On a technical note, the infra-red light on the trailcam has taken to cutting out after a few seconds probably as the batteries are getting a bit flat.  Also, the brightness of the light is insufficient to give a very nice image.  I took some technical advice from Mike Leigh-Mallory and Yusuf Akhtar and I have ordered an infra-red floodlight from eBay.  I hope to drastically improve the lighting and we'll see if the video quality improves much.  Watch this space!

Mr Badger Works for his DinnerMr Badger Works for his Dinner

Badgers in my garden.Badgers in my garden.

How lovely to have this wild creature sharing my garden.  :-)

A Badger in my Bridgwater Garden

The train arrived early enough for us to be able to go to our new rather characterless hotel in time for breakfast and a shower before setting off to see the terracotta warriors.  These were discovered quite by chance in 1974 when some local farmers found 'body parts' while digging a well on their farmland.  The story is summarised well on Wikipedia.  When the importance of the find was realised, the might of the Chinese bureaucracy swung into action, further sites were uncovered and all the important areas were covered with large well-lit barn-like structures and a museum.  Another very Chinese feature is that before tourists like ourselves were allowed to visit the site, we had to be taken to a factory where reproductions for export are made together with a multitude of other artefacts of interests for collectors of trinkets.  Below is the local equivalent of the seaside 'hole in the picture' photo opportunity where we were all encouraged to pose...

The actual site was of course also well provided with shops and restaurants and this area clearly boasted a thriving fur trade.  Whilst avoiding these shops, I was pretty sure that the largest pelts on sale were from long haired German Shepherd dogs and many had been dyed different colours and with odd patterns.  Here is a small selection of pictures of the archaeological site.

Here's a view of the repair shop where the fragments of warriors are reassembled into a whole.

Let's not forget the horses - the army had to be able to travel and to mount its cavalry. Within the museum, the atmosphere was enhanced with gloomy lighting and they showcased some of the different types of statue.  This standing archer is tall slim and fit.  The more senior figures by contrast had fancy clothes, hats and pot bellies.  Some stereotypes seem to persist to this day.  :) Quite nearby, as if to upstage the incredibly detailed work of the potters, half size bronze chariots were found.  These, like the terracotta figures had been damaged by landfalls and possibly by human hand but these had also been painstakingly reconstructed.  The level of detail in the metalwork was extraordinary and the bridles, manes etc were all made of individual metal pieces.

The city of Xi'an itself was at one time well preserved but has now been largely redeveloped with the compulsory tower blocks everywhere you look.  There are a few exceptions.  There is an intact city wall about 9 miles long in a rectangular configuration.  You take your life in your hands crossing busy roads to get to the entrance and to be honest there's nothing to see from it except the sides of tower blocks through smog.  There are various temples, one of which we visited but the highlight beyond doubt is the Muslim quarter famous for its street food (yum) and trinkets (didn't look).  We ate for virtually nothing and loved it and loved the people.

We stayed at the Bamboo Garden Hotel, an island of tranquility at the edge of the ancient Hutong area of Beijing.  Here's a picture of part of this very pretty hotel after dark.

Bamboo Garden Hotel after dark

Whilst we had guides arranged for part of our China trip, often the highlights were the islands of unstructured time wandering around the streets, sampling food from small shops and stalls and watching the bustle of local life.  All of the areas we wanted to see were within a 3 mile walk of the hotel and we spent many happy hours tramping the streets.

Shop selling toffee coated lotus fruit and possibly sparrow kebabs!

Miscellaneous sweet pastry, squid kebab and potatoes coated in garlic...

The risks of eating street food did not escape us and neither did we escape the bugs.  Two out of the four of us had stomach upsets at some part of the two week trip and three had colds.

One of the greatest pleasures for us was seeing how many adults went either on their own or in company to the many parks around the city to take exercise or sing and dance together.  What might have seemed childish or embarrassing to us was just part of normal life and adults of all ages seemed to take part.  Some of the activities were very unfamiliar - eg walking and suddenly shouting out at intervals exercised lungs and legs, one man walked briskly round a lake with his arms held out aeroplane style and clearly hurting, others put their legs through gaps in bars and massaged their muscles against the steel tubes.  Many areas that looked at first like children's play areas in fact turned out to be adult outdoor gyms.  Here a picture of three of us on a leg exercising with William, the most athletic of the four of us, looking down.

Exercising is a serious and communal activity in Beijing

We saw surprisingly few people doing Tai Chi but we encountered a diminutive little chap who must have been in his 70s doing a Kung Fu type routine.  He was delighted to be watched and was even more delighted when William did a little routine that he has been learning as part of his Chinese University language course.  Katy then managed a cartwheel/flip and Margot and I contributed encouragement and applause.

Getting back to the serious business of sightseeing, we had a day hiking along the Great Wall of China.  What an amazing structure and history to go with it.  At its longest period it spanned 10,000km.  Currently much of it is absent or derelict but we had a great time walking along a well restored 10km stretch little used by tourists and had it almost to ourselves.  Paul, our young guide was very knowledgeable and very fit and walked the same stretch five times in the week we were there!  We were lucky with the weather but the haze meant the photos won't win any competitions.  Here's a selection of the better ones.

Great Wall of China

You'll see that this final picture has wall missing and a badly paved surface.  Most of my family and friends know I'm not much good with heights and there was a particularly steep uphill section with a poor surface and no walls 100m on from here (visible) which I had a real problem getting up.  Eyes fixed on the ground, hands and feet gripping on and not talking to anyone.  Phew, I still feel sweaty thinking about it.  I hasten to add there was no danger!

