More of the Spotted Flycatchers

Another couple of sessions with the Spotted Flycatchers has been great fun, I introduced a more photogenic perch, and within seconds it was sat on the green cable tie I attached it with! Once the cable tie was trimmed the bird just kept returning to the new perch, perfect.

"Spotties" at last

A target species for me this year as I really needed to top up my stock of Spotted Flycatcher shots at a higher resolution. Despite looking at several sites where they have been in the past I have found them difficult to pin down; I have seen them, but none that were in locations suitable for serious photography, and then all on the same day I found 3 pairs that were very workable, all are in churchyards too!

Barn Owl face to face.

I have spent very many enjoyable hours photographing Barn Owls, the sight of one always excites me, but this bird was a real surprise!
I usually have a camera with me when travelling in the car, and very early Saturday morning was no exception; at the nearby village of Steeple Morden where there are houses either side of the road I saw what I thought at first was a cat sat on a fence by a bungalow, that was until the "cat" took off and flew down the road to perch a fence post by asmall paddock. It was too far away for a decent shot so I made a little squeaky noise, as you can see in the pictures it flew straight towards me as if to come into the window of the car; it then spent about 5 minutes perched just above my head on the car roof!
The glow of the rising sun on the ripening Barley made such a great soft focus backdrop that compliments the Owl's colours, a great way to start the day!

Golden Plover

Golden Plover, well here are some more images of these superb birds, I have had some memorable times photogrphing them in the past; but they were nothing as amazing as the 3 days I have spent working on these birds; more often than not they were too close and I just sat admiring the fabulous colours and dainty movements of them.

3 Days in the Dales

With quite a few things going on at the moment I have had to grab at some opportunities rather than my usual more planned approach, with a weather and time window from Monday to Wednesday this week I headed back to a site where I have been working on Golden Plover, a bird I wanted far better coverage of.
It turned out to be 3 fantastic days of intensive photography, all the local birds wanted their picture taken I think; the weather was not quite as forecast, however the rain was a bonus as it gave me some great shots of Lapwing sheltering her chicks. The 5am starts led to some great views and images of Black Grouse (taken from the car!), and the Golden Plover were just fabulous posers, I have kept about 500 images of them and will post more when I've processed them.

Puffins on the Farnes

You can't really go through the year without having a Puffin fix, this week I made the pilgrimage to Seahouses and headed out to "Puffinland" on Billy Sheil's "Glad Tidings" a glorious day, great weather,sunburn and the best Fish and chips in the universe from "the Pinnacles" chippy afterwards...... heaven!
Lots more Terns, Seals, Kittiwakes etc from the day on my Flickr gallery.

Muddy puddle visitors

As usual this summer I have maintained the water levels in a pool on some local farmland, it is always productive with lots of species visiting to drink and bathe, this week I have also had up to 8 Swallows visiting to collect mud for their nests. There has been Linnets and Goldfinches too, plus a Corn Bunting, several Yellow Wagtails, a family of Pied Wagtails and the recently fledged youngsters and lots of Starlings.
The Starlings turn up caked in mud and poo from the nearby dung heap where they forage for dungfly larvae, they really look like they enjoy their bath as well; its great to watch them!