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March 2008
31 March 2008 This Whooper Swan (top) has been present on Tealham Moor for a few days, and these Little Egrets showed well here. Shame the light was behind them, but compare the Little Egrets with the Cattle Egrets below and see that they really are very different in appearance.
26 March 2008 Some more Cattle Egrets which were kindly flushed right to the back of the adjacent field by some numpty birder who promptly got out the car and set up his scope. Plonker.
24 March 2008 Mega views of the Cheddar Reservoir Bonaparte's Gull again today (top two) and the Red-necked Grebe showed half decent too! It's just so much easier when it's not minus 20 degrees, blowing a hurricane and snowing!
22 March 2008 My saying that "it's always worth walking round Cheddar Reservoir whatever the weather" proved very true today when this first winter Bonaparte's Gull flew past my nose. It continued to show well all afternoon along with all the usuals.
20 March 2008 This Ring-billed Gull at Lamby Lake in Cardiff showed well enough today for a few snaps (justifiably pi**ing AMS off in the process - my sympathies). The 40D not yet failing to impress in poor light and a strong wind.
17 March 2008 Amazing what difference a day can make. Brean Down was just hopeless this morning, all the Chiffchaffs had gone, and only a couple of Wheatear. A flock of Goldfinch have been present in the caravan park for a while, and today they didn't all fly off when I stopped the car!
16 March 2008 The first spring migrants today. There has been a large fall of Chiffchaff at Brean (top) - they seemed to be everywhere and up to six in one bush with many tens along the short track to Brean Down Farm. Also several Wheatear (middle) were in the cove as well as the usual resident Rock Pipit (lower).
9 March 2008 Here's a lesson for us all - if you go to see someone else's find, make sure you can identify it for yourself! I went to see the 'Bean Goose' on Chilton Moor last weekend and the views were awful. A silhoutte of a goose that nobody could possibly identify, hence I went again today and the bird was in the same place, and similarly crap views. The only way to properly ID it was to drive round to the opposite side of the bird where the light was far better. And yep, you've guessed it - it was a Pink-footed Goose (top photo). Tut, tut to those of you who saw it during the week and enthusiastically broadcast the news as Bean Goose still present (and yes, we've all done it!). Those of you who've seen the Great White Egret at Shapwick will realise just how far away the middle photo was taken, and just to prove it the lower one is the unedited image, which was taken with 400mm plus 1.4 teleconverter plus the Canon crop! |
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