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22nd September
I picked up my wife from East Midlands airport on Friday night but was unfortunately unable to get to see the long-tailed skua before dark. after spending the night in Birmingham I arrived on site at 7:30 a.m saturday morning. the bird was showing in a ploughed field but distant. I was also struggling with the light so decided to have breakfast and try later. My second attempt was more successful. This time there was more light and the bird was showing at much closer range.
20th September
This Yellow Wagtail was amongst the 30 alba wagtails on Uphill beach this morning. It was working its way towards the car but was flushed by a crow just after this photo.
19th September
The first day I didn't realise what they were, the second day, none were viewable for photos and today was rather gloomy but 2 Pied Wagtails hung around long enough on the beach to for me to approach and get some pictures. Plenty of alba wagtails pass through my pathcch in autumn and I wanted to know whether they are alba or yarelli. The bird below has been identified as a pied wagtail. I have been looking into identification of Marsh Tit and Willow Tit plus juvenile/first winter yellow-legged gulls. So far it is only the gulls that seem relatively straight forward. Whilst on the beach a Little Egret posed for some photographs.
More autumn plumage (yarrellii) Pied Wagtails can be found on the link.
15th September
At Brean Down this morning 2 Swallows were preening and stretching this morning on wires by the car park. Over 1,000 flew south east this morning. Below this Grasshopper Warbler flew up from the path edge and gave good view after some persuading.
After a call about the Great White Egret at Westhay Moor N.R. I decided to pop down and have a look. Fortunately it was showing as soon as I arrived on site. I remembered that photographing a white bird in direct sunlight would need some exposure adjustment. Pushing the exposure up by one stop seemed to do the trick but strangely the camera seemed to be bracketing the shots.
I was lured into somerset today by a Purple Heron at Oathe. This was a photo tick for me so I was keen to get some reasonable shots of the bird. Once on site, I scanned up and down the river and saw some birders in the distance walking towards me. After a short distance I saw a bird out of the corner of my eye fly up from the Sowy. It was the Purple Heron. I watched the bird land and made a mental note of where it landed. Chatting the the other birders there I realised it was going to be difficult to get and good shots of it mainly because you had to be level with the bird on the river bank to get any decent views by which time it would have flushed. After flushing the bird would land in full view on the river bank and then walk into cover. Click on the photo or the link for more photos of the Purple Heron at Oathe.
After seeing great photos of the Spotted Crake on Birdguides recently I knew that I just had to take advantage of a rare opportunity to see this species at close range. Initially it wasn't showing too well but by early evening it came into full view. I used my 600mm f4 but would have been better off using my 300mm f2.8 as the light just starting to fade and the bird was constantly in shadow. Consequently most of my shots came out slightly blurred as the bird was constantly active. The last time is was looking down at a rarity due to its proximity was the lesser yellowlegs at thornham. It doesn't happen very often but when it does it makes for a very memorable birding moment. Click the photo or link for more pictures of Spotted Crake at Combe Hill NR.
Below are some more shots of my trip to the Bay of Biscay and Southern Ireland. The main page is now online. Click on the link for Ultimate Pelagics 2007 trip.
