Birds from my trip

There where a number of birds I wanted to see on my recent trip to Scotland, these are the ones that everyone wants to see.. Crossbill, Crested Tit and something out of the ordinary.

I didn't manage any Crossbill, I did see a Crested Tit, but because I didn't see its face or get a photo of it I'm reluctant to count, gives me the excuse to go again :)

Here are some shots which I did manage, firstly a Linnet.

Oyster Catchers where really common along the coast.



And here's my one out of the ordinary a Sandwich Tern, although they have been sighted in the upper islands they don't show in my book for the coast that we stayed on.

All photos taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm

Other birds we saw on our travels where Gannet, Black Throated Diver :), Osprey (Loch Garton), Eider, Curlew.

Just on another other note I think people may have had problems viewing my blog because of the custom template I used, so I have reverted back to a blogger template and hope that everyone can now read and see everything, please let me know if this was the case.

Thanks for viewing my blog.

Mike.

Down the Mere

Must be on a role, but won't speak to soon.

I haven't been to Martin Mere for a while and yesterdays trip was probably the first for this year, but with butterfly flitting through the garden I thought it had to be worth a visit.

My 1st shot is another first for me, I have seen Orange Tip butterflies before, but never had my camera with me to get a shot of one, so here it is.

Photo taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 28-100 with x2 macro.

Secondly a rather rough looking Peacock was moving up and down by the swan link hide which I managed to get with my 500mm lens.


Back to a bit of birding, this Heron walked right along the front of the Swan link hide and as I was the only person in there and stayed quite still, it was happy to stay for a while.


I'm glad I got it all ruffled as they normally look so perfect, thought it was something a bit different.

And finally a feisty pair of Oyster Catchers or one feisty Oyster Catcher, it must have chased the other for a good 10 mins before leaving it alone, not sure where it pecked but it doesn't look to happy about it :).

All photos taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm.

Hopefully the first of many trips and plenty more posts to come.

Until next time..

Mike.

Same drive different birds

I decided to take the drive again this time going from the Southport end of Plex Moss heading back towards home.

There was still around 20-30 Curlew in the same field as last night, only too far away to get any pics this time, I did manage to snap the Oyster Catcher below, there was two of them together digging in the mud.

Then to my surprise I managed to photograph a pair of Red Legged Partridge, this is the first time they haven't flown off when I open the car window, as much as I love watching them fly off which is quite comical I was happy they stayed still for a while.

I have been wanting to photograph these birds for a while.

All photos taken 22/04/2008.