More legs shots.
More is Less
Lesser Yellowlegs
Went down to Swinemoor a couple of times this week, both early morning visits and with wildly varying results.
The firt trip was Wednesday morning and the fog was like pea soup.
Fortunately the bird stayed long enough for me to have another crack at it and this morning the sun was up, the conditions were perfect.
I parked up at Hullbridge and walked south along the riverbank, the flooded field to the west were full of birds lapwing,redshank,shellduck,ruff,golden plover,snipe and greenshank.
Almost opposite the hump back bridge I niticed a dark coloured wader, and yes, this was it!
Took some record shots then carried on walking south.
Fortunately the yellowlegs was feeding at the edge of the pool nearest the riverbank.
It stayed in the same area for about 2or3 minutes -just enought time to get some decent shots.
First one i've ever seen, really chuffed, made my day.
I was back at the car for 7.30am thoroughly pleased with the mornings work.
The firt trip was Wednesday morning and the fog was like pea soup.
Fortunately the bird stayed long enough for me to have another crack at it and this morning the sun was up, the conditions were perfect.
I parked up at Hullbridge and walked south along the riverbank, the flooded field to the west were full of birds lapwing,redshank,shellduck,ruff,golden plover,snipe and greenshank.
Almost opposite the hump back bridge I niticed a dark coloured wader, and yes, this was it!
Took some record shots then carried on walking south.
Fortunately the yellowlegs was feeding at the edge of the pool nearest the riverbank.
It stayed in the same area for about 2or3 minutes -just enought time to get some decent shots.
First one i've ever seen, really chuffed, made my day.
I was back at the car for 7.30am thoroughly pleased with the mornings work.
Quick Trip to Kilnsea
Had a chance for some birding after tea the other night, wondering where to go,I got an e-mail from Birdguides -Hawfinch at Crown and Anchor, Kilnsea.
I've never seen a hawfinch before so after battling rush hour traffic, I got to Kilnsea for about 5.30.A beautiful Spring like evening.
There was initially no sign then another birder appeared and apparrently the hawfinch kept doing a circuit every 20minutes or so.
Almost immediately it appeared and flew to the top of a tree.I tried to get a shot, but there were branches in front of me so the camera focusssed on them and not the bird, but wow what a stunner!
It disappeared again for about half an hour then a plump bird appeared on some branches in almost direct sunlight, i went closer to check and sure enough it was the hawfinch.The sun spoilt the view but at least i managed a couple of shots.
I was joined by a couple more birders and a few more fleeting views.
Then the hawfinch flew up to a branch stayed in almost perfect pose for about 30 seconds.Its at times like this when digiscoping can be extremely frustrating i must have focussed on every twig and branch in view apart from the bird.When I got onto the bird it dropped down out of sight.
We were treated to great views of a song thrush in the meantime plus plenty of green finches, goldfinches and robins.A single siskin stopped briefly in the tree tops but the star of the show was the Hawfinch a very special and memorable bird.