as though it was flying down, I rushed to the camera expecting to see it through the viewfinder on the rabbit but no!  It was back on the pole! Obviously it had done a fly over to check for safety and gone straight back on to the pole.  I trained the camera on to it, it left again to do the same thing, circled around and instead flew strongly away. What was going on, I will never know but I was getting closer and closer to success finally.

Some 30 minutes later and  there was the light bird on the telegraph pole now.   Again, I expected it to come down to the bait but it remained on the pole for the next 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Suddenly, it left the pole and glided down to the rabbit.  I was ready and got the photos and views I had been craving.  It performed for me magnificently.  First of all it feasted on a chick which it took down to a nearby stump before returning to the rabbit remains which had been dropped on to the floor. Frustratingly it spent 20 minutes eating what was left of the rabbit but just out of sight although I knew it was there. Then, back to the main trunk where it finished off all of the remaining chicks. This was a brilliant, brilliant session and even though struggling through my bad eye, it was really lovely to have finally won the battle and managed to deceive the buzzards and finally get some great photos.

A nice video of Buzzard and Jay.

 

There was some real success and excitement at the caravan hide this morning. I was up very early, I just couldn’t sleep, a combination of worry about my eyes, disappointment because of the shooting of foxes and of course the anticipation that the trail camera may have recorded something good.

I walked to the caravan just a fraction after 8 - very early for me - and immediately disturbed a Buzzard that was sat on the gate…..bingo as they say.  I quickly retrieved the SD card and went inside the van to check what I had captured on film. The trail camera had been set to record a combination of stills and 30 second movie clips, another great bit of equipment for less than £70! 

The first image showed a Jay feeding on the bait, that was very good to see and it was a very pleasant surprise. I am glad that Jays are still around because they are very photogenic and I love to see them, however they are, in truth, a murderous species with an obvious fondness for meat - carrion, young birds and mammals and the like as well as nuts.  Then as I watched the video clip, the Jay became agitated and quickly left the gate to be replaced seconds later by a glorious Buzzard that landed on to the gate with a clonk.  The video, not of good quality I might add, showed the bird of prey alighting on the gate,  it’s talons hitting the galvanised metalwork.  It quickly made it’s way to what remained of the bait and tucked in.  It held down the morsels with it’s talons and systematically ate what was left.  Then, as I walked up towards the gate unknowingly,  I obviously disturbed it. I replenished the feeding station with more in the hope that it would return later while I was still there and I hoped I would be able to get the glorious shots that I am after.  Thank heavens for the “sweet” sound that the camera makes when the auto focus locks on because my eyes are so bad now that I was seeing double through the viewfinder!!  Literally 2 hours after I arrived and several cups of coffee later, still no returning birds.  It’s a patience thing and eventually I will have some real success with the good photographic equipment.  So, it’s been a good morning really, I have learnt some interesting things.  It’s obvious why the jays are not coming down as often as I thought they might, or as often as they have in previous years.  They are definitely frightened of the Buzzard and it was interesting to see how quickly the Jay scarpered when the Buzzard turned up. I wouldn’t have thought that the jay would be quite so wary and would have expected it to stand its ground but obviously not and something worthy of note. I have learnt that the disturbance of the field cropping has not disturbed the Buzzards too much and I am chuffed that things have returned to normal.  I now know that the birds come in to feed at around 8ish because they have been recorded on the trail camera now on three occasions at roughly this time of day.  I know that the Buzzards - or buzzard to be more accurate - has discovered a good source of regular food and one at least will probably return regularly to look for it.  All very good developments. Finally I have learnt that I would rather be sitting there, listening to Classic FM - quietly of course - drinking coffee and waiting for the next exciting encounter than anywhere else at the moment.  I could have been playing at the Nation Brass Band Championship finals today but as they say, "been there and done that".  This is much more fun, on my own in the peace and quiet and solitude.

 

Latest update, life and buzzards.