A little more about food in Beijing before some more sightseeing stuff.  It's said of the Cantonese in particular that anything with four legs that isn't a chair or a table, anything underwater that isn't a submarine and anything that flies but isn't a plane is fit for the table.  We didn't go to Canton but there was plenty of evidence of unusual foodstuffs nonetheless.
It appears this is one of a chain of donkey burger outlets.  There's no misunderstanding, we checked the Chinese characters as well.  Other places reminded us of home but rather more honest than our own outlets about the nature of their food... Fried stuff and drink...

Sightseeing in Beijing itself can never be complete without a trip to the Forbidden City.  Surrounded by a large moat and massive walls, the interior is a mix of huge courtyards and temple-like structures and an area of courtyard-style houses and narrow lanes.  It is all in pretty good condition and there is evidence of continual renovation.  You could easily spend a day looking around with a guide but that's not really our thing and we walked through fairly briskly avoiding the main crush of tourists and taking a few pictures.

Entrance to the Forbidden City Chairman Mao Zedong

While Mao looks calmly over the hordes of visitors to the Forbidden City, he seemed fairly irrelevant once inside the ancient structure. Outside the southern entrance to the city is Tiananmen Square which is a truly massive area.  A photograph would need to be wall covering size to do it justice.  This is three wide angle shots stitched together in photoshop. Looking down on the Forbidden City from the Buddhist temple in the park to the north shows the smog that the inhabitants of Beijing have to put up with on a daily basis. One thing that many people will recognise is the love of the Chinese people for posed photographs.  My family and friends will already have noticed far more pictures of our family included here than normal which is a sort of tongue-in-cheek nod to the practice in China.  A new twist to the theme which I hadn't encountered before is the practice of taking pictures in costume often depicting scenes from history or Chinese Opera.  We managed to persuade Margot and Katy to join in the fun at the temple overlooking the city. The Usain Bolt pose seemed lost on the people running the stall.  Good job we didn't get Katy to do the Mobot! Last but not least, here's a rather unusual example of a house in a Hutong area near the Forbidden City.  Roof terraces seem to be an up and coming thing and are used by some of the tourist restaurants.  Motorbike/trikes like this are a very common mode of transport and are often covered in against the weather.  Bicycles while common, are nothing like as common as they used to be.  Many people use electric scooters and of course there are cars everywhere now.

From Beijing we moved on to Xian, a historic city from the days of the old Silk Road.  More in my next post.

China Map (small)

My family and I are just back from an exciting 2 week holiday in China during which we visited Beijing, Xian and the Guilin area.  The map gives a feel for the distances covered and modes of travel. This was very much a family holiday and not aimed at birding and I left behind my proper bird photography kit and opted instead for a Canon SX50 HS compact superzoom camera to cover the photographic needs of the whole holiday, 24mm to 1200mm in one small package.  It has a sluggish LED viewfinder or you can use it like a compact and view the scene on the LCD on the back of the camera.  It is slow to respond in comparison to an SLR and focus is reluctant in some settings.  I'm sure I got more pics overall than I would have done had I taken my big kit as it was so easy to keep it with me all the time. I hope you enjoy the following pictures, a mixture of reasonable quality and simply record shots covering the entire tour.

Initially we thought that Beijing was home to only our own variety of magpie but when settled into the hotel, we found the garden to be full of the very beautiful and vocal Azure-winged magpie. Azure-winged magpie - Cyanopica cyanus The local dove which looked very like our own collared dove in fact turned out to be the spotted dove.  A common sight in parks and on rooftops. Spotted Dove - Spilopelia chinensis Spotted Dove - Spilopelia chinensis Another very common bird in Beijing is the tree sparrow which takes on the role of the house sparrow in this busy urban settling. Tree sparrow - Passer montanus Tree sparrow - Passer montanus The area we stayed in close to the oldest part of the city was full of parks.  The sparrow above was clinging to the eaves of a small temple-like roof over a notice board.  While watching this I became aware of fieldfares calling and flying about in their usual manic fashion.  However, on hunting one down in the camera lens, I found they were red-throated thrushes instead.  Very active and hard to photograph but I got lucky with this one. Red-throated thrush - Turdus ruficollis Next on the list of surprises in the gardens of the Temple of Heaven were some Chinese grosbeak foraging under the conifers.  I was very disappointed not to get better shots than these.  Great birds! Chinese grosbeak - Eophona migratoria Chinese grosbeak - Eophona migratoria Chinese grosbeak - Eophona migratoria The reason I had been particularly keen to visit the garden of the Temple of Heaven is that there is usually a winter roost of long-eared owls.  Unfortunately these were not to be found.  One thing we found in China was a distinct lack on ornithologists/birdwatchers.  We couldn't just ask someone with a Swarovski scope where we should be looking!

I had high hopes that the Great Wall of China would be a birding hotspot.  The slopes seemed to have some small flocks of tits but with the SX50, I just couldn't lock onto any birds before they flew off.  On the wall itself we had a wonderful encounter with some remarkably tame alpine accentors.  What gorgeous little birds they are. Alpine accentor - Prunella collaris Alpine accentor - Prunella collaris

Xian unfortunately yielded no new bird photos although we had a brief glimpse of a large raptor which we weren't able to identify.  The best area by a long way was down in the Guilin region.  The monsoon had started but we were lucky and most rain fell at night.  There was a very noisy dawn chorus with one of the main contributors being the Chinese bulbul. Chinese bulbul - Pycnonotus sinensis On a bridge over the river Li in Yangshuo I encountered the plumbeous redstart.  This specimen seemed in good spirits but appears on the picture to have a problem with its right foot. Plumbeous Redstart - Rhyacornis fuliginosa Other little birds flitted at high speed through the lush foliage including the Oriental white-eye.  Here's a record shot of one that ventured onto a roof momentarily. Oriental white-eye - Zosterops palpebrosus My daughter drew my attention to a tiny finch rather similar morphologically to a zebra finch.  No camera in my hands and gone when I returned.  :-(

