Sunday 25 February 2018

Puddle revisited!

With a superb forecast of sunny, crisp conditions, and nothing much doing in Oxon, it seemed a good idea to revisit the Hampshire puddle I'd last visited a couple of weeks ago. With it being a nice sunny Saturday, I wasn't sure what the disturbance would be from fellow birders and the dog walker "opposition". In the event neither was too bad - in fact better than the half-term Monday of my previous visit.

Arriving mid morning, I found a few birders wandering around rather aimlessly, but I reckoned the spot I'd ended my last visit at would be worth another go. So that is where I headed for, and this time I came equipped for some judicious pruning before I got set up. Almost immediately a Hawfinch appeared, so close it more than filled the frame! Wow!

Almost my first shot (somewhat cropped...)

Clearly this was the spot to be, and even though I was soon joined by another friendly photographer, birds continued to appear at reasonably regular intervals, at varying distances. Most of my shots were somewhat spoilt by the nuts they seemed to be almost sucking or chewing on for long periods, but just a few were free from these.


More Hawfinches on leaf litter under the trees

At around 12pm a local birder came over and said that the birds were also showing well on the puddle, just round the corner. So, pleased with the photos so far, that is where we headed, to find initially only one other birder and no sign of the 'cammo man', nor his moss!

I suspect that the main reason for the birds appearing this time was that there hadn't been much rain recently, and so other smaller puddles had dried up. Also the lack of a phalanx of standing birders may have helped. Unfortunately the main puddle was also showing the effects of the  'drought' and there wasn't enough in it for good reflections. It would have benefited from being topped up with water from the nearby canal.

Still the Hawfinches then showed quite well from time to time for the next couple of hours or so, in great light. Other birds in the area included one smart male Brambling but unfortunately I didn't notice it come down to drink.


Hawfinch at the (shrunken) puddle

To see larger versions of these images, go to to this page on my website, and then click each one to enlarge further.

Sunday 18 February 2018

Australia Trip Report now ready!

After a good deal of preparation my trip report for Australia in last October is finally available on my website!

This features a detailed account of the various places visited, birds seen and of course there are plenty of photos of the birds and other wildlife of this amazing continent.

The report is split into different pages for ease of navigation, as follows:

1. Introduction
Info about travel, logistics, weather etc

2. Singapore 
Account of our 4 night stay en-route to our main destination.
Crimson Sunbird
3. Darwin & Kakadu
Phase 1 of our Australian adventure featuring, pittas, waders, water birds and many others.

Rainbow Pitta
Rainbow Beeeater 

4. Cairns & the wet tropics
Phase 2. 8 night mini tour of this amazing area. Southern Cassowarys, Victoria's Riflebird, Great and Tooth-billed Bowerbirds etc.

Victoria's Riflebird
5. O'Reillys
Phase 3. Only 3 nights but what superb birds - colourful, exotic and very tame! Shame about the rain...
King Parrot

Phase 4. Close up views of breeding sea birds everywhere on an island at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Snorkeling with Manta Rays. Another extraordinary place for birds and other wildlife.
Red-tailed Tropicbird

Tuesday 13 February 2018

Hampshire puddle: Monday 12 February

After several miserably dank Saturdays, I resolved it was time for a change and arranged to day take a rare day off work! My aim was to chase Hawfinches at an out of county location where they come down to the ground, thereby affording better photo opps than those in Oxon that seem confined to being in trees, usually the tops thereof. Parkend is a destination I've been to before, without great success, but I was considering another attempt until I read both the Black Audi Birding and Old Caley blogs that have negative recent reports. Then  along came Black Audi's very positive report of a puddle in Hampshire!

So with a good weather forecast for Monday, and a leisurely start in prospect that was where I headed, not arriving until around 11:00 - hopefully in good time for their "peak" showing times from about noon onwards. On arrival, I wasn't out of the car a moment before being asked by another birder where to go - it later dawned on me it was half term week - probably my first mistake! 

Now given Black Audi's excellent directions, and the satellite view on Google Maps I reckoned I had worked out the exact spot, and a short cut to it. I soon found out I was spot on - it can't have taken more than 5mins to get there. On arrival I found a quite large group of birders, arranged in a line across the entrance to a track through the woods, all looking at a large puddle with decorative moss on the far bank. It took me sometime to spot the camouflaged originator of this setup - an extraordinarily dedicated photographer kneeling down under netting to the right, and very close to the water! 

I managed to just squeeze myself into the left hand end of this line of photo-birders and found Black Audi there again in person - clearly eager for more! The setup was superb, with the sun behind and glorious light on the moss-banked water. All it needed was some birds... 

So I sat down to wait. And wait, and wait... From time to time Hawfinches would show in the distance, but they were far too distant for worthwhile pics. Just once one dropped down closer for a few seconds but for some reason I couldn't get onto to it before it flew off. That was it. The hours passed and the only bird to drink from the puddle was a Woodpigeon. Something was clearly different from Black Audi's visit last week. Perhaps as it was half-term week there were too many birders. Perhaps it was the weather - too much rain recently so the birds could easily drink elsewhere There was also some disturbance in the form of dogs, their walkers, and even the local cat! For whatever reason, the puddle remained a bird free zone. 

Only right at the end of the afternoon did I try a different spot, around the back of the same trees, where Black Audi had just managed to see some Hawfinches out in the open feeding on the grass. But by the time he'd come back to tell me they were there, they had of course gone not to return. 

The only partial success I had was by creeping to the edge of the trees, and looking into them, where some Hawfinches were dropping down to feed on the ground. One suddenly appeared pretty close, but my view was partially obscured by twigs etc. The resulting photos looked like they had been taken in heavy mist, but it is amazing what can be done in Photoshop and some other software I use! So not a completely fruitless visit after all...

Hawfinch
Click here to see a larger image on my website