Yesterday was a complete write off for me.  I spent the entire day - 9 hours - trying to get to the bottom of my recent sight problems.  Glad to say that in the end it was diagnosed that I have a bad cataract in my right eye which explains why the new glasses are not working well! my right eye is like looking through glasses that have been misted or perhaps what it would be like in a smoke filled room.. I haven't been able to see if my photographs are sharp or any good and have been guessing for months and months, that's one of the reasons that I haven't been blogging too much. For example, I am not actually seeing the letters clearly as I type here, I have a reasonable idea that I am typing correctly, so please excuse if there are any typo errors.  I have also got some inflammation of the temporal artery which is a worry and it's under investigation for a serious condition and am hoping to have a biopsy on the offending artery sometime tomorrow, hopefully this will rule out any serious conditions.

So, onwards and upwards, I went out to the caravan this morning to check if the trail camera had recorded any comings and goings and yes, there was some great success.  I had placed a day old chick on the gate post with the camera positioned on the opposite post.  As I approached the gate I was pleased to see that the chick had been taken, I was confident the camera would have recorded something therefore.  I was thrilled to see that a buzzard - and it seemed to be the same bird - had visited 3 times, once at 8.10 to take the chick and then twice just after 10 o'clock to look for more.  This is just the behaviour which is going to make it possible to get some good photographs with my DSLR and 500 lens. I left the caravan  an hour or so ago having reset the camera as before.  Someone was schooling a horse in the nearby paddock and I thought that there was little chance of the buzzards coming down with this kind of activity going on. But it's good news and exciting.

 Obviously a poor photograph but  shows what happened.  Good photographs to follow, please check back. 

 

The Buzzard project.

Having discovered that a Buzzard had visited the bait on Saturday at around 8.30, I decided to try early this morning (Sunday) and I was set up  before 8.30. There was a good feeling about it and I was very optimistic. I had the lumix covering a log with day olds laying invitingly and right where they were when a buzzard came. I was connected wirelessly to the iPad and able to adjust the lighting, focus and shutter speed, all from my chair, out of sight in the caravan, The Pentax, with a 300mm lens was rigged up on a tripod inside and was protruding through the new camouflaged port focused on the trunk and a rabbit carcass.  This camera was set on live view and I could obviously adjust all the perameters on the camera, everything was set up and I was confident that It was going to be a good session,  all I needed was a bird - or perhaps a fox. I lit the gaz stove to boil water for coffee, sat back in my chair and waited for action.  It was pleasant and it got exciting when at first I heard Ravens calling loudly from nearby.  Then a Jay. even closer, began to screech very loudly over and over, it was answered by a Magpie, obviously some kind of aggression was going on.  I hoped the argument was over my bait and I was sure that at least the Jay would come to the rabbit or perhaps the magpie and even as I waited expectantly I heard the Ravens again. I waited and waited but still, today's morning session ended in failure yet again. Pretty soon I am going to have some luck.  However, I think that more than luck is having an impact.  Birds can't count and I am thinking that I am probably seen by distant eyes as I make my way in to the caravan. They see me go and not leave, caution and intelligence tells them it's not safe.  I know of other photographers who always approach a hide accompanied, they then go in and the other person leaves - the birds think you have departed the area as they see a person walk away.  I will have to try this.

Two days later while the majority of the UK was anticipating the hottest September day for years. in the South West we were in the middle of a dreary wet day!  With not a lot else to do I went to check the trail camera at the caravan.  I was pleased on arrival to see that the Rabbit carcass had been fed on, the same pattern had been  repeated - when I am away the buzzards play - but I was more interested that 2 of the day old chicks had been taken and 2 remained. These were on a stump just in front of the new “sensitive” trail cam so I was confident that I had recorded something.  A quick check of the data  showed me that at around 9.30 a buzzard had come in to look at the remaining chicks. It didn’t appear to take one but instead flew from the stump. Was it the bird that had feasted on the rabbit minutes before? Probably which would explain why it left empty handed - if I can use that metaphor.  My plan now is to clear the feeding area of all prey overnight and then come back early tomorrow morning and bait up, then sit it out yet again, hopefully in the dry! It may well be that at least 2 buzzards are visiting but I haven’t recorded evidence of that so far. Previously, I have never seen 2 birds together at the bait which is an interesting observation in itself.