A cycle ride through the paddy fields yielded flocks of what looked at a brief glance like big goldfinches.  When they slowed enough for a picture, they showed themselves to be Oriental greenfinch.  Lots of bright yellow flashes when they move. Oriental Greenfinch - Chloris sinica For me the bird of the trip was a long-talied shrike.  Disappointing pictures mainly because the camera seemed to find it hard to focus.  What a great bird though. Long-tailed shrike - Lanius schach Long-tailed shrike - Lanius schach The Oriental magpie-robin was present in the same area.  Never seemed to stop moving! Oriental Magpie-Robin - Copsychus saularis Our last 24hrs was spent in the hills of Longji in a small village in rice terraces at about 850m elevation.  Red-rumped swallows nested in our hotel. Red-rumped swallow - Cecropis daurica Very white looking great tits (?Eastern) roamed the fields with white wagtails.  A bird on a cable seems to be a male grey bushchat. Brown accentor - Prunella fulvescens One day I'd love to return on a proper birding tour with a guide. Such wonderful scenery and people and I'm sure that if you knew where to look, the full richness of the birdlife of China would be a real eye-opener.

White-fronted goose - Anser albifrons White-fronted goose - Anser albifrons White-fronted goose - Anser albifrons White-fronted goose - Anser albifrons

Twite - Carduelis flavirostris Twite - Carduelis flavirostris Twite - Carduelis flavirostris Twite - Carduelis flavirostris

The forecast for today was good in that there was no rain but poor in that thick fog was forecast for the first half of the day.  I pitched up at about 09.30 when I saw from Twitter that James Packer had spotted it in the gloom.  I tried some shots in the fog and, never having tried this before, was intrigued to know what they might turn out like.  Below is a taster - a heavily cropped shot of the bird swallowing a fish.  Interestingly monochrome and very flat with all the wavelengths compressed into a small band as shown in the histogram next to the photo.

Pied-billed grebe - Podilymbus podiceps Fortunately the light improved a little and I had a second session later in the day with better light although the grebe didn't come particularly close and I had no sunshine.  Probably the highlight of the day was a real battle between the grebe and a large roach which appeared to end in the roach getting away.  Definitely a case of the eyes being bigger than the belly.

Pied billed grebe - Podilymbus podiceps

Pied-billed grebe - Podilymbus podiceps Pied-billed grebe - Podilymbus podiceps Pied-billed grebe callingPied-billed grebe - Podilymbus podiceps Pied-billed grebe preening

Technical Note:  Here are some pictures taken this morning at high ISO (up to 1600) and lowish shutter speeds.  They are all cropped at least 50% before being resized for web presentation and all required noise reduction.

Smew - Mergus albellus Smew - Mergus albellus Smew - Mergus albellus Smew - Mergus albellus

The crime scene

As I suggested on Twitter, possibilities I considered were a fox (see first trailcam exploits), badger and covert metaldetector users, or at least those are the possibilities that I considered that I'm telling you about!

Investigation Setup

Results of the first night of surveillance yielded several cats, a very fetching video clip of me and then this!

Clearly this handsome fox was not owning up to being responsible for the diggings.  However, some more appeared on the lawn and we knew he'd been seen in that area and was easily able to hop the low fence whereas a badger couldn't.

Fresh Diggings

This is actually a series of 3 linked holes, all at much the same depth as the initial ones.  At around this point Rob Chace helpfully suggested it might be the work of elves.  As everyone knows, elves don't show up on trailcams so I'd never be able to prove that theory so my only hope was to find something else doing the digging.  To increase my chances a little for the second night, I sprinkled a few raisins over the first set of holes and then reset the camera to record day and night.  Here's what transpired.

Night Two

Well I expect most of you guessed that this would be the outcome.  We have a large walnut tree in the garden and every autumn squirrels spend time burying nuts all over the place.  Now we know they remember where they put them and saplings will mark the spots of all the ones they've forgotten. 

Hen harrier - Circus cyaneus

A word of caution.  If you intend to visit, the track that leads to the reserve is very slippy with mud at present and full of potholes.  I managed to slide my car off the edge and needed the help of 5 burly birders to get back on again! 

There was a fantastic sunrise that morning but no pictures from me as the 600mm + 1.4x combination I had chosen wouldn't have done it justice.  I hoped for some otters in the sunlit river but it wasn't to be.  In fact it was only when we saw some other photographers that we realised we had missed the start of the fun.  It was rumoured that there might be up to seven otters in the area and I am amazed that we managed to see and photograph and film five or possibly six different animals.  A mother and single cub provided the initial entertainment and then a mother with two cubs appeared upstream.  There was possibly a cub from last year but keeping track of them all became a bit tricky.  The mum and single cub kept close together most of the time although the mother would dive and hunt while the cub waited on the side periodically.  The other family group seemed to have smaller younger cubs and they saw less of their mother and spent more time on the bank resting.  Light was gloomy for most of the time but we had periods of beautiful sunshine which showed their fur coats to advantage.  It was also freezing cold which meant that unbelievably, we had to say goodbye to the otters while they were still very active.

Here are a few of the very many pictures taken that day.

Mother otter visiting cubs

Otter - Lutra lutra Mother about to enter water with cub

Otter - Lutra lutra Mother pushing feisty cub away

Otter - Lutra lutra Mother with cub on tree trunk

Otter - Lutra lutra Cub on bank entering water.  Bubbles are from hunting mother.

Otter - Lutra lutra

Cub on tree

Otter - Lutra lutra Cub on bank

Otter - Lutra lutra Other things of interest that morning included watching a kingfisher following the otters, presumably waiting for any damaged or dropped fish to appear.

Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis A goldcrest also flitted close enough for a shot.

Goldcrest - Regulus regulus All in all a great day, lots learned and too much to put in a single blog post so more may follow when I get a moment.

