A Few from Spring

With it being foggy and murky grey outside all day, it was a good time to catch up with a bit of the photo processing backlog. So I turned my thoughts back to Spring which is such a contrast to the view out of the window today. Early mornings filled with bird song, migrants arriving in waves, the birds looking bright and immaculate and the freshness of the new growth bursting forth from the plants. Such a vibrant time of year and always a pleasure to be out at first light and soaking it all in.

So for this post I just thought I would take a few of the bird images from last Spring and put them together. What could say Spring more than a bird on some willow catkins. In this case a colourful Goldfinch.

Living by the coast there is a reasonable number of gorse bushes and normally good flocks of Linnet. I always associated one with the other as the males often use the top of these vibrant yellow flowered bushes to advertise their territory in song.

A bird that is particularly noticeable in the Spring is the Meadow Pipit.  Huge numbers migrate and on certain days it seems they are everywhere. Of course these are a favoured 'victim' of cuckoos who time their migration to arrive when other birds are beginning to lay eggs.  

Many birds look at their best at this time of year as the males feathers finally wear into their fresh breeding plumage. This male Reed Bunting is nearly there with just a few tawny coloured feather ends to change before the transformation is complete. 

One of the earliest migrant arrivals is the Northern Wheatear with the birds typically arriving locally from their long flight up from Africa around mid-March. They bring with them a real injection of striking colour and contrast into what is still a generally drab landscape in the early Spring with the remnants of winter still evident. Often these arriving birds are very flighty and have an annoying habitat of tending to stay just out of camera range, displaying a flash of white rump as they keep their distance ahead of you.

Into April and migration is in full swing with the arrival of warblers and Whinchat. These birds look amazing when they arrive although the orange colours of the breast and flanks seems to quickly fade once they have been here a short while. From a photography point of view they are definitely a bird to try and catch as they arrive.

 Of course Spring is not just about sights, it is also about sounds. Unfortunately I did not get much time to photograph warblers this year with the exception of the Willow Warbler. This bird's song of descending notes I know very well, having had one singing all through the 'night' outside my bedroom when I stayed in Arctic Norway. The songster did not help with me struggling to get to sleep with the perpetual daylight outside.

Well having done this post and reminisced over Spring the grey murk outside suddenly looks a bit brighter. Also it has got me thinking that I should start thinking about and planning my trip abroad for next year. North, South, East or West...decisions...decisions.

Searching the Farmland

The end of April always triggers an internal alarm that its time to go and look for some Yellow Wagtail on an area of local farmland. Timing the visit is important as I want to try and catch the birds just as they arrived from their migration and are still busy trying to establish the territories they will use for the few months of their annual visit to the UK. The timing is essential to try and catch these birds in 'song', which in itself is not particularly pleasing to the ear as it tends to be a series of repetitive high pitch 'peeps'.

I tend to photograph these birds from a farm track and try to catch them as they land on field side fence posts. The light direction is not ideal at this site, as it quickly swing round to side lighting, but it is the only place locally that I know that they can be reliably found. As usual an early set alarm clock is essential and on this session I arrived just as the sun was creeping upwards over the horizon. En route to the particular field that the wagtails have used consistently for several years, I was slightly distracted by some Meadow Pipits perched on some fence posts and bathed in the warm glow of the early light.

The birds were calling an occasionally launching vertically upwards in to fluttering song flight.

I decided to quickly move on having taken a few photographs of the Pipits, to try and find the Yellow Wagtails before the sun had arced too far round. As I arrived at the field I was greeted with a familiar call and saw a flash of yellow as male briefly flitted upwards and disappeared back in to the low crop. At least they were here and a female was the first to appear on the fence line.

A promising start but it was really the more colourful male I was hoping to photograph and had to wait a while before one put in an appearance. There are many different races of Yellow Wagtails which are generally distinguished by having different coloured heads. Regular readers will know I encountered the grey-head race (see here) that is typical of Spain on my recent trip to Mallorca. I have encountered some of the other races on my travels but still believe the race that is unique to the UK with its light green colouration on the head and back to be the most attractive.

The yellow colouration of the spring male bird is incredibly bright and you would think they would be an easy target for any passing predator. However, they can be surprisingly difficult to spot even where I have seen them in areas of short grass.

A short while later another male appeared and landed on the barbed wire and started to sing, allowing me to capture a few of the photographs I was hoping to get from this pre-breakfast session.

Glimpses of Light

Many of you will have probably guessed from my recent posts that the light, which is the essence of photography, has been in drastically short supply over the past few weeks. There have been the occasional bright days and moments but typically they have coincided with me being otherwise occupied with work. There are few things more frustrating than looking at the sunlight pouring through the office window on a week day only to see the weather suddenly flick to dark grey gloom for the following entire weekend. To try and overcome these light issues and get some photographs taken, I have tried to keep my camera with me as much as possible. This has been mainly to try and stack the odds in my favour when those glimpses of better light do occasionally show. So this Blog post is a compilation of species arising from snatched moments of light since the beginning of the year.

