Sky Shot's !

Lo Romero Golf - 6.5.19

This morning is the first day in quite a few where it's cloudy, no more of the harsh sunlight of the last couple of days so a good time to have a couple of hours around the roads of the local golf coarse.....just watch out for those balls !

As I drive around the area soon to have shinny new 500,000 € villas built for northern Europeans looking to escape the wet winters back home a Iberian Red Squirrel scuttles across the road and sits on a low bush posing for the camera, the lens is too long so I switch too something shorter...too slow and I miss the shot...doh. Next up is a Southern Grey Shrike perched typically on a small tree looking for some unsuspecting prey, shrikes I never find easy to shoot and before I get anywhere near it fly's off.

Now at a location which is usually the most productive all that's about is a distant Little Owl sat on a rock and a pair of Red-Rumped Swallows hawking around a culvert occasionally disappearing up a four foot drain....might be worth a look !

The Drain

Red-rumped Swallow Nest

I stick my head up the drain and I can see something further up so I clamber into the drain and find the most intricate of nests attached the the roof of the drain, not unlike that of a House Martin but with a long entrance neck and a chamber at the end.

Might be worth a return visit later to try for some images of the Swallows..

Now nearing the end of my circuit and a couple of near Partridge misses I see another Red-legged Partridge stood on a pile of rocks belting out it's "chukka..click" call, usually I'm not very successful getting anywhere these birds over the last couple of days...I keep saying that don't I !...but this chap is happy to stay put, the only issue is the background is the a grey blank sky producing not such a great an image but the best offering this morning.

There's always another day.

Red-legged Partridge

Pasta Time

Christchurch - Forest of Dean

I've been out all morning with little to show for my efforts other than some distant images of male and female Crossbils eventually calling time as the rain set in. So there I am stood at the kitchen window preparing some pasta and I spot a bird sat on the fence, it's a Red legged not what you would expect and another great garden tick following on from a belter male Sparrow Hawk recently.

Panic, the camera gear is all packed away so I grab the first thing to hand the 100-400mm and get some shots through the window not really that good in the poor light and to add the glass has some reflection, chancing my luck I open the patio door just wide enough to get the lens through and rattle off a load of images, with no sign of the bird moving I decide to get the big white.

I now have the 500mm together with the 1.4 ext on the end always a bit big to swing about and get a stable image, I manage to manoeuvre a swivel chair in to position to use as a rest with the lens now extending through the open door, the bird seems content just to sit on the fence and shoot at speeds as low as 250/sec which is a bonus in the grey light

The rain is relentless, probably why the bird just sits and remains motionless on the fence balancing like some acrobat performer from the Cerc de Soleil only occasionally moving to shake the water droplets off its back or looking skywards when a Buzzard lands in the tree close by. Evenly the partridge crouches then lunches itself in to the air to disappear in the direction of the Yat Rock, I'm happy to have recorded this unusual encounter, especially in the dry !

Click image to view

Lagunas de lo Monte

New location for me today, a small wet land reserve just outside Pilar near the Hotel Lo Monte on the N322. The reserve which has two small reed fringed lakes not too dissimilar to the Clot de Galvany in Grand Alicant but a little bigger and thirty miles nearer home.

Arriving at the first hide which is located on the lower lake, within seconds flying towards me and landing in the reeds four metres in front of me, not one, but two Squacco Herons, unfortunately as the hide viewing slots are a little on the large side the herons took one look at me and were off further up the reserve.....no shot there then !

Onwards to the third hide which is located on the upper lake, "ground hog day" again the Squacco Herons where flying around looking to settle near the reed fringed scrape in front of the hide finally opting for the reeds on the far side

Birds of note include....Purple Heron, Night Heron, Grey Heron, Squacco Heron, White Headed Duck, Little Egret, Pochard, Mallard, Gadwall, Little Grebe, BWS, Coot, Moorhen, Spotted Redshank.

On the road back through Pilar, the famous goats/sheep (its hard to tell!) that frequent the crop fields gave good photo ops of an accompanying Cattle Egret comically jumping from one animal to another. Orange trees had numerous Serins singing and on the ground Red Legged Partridge can be seen scuttling around between the trees.

Click image for clarity.....