White-headed vulture

White-headed vulture - Trigonoceps occipitalis (Captive) White-headed vulture - Trigonoceps occipitalis (Captive) White-headed vulture - Trigonoceps occipitalis (Captive) Black Kite

Black Kite - Milvus migrans (Captive) Black Kite - Milvus migrans (Captive) Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl - Bubo scandiacus (Captive) Snowy Owl - Bubo scandiacus (Captive) Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine falcon - Falco peregrinus (Captive) African Fish Eagle

African Fish Eagle - Haliaeetus vocifer (Captive) African Fish Eagle - Haliaeetus vocifer (Captive)

Hawfinch - Coccothraustes coccothraustes It is possible to get substantially better shots of hawfinches in England.  Look here for some pictures I took in 2009 in the Forest of Dean.

In Exminster, a village near Exeter, there has been a rose-coloured starling visiting over the last few weeks.  As these normally live in Asia and overwinter in India, this was a bit of a surprise and I thought it would be rude not to pay it a visit.  Unfortunately, it wasn't very keen on coming close so I got some pretty poor record shots as below.

Rose-coloured starling - Pastor roseus Rose-coloured starling - Pastor roseus The third rarity has already been well documented by others.  This is a glaucous gull which is ridiculously tame and is hanging out at a nearby park, Apex Lake in Burnham-on-Sea.  It allows views to 10 feet or closer and is tamer than many of the commoner gulls that frequent the park.  I managed to get a picture of it eating a worm but like many birds habituated to urban areas, it's very keen on bread!

Technical note: For some reason whenever I take pictures at Apex Lake the white balance gets messed up.  I've tried to correct this but I fear the colours may still look odd.  Some shots were taken in fairly thick fog which made things look even stranger.

Glaucous gull - Larus hyperboreus Glaucous gull - Larus hyperboreus Glaucous gull - Larus hyperboreus Glaucous gull - Larus hyperboreus Glaucous gull - Larus hyperboreus

There is at least one kestrel that hunts in overlapping territory and one one occasion today the kestrel knocked the owl to the ground even though the owl was hunting rather than flying with prey.  When the kestrel had moved off, I was relieved to see the barn owl fly up and start hunting again.

Technical note:  With low angle warm sunshine, ISO could be kept fairly low and much of the time it was under 800 - much better for noise control than when I last photographed the owl.  Contrast was naturally higher with the pale areas of the owl being tricky to expose correctly.  I tend to use manual settings and fire some test shots of the actual subject to check for 'blinkies' - areas of overexposure that flash when the picture is examined on the back of the camera.  I've found that a shutter speed of 1000 and over is generally adequate to freeze the action of the barn owl and have used the widest open f-stop of f5.6 for the 600mm f4 combined with 1.4x teleconverter that I've been using.

Barn owl - Tyto alba Barn owl - Tyto alba Barn owl - Tyto alba Barn owl - Tyto alba Barn owl - Tyto alba

Technical note: Poor light essentially means low light in this instance.  This means I have to shoot at high ISO - 1600-2000 in this instance - in order to get a high enough shutter speed to freeze the action.  Even with the Canon 1D Mark IV noise becomes noticeable in cropped images at this sort of level of ISO. The colour is inherently less pleasing as well when it is dark grey clouds overhead.

Barn owl - Tyto alba Barn owl - Tyto alba Barn owl - Tyto alba Barn owl - Tyto alba

I spoke to my friend and advisor on all things wildlife Rob Chace and found that he'd recently updated his trailcam with a Bushnell model that films in infra-red and can take HD quality video.  With typical generosity he suggested that I borrow it and have a go before splashing out on one of my own so I did - thanks Rob!  I have a custom made gap in the fence specially for wildlife and I set up the camera opposite it.  Then stealing a tip from badgercam veteran Mike Leigh-Mallory, I loaded a rock with peanut butter and placed it in what I hoped was the regular path of my night time friends.  Two nights later, I captured some clips of the neighbour's cat and then this...

This is not great video but it illustrates the potential to find where wildlife is, when it's there and something about their habits.  It's great that anyone can do this and find out something about their garden or favourite area at night while at the same time getting a good night's sleep!  The technology is not vastly expensive and it runs on AA batteries.  What a fantastic head start the next generation of budding naturalists has!

Purple sandpiper - Calidris maritima Purple sandpiper - Calidris maritima Purple sandpiper - Calidris maritima The beach by the esplanade has lots of rock pipts and turnstones so there are plenty of good photo opportunities.

Rock pipit - Anthus petrosus Turnstone - Arenaria interpres Turnstone - Arenaria interpres Turnstone - Arenaria interpres Turnstone - Arenaria interpres

Temmink's stint - Calidris temminckii Temmink's stint - Calidris temminckii Temmink's stint - Calidris temminckii

Tech comment:

The light which had been great all morning was pretty dark by the afternoon and a lot of my shots were taken at ISO 1600.  Had there not been a strong breeze I could have dropped the shutter speed and ISO together but there was a fair amount of bird and branch movement so the shutter speed had to stay up.

Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus

A word of warning to anyone visiting the main hide by car, the approach road is deeply rutted and unless you have good suspension and ground clearance, you may be scraping your undercarriage at times!  It is possible to park by the entrance to the reserve and walk up the road.  Directions on Streetmap.

