Mandarin's At The Ponds

Today as the weather was ok I thought I'd spend a couple of hours at Nagshead RSPB Reserve in the FOD. March isn't the best time to visit the reserve as the migrants are yet to arrive but as I haven't been for some time I was interested to see how the reserve had changed. Arriving at the carpark it now has a new visitors centre, well new for me, walking down the track to the old visitor centre location theres was lots of board activety in the field to the left, the track now extends further down into the forest of pine rather than the deciduous woodland associated with Nagshead, the whole area was deadly silent so time to relocate to nearby Cannop Ponds

Cannop Ponds is always an area than can be relied for bird activity even when other locations are quite, so plan B is to again photograph the resident Madarin's Ducks, the trick..."feed the ducks" with some bread and the normally shy Madarin's will come a little closer in the frenzied feeding Mallard / Tufted Ducks

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Sunday Morning at Cannop Ponds

With all the signs of boar damage around the forest I thought this morning I’d get out and about and attempt to locate and photograph Wild Boar. Cannop Ponds being one area were boar have caused havoc digging up all the grassed picnic areas, so here was the starting point of my search.

Following some directions I head up into the forestry soon finding signs of boar activity, and, fifty meters further on I spotted a grey/brown object with a very active wiggling tail…wild boar ! I move a little closer remembering what my mother had said, boar are very dangerous and will charge to protect their off spring, with that knowledge at the fourfront of my mind I move closer, I count at lease three animals deep in cover grunting to each other as they route about feeding, then I’m spotted and with a couple of squeals their gone, deeper into cover.

For the next hour or so I try to get a view of the now very wary boar, not the dangerous animals they have been portrayed, at one point stumbling on four animals at around a meter distance which I have to admit had my hart pumping a little. With one record shot in the bag I head back to the ponds, Its quite bird wise but I do get some decent images of a very vocal Little Grebe

Pennington Reflextions

It's now some seven months since my retirement from the world of the working, and I look back at some of the images I have taken at Pennington Flash over this very short period, a place that previously I hadn't visited for over 10 years. learning to use a new camera with a big 500mm lens has been quite an experience not only in terms of use but also the gym work needed to carry the kit about. 

Looking forward to the rest of the summer to see what encounters are to be had.

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A Nuthatch Encounter

Whilst photographing my target species of the day this Nuthatch kept appearing and was so distracting I almost missed what I was there to photograph ! 

Some loverly background highlights the bird in the images

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Another Rugby Weekend

After the weekend away in Edinburgh to watch the Scotland v Wales rugby match, its now back to Cardiff for the do or die battle with Ireland. It's been a long old today with travel and not getting to bed on Friday night until 1.0 am but what a great win over Ireland, on top of the late night its an early start in the morning to photograph the Hawfinches at a well known location in the forest, the consolation is, its only ten minuets drive from the house !

I arrive at 7.50 am and two other photographers are already in position occupying the best position, I make do with an ok spot and wait. An hour passes and a singe Hawfinch appears and the camera sees its first serious action, the encounter is so good the buffer starts stuttering due to rapid shooting, eventually it all goes quite, and relax...I continue photographing more common species that frequently the location and hope the Hawfinch returns.

Around 10.0 am the two photographers call it a day and I now get to occupy the prim location, great....no excuses now. Within thirty minutes the Hawfinch is back, and there after returns every twenty minutes or so giving plenty of photo ops. A selection of the best images of which are below.

Finally around midday I call it a day happy with my encounter

Thanks for looking

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Today It's Mainly Been Bittern

Having seen images of the showy Bittern at Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve on BirdGuides I  thought I'd prioritise a visit for the next break in the weather, unfortunately its not stopped raining for the last week. It's Monday and the weather forecast is sunny intervals all day.....I'm on my way

Arriving at Mere Sands a new venue for me I'm told the Bittern is showing well, generally Bitterns are very elusive.....great I thought....the bad news the Rufford Hide is chocha with photographers...doh !. I make my way round to the Rufford Hide expecting scenes from my former twitching days of restricted views more offtern from the back. Arriving at the hide its not so bad, managing to get a seat after thirty minuets or so, now down to business.

The Bittern is making an appear every so often deep in the reed bed, not like the images I've seen on Birdguides. It's now around 1.30 pm and most people are calling it a day having been in the hide since early morning thinking there's no prospect of the Bittern showing in the open, theres only around six people remaining, then, around 2.30 pm in the now yellowing afternoon sunlight the Bittern appears, it slowly makes its way through the vegetation out into the open then down to the smaller lake to the right of the hide, cameras whirl, plenty of photo ops here. It makes its way along the waters edge, and for the first time ever for me, it wades into the water and swims to the middle of the lake, that was the golden shot !!...the few remaining photographers continue recording the action of this rare event. 

Slowly the Bittern moves to the far end of the lake and it's all over, in less than fifteen minutes. I sit and chat with my fellow photographers about what just happened. Elated and satisfied with my encounter, I call it a day. 

Thanks for looking

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