Pennington Flash

Back to a bit of normality with this post and back to birds.

As much as I like photographing all sorts of things its birds that really do it for me and there's no better feeling when you go through your images back at home and you find that really nice shot you hoped for.

I didn't get that perfect shot today, but considering the little light we had I'm pleased with the results.

First pics are a Blue tit..

Second set of shots are a Robin..

And now the main reason that I went to Pennington Flash which was to photograph Bullfinch as I haven't got that shot that I really want, and still haven't, great excuse to go back again on a nicer day.

Other birds seen today where Magpie (pic below), Greenfinch (pic below) and Marsh Tit which to the best of my ability I just couldn't get a photo, I do have a nice set of twig photos if anyones interested :)

All photo's taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm

You can click on any image to view the whole set in lightbox.

Hope you liked the photo's.

Mike.

First outing

Today was my first outing of 2011 and although dull we had a pretty good afternoon.

The only down side was that the lakes where frozen over, the 1st picture is one of the lakes from the Marshall Hide, the smallish birds dotted around where Teal, we also spotted along the patches of land Wigeon, Goosander, Heron, Shoveller and Mallard.

The next couple of shots where taken from the hide behind the reserve shop, it is a Reed Bunting, just as I got to the small viewing holes I spotted this bird away from the feeding station and sat on a small twig so I grabbed a few shots before it flew off.

And finally this Robin appeared to be following us around the reserve so I just couldn't leave without a shot, I was actually surprised by the amount of Robins that we saw, they where everywhere.

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

Other birds we saw, but where too far away for a photo where: Buzzard, Brambling, Siskin, Blue, Long tailed & Great Tits, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Wood Pigeon, Bull Finch.

So all in all for a dullish afternoon it was pretty good going.

Hope you liked the shots.

Mike.

An hour in the garden

I managed to take an hour out this morning to see what visitors I am getting in the garden at the moment and see if I could get a few snaps.

As expected the Grey Squirrels are around and still eating me out of house and home, along with the usual Great, Blue and Coal tits, no Nuthatch this time, but I have seen it around still and I also had a Great spotted Woodpecker on the nut feeder a couple of days back (still need to make a woodpecker feeder).

We had around 4 Long tailed tits in the trees behind my house, but never ventured down to the feeders :(

I was trying to take a photo of a male blackbird, but wasn't having much luck. Then a female also landed in close enough for me to get a few snaps off which again didn't look good enough, camera settings just weren't right for a black bird.

This Robin was more obliging and sat for a few seconds before moving onto the feeder.

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

I have just realised too that I have just gone passed my 2 years of blogging hense the make over and to see what I was posting about this time last years please click HERE. My first ever post is HERE.

Thanks again to everyone who continues to visit regularly and take time to leave kind comments and all the new blogger buddies and followers that I am now linked to, lets hope between now and next year I can post more.

Well 2 posts in 2 days is a bit better.

Cheers,
Mike.

Weather

Yep pretty much like everywhere else at the moment the weather has been terrible, so I haven't been out with the camera much lately.

A few other things have also had to take priority and now with Christmas approaching I think it will only get harder to get out.

So in the mean time here are couple of pics from earlier in the year.

I've done really bad with posting this year, not even half what I managed in 2008 so I need to pull my finger out in 2010.

Thanks for dropping by,
Mike.

10 mins in the garden

I had a quick 10 mins in the garden this morning whilst the sun was out, I am starting to think the sun is somehow connected to my camera, no sooner have I picked it up the sun goes in :)

Anyhow I made the most of about 10 mins of sun and managed to photograph a couple of birds.

The first two pics are a juvenile Great Tit and the final pic is a Robin, hope you like them.

Photo taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm @ 450mm

I have a load of work to do this weekend so it's unlikely I will get out and about, but who knows if I get it finished I'll be out.

Mike.

My first Dipper

Well its my first Dipper I have been able to get a decent photograph of anyway.

These shots where taken at Yarrow Country Park, I have had some luck with a Kingfisher here before, sadly today it wasn't there, but was shocked to see a Dipper fly by and even better when it went into a nest on a vertical wall.

Photo taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm lense @ 500mm

Another bird which caught my eye was this Robin, I thought it was the Dipper a couple of times, then it landed exactly where I wanted it too and I got around 20 pics. I think this was the best of the bunch.

Photo taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm lense @ 500mm

Just something that caught my eye in the sunlight.

Photos taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm lense @ 500mm

I'm still not getting out as much as I like, but I have a trip planned to Scotland again soon so hopefully I will have a few posts from that to do.

Thanks for keep dropping by.

Mike.

Down the Mere

The following shots where taken from the Janet Keir hide this afternoon, although there was plenty about Reed Bunting, Green & Gold finches, and Blue & Great Tits, this Robin was the one that decided to pose for me for a few minutes before flying off again.

I have a few more Robin shots HERE.

After the Robin I was watching a Wren running along the floor, before it too fly off, then I saw something else out of the corner of my eye, I thought at first the Wren had come back.

Then it appeared again, I think its a Water Vole, it was very fast and kept coming out and eating the seeds the birds had knocked onto the floor.

I hope you like the pics

All photos taken 26/04/2008.

Pennington Flash

The weather was pretty dismal this morning, but wanted to get out after being stuck in work all week, typical nice weather all week and rain on the weekend.

We decided on Pennington Flash a free nature reserve which has 4 main hides and a number of viewing points and made up of large lakes and woodland areas.

You can see one of the lakes below:

There is also a number of carving done in old tree stumps and posts, the photo below shows a woodpecker, but there is also a hedgehog and other carvings there.

Its a great place for waterfowl, however the Bunting Hide is the one I like to spend the most time in. It mainly has garden birds, today we saw, GS Woodpecker, Brambling, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Long Tailed Tits, Bluetits and Robins you can see pics of all these birds HERE in my gallery.

I have a couple of pictures from your more common garden visitors, Blue Tit & Robin.

And a couple of your not so common visitors Bullfinch. You can really see the difference in these birds between male & female, the male is first. You may think I have made the female bullfinch shot really grey, but this is how they look.

All photos taken 08/03/2008.

My Garden

Whilst I am hoping this blog will be of the local area beauty spots and wildlife, I will also be entering a lot of posts about my garden.

Although it is only about 8 mtrs square we back on to a large woodland area and from that we get a large array of birds and other wildlife.

We have Grey squirrels that visit us daily, bats that fly overhead, a frog in our very small pond and occasionally see a mouse shooting in and out from under the fence and once had an hedgehog, but haven't seen it since.

I have compiled a list of the bird sightings and hopefully over time will try and post pictures of each one, here are a few I have taken so far.

Robin: using Sigma 170-500mm lens.

Coal Tit: using Nikkor 70-300mm lens.

Mistle Thrush: using Nikkor 70-300mm lens.

All photos are taken using a Nikon D70 with either Nikkor 70-300mm or Sigma 170-500mm.