Whooper swan - Cygnus cygnus Whooper swan - Cygnus cygnus Whooper swan - Cygnus cygnus

The hotspot was immediately obvious in the form, of two impressively large hawthorn trees in front of Edward Wilson House, a low block of Council flats.  There were no other birders or photographers there when I arrived and I felt somewhat out of place and self conscious with my large lens pointing at the berry-laden trees with windows of flats behind them.  I was soon joined by another photographer and then some birders and then as is the way of things, some locals came along for a chat and to look at the growing collection of pics.  We were assured that we were in a really rough area and might have our gear stolen from us and this seemed to be borne out when a youth with his scarf over his face came cycling towards us.  However, he just pulled his scarf down, grinned and said 'That's a real kick-ass camera!' and cycled off.  A little later one of the residents of the flats invited us up to continue our photographic session from his balcony.  That was amazing, being eye to eye with these lovely birds as they chattered away and fed on berries.  This kind gent continued to tell us what a dodgy neighbourhood we were in but we only experienced a great deal of curiosity and interest from one and all. 

A big thank you to all the local folk for making us welcome and here are a few of the pictures from today.

Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus Waxwing - Bombycilla garrulus

View Larger Map

There is parking along the waterfront for about 20 cars and plenty more parking fairly close if you can't get in there. 

So far the bird has been present 4 or 5 days and it seems to strongly favour this location where it's been feeding on small fish and lots of crabs!  My pictures aren't great but here are a couple anyway.  Plenty more on the web including some great shots of it eating crabs!

Great northern diver - Gavia immer Great northern diver - Gavia immer Great northern diver - Gavia immer

After a false start in diametrically the wrong direction, I eventually found my way to the Royal Victoria Park.  It has large mature trees, big open spaces, playgrounds, squirrels, more squirrels, an ice-cream van and lots of dogs.  Anyway, I got the idea that the main park was not the place to look and then stumbled on the Botanical Gardens which is in the upper part of the park and which is accessed through a dog-proof gate.  As well as exotic trees in splendid autumn dress, squirrels and more squirrels, I eventually found some magpies and then finally its apparently resident population of 3 jays.  These were all being fed by a gent who is obviously the local wildlife whisperer and my collection of acorns that I had painstakingly collected in woods on the Quantocks could not compete with his selection of hazelnuts and brazils!  He very obligingly tempted the birds close and I got one or two snaps.  This is clearly an area which will repay a more planned campaign as it would be lovely to get some more natural seeming shots in better light.

Magpie - Pica pica Jay - Garrulus glandarius Grey squirrel - Sciurus carolinensis

Look at my kingfisher gallery for some more pictures.

Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis

Snow bunting - Plectrophenax nivalis Snow bunting - Plectrophenax nivalis Snow bunting - Plectrophenax nivalis Snow bunting - Plectrophenax nivalis We often get a few in Somerset on the shingle bank near Stolford so this area may be worth a look in the next few days.  The other bird I keep hoping for is a Lapland bunting but no luck so far.

Grey seal - Halichoerus grypus Grey seal - Halichoerus grypus Grey seal - Halichoerus grypus

There were a few birds around too but the only one that was at all obliging was this oystercatcher landing on a pontoon near the seals.

Oystercatcher - Haematopus ostralegus

Having missed the hoopoe today, I thought I'd have a look for the unusual black redstart spotted by James Packer at Brean Down Farm.  I blanked on that too but was pleased to photograph a chiffchaff which posed better than they usually do for me.  Stonechats seem to be a dead cert along the lane to the farm and magpies were much in evidence.  I'm not sure what the hairy caterpillar is - surely it's a bit late in the year for them??  Funnily enough I think the picture I like best is the blackbird on the post with it's perky pose and bright eye.

Chiffchaff - Phylloscopus collybita Blackbird - Turdus merula Magpie - Pica pica Magpie - Pica pica

Magpie - Pica pica Stonechat - Saxicola torquata Stonechat - Saxicola torquata Robin - Erithacus rubecula

Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus The Kingfishers are regular visitors to the area in front of Noah's hide.  Wait long enough and you'd be very unlucky not to see them fishing.  Photographically it was a challenge yesterday as the light was a bit harsh and the difference between the light and shade and light and dark colours was hard to balance.  There's also a lot of  background and at times foreground clutter distracting from the bird.

Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis

The light was beautiful although this actually caused a few problems with correctly exposing this contrasty bird.  Still I'm very pleased to have added a UK lifer to my list and to have managed the photos below.   Most of the shots were taken with the 600mm f4 with the Canon 2x TC added.  I think I could have done with stopping down a little more to get a bit more sharpness.

Hoopoe - Upupa epops Hoopoe - Upupa epops Hoopoe - Upupa epops Hoopoe - Upupa epops Hoopoe - Upupa epops

Hoopoe - Upupa epops

There was a bonus bird in the form of a kestrel that perched very nearby and seemed almost less concerned by the walkers than the hoopoe.

Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus

When the wryneck wasn't visible, lots of other small birds were happy to pose but the peregrine carrying prey overhead was a bit too quick for me as was the adult med gull spotted by James Packer.

Technical stuff:

I had perfect light this morning which is just as well as I'm having to use my 2x TC until a new 1.4x comes along to replace the one that has died.  That means a minimum of F8 using it with my Canon 600mm f4 lens and I like to stop it down further to f11 if possible to increase the sharpness of the shots.  Doing this in bad light means using very high ISOs to keep shutter speed up which inevitably has an impact on picture quality.  As it was, I used a range of ISO from 800 to 2000 over the morning and evening sessions and was pleased with the performance of the setup and the quality of the shots bearing in mind that the bird was never less than about 50 feet away.

Wryneck - Jynx torquilla Wryneck - Jynx torquilla Wryneck - Jynx torquilla Wryneck - Jynx torquilla Wryneck - Jynx torquilla Wryneck - Jynx torquilla And now for some of the accompanying cast:

Robin - Erithacus rubecula Song thrush - Turdus philomelos Blue tit - Parus caerulus Wren - Troglodytes troglodytes

The particular hotspot on this occasion was at the confluence of Chetsford and Embercombe waters where there is good shelter and some heavily laden rowan trees together with good hiding in scrub and gorse.  There we met John Rivoire, a birder from the Minehead area with experience of seeing these birds at this spot in previous years.  Interestingly it is his experience that they normally arrive a little later in November.  After about 30 minutes 2 ring ouzels arrived, the male feeding briefly before flying off down the combe with its companion.  Unfortunately my canon 1.4x TC chose that moment to fail for good so I missed any possible shots.  I switched to the 2x TC which has fortunately performed above expectations.

