Raking them up, what the earliest you could realistically get a a juv Scaup in Yorkshire?
Monday, June 25, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
GANNET
Had a chill out around Castle Howard with Jack and his brother Tom pretty quite afternoon until the drive back got an injection of adrenaline!
Driving back along the road from Castle Howard Jack Ashton-Booth picked out a GANNET flying low over the A64 just by the Highway Man Cafe.
We managed to pull over and scope the bird where I somehow controlled the shakes from the adrenaline pumping and managed to get a quick bit of video before getting back in the car to try and chase the bird as it was flying south west along the A64
Thinking that going 60mph along the A64 we would overtake it, we then picked it up again as we got to the next roundabout flying over the car once again, now heading slightly more west and heading towards HES EAST!!!
Driving round the roundabout we continued to watch it as it rapidly approached Hes
Driving round to the top car park at Hes we picked it up over the building site seemingly dropping in height so we were hopeful that it would drop onto the water
Sprinting out of the car we lost it behind the buildings sprinting the right round the buildings and down onto to lake side and still couldn't pick it up either on the water or in the sky and the bird must have carried on shearing south west, next stop fairburn?
We aged the bird as a 3cy due to the largely adult appearance apart from plenty of black in the flight feathers
Proper awesome moment! Big thanks to Jack and Tom Ashton-Booth for finding and keeping on such an awesome bird
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| can you tell what it is? |
Video viewable here https://vimeo.com/44618169
Friday, June 22, 2012
Digiscoping
Always take my gear out with me as the main reason I got it was to record anything I find and it works brilliantly for that.
Always toyed with the idea of entering some digiscoping competitions when I was researching my gear but now realise that it would take a lot of time and effort photographing the birds whereas I seem to spend most of my time trying to find them and visiting different places.
Maybe over the summer I'll try my hand at a bit of photography.
Here's a few that I took the other day in the sun.
Always toyed with the idea of entering some digiscoping competitions when I was researching my gear but now realise that it would take a lot of time and effort photographing the birds whereas I seem to spend most of my time trying to find them and visiting different places.
Maybe over the summer I'll try my hand at a bit of photography.
Here's a few that I took the other day in the sun.
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| Baby Mute Swan Castle Howard. f.4.5 1/400th sec ISO 200 |
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| Ad Female Blackbird Hes East f.4.5 1/200th sec ISO 250 |
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| Juv Dunnock Hes East f.4.5 1/80th sec ISO 250
Spent a grand total of about 10 mins taking these photos and then just a quick run through Photoscape adjusting brightness and contrast and a bit of sharpening. Could I improve with better software and more time?
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Sunday, June 17, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Osprey
Finally managed to get Osprey on my York area year list last weekend, with a nicely timed bird turning up at Castle Howard just as I was on my way up there with the family!
Takes me up to 159 so only 12 more for the record! Still need Grasshopper Warbler (have I left it to late?!) Turtle Dove, Redstart,Wood Warbler (although none have been found so far in the regular haunt!) and Spotted Flycatcher.
Looks like Stonechat aren't breeding in the area this year so I will have to hope for a late summer bird, at Hes East would be good!
Other birds that are predictable additions to the list would be
Wood Sandpiper
Whinchat
Black Tern
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Kittiwake
Little Stint
Waxwing (invasion would help!)
Bewick's Swan
Barnacle Goose
Scaup
Grey Plover
Hawfinch
So that would be the record! Add in a few unknowns and I think I could be in with a shout!
For now, I'm off to Spurn for a few days, blog post to follow next week somepoint.
Takes me up to 159 so only 12 more for the record! Still need Grasshopper Warbler (have I left it to late?!) Turtle Dove, Redstart,Wood Warbler (although none have been found so far in the regular haunt!) and Spotted Flycatcher.
Looks like Stonechat aren't breeding in the area this year so I will have to hope for a late summer bird, at Hes East would be good!
Other birds that are predictable additions to the list would be
Wood Sandpiper
Whinchat
Black Tern
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Kittiwake
Little Stint
Waxwing (invasion would help!)
Bewick's Swan
Barnacle Goose
Scaup
Grey Plover
Hawfinch
So that would be the record! Add in a few unknowns and I think I could be in with a shout!
For now, I'm off to Spurn for a few days, blog post to follow next week somepoint.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
End is near
Just finishing off my last piece of coursework until I finish my second year at Uni and will be free until early October, birding anyone?!