I went back at lunchtime to collect some equipment that I had left behind.  As if to rub salt in to the wounds, I stood by the caravan door but quite in the open.  A buzzard flew in towards me and landed in the trees not far away, it seemed to me that if I hadn’t been there it would have come to the bait for certain.   It quickly flew off. This was quite a development because it looked as though the bird expected to find something to eat. This is what I am hoping to achieve, to habituate the birds to the supply of food. When I left and as I drove back up the lane, there were 2 buzzards, one a light coloured bird that looked to be the one seen a few minutes before and a dark bird which looked the same in coloration to the one that I had filmed on the trail camera.  As usual, the more you put in to something, the more pleasure you get out of it.

 

Buzzard update and a tiny bit of success.

I have been using a Trail camera at the caravan hide for the last week but it hasn't been working particularly well, in fact hardly at all.  I have had  it placed in front of ........ well you can actually see where, a picture tells a thousands words of course.  But there is a story to be told.  The other day all the bait had been taken, this included a rabbit carcass and dead day old chicks right in front of the camera and it hadn't fired and several other times I hadn't been confident that it had fired when it should have. I have owned the camera for around 7 years and it's yesterdays technology so I decided to buy another one which even though it was a fraction of the price, was going to be much, much better, more reliable and will film and capture images in higher resolution. It arrived this afternoon and I had to wait until the end of a highly depressing TV football match before I could go out to set it up, oh, and of course, retrieve the memory card from the old one. I wasn't particularly confident that I would have any images on the memory card but I noted that the bait had been taken, who knows I thought?  I put it in to the computer and checked, when I opened up the folder, there were Jpegs!  I hurriedly clicked on them one by one and, eureka there was a Buzzard!  I now know what's been taking the dead day old chicks, not a fox as I thought.  Knowing that the Buzzard was happy to come in to the log to take the bait, not once but twice in just a few minutes will give me lots of confidence to wait with my much better camera and lenses.

It's not the best, nor sharpest image that I have ever taken but when you consider the way it was taken, I am very pleased and can't wait to set up my Lumix camera and wait for a Buzzard to fly in.  My hope will be to capture the moment that it flies in. 

A few images to enjoy.

I am in the middle of a disappointing few days birdi wise where I have just not had any luck with my Buzzard project and for that matter, the Kingfisher, both not been performing very well and have spent countless hours waiting for them to put in an appearance.  On my last few visits neither have landed on the specially placed perches..  Last evening I had an email from Bloomsbury Publishing, who are collating photographic images for a forthcoming publication The Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds (HWPB) by Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson. This is a major new multi-volume book, destined to become the standard taxonomic work of reference for the region. This  will be published in two volumes and will contain more than 4,000 photographs.  They asked for permission to use this  image of mine - see below - which depicts a first winter male Cirl Bunting. This will be another coup for me as a photographer with my images being used in several worthy and weighty published reference books.  I have to say that I am very pleased with these achievements.  I searched my hard drives for large files of this image and as I searched I re-visited several images that I really enjoyed seeing again.  I thought I would share them with you to enjoy.

1st Winter male Cirl Bunting.

Female Linnet.

Osprey over-wintering in South Florida.

House Martin Exeter Devon - collecting nest mud.

Curlew Sandpiper - Southern Spain.

 Nuthatch - Devon.  I honestly think that this is amongst my very best photographs.

Moustache Warbler - Southern Spain at University ringing study.