At one point I was chatting to John when Rob to my right started pointing frantically behind us,  I turned looking for ring ouzels and seeing none turned back.  He then mouthed 'stag', I turned and was just in time to see a pair of antlers disappear over the brow of the hill!  A young deer was then seen on the opposite side of the valley which gave us something to occupy us for a few minutes.  After another 30 minutes or so with no sightings, Rob and I set off down Chetsford combe while John went up Ember combe.

Red deer - Cervus elaphus Just a quick word about the terrain at this point.  It was really very wet and boggy following the recent rain.  Wellies were absolutely essential and you have to be prepared to ford streams at several points through fast flowing water.  If you are at all lacking confidence on foot, go in company and take a good walking stick.

Having blanked down on our route, we went back to the confluence of the streams and saw John again.  He had seen I believe 5 birds up Ember combe and some had flown back towards us.  Shortly after that news we had a visit from a beautifully marked male and a young or female bird (I'm sure someone will tell me!) and we got a few quick shots.

Apart from that, opportunities were limited although Rob had one more crack at the male.

Ring ouzel - Turdus torquatus Ring ouzel - Turdus torquatus

The day would not have been complete without some sort of mishap so I duly obliged by placing my right foot in up to the knee filling my welly boot.  Thanks to Rob for rescuing my camera while I rescued the boot! I can't really complain.  A great day out in beautiful sunshine with only a wet boot to dampen my spirits.

I chose to have a look for them at Prawle Point.  This can be accessed down a very narrow single track road from the village of East Prawle.  There is a car park on the left near the bottom of the lane and this is the spot to park.

View Larger Map

Following the spot of very wet weather we've had, wellies would have been ideal for the walking ahead so be warned if you go after rain.  The best stretch for the cirl buntings is straight over the little stile on the downhill side of the car park and walk down to the coast path and turn left.  You'll soon find yourself walking along a footpath with cliffs to your left.  The vegetation in the undercliff zone seems to be the best area to see them and there are chances to be had all the way to Horsley Cove.  My wife and I encountered a small flock of them within 1/4 of a mile of the car park and I took a few record shots with my new 120-300mm Sigma lens combined with a Canon 1.4x teleconverter.  The pictures below are I think surprisingly good for 'record shots' considering that they are at almost a 100% crop.

Cirl bunting - Emberiza cirlus Cirl bunting - Emberiza cirlus

As we had only had a very short and gentle walk, we decided to overshoot the path up to the car park on the way back and climb up to the coastguard station from where we had some spectacular views.  The picture below is looking east and you can see the eroded cliffs with vegetation at their base where the cirl buntings live.

"I have received the details of the colour ringed juvenile Osprey ‘ND’ which was until recently at Hawkridge and Ashford Reservoirs. It was ringed by Roger Broad in Scotland (BTO:1421529), one of a brood of three on 10/07/12 near Loch Awe, Argyll. One of its two other siblings has also been found on its first journey south, but sadly got no further than Yorkshire where it was reported as a "rail casualty" on 02/09/12."
 

Here are a few more pictures from my last photographic session:

Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus

It was all so unfamiliar and a joy to watch - being able to see it over again when processing the pictures was a great privilege.

Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus

The ring detail is visible on the tight crop below:

It is ringed on its left leg and Brian Gibbs has managed to read the lettering as NO in white lettering on a blue ring.  Hopefully we'll be able to get a firm ID from this information.

Osprey - Pandion haliaetus Osprey - Pandion haliaetus

Short-billed dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus Short-billed dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus Short-billed dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus Short-billed dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus Lodmoor is a great place to photograph water birds and there were a few black-tailed godwits standing very close to the footpath precariously balanced in the strong wind.

Black-tailed godwit - Limosa limosa Black-tailed godwit - Limosa limosa Black-tailed godwit - Limosa limosa

I photographed a spotted crake here a couple of years ago.  Whether it is the same bird or not I have no idea.  Pictures of the other bird can be seen together with repeats of these on my crake page.

UPDATE: Thanks to Andy Swash for pointing out that this is a juvenile and therefore can't be the same bird as I photographed 2 yrs ago!

Spotted crake - Porzana porzana Spotted crake - Porzana porzana Spotted crake - Porzana porzana

At a glance, it resembles a dunlin but it can be distinguished by longer wings that protrude well beyond its rump, a white rump most visible during flight and by buff colouration near the base of the bill.  I was pleased to get some reasonable although distant pics over the last couple of overcast days and some lousy pics that serve to show the rump in flight.

Curlew sandpiper and White-rumped sandpiper White-rumped sandpiper - Calidris fuscicollis White-rumped sandpiper - Calidris fuscicollis White-rumped sandpiper - Calidris fuscicollis

A very pleasant addition to the day today were half a dozen wheatear feeding near one of the piles of soil that has been dug out to make a channel in preparation to making new salt marsh at this site.

Wheatear - Oenanthe oenanthe

Great white egret - Ardea alba Great white egret - Ardea alba I had had the impression that the bill length of these juveniles was shorter relative to their size than the bills of the adults.  Looking closely at the above pictures, you can see that the tip of the upper part of the bill is black and at this distance, it gives the impression of being shorter because of this.

