Crossbills!

Well after last year's amazing experience with Crossbills right on my doorstep, I didn't even imagine I would have another opportunity to photograph these delightful birds again!
Whilst in some local woodland, no more than a mile away from my front door, I encountered a group of Crossbill whilst failing to find the desired Firecrest! At first they were feeding high in the trees, so I paid them little attention. However, I noticed two birds begin to descend the tree, before flying very low to a small oak nearby. Having studied them a lot last year, I knew instantly that they were probably coming down to drink (due to their very dry diet of pinecones, Crossbill are very thirsty birds!).
Rather than using one of the nicely lit puddles on the forest path, they decided to fly over to a small flooded area of the nearby gravel extraction plant! Thankfully it was not in operation and I quickly had absolutely fantastic views as the female crossbill flew down and landed about 7-8m away! She had a quick drink for 10 seconds, and then flew back to the nearby conifers.

Being fairly habitual, I knew the birds were likely to return, and sure enough 40 minutes later they returned and came down for a drink once more (this time a couple of males came down also!). Although brief, the experience was absolutely fantastic and I was reminded why Crossbills are one of my absolute favourite birds!
I returned the next day in the hope of getting some more photographs, but unfortunately the birds, although around, were not too keen on coming down for a drink!

I had originally posted 3 of these photos on flickr, but I have just realised that the quality is absolutely appalling (why do flickr keep messing around with this new format?!), so hopefully they will look significantly better below.

As always, thanks for reading!!

Male Crossbill

Female Crossbill

Male Crossbill

Female Crossbill

Hampshire Birding!

When anybody even thinks of birding in Hampshire, it is invariably either the coastline, or the 'New Forest dog walker and screaming children park' that comes to mind. As a result the rest of Hampshire is somewhat neglected, leaving many to believe there simply isn't the same amount of wildlife here as in other parts. Needless to say this couldn't be further from the truth!

With my AS Exams approaching in the coming months, I am going to have to spend more and more time around the north east of the county, closer to home. At first I considered this to be something of a disaster, but over the last couple of weeks I have been treated to some spectacular wildlife, much of it within a 30 minute drive of the front door!

Towards the end of February a Great Grey Shrike was found on the chalk downland slopes at Kingsclere. This bird had almost certainly been present all winter, though due to the complete lack of coverage these parts receive, had only been discovered a few days before this photo was taken.

Great Grey Shrike

This brings me on to today, and what a day it was! I decided to visit a whole range of locations to see what I could find and certainly was not disappointed.
I began the day at a site that will have to remain undisclosed unfortunately, in the hope of finding Otters. Although they are normally nocturnal and extremely secretive, at this site they seem to have adopted a more photographer friendly lifestyle, and occasionally hunt during the day. I arrived fairly early and almost immediately struck gold with the female Otter. She stayed in the middle of the lake unfortunately and after catching her fish, decided she would head back to the river, where she sadly remained out of sight for the remaining time I was there.

Otter

Whilst waiting for her to reappear I noticed a Wren making the most of the spring day and proclaiming his territory. I sat down and waited for him to come closer and was amazed when he popped up right in front of me!

Wren

With the otter showing no signs of returning I headed off to a small area of woodland. Despite appearing somewhat unimpressive, this is the last 'stronghold' for the increasingly rare Willow Tit in Hampshire.

(C) Google Maps

After a short while I soon located at least 2 pairs of birds, though they were difficult to photograph, often feeding high in the trees.

Willow Tit

By now the afternoon was approaching and we decided to start driving back towards home. Whilst heading through some woodland a large bird of prey had us pull-in. I could immediately see it was not a Buzzard or Peregrine; my first thoughts being Sparrowhawk I decided to rattle off some shots. The bird seemed unusually large for a Sparrowhawk and it quickly became clear it was probably a Goshawk (later confirmed by others). This species is extremely unusual in Hampshire outside of the New Forest, where they usually only show distantly.

Goshawk

After all the excitement I was a little worried the final stop of the day would not live up to expectations! I decided to take a trip to some local heathland in search of the Dartford Warbler; always a tricky subject! I arrived mid afternoon which was not ideal, but was treated almost immediately to the soft wheezing noise made by the birds. Over the next two hours, I located at least 6 pairs in a rather small area so it seems as if this mild winter has really benefited this species. As always they were highly elusive, often appearing for a split second before disappearing into the heather. This bird popped out onto a dead piece of gorse, saw me, and rather unusually stayed put!

