A few hours spent walking around the Nethergong patch early Saturday produced 8 Mute Swan, 1 Coot, 5 Lapwing, 1 Common Gull, 3 Grey Heron, 1 Barn Owl, 1 Tawny Owl, 2 Raven, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Treecreeper, 1 Mistle Thrush, 25 Redwing, 16 Fieldfare, 4 Stonechat, 3 Bullfinch, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Yellowhammer, 2 Common Buzzard, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Jay, 10 Magpie, 8 Skylark, 4 Long tailed Tit, 31 Meadow Pipit, 9 Reed Bunting and 1 Siskin (77) flew south calling. A walk through the flooded fields yielded a Jack Snipe (78) which flew up and gave an excellent but brief flight view before quickly landing again. A walk around Sunday morning from 06:30 produced 2 Greylag Geese, 17 Mute Swan, 400 Woodpigeon, 1 Snipe, 170 Cormorant, 2 Sparrowhawk, 4 Common Buzzard, 1 Barn Owl, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 3 Kestrel, 2 Jay, 2 Raven, 7 Skylark and 1 Chifchaff (79) enjoying the morning sunshine. The highlight of the morning was when a Short eared Owl (80) flew up from a grassy bank in the sunshine as I walked past. It briefly flew and landed in the field where I managed a few brief shots before the local Carrion Crows soon saw it off and it gained height and flew off towards Reculver. Only the second record here of this species in 7 years. There were 4 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Mistle Thrush, 4 Stonechat, 1 Pied Wagtail, 9 Meadow Pipit, 1 Bullfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 5 Linnet, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Yellowhammer and 13 Reed Bunting. Not much 'Nocmig' recording during the week with rainy and windy evenings but a session during the week produced Barn Owl and Water Rail.
Great photos the Yellowhammer is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Roos
Much appreciated Roos. Thank you for your visit. Take care.
DeleteI'm very envious of your Short-eared Owl, Marc, especially as I'm going to be missing our visit to the Outer Hebrides ('SEO Central') this year, owing to Lindsay's mobility problems.
ReplyDeleteAlso envious of your Yellowhammer. Up until a few years ago, if someone told me that they wanted to see a Yellowhammer, I had two sure-fire locations less than 5 minutes from my home - Yellowhammers pretty-much guaranteed. These days, I'm hard pressed to find one, and last found one to photograph almost exactly two years ago.
I have now made the switch from Nikon to mirrorless Canon, and am trying to get to grips with the differences. So far, it's looking good, but I've still got a lot to learn.
Best wishes - take good care - - - Richard
Much appreciated Richard. Wish I could also swap to mirrorless. Having a few problems with my lens. The contact points keep coming up as an error and pretty annoying when you want to take a shot and the camera just doesn't work. Think it could be a few years until the funds for a new one can be reached. I'm lucky that a few Yellowhammers are in the area but I can't buy a Corn Bunting, very rare on the patch. Hope all is well with you and Lindsay soon. Take care.
DeleteAre you a Nikon user, Marc? Contact between lens and body has always been an issue with Nikon for me. If the lens sits on the body for too long, I start getting failures. The solution has been to take the lens off, wipe the contacts on lens and body with a lint-free cloth, work the sprung loaded pins on the lens a few times and then replace the lens. I then get a few months of trouble-free usage.
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