Check this out for some digiscoping oppurtunites in the future
http://birdingblogs.com/2012/daleforbes/could-lytro-camera-revolutionise-digiscoping
Check this out for some digiscoping oppurtunites in the future
http://birdingblogs.com/2012/daleforbes/could-lytro-camera-revolutionise-digiscoping
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Orphean Warbler
Nice afternoon doing a bit of filthy twitching today.
As I was preparing for my Chemicals exam this morning, I see that theres a ROLLER at SPURN! Pretty gutted I couldn't go straight away but I suppose I best do the exam! Then 10 mins later, mega alert, thinking that they'd delayed mega'd the ROLLER cause it was at SPURN I look at my phone to realise that there was an EASTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER in Cleveland! Two mega birds and at the time I was a bit gutted about the later as the former would have to wait until tomorrow!
Get out my exam at 11:00 then have to wait around for my lift and tart about cycling around town to fetch his car keys!
Finally rock up to the wrong Headland at around 15:45 to hear that after showing all day its just flown off! Have a look round for a bit and then decide to head back to the green where it had been showing earlier, on the way over everyone starts running so we decide to join in! Oli got ahead of me even in flip flops cause I couldn't stop laughing at him!
Twitcher next to me said ''Its funny when you've seen the bird isn't it''
Me ''I haven't seen it yet''
Twitcher ''Why aren't you sprinting then!''
Arrive at the Bowling green and over the next hour or so manage some initially fleeting glimpses then it showed pretty nicely in the bushes on the far end of the green.
Nice bird and good day out! Last exam on Thursday then proper birding can start again! Been wierd not being out for at least 5+ hours a day!
As I was preparing for my Chemicals exam this morning, I see that theres a ROLLER at SPURN! Pretty gutted I couldn't go straight away but I suppose I best do the exam! Then 10 mins later, mega alert, thinking that they'd delayed mega'd the ROLLER cause it was at SPURN I look at my phone to realise that there was an EASTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER in Cleveland! Two mega birds and at the time I was a bit gutted about the later as the former would have to wait until tomorrow!
Get out my exam at 11:00 then have to wait around for my lift and tart about cycling around town to fetch his car keys!
Finally rock up to the wrong Headland at around 15:45 to hear that after showing all day its just flown off! Have a look round for a bit and then decide to head back to the green where it had been showing earlier, on the way over everyone starts running so we decide to join in! Oli got ahead of me even in flip flops cause I couldn't stop laughing at him!
Twitcher next to me said ''Its funny when you've seen the bird isn't it''
Me ''I haven't seen it yet''
Twitcher ''Why aren't you sprinting then!''
Arrive at the Bowling green and over the next hour or so manage some initially fleeting glimpses then it showed pretty nicely in the bushes on the far end of the green.
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| Rather pleased with my photography today |
Monday, May 28, 2012
Double Wader Day
Stuck in revising all day yesterday, managed to avoid getting distracted and going to Wheldrake and looking at the Wood Sand that Jono had found and even carried on working when he rang me to say he'd got a Turnstone at Hes East!
However I finally cracked when Chris said he was going down to look for the Turnstone so I decided to have the evening off revision! Took a while to re-locate where the Turnstone was but once we had it was obviously following a routine so we decided to sit it out on the side of the main lake and wait for it to walk to us. After a couple of false starts with it being flushed by geese etc we were soon rewarded with it walking right up to us and bathing no more than 15ft in front of us! WOW another weekend another magical moment with a wader on the patch!
Managed to get some photos, video to follow when I get chance to edit it next week once my exams are over!
A cracking finish to the day with 2 patch ticks and an area year tick taking me onto 154.
However I finally cracked when Chris said he was going down to look for the Turnstone so I decided to have the evening off revision! Took a while to re-locate where the Turnstone was but once we had it was obviously following a routine so we decided to sit it out on the side of the main lake and wait for it to walk to us. After a couple of false starts with it being flushed by geese etc we were soon rewarded with it walking right up to us and bathing no more than 15ft in front of us! WOW another weekend another magical moment with a wader on the patch!
Managed to get some photos, video to follow when I get chance to edit it next week once my exams are over!
We had a quick look round elsewhere and the 3 Greenshank from earlier were still present, but no further sign/sound of the Quail since I first heard it and it was then heard briefly later that evening.
Chris then had to head home so I headed up to the Raptor Watchpoint to check out the far eastern pools. I got up there just before 9 and admired the sunset for a bit
Then turned round and almost the first birds I looked at on the eastern pools were these 2
A cracking finish to the day with 2 patch ticks and an area year tick taking me onto 154.
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