30th June 2010 - Farlington

The weather seemed quite pleasant to take a stroll around the marshes at Farlington this evening; perhaps it would have been wise to check the tide times- we thought the tide was out when we arrived- by the time we left we could no longer see the waters edge at all...

It looks like I will have to investigate the colours in this- the sky is (was) a soft rich blue...  This male kestrel spent some time hovering, watching some small critter scampering in the verge I assume, before having a little break.

A first for us, this skylark was playing in the sky with his mate and many of the visiting swallows.

The juvenile greenfinch was pretty much told where to go- so he did.

'ah- isn't he cute...'

I think a little more book reading may be in order- possibly a juvenile warbler of some kind? edit: Young Sedge Warbler?  Not immediately obvious at this time of night!  The size, and behaviour are correct, the song was too intermittent to be readily identifiable.  The broad defined buff eyestripe works as a 'sedgie', as does the white throat and pale underparts, but the back is just too dark, and isn't a mottled greeny yellowy brown... but then the beak is right in colour and size/shape...  But then I think of Cetti's Warbler, with the darker brown more homogenous back; also likes damp reedy/marshy areas, both seen in the area... will keep thinking... but tending toward immature Sedge Warbler... at the moment... I have regularly heard and sometimes seen Sedge Warblers all around this area of the marsh, after all!

26th June 2010 - The River Hamble

Another of our gentle walks along the River Hamble (other bank this time!) afforded us a number of views of large expanses of mud, and a few photographic birds arrived also.

 This lapwing was quite happy pondering around in the fading light on his own, and keeping himself far cleaner than the oystercatchers further along were.

The light was fading, and so shutter speeds were low as they often seem to be!

A quick preen, and flurry of wings, and the mud poking was resumed.

A few snapshots were taken of this reed warbler- a little too distant to be of great worth, however.

22nd June 2010 - Local Walk

We took a gentle walk nearby, and enjoyed watching the recently fledged youngsters take to the air.  As with the Chichester birds, there is a varying level of ability amongst the group- but more alarmingly there is a great variation in size of bird also.  There appears to be either three or four juveniles, with two highly attentive parents, and all are now flying.

I will hopefully sort this post out in the next few days, but for now a handful of pictures from this evening.

Coming in for landing...

...whereupon a sibling leaps out to startle!

The grace of these birds is hard to match, but some of the juveniles are still only learning the basics.

Plenty of food appears to be being brought in- during the hour or so of our presence this racing pigeon and a blackbird where both brought in.  The pigeon was passed mid air to one of the more adept young- but the camera buffer had been filled!

This juvenile was clearly intent on chasing the locally resident woodpigeons, although no contact was managed tonight.  Stooping at fairly high speed, with a reasonable demonstration of agility.

This little creature decided flying was too much like hard work, and so climbed and jumped to move around...

...finally getting somewhere...

...and eventually reaching the perch of choice.

She did demonstrate some ability to fly though, when she realised she was missing out on fresh blackbird!

The clear evening light was very pleasing, and caught these collared doves nicely.

20th June 2010 - Long Tailed Tits

 A few minutes in my parents back garden this afternoon provided an opportunity to try the 40D at higher ISO levels than I would normally use.  The low light levels deep into this hawthorn hedge, while shooting into the fading sun were providing around 1/80sec at ISO800 f6.3 (300 f2.8 + 2x) which allowed the following...

Not a complete failure, and certainly for smaller prints quite acceptable, but the success rate with such flighty birds at the low shutter speeds was obviously lower than I might have liked.  The family of long tailed tits seemed to frequent the garden around the feeders on a regular basis, with the juveniles not as willing to feed themselves as they should be!

19th June 2010 - Southsea Seafront

Just as beautiful as the Peregrines are any other bird, however 'common' people may consider them...

The niger seed feeder in a back garden always encourages a family (or two?) of goldfinches to hang around on these overhead wires.

Hanging around to annoy some juvenile starlings was this black headed gull- not that any of them seemed to care!  Much younger than those we saw the other week near here.

And we headed closer to the water...

A few sandwich terns were seen hunting the waters edge- I did get a few images, but I think I still have the comment 'must try harder'... composition: sky, shadow and clarity of image...

This was a first for me though- a Pied Wagtail who 'hovers'- all around the edge of this roof, picking spiders out of cobwebs... I would assume the nest is nearby, as he (/she) was clearly filling a beakful up before his (/her) return.

And who cannot love the lilting delicate grace of the woodpigeon; foraging in the fading evening sunlight?

19th June 2010 - Chichester Peregrines

On arrival the Chichester sky was heavily overcast, far from ideal for in flight shots.