So, what of the newer nest?  This is more visible than the first nest which was obscured by a small tree.  This has allowed some observation at a much earlier stage.  As followers of 'The One Show' will know, at least one chick has emerged and the debate now is how many chicks will there will be in this nest.  I took some video footage a few days ago while the adult was preening.  If you look closely around the feet of the adult, you will see movement.  In my opinion these pictures show two chicks but see what you think.  Some stills taken later give a hint of a possible third chick.  Let's hope that they do as well as the first brood.

All was not lost though as I checked for reptiles before leaving the reserve and got a couple of pictures of slow worms.  These large adults both seemed to be working up to a moult.  You can see the build up of milky fluid under the skin on the head in particular.  An advantage of catching them in this state is that they just lie still and pose for the camera rather than wriggling away.  An interesting thing that I hadn't noted before happened with a younger slow worm which pretended that its tail was its head, using it to apparently seek for an escape route while keeping its head still before making a rapid dash for a hole head first.  This is a useful survival tactic as a predator would naturally make a grab for the wiggling tail which would then come off while the business end of the critter escaped.

Slow worm - Anguis fragilis Slow worm - Anguis fragilis

Great white egret - Ardea alba

Now look at this shot taken on 5/6/2012, just 3 days later.  The legs are red, the lores bright green and the bill completely black.  The strange thing is that the legs are also ringed and to me they look like the same rings as the bird of 2/6/2012. 

Possible explanations seem to be:

1.  It's just another ringed bird with the same ring configuration that I hadn't noticed before.

2.  The bird of 2/6/2012 has changed colour in 3 days.

3.  The bird of 5/6/2012 has nicked the rings from the first ringed bird...!

4.  None of the above.

Please let me know below if you have any ideas!

Here's an odd view of an unringed bird - it seems that the body is just a 5 way junction.

Great white egret - Ardea alba As a bit of light relief, there has been a very busy great-spotted woodie flitting around the area, often passing between the observation point and the GWE site.  Martin Sage pointed out that it was possibly feeding on prey items associated with the reeds in which it was perching on these forays.  I thought I had taken some pictures of it capturing a grub and then flying towards me at high speed but it turns out the the 'grub' that I had seen on the camera back image was simply an odd view of the pecker's 'moustache'.  A case of wishful thinking it seems.

Great spotted woodpecker - Dendrocopos major

On a more positive note, I did get my first couple of pictures of a GWE chick but they were eve worse than the images of the adults and will remain on my computer... ;-)

Unsurprisingly I've spent a few hours down there myself, hoping in vain for a sighting of a chick.  I'm sure it will happen but they appear not yet to be airworthy even though they seem to be almost as big as the adults.  Note in Mike's pictures that the chicks lack the feathery breeding plumage of the adults and that they have a shorter entirely orange bill.

There at least two other great white egrets around the area as well. The pictures below show the physical differences in these birds - the  one photographed in flight shows red legs instead of black, an entirely black bill instead of the half orange half black of the 'breeding pair'.  Currently the two that haven't bred are showing green lores - ie a patch of brilliant green at the base of the bill. 

As well as the fun of watching these gorgeous birds doing their thing, there was plenty of other bird life around.  Sedge warblers were very showy as was one particular reed warbler.  A Cetti's warbler kept doing regular flights in front of me but these really are 'bogey birds' for me and I have yet to get a really good photo.  Bitterns came and went and a great-spotted woodpecker came and did some pecking behind me.  I hope to put up some video footage of it below but am not sure if it will work.  Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos, most were taken very early on a misty morning and others on a late evening stint.

Skylark Meadows is a small nature reserve owned by Plantlife on the outskirts of Bawdrip village in Somerset.  I hadn't heard of this charity before - you can read about them here.  The day was well organised by local volunteers together with a contingent from Plantlife head office.  The village worthies had the hall stocked with home made cake and the regulation tea urn was in place so even if it had tipped down with rain, the day would have been worthwhile!  Rob and I were joined on the photographic front by Nick Edge who takes amazing butterfly (and other) pictures with his compact camera.  Have a look at his Flickr photostream here.

65 people turned up for the event.  About 1/3 were from the village and the rest were made up of people from as far away as Exeter and Bristol.  All age groups were represented and all levels of knowledge.  I learned a lot and have found out about plants such as yellow rattle which is partially parastitic on grasses and so can help to establish wildflower meadows by controlling grass.  The iridescent green dock beetle was another fascinating find.  This beetle is a godsend to farmers trying to avoid the use of herbicides and can control dock plants by simply eating their leaves away to a mesh.  The highlight for me was the common blue butterfly which was present mainly in the second of the three fields.

Thanks to all for a great day out!

Last year I was aware of courtship behaviour between two birds but as far as I know they never nested and certainly no young were observed.  This year a 'mysterious caravan' arrived at Shapwick Heath and it was clear that a 24hr watch was being kept on something rather special.  Around the same time I observed more courtship behaviour between two GWEs on Meare Heath scrape and I thought at one point the birds were going to mate.  The bird that I assume to be the male was walking about very close to his companion and doing lots of strange neck stretching moves up at a 45 degree angle - see the poor photo which captures this.  It was only a few days later that the news was broken. Great white egret - Ardea alba

Progress since then? Well the birds continue to make regular visits to the presumed reed bed nest area but they can both be absent from the site for hours at a time.  In an area full of potential predators - mink, otters, bitterns, grey herons etc - this seems odd.  However, the fact that they feed, return to the site for a short time and then shoot off again does suggest that there may be hungry young present.  Time will tell.  I took a couple of shots yesterday evening showing an approach flight and then a rather inelegant descent through the reeds. 

Oh, and then there was a bittern doing much the same.  Funny how we now almost take this for granted now in Somerset!