Bovey Castle Dartmoor

Jenny and i visited Bovey Castle for a late afternoon meal earlier this week. This is a former Manor House and now a hotel, a magnificent establishment that is set in glorious grounds surrounded by natural lakes and a golf course close to Mortonhampstead and smack in the middle of the Dartmoor Natural Park. The Wikipedia entry does not do justice to this establishment, there is  no mention of the glorious views, the wide open spaces and the high level of service on offer.  We walked in the grounds for a while and sat in a peaceful spot in perfect silence with only the sound of birds and the occasional buzz of a distant mower. Dozens of Pied Wagtails fed on the short mown grass and Goldcrests,Coal Tits and Great Spotted Woodpecker were nearby.  I wanted to include this iPhone image which  shows the Manor House reflected in the water.  This is quite a special place and well worth a visit. 

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My quest to photograph Buzzards with a Lumix Panasonic GX80 camera continued today.  At the caravan hide I placed a fresh rabbit on the log and even as I prepared the camera I could hear a Buzzard and I watched it circling around about 200 yards away.  It is obvious that the bird would have been aware of me, their eyesight is 20 times better than a human after all!  I hurried to get inside in the hope that it would see the carcass, not be fearful  and then come down to it.  I am also hoping that they may begin to associate me with the supply of food rather than be scared away and then actually be attracted once they had reasoned that it was safe.   After 2 hours there was still no buzzard but surely one would come while I was there today.  Boredom begins to set in after a couple of hours but the idea that you may get an incredible photograph overcomes this, it seems that these buzzards are extremely wary and if they catch any sight of you they are very reluctant to come down for hours afterwards.  Ravens were in the vicinity and it is a mystery why they have never  been down to feed while I have been tucked away in the caravan hide, they can’t possibly know I am there.  The camera is sending images to my iPad via a wifi connection, the camera is camouflaged so surely it’s just a matter of time.  In the past, at another site the ravens were much less wary than the buzzards and I managed some great photographs of them on a carcass. After nearly 4 hours there was still no sign of a buzzard and I packed up and left for home leaving some day old chicks on a stump in front of the trail camera. I decided not to waste the time that I had spent earlier in the day, I hoped that if the buzzards hadn’t fed earlier then another hour waiting later on may give me a result.  This time I arrived at around 6, the hour and a half before dusk had always been fruitful in previous years….so my fingers were well and truly crossed. Frustratingly, again a big blank was drawn.  When I finally get the shot I am after, it’s definitely going to be a eureka moment!  That was on the 5th and yesterday I carried on but I had a new lens to couple with the Panasonic Lumix camera, a piece of equipment that I am massively impressed with.  I have been using "third party" Pentax fit lenses connected with a converter but not all the features of the camera are available if you are not using compatable micro 4thirds lenses.  If you know what I am talking about you will understand but if not you could goggle micro 4thirds cameras.  In my opinion it's the way forward and a massive advance in photographic technology with their small lightweight design and mirrorless silent operation.  As soon as I attached the lens, a used Lumix G Vario 45 - 200mm F4 - 5.6 ASPH Mega O.I.S, quite an old lens in the Panasonic range which cost less than £200, a whole new world of features were opened up to me. manual Focus from the iPad for example as well as being able to set everything from there. shutter speed, white balance, sensitivity, image quality etc. Obviously I can, in addition fire the shutter in absolute silent mode which is a great bonus if you are trying to photograph skittish wildlife that will run a mile at the first unusual sound. One of the really good things about this set up is the ability to catch images in the new 4K format.  If you haven't seen proper 4K video before you are missing a trick. It is phenomenal. Another plus - for me, but it may not be for you - is the image sensor which means that a 200 lens would be equivalent to 400mm on a full frame DSLR.  As it is important to get up close and intimate with any wildlife subject, this is a massive bonus for the wildlife photographer.  I have a Pentax K3 and use it with a Pentax 300mm prime lens, this set up is good and cost in excess of £2000, the Lumix 4thirds way as described gives just as good results with more features available and is a third of the price. What more can I say. However, still no success with Buzzards yesterday!

 

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