That is all for now folks, I will hopefully be photographing Dartford Warblers again next weekend and maybe even some adders!

Crossbills

This year I worked on a small project with one of my favourite birds - the crossbill. I was blessed to have them nesting just 200m from my house in a small collection of pines, though due to their extremely secretive nature I only even discovered them once the juvenile had fledged! I had seen a a pair earlier in the year but presumed them to be passage birds! Thankfully the juvenile was unable to fly at the time of discovery to so there was sufficient evidence to suggest they had nested close-by.

The juvenile bird.

Once I had discovered the birds, it was a question of photographing them. Being pine-seed feeders they never fed below the 50m canopy of the pine trees and so I set myself a challenge. After doing a lot of research I learnt that due to their somewhat dry diet they require large quantities of water; so I promptly set about flooding small patches of woodland...to no avail! After a little while I discovered why, the birds had already found a watering hole in the most desirable place imaginable - the pavement! A leaking water main had caused a fraction of water to spill on the concrete and this proved irresistible to the crossbills!

Long waits were required (not great during GCSEs!) but thankfully the local Goldcrest gave me some company...

The pavement was hardly the most natural of areas but it was still a rare chance to see these beautiful birds up close!

Female Crossbill

Female Crossbill

Male Crossbill

I was really after some shots off the concrete but as time moved on, so did the crossbills; the juvenile was soon flying well and so the birds really had no reason to stay. This shot of the male is all I managed:

As always thanks for reading!

Wader Portraits

As promised, it is time for some waders. I mentioned in my previous post that I had a number of small projects going on throughout 2013 and another which I forgot to mention is my simple (or so it may seem) aim to capture eye-level portraits of as many of Britain's wader species as possible. This is a mission I set myself towards the end of last year.  Living in the North of Hampshire means the best areas of wader habitat are nearly an hour's drive from my house, which does of course restrict the amount of time I am able to spend photographing them. So far I have managed to photograph 6-7 species well, and by the end of the year I would like to try and double this figure. I am off to Norfolk in February and with vast areas of mudflats and shingle beaches, I hope to capture Redshank, Knot, Grey Plover and either of the two Godwit species.

18 months ago, during a family holiday to Scotland I managed to capture a nice portrait of a Dunlin (which incidentally came 2nd in the Junior Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2011).

Back to Hampshire and one species high on my wishlist was a Spotted Redshank, a fairly scarce wader but perhaps one of the 'easiest' species to find in Hampshire, with one particular individual returning to one location in the South East of the county for the past 7 years. What is most remarkable about this individual however is its amazing confidence when around people. It resides in a stream which is a haven for dog walkers, yet the bird continues to feed just feet away from them without the slightest concern. When I was down there, the bird did little, however came amazingly close so I was able to get some nice portraits of this stunner.

By now you are probably getting a little fed up so I will try and move this post along a bit. I haven't covered a single species in as much details as these two (you'll be pleased to know!) so now for just some odd shots including Ringed Plover, Sanderling and Turnstone (all taken at one beach in Hampshire!).

You are probably now losing the will to live with all these static subjects so time for an image with a little more going on! 

Thanks as always for reading!

Waxwings, Awards and a National Mega!

The past week has been an excellent one for a variety of reasons! Last weekend I found some local waxwings which for once were showing low down enough to achieve a smooth green background.

On friday I also attended the RSPCA Young Photography Awards Ceremony. To my amazement I won the 12-15 category with the image below (a result that was far better than I ever expected)

Finally, with news breaking of a Buff Bellied Pipit at Queen Mother Reservoir on Thursday, it was perhaps inevitable that today I was down there photographing the wonderfully confiding bird. Unfortunately at QMR low angles are virtually impossible due to the raised bank but hopefully these photos do the birds justice...

As always thanks for reading!

Also apologies for the randomly placed copyrights on my image (it is a fault I am currently trying to resolve!)

Little Owl Project

The start of what will hopefully become a decent project for me, Little Owls. I investigated the new site today to find at least one, possibly 2 Little Owls residing in the barn and I am told that there are barn owls in the area too! An exciting project but for now I only have one shot to show!