Dawn Chorus

Went out yesterday morning just before dawn on an unsuccesful astronomy imaging session. After watching a stunning sunrise I did a bit of birding before driving back for breakfast. Lots of dawn chorus activity with some good birds on show - my first Little Owls of the year and a range of open country birds. This Whitethroat put on a particularly good show.

Willington Wag's

The local Grey Wag's are fascinating to watch, constantly on the move catching insects for their growing brood. This made them tricky to get good images, exposures being a compromise between ISO setting and shutter speed to try and freeze their frantic movements. A heap of images were resigned to the recycle bin as a result, but I was quite pleased with these shots.

A Nightingale sang...

Good to see the Nightingales back at Paxton Pits this afternoon.

Buzzing around?

Lovely day for a walk along the river. The warm afternoon sunshine created thermals which allowed the local buzzards to soar effortlessly.
There's obviously some nest building going on, as one bird took great trouble to select and carry a largish twig several hundred meters back to it's chosen nest site. I'm sure there must've been suitable material closer to hand, but then I don't have a buzzards superior eye for selecting these things...

Keeping an eye on things

That'll do nicely

New Garden Tick

I was surprised to spot these Redpolls feeding on one of my feeders yesterday. My closest views of these attractive birds, and a first for the garden list.

Winter Wonderland



With the rest of the country seemingly paralised due to the arctic conditions, Willington has escaped the media-hype. Until yesterday, that is.  Around 6-8" fell in the space of a few hours, to create a magical landscape.

Unfortunately, not so magical for our feathered friends, who must be finding it a real struggle to find enough food in the sub-zero conditions.

These were some of the more photogenic birds seen around the village this morning.



Seasons Greetings



Redwing

Fieldfare

Recent Images

A collection of images from the last week. The mix of sunlight and frost this morning made for some lovely landscape shots, despite the -6 degree temperature.

Woburn Waxwings

A hard time hunting for this Kestrel

Red-legged Partridge

Willington

Somewhere near Colmworth

Colmworth

Redpoll's at The Lodge

Robin

Coal Tit - one of my favourite birds

Great Spotted Woodie

On the hunt

Whilst enjoying the flocks of finches that are frequenting the garden feeders during the current cold spell, I was startled by the sudden appearance of a male Sparrowhawk which sent the passerines darting for cover. The hawk missed his lunch, but stayed just long enough to allow me to grab my camera and fire off a few quick shots through the room window. Not the best quality shot, but nice to capture this infrequent visitor to the garden.

Stopping by for some lunch

Another piece of Turkish Delight

Tuzla Golu must have seemed an endless watery world to this adventurous Black-winged Stilt chick .....


....whilst mum posed for some beautiful reflection shots.

Jay - a very common bird around this area.

Red-rumped Swallow.

Black-headed Bunting.

Black-eared Wheatear.

T'wit T'woo

A few more images of the ubiquitous Little Owl's around the Tuzla Golu region...

Farmland fancies

Early evening near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.


... dinner time

Israel - Tel Aviv

Hoopoe. A surprise find, and very obliging bird, early one morning along the beach near Jaffa.

Hula

Clouds of Common Crane's sweeping in over the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. Total bird count was reported at 32,000!

Formation flying