Bittern - Botaurus stellaris

Anyway, I shot off down to RSPB Lodmoor after lunch and immediately failed to connect with the stilt which was hidden on the far side of the reserve.  After a bit of fun photographing terns and adding another lifer to my list in the form of a very poor shot of an arctic tern, I walked around the Weymouth side of the pools.  There it was on the far side of the pool adjacent to the path so I squeezed off a couple of record shots before joining the photographer who was standing rather closer to the bird.  Unfortunately, at this point, the excitement was too much for the stilt which flew off to a pool in the middle of the reserve!

Not one to dwell on adversity, I spent some time photographing a confiding whimbrel before spending more time with the terns and finishing off with a fruitless visit to RSPB Radipole.  Well, not entirely fruitless as the new visitor centre serves great Dorset Apple Cake... :)

Black-winged Stilt - Himantopus himantopus

The next attempt was similar but used a javascript gallery (see jAlbum) to simplify the handling of photos.  That was fine but all the other pages still had to be 'handmade' and I had to keep updating the java gallery software and trying to make it do what I wanted.

Joomla followed.  This is a database driven framework provided free of charge and loaded onto webspace that I was already renting.  I was then able to acquire add-ons either free or commercial which gave the functionality for galleries, articles and a blog.  This really did seem to be the answer to my requirements and I think still made the website that most closely fitted my needs and was most attractive to me.  However, Joomla is so widely used now that it attracts the attention of hackers and so is continually updated.  This means that you have to keep up with updating the underlying software that forms the framework for the site and also that you have to keep updating the add-ons.  The result - you guessed it - time taken away from things that matter like getting out playing with the camera.

Flickr is a very popular image hosting solution around which communities have evolved offering advice and support to members with similar interests.  As a quick and simple solution for putting pictures up online this is brilliant.  If you want a website/blog etc, you need to look elsewhere.  However, it is possible to make a sort of hybrid solution with Flickr albums 'called' from within your website.  This seems too much like hard work to me.  However, I do have a Flickr account and I do occasionally put some pictures on it.

The latest solution is Zenfolio.  This site simply uses pre-made gallery software with blog and article functionality.  The underlying framework is managed by someone else and there is added functionality that I may never use such as links to sites that will allow people to order and pay for prints.  You pay for different levels of functionality and service.  There are downsides in that I can't see how I can make it look exactly as I want.  However, it's reasonably easy to use and I am intending to gradually move all my blog entries and articles from the old site to this one.  For the meantime, you will see that some of the pages are blank, some are missing photos and so on.  The good old 'unfinished look' so popular with people who are a bit bored with making websites and who can think of better ways of spending their time! 

Time for another beer...

Great reed warbler - Acrocephalus arundinaceus

White Stork - Ciconia ciconia

At the reserve there is a small visitor centre with a gift shop which also does drinks and snacks. Entrance to the reserve is straight through the shop but before embarking on the cliff top path you can visit a small feeding station just 10m to the left. We saw a handsome linnet in the car park and a good number of tree sparrows amongst the more familiar blue and great tits. Turning right on entering the reserve would take you to a T-junction on the cliff path and we chose to go left along a safely fenced footpath which runs along the edge of an area rough grassland surprisingly close to the cliff edge. The real drama of this site lies in the grandeur of the cliffs which drop nearly vertically a distance of 100m into the North Sea.

To my shame I have to admit that I didn't take any landscape shots myself the picture on the right being a public domain image from the Wikipedia article on the Cliffs here. The only excuse I can muster is that I went in bird hunting mode and was being thoroughly spoiled for choice of subjects. At this point I'd also recommend the general area of Flamborough head as a spectacular place to visit.

The RSPB lists as its star species for this reserve gannets, kittiwakes, puffins, short-eared owls and tree sparrows but for me the real highlight has to be the gannets. Although it was late in the year - August - there was still breeding activity and I've posted below a reasnable shot I managed of these late breeding birds. This was taken with the Canon 30D Sigma 500mm f4.5 and Canon 1.4x TC on a lightweight Benro carbon fibre tripod. In the blustery inshore wind I could really have done with a heavy duty tripod but a) I don't have one and b) my motivation for lugging camera gear around is higher if it doesn't kill me in the process - yes, I'm a wimp.

As we walked along the path the was a continuous to-ing and fro-ing of herring gulls, kittiwakes but above all gannets. I spent a lot of time trying to get decent shots as they hurtled past and had a measure of success. My favourite of these high speed shots was a sequence which I've posted two below in which one gannet is flying along with seaweed in its mouth and another comes up behind and takes it away; for all the world like skilful relay team members passing the baton. Wonderful to watch!

I managed to catch the whole approach and transfer sequence but it was all happening pretty far off so there's not as much detail as I'd have liked. Why it was happening in the first place I don't know. There seemed to be a lot of collecting of bits of plant matter at the edge of the cliffs as well although I didn't notice any more passing to one another going on. Presumably it's all a sort of bonding exercise but if anyone has any insight into this I'd appreciate your opinion .

The biggest thrill of the day was when we reached the northernmost end of the cliff path. Here the brisk onshore breeze combined with the shape of the cliffs had combined to give the perfect updraft for just hanging on the breeze. A large number of birds congregated here using it as a handy way of making an accurate landing amongst some favoured plants on the cliff edge. They seemed completely unconcerned by onlookers and another photographer and I snapped away at a distance of as little as 5m at times. I had to switch to the Canon 100-400mm zoom from time to time as they were so close.

The picture to the right is full frame - just cropped to fit. What great birds these are. Plenty more on my hard drive but lots of people have done it better and in nicer light too so I won't trouble you with more. Unfortunately I failed to get any nice pictures of the kittiwakes and we saw no puffins at all. On the way out we had an unexpected bonus with lots of juvenile swallows soaking up the late afternoon sun while their parents hunted and came back to feed them. I didn't get any particularly good shots but had a couple for the record.

In summary, a great day out and a fantastic place to try out gannet and other seabird photography.