Cuckoo Time

Weekend Away

My planned visit up to the south Scotland to photograph this iconic summer visitor hasn't gone quite to plan as the weather today has taken a turn for the worse, I was hopping for some cloud cover and good light but in addition throw in some light rain and there you have it....another challenging day, 

I'm up on moorland and several Cuckoo are calling in the valley below, but I'm heading to an area where a particular individual is on territory in a small valley with a small coppice. No sooner than we arrive the unmistakable call can be heard in bushes nearby, then the bird lands on a post all the while being mobbed by several resident Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches. Trying to remain calm I rattle of hundreds of images, I'm not sure the light rain adds to or looks good in the image, but what a super bird.

Despite the drizzle not producing top quality images it's been great couple of hours, but now with low light and increasing mist it's time to call it day and head back to the hotel for a well earn't rest.

Next up...Sparrowhawk.

Click image and view full screen.

Cuckoo

Garden Starlings

Home Birds - 24.5.19

Just relaxing getting ready for my impending weekend trip up to Galloway on the Scottish boarders, whilst I'm deciding what equipment to take the Starlings are bombarding the suet feeder which gives me a thought, I'll put up some perches and see what images I can get.

Starlings I think are one of the most underrated birds in terms of breeding plumage colour but can be a bit messy on the car paintwork, but I guess thats the trade off.

Here's some images showing some wonderful colours...

Common Starling

Best Of The Rest

A round up of a few other images that didn't make a post in it's own right, like the mating Black-winged Stilt were no more than grab shots before it was all over, or, just that it was too few photo ops on the day....hey ho !

Red-knobbed Coot

Image of a Red-knobbed Coot was about the only images I managed at San Felipe being surprisingly quite, also as the water levels were so high lacking the usual mud edges all the waders were occupying the nearby flooded fields, some day's are just like that !

Black-winged Stilt

Three images of mating Black-winged Stilts, unfortunately it was around midday by which time the sun was out big style and the light was way to harsh.

Ruff

Image of a very confiding Ruff taken at 3-4 meters distance, at one point it got to close. I've managed to get the sun somewhere behind me with this shot hence the colour looks pretty good.

Crested Lark

Taken early morning around 8.0 am as you can probably tell on a drive around Lo Romero Golf, at the time I was trying to get images of a Southern Grey Shrike I had seen the day before, then I found a Woodchat Shrike never managing to get images of either. This Lark just popped up on a stump...lucky to get an image of something !

Little Owl

On my drive I usually come across this chap at the less developed far end of the coarse but getting near can sometimes be difficult, other times will just site on a rock or wall as in this case...get out of the car and he's or she is off

End Of The Road

Campoverde - 9.5.19

At the end of the road I'm very fortunate to have not one, but two separate Sand Martin colonies occupying small earth bankings adjoining a quiet road, very convenient as all you have to do is remain in the car getting some great images of these returning summer migrants.

The arrival of Sand Martins always indicate spring has arrived with summer's not too far away, one of the first summer migrants to arrive in the UK having spent the winter in Sub-Saharan Africa occasionally looking a little out of place when it can still be cold and wet back home, but here in Southern Spain it's thirty degrees and sunny blue sky's.

As I start the days photographic exploits as long as it not too early and the light is good enough I like to spend ten minuets or so looking for that unusual shot, sometimes I'm just happy to watch the antics as a group of twenty or so Martins swoop in and cling to the bank face chattering with their Budgie like calls.

Here are just some of the hundreds of images taken, next time I'm hopeful I get get those shots where the young fledglings are eagerly waiting at the hole entrance encouraging the parent birds to bring a constant supply food.

Until the next time.

Sand Martin

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

Lucky Find

Lo Romero Golf - 4.5.19

The nearby Lo Romero Golf has several areas still under construct and sometimes there can be some good photo opportunities on offer particularly early mornings when the light is a little softer, but today I thought I'd have a slow afternoon driver around my usual circuit in the hope of catching up with a Southern Grey Shrike I had seen earlier.

It's quiet as I drive around part from the occasional clink of a golfer teeing off, the sun's high in the sky probably the worse conditions possible for photography but at least I'm out and about in some great weather. A Little Owl appears in the same location as I seen one last January which I guess is the same bird, it see's me and it's off into some trees on the far side....I continue on.

After a couple of circuits I head out of the golf coarse when I come across another Little Owl sat on a rock, I'm not sure it's the same bird seen earlier as this is some distance away, slowly I edge the car forward amazed it hasn't departed as earlier bird was quite skittish. I shoot some images but the light is so harsh in the midday sun, a shame really as this is one of the best encounters of a Little Owl to date. I decide to chance my luck and edge the car forward another few more meters the bird is happy to just sit, it's now full frame in the camera viewer.

After some ten minuets a passing maintenance van spooks the owl and it's gone. What a lucky encounter that happens very occasionally, time to press on.

Little Owl