We definately saw all four chicks flying, and both adults, at one point we had three juveniles chasing the mother through the air, with decidedly varying degrees of ability. 

This is juvenile male 40 (clearly smaller than the larger female juvenile whose ring I could not see).  They would jostle in the sky, here with talons so nearly entwined.  They learn their flight skills together.

I had setup on the tripod, focused on the adult male while watching the sky, and happened to have my hand still on the cable release.  All of a sudden I saw a juvenile drop towards the male, so fired off the release.

 

 

When they want to play, they want to play, no matter how much their parents wanted a rest- and would you say no to those feet?

It was nice to get this image of two juveniles together, but to realise there are actually three in the image when I got back to the PC was a nice surprise!

And the same goes for this image- I had only noticed the two most obvious, but infact a third stands hiding...

As the sky cleared, and the sun came out, this pigeon/dove came out to display very finely...

...shortly followed by the adult male...

...shortly followed by our parking expiring! Three hours in Chichester- 10 mins of clear sky! Typical!

16th June 2010 - Definately two chicks!

Just a quick post to say I have seen two clearly separate chicks, and between the almost continual brooding I get this shot, of one face and one back!

Hopefully I will get some more images up in the next few days- I shall set out with a tripod and hope to catch a swappover between parents!

15th June 2010 - Our New Neighbour

Having got home this evening, we took a short walk up the road from us.

Still no opportunities to get acceptable images of all the resident Swifts that fly around us, but we still have some time- and hopefully we will find a nest that we can view without disturbing the residents or drawing too much attention to ourselves!

But- we did spot a new neighbour...

...perched upon a rooftop, under the close observation of some of our other neighbours...

...sitting upon her nest, was a Herring Gull- and at least one of the eggs has clearly hatched already!

(Some of the mottled brown fluff is the backside of a young chick)

As we walked past, the chick was standing up, clearly visible (if you know where to look!).  A shame that by the time we got back with cameras the nest had settled for brooding- but there is always next time.  Watch this space, as they say!

13th June 2010 - Sandwich Terns are Back!

Quite a long, but still pleasant walk was taken along the seafront. 

Two main events were noticed: Firstly, the first three swan eggs have hatched (on the raft in Portsmouth Harbour) leaving two eggs- and by the size of the three cygnets, I would be surprised if the other two do hatch.  Secondly, our first clearly identifiable terns were visible- Sandwich Terns, and we saw three together at one point.

Just a few initial images from today, but I have plans for repeat visits at selected tide times, weather and time of day.  They do come close, and I will get a photo I am happy with one day!

The families of starlings were also pleasing to watch, with some juveniles being taught to forage in seaweed, while this youngster was trying out the long grass.

12th June 2010 - Egrets at Hamble

We had a pleasant walk along the harbour front at hamble, and it was nice to see this egret so happily ignoring us.  Unfortunately the light was fading, and pushing the 40D to ISO400, f6.3, with 1/30th was too slow for such a rapidly moving creature.

I managed to catch some of the movement of the bird, but unsure if it is even worth trying to print.

12th June 2010 - Chichester Peregrines

It would appear that two of the juveniles have now fledged (40 and 44, both males).  These had both flown before the last few days of rain, and I had hoped that the young ladies wouldn't be too far behind.  I would think they will fly before long.

A number of reasonable photographic opportunities were had, with some successes.

One of the adults flew in just as I headed towards the cathedral cafe for a top up of Earl Grey, but managed a few shots of the landing.

The female arrived back with a meal of fresh racing pigeon (complete with leg rings).  One of the young girls spent some time trying to pluck the prey, but further practice is still required.  The juvenile visible here on the turret is 40, and clearly excited by the arrival of the next meal.

I always have liked gargoyles, and the peregrines do display so well atop stone pinnacles.

As usually occurs when we have our camera gear setup, many passers by stop to ask what is happening/watched.  I have no problem talking to people about the peregrines (so long as I don't get distracted and miss the goings on!), but two people did irritate: "oh for the poor little songbirds that get eaten in my garden" "such cannibals"?!?! "of course I like to eat meat, but these birds shouldn't eat pretty birds"... Of course it is not pleasant for the individual items of prey to be consumed, nor will it be particularly pleasant for their friends and family (or the guardians of the racing pigeons!!), but to have such an opportunity to view nature is such a wonderful event.  And don't get me wrong- the pigeons on the cathedral are as much of a joy to watch, and I like to think that the young blackbird we watched hopping across the few remaining gravestones was the offspring of the female blackbird we saw picking beakfuls of worms from the grass on our last visit.

Hopefully we will get to visit the more local birds soon, but on our last visit the young do appear to be a few weeks behind.