Quick Trip to Elton

Quick trip out to Elton, Bury this afternoon, caught up with the Greater Scaup again which is still knocking around with the Tufted Ducks after four or five weeks. 

Always wary not letting you get too close, some images which was the best I could manage on the day in difficult light with the sun always in the wrong direction

Greater Scaup

At one point a Little Grebe swam into open water which the Scaup then latched on too, a little to distant to get decent quality images.

At last some sun light in the next two images but still a little distant, at this point I'd had given up getting closer and decided to called it a day.

Ready For Vis Mig In The Sun

As I write this blog currently the external temperature is hovering around one degree with the last remains of snow still, on the other hand the corresponding temperature in Murcia is somewhat warmer at 20 degrees and sun, no need to tell you where I prefer to be right now !

With the flights booked for spring migration in the sun and the weather being pretty dire here, I thought I’d post some of my more notable images from my visits over the last twelve months in Murcia.

These images of a Black Winged Stilts were all taken at the Salinas de San Pedro. The first image was taken early morning before the increased temperature and wind, the water was flat calm giving this great reflective image, this was one of many I could have included.

The next two images were taken at probably my favourite location but in differing light conditions, the first in cloudy conditions with the wind generating waves on the shoreline, the second in flat calm early morning sun conditions.

This image was taken early morning around 8.30 am my favoured time, the brown colour in the water is a result of the low sun reflecting the mud bank in the water.

Just a selection of other waders taken at the Salinas de SanPedro, you probably guessed this is my main area for photography.

Redshank

Greenshank

Kentish Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Little Stint

Curlew Sandpiper

Ruff

Sanderling

Avocet

Occasionally you my come across two species of gull that are not that common along the coast of the Mediterranean, the Slender Billed Gull and the Audouins Gull, both of these gull can usually be found at salinas San Pedro more than any other location.

Audouins Gull

Slender Billed Gull

The next images are from several areas including El Hondo wetland reserve near Elche

Glossy Ibis

Little Egret

Squacco Heron

Greater Flamingo

Purple Heron

Little Bittern

Just a couple of images of the smaller stuff from around the area, some less that half a mile from the property.

Bluethroat

Taken at San Filipe Centre, El Hondo. The bird was hopping around the garden, at first I though it was a Robin (not common) put the bins on it...a Bluethroat ! Over the next thirty mins I must have taken five hundred images down the three metres before it departed.

Stonechat

Taken at one of my wader locations, this chap made an appearance to see what I was up to.

Stone Curlew

Some evenings sat out having a beer you can hear Stone Curlew calling which are to be found amongst the orange groves, this image was taken from the car through a wire fence just before sunset. get out of the car and their off !

Blacked Necked Gebe

In winter groups of up to two hundred can regularly been seen at the Salinas San Pedro, if your lucky they come close to the boardwalk. The summer image was taken at El Hondo Reserve where they breed in numbers

Male and female White Headed Duck can be seen through out the region but the best location I've found is Vistabella Road Hides at El Hondo in summer

To finish off a summer migrant that can seen most areas, but you've got to be sneaky !

Bee-eater

Gone Local

Friday 23rd February

The weather over the last couple of days has mainly been grey and dark so with a forecast today of some sun I fancied a day out..but where. I don't want to travel any great distance so I've decided I'm going local and try to get images of the Hooded Crow that's been in residence in the Haydock area for the last couple of months.

Arriving at a large grass area where the bird has been regularly seen feeding, it strikes me a little odd why this particular location should hold such an attraction for a bird that's more often seen north of the border in Scotland. Anyway the plan for the morning is to remain in the car as close as possible to where the bird is has been reported hoping for a close encounter, but the road location is all wrong with the sun directly facing me, to make matters worse there's a constant stream of dog walkers criss crossing the area, surely the chances of the bird being disturbed flying off is highly likely.

I've been on site for about twenty minuets and a crow fly's over the trees and lands on the grassed area quite close to where I'm parked, it's the Hooded Crow....panic..the camera gear is in the boot of the car as I wasn't expecting it to turn that quick! eventually I grab some images of the bird with what looks like a large piece of bread, two Carrion Crows take an interested and chase the hoodie back over the trees not to return for the remainder of my visit.

A quick review of the images reveal what I expected that all were a little washed out. Time call time and move on to Pennington.

Hooded Crow

Pennington is busy as it's half term school holidays, I didn't think of that ! and I head for Pengy's hide. Shoveler's are now pairing up for the breeding season with rival males jostling each other for potential mates. One individual is busy carrying out some maintenance which makes some nice images with green and reds colours from the vegetation on the far side reflected in the water.

Happy I have some useable images time for home.

Shoveler

Monday 26th February

The "Beast from the East" cold weather is forecast to arrive dumping snow on the UK early morning on Tuesday but today Monday it's sunny and cloud so before I get snowed in it's a repeat of Friday trip to try again for better images of the Hooded Crow at Haydock.

I'm more organised this morning with the camera ready in the car and parked up as before, quick check for mail on my phone, I look up and the Hooded Crow is already there in front of me...not that organised then ! I grab some images but it's the same wash out images as my previous visit so I move to the other side of the area but now with the light behind.

Over the next forty five minuets the crow happily feeds in front of me and I get some decent images but the bird is always wary keeping an eye out for any dogs that get a little too close thinking it's a soft toy !

A quick review of some of the many images all looks ok, but in hind sight I would have wished to have shot wide open to give better background separation as there is no loss of image quality with a Big White.

Happy with the recorded images it's time to move on to Pennington.

Hooded Crow

With the large open water of Pennington it's a cold wind blowing, my best option is to head to one of the hides and get out of the wind. Often it's a case of waiting to see turns up at one of these hides hopefully getting a more unusual shot, that's what happened in this case.

To my right from the undergrowth an incredibly tinny Weasel darts out towards the waters edge, it's on the hunt for a meal looking below tree roots and searching various holes only momentary stopping to look for any movement of startled prey, it's so quick it's all over in no more than twenty seconds. The fact that I had the smaller lens already fitted for possible Water Rail meant that I was able to get shots of the Weasel otherwise I would have been a missed opportunity, not the best image but it's a record of the event.

Weasel

Every so often a Water Rails can be seen slowly making there way from the reeds into the open area to below the bird feeders benefiting from seed dropped to the ground, trying to get images is never usualy successful due to the tangled mass of roots and branches that are always present in the image, never the less it's an opportunity to see an otherwise very secretive bird.

Water Rail