To End the Year.

A few recent shots to end the year.

Flying Bewicks at Slimbridge.

A Blackbird at New Fancy.

Ditto a Chaffinch.


A meadow Pipit at Aust Warth.

A Redwing on the field at Speech House.

A Buzzard coming in to land at Slimbridge.

Pochard again at Simbridge.

A Small flock of Wigeon again at Slimbridge.

A female Shelduck.

Tufted Duck.

I'm hoping 2009 continues to bring me firsts. For those who care about such things my species total for the year topped at 149, I don't deliberately set out to count them, but do record what I see, so I'm not technically a lister.

Happy New Year everyone.

Merry Xmas everyone.

Doesn't feel like christmas, hasn't since i was a kid and we had a better than average chance of Snow.

When the weather has permitted I've been out and about with my camera. I've also been busy with the feeding station at New Fancy, I didn't realise how much of a commitment it would be, its a lot different to putting food out in my garden. Still it will hopefully keep a number of birds alive this winter.

Here are a few birds I've seen on my travels.

These few are from the feeder station.

Blue tits.

Coal Tit.

A Hawfinch, a lovely surprise.

Slimbridge produced a few nice shots.

A Common Gull coming in to land.

A Heron hunting in the shallows.

A Water Rail, was a nice opportunity.

I hope you all have a nice festive period, thank you for taking the time to pop by my blog, Look forward to a prosperous new year. God Bless.

Shorties at sunset.

Last year I spent an inordinate amount of time with Andy, Chris and Dave at Aust Warth on the Severn estuary trying to photograph Short Eared Owls. We were not very succesful, or at least I wasn't.

There are two problems with Aust, firstly the distance that the shorties can be, and secondly the sun, it isn't great for half of the viewing.

The beauty of the place is watching the shorties sweep and plunge as they hunt over the long grass.

Realistically these are nothing more than record shots, but my wasn't it fun getting them!!!

Flavour of the month.

Waxwing, everyone is doing them at the moment. Here are my efforts.

There have been sightings of these wonderful birds in Herefordshire and here in Gloucestershire. These are Pics of Herefordshire birds.

This is another first for me, I've never seen or photographed them before.

They are a beautiful bird, I wish they were present here all year round. I've been caught up in the clamour to see and photgraph them, I find myself wishing that the location was better and that the background was "Greener" or "Bluey". Andy Carey and I saw a pair on our recent journey around the patch, unfortunately the weather was pants and there was absolutely no opportunity to photograph them. However if the weather improves and they are still there then who knows? Hope you enjoy these.

Norfolk again.

Having already beeen to Norfolk twice this year Chris Grady and I went again towards the end of Nov'. Unfortunately the weather was often too dull, wet or snowy for us to get good pictures, however there were the odd opportunities.

Here are some of the birds we photographed.

Avocets in flight.

Brent Goose, These were present around Cley in large numbers, it was the first time I have photo'd these Geese.

The Redshank were present in numbers also.


The Teal is one of my favourite ducks, I love their colour and tenacity.

There were small flocks of Snow Buntings dotted around the coast. It is amazing how brave these little birds are. They are more than happy to come close to us humans, sometimes too close. On the day we got these pictures of the Snow Bunting it was blowing a gale and the poor little mites were struggling to stay on the ground. It made photographing them very difficult.

Once again Norfolk produced a number of firsts for me, Hen Harrier, Grey Phalorope, Brent Geese, Glaucous Gull and wild Bearded tits were all firsts. I did not get photo's of the Beardies but spent a short while watching a couple of pairs flitting around the base of reeds at Titchwell.

I still have a number of photos to sort through so may add some more in the next few days.

Take a look at this.

Hi everyone,

No pics at the moment, but wanted to draw your attention to Nov's BBC Wildlife magazine. There is a feature regarding Wild Boar which in itself is quite good, but it is the inclusion of Pics by Dave Slater that make it for me.

I always feel proud when someone I know has acheived something that is for public release. The pics have appeared in Daves website before but to see them being used in this way is still a bit of a thrill.

Well done Mr Slater!!!

Baby it's cold outside.

Hi,

Went to Norfolk last week with Mr Grady, weather was largely pants, but we did manage to get some shots, they will follow in the next few postings. Firstly though some others from local patches.

Magpie from New Fancy.

Pintail Duck from Slimbridge.

Rabbit from Slimbridge.

There are some others to follow.

A few spare hours.

The changeable weather recently has meant that I have had to try and grab photography opportunities when the have presented themselves. This has amounted to a few hours spread over a number of days.

This Partridge (Red Legged) was on the lane at Eastbach.

The Brambling below were at New Fancy as reported by Andy Carey on Gloster Birder.

This Robin was care of Andy's garden.

This Cormorant was on the pond at Christleton, Cheshire.

The Weather is doing it's best to restrict the chances, but the opportunities keep coming.