Venus Pool - Redstart pair

What would Monday's bird be? It wasn't to be another mega to end the bank holiday weekend but at least it was a photo opportunity with a patch (VP) year tick! Common Redstart have been hard to come by this year and having not seen the reported annd briefly present Spring bird, I had to make do with not one but three rather scruffy Autumn birds! Taking other reports into consideration, there must have been at least six on the reserve today!

Ladies first.....








The birds were literally queuing to have their portrait taken!








This was probably the male's best side.....








Busy foraging for flies or small insects on the ground....








This is probably the best portrait I could manage!







What a weekend! With the Autumn glut of waders and good things to come (he says) this could be a record breaking year on the Shropshire scene!

Venus Pool - Whiskered Tern

Whilst I'm over the moon with getting some good pictures of this bird which allowed a correct identity to be reached, there's more than a little bit of regret! Hindsight is a wonderful thing and if I'd put the various clues together whilst watching and photographing this bird, the correct identity would have emerged sooner, it was a Marsh Tern alright but..... - a County 'first' - a juvenile Whiskered Tern!

I was still wrestling with 100's of Titterstone Clee Wryneck images late Sunday evening and rapidly turned a couple of cropped images of this Tern around for the SOS site. I often look closely at the key ID features at this stage (mainly as a learning tool for my own benefit!!) and blog why a bird is what it is - if only I had on this occasion ......

Anyway back to late Sunday afternoon..... There were about a dozen birders who saw this bird, some very experienced and Whiskered Tern was on the short list of 'possibles' or even 'White winged' but the consensus of juv Black Tern, at the time, duly emerged and that's something we'll have to live with!

A taster of the typical view on the far bank....






Occasionally coming nearer....






It never paused from flight over the two hour period I watched it. I was precoccupied in trying to catch it picking up insects from the water surface (blink of an eye job!)










A nice flight portrait showing the upperwing details, on one of the very few occasions it soared against the sky. The strong bill, brown marked saddle and pale grey tail with pale rump, in the cold light of day, clearly point to a Whiskered Tern. We had eliminated White-winged Black tern as the rump wasn't contrastingly white enough!






The green background of the far bank trees etc and 'manual focus' was responsible for helping me get a few more 'keepers'.






I did note the lack of a dark breast side patch which could have swayed the verdict to 'Whiskered' but after discussion the assumption was made that the hint of one visible this would 'darken up'? The upperwing shows a dark carpal bar which coupled with the above kept the call of Black Tern alive.










Oh well, all good but humbling experience and 'mistakes' can have a beneficial effect if you learn from them! Apologies to those who missed out on this - it's a Whiskered Tern and I'm not alone in emerging a lot wiser!

Interestingly, the long staying Cleveland bird was not seen on the 28th and looking at web images, this could well be the same bird. A 'probable' has just turned up at Rutland this evening (Tues 31st) too. Will be interesting to see some images from there too......

Titterstone Clee - Wryneck and 200 up!!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! After the intitial report last Sunday and despite good information, I spent a couple of hours concentrating that day on an area to the left of what turned out to be the 'feeding territory' today! An early start and teaming up with Yvonne, we may yet again have walked too far had this sight not stopped us abruptly in our tracks!






The awesome sight of a Wryneck sat on this dead Gorse branch about 30m away was not to last of course and off it flew into a dense patch of Gorse behind. We got the news out and then followed a long period of excitement interspersed with boredom - distant views coupled with disappearing acts before a crippling finale....

A female Hen Harrier was also busy quartering the landscape, nicely backlit.






I think I'll concentrate on the finale - cos I know you'll scroll there anyway!

Is it a bird? The reptilian appearance of the plumage is certainly quite striking when viewed from the rear!








Off in search of ants....






Looking good on the way.....








Can't decide which are my favourite crops from these so you'll have to endure more than one!












What better way to bring up the Shropshire life list '200' - there's a few more birds to come too which I should have had by now - but who cares, for now, I'll savour the Wryneck moment.....

Venus Pool - Migrant Hawker

A mature male Migrant Hawker was giving me another macto treat ay VP today! The lilac markings of the recent Berrington immature male are replaced here with bright blue....

Setting the scene....






Full frame shots....








A close up of the head, thorax and part of the abdomen.....






The ultra close up of those incredible eyes!






Birds come first now but I'll be keeping an eye out for potential late Dragons!

Venus Pool - Common Tern

What a lovely day! Low cloud, persistent penetrating drizzle - perfect conditions to 'down' a wader or Tern? Right on cue too, minutes into a lunchtime visit, in flew a Common Tern (record shots only given the dire conditions and light).....






One of those awkward never to be guaranteed birds for a VP yearlist and after a few circles round.....






A brief moment of rest (in peace)






It became clear that peace wasn't going to last for long! The local Black-headed Gulls were having none of it and proceeded to chase and harrass relentlessly until the Tern gave up and departed.....






Wouldn't mind an Arctic or Black Tern next.....

Venus Pool - Kingfisher up close

July onwards is traditionally a good time to see Kingfishers at Venus Pool and by late August, my hard drive is creaking under the strain of images! Not this year though - this was my first 'close encounter' where the bird actaully sat and posed for a while! A shame the evening light was poor and it was constant drizzle!

An initial visit to the more distant post.....






Was followed by the 'close encounter....








Front or back? Which ever way you look at it, here isn't an unattractive side to the Kingfisher!!






I'm up for more, all I need is another chance in good light.....

Sunderland - harbour walk

Four days spent in Sunderland were never going to produce much on the birding front! I was there with Gemma, who was competing in the UK National Swimming Championships and to be honest, didn't miss birding at all as she cruised to two Gold, a Silver and Bronze medals! London 2012 - here we come?? Still a lot of hard work and improved times needed but things are looking promising!

Anyway, I did prise myself away for an hour on Friday afternoon and walked the harbour wall with my 300mm lens. There were plenty of folks fishing and I'd missed the amazing spectacle of a guy reeling in a Cormorant after it took his bait! He was still nursing his wounds....

The tide was falling and a few waders were on the move overhead including small flocks of:

Redshank






Knot






Terns were active overhead or catching fish and feeding juveniles

Common Tern










A quick shake......










What a difference a patch of good light makes!








Sandwich Tern








Going down.....










I didn't expect to see much but with Kittiwakes over plus the odd Guillemot at sea and Ring Plovers / Turnstone seen too, it wasn't such a bad short walk with a short lens.....