Thursday 19 March 2009

Paignton - Penduline performs!!

A talk on digital photography to the Exeter Alpine Garden Society group gave me just the excuse/opportunity I needed to have another go at my bogey Penduline! I headed down to Devon with first stop Paignton! The Penduline Tit hadn't been reported for a couple of days but this was much less of a twitchable bird now, I wasn't taking this as evidence of departure!

I arrived just after ten o'clock, imagine my relief on deciding to check out the Young's Waterpark site first....






It was there!!!!!!!

Not only was it there, it was sooooooo obliging and even when out of view, constantly calling to give away it's location.

Most angles are covered here!














One of the big advantages of fine detail images is the ability to see exactly what's going on. The initial assumption when watching this bird, is that the fine reedmace seed is the major diet. Looking here though, the Penduline is clearly getting a more substantial meal courtesy of small larvae present hidden within the seed head!






I took literally hundreds of shots and I still haven't even broken the back of scanning them all! After an initial trawl though - these two stood out as my favourites!!!








How much would you pay to see a Penduline Tit (excluding travelling!) Looks like this little bird just cost me £25!! Any publishers out there want to buy an image to cover my loss......