I managed to find a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits at the edge of the ebbing tide at the end of the road where I live. A quick dash down the hill was made as the sun briefly appeared.

A large flock of Bewick's Swans, which are unusual for my local area, gathered on some flooded agricultural fields. These wild swans are a very different proposition for photography than the loaf munching variety on the local park lake. They are very nervous birds and required a careful approach.

While on the topic of swans I stopped briefly on the way home from work last week to find this Mute Swan in the fading embers of sunset. Its good to see the day lengths are slowly starting to draw outwards.

I caught up with one of the Common Buzzards that lurks near the office. Perched in its regular location during a lunch hour last week. They are certainly a species of habit and routine.

I have been keeping up with the various Corvids that I love to photograph and kept my couple of feeding sites going. This has the benefit that the birds quickly appear, after I do, which is ideal for my often very brief visits.
A Jay taking an apparently perilous dive towards the ground.

A rather tatty looking Magpie coming in to land. I suspect this one has had a few run-ins with the local crows. It is interesting at these corvid feeding sites to watch the pecking order between species. At this particular site the order of dominance is crow, magpie and then jay.

A gentle touch-down by a Rook.

There has been an increasing presence of Wood Pigeon at one of the feeding sites. Some of which are starting to look very well fed!

To finish off this post of making the most of limited moments of light, an early morning encounter with a Meadow Pipit on the beach.

The signs of Spring are on the way with the first migrants in the form of Northern Wheatear arriving in the south of the UK heralding the sign of an exciting bird photography days ahead over the next 3 months.

Bleary Eyes

No matter at what time I set my alarm clock the internal one always seems to go off about 15 minutes before hand. So it was bleary eyes that I pulled myself out of bed at 4:45am to head off in search of yellow wagtails. The reason for the very early start is that I wanted to be on site for first light as the photo situation means the light quickly swings round and makes for some difficult lighting.

An hour later and I was in position but had already had an encounter en route with a Whinchat despite the light at that stage being a bit limited. They really are such attractive little birds but this one proved typically tricky to get close to.

Th yellow wagtails at this site are a game of patience. They inhabit a large agricultural field and the only chance of photographs is when they land on the field fence line or an adjacent track. I could hear the birds calling and see the occasion one flitting up in to the air out of the crop to catch a passing fly. So the wait began. Eventually a male bird flew across and landed on a fence post. The first encounter with a male yellow wagtail each year is always a moment of pause just to admire their vivid yellow.

The bird disappeared back to its field and I was forced to wait once more. However, it was an enjoyable wait in the still early morning as the sun rose and with a mixed dawn chorus of song for company. Another male appeared or maybe the same one.

There are many different races of yellow wagtail which are mainly distinguished by the different coloured heads with the UK version being unique with its yellow and green. After some more waiting another bird appeared and this time landed on the barbed wire between the posts.

This bird stayed for a while and hopped up on to a post and started their distinctive high pitch call.

His efforts had the desired effect and a female quickly appeared nearby before they flew off together across the field at which point I decided it was time to make a move.

Before heading home I had a quick look around to see what else I could find but this only produced a Meadow Pipit.

and a hovering male kestrel on the look out for a rodent breakfast.

This was a good reminder that it probably time for me to head home for some cornflakes and cup of tea after a very enjoyable session. After breakfast It was then back to bed for an hour to rest those bleary eyes and ensure some functionality later in the day after the early start.

Day Break on the Marshes

I recently took a visit at first light to some local marshes. This site usually offers some good potential to encounter some spring migrants. The first bird I encountered was a Northern Wheatear, back lit by the early light. Glad to see I am not the only one who looks ruffled when they first wake up!!!

This meadow pipit was also half asleep
A reed warbler kept me busy for quite a while in a small patch of reeds, as it was playing hard to get a clear shot amongst he reed stems.

A few swallows were buzzing around collecting nesting material. Amongst them I spotted a distinctly different looking bird which had a bright orange breast, compared to the normal cream colouration. This was either a well coloured bird or possibly one from the eastern Mediterranean which show this type of colouration.The search for the elusive yellow wagtail? Well I managed to find one and to get one in front of the camera which is a start but still not have achieved the photo that I am after.

and collecting nesting material

Odd moments

I grabbed some occasional moments over the weekend at local sites to try and get some photographs. This was mainly due to the weather that was none too great with a lot of heavy rain. still there was the occasional brighter moment and fortunately I was around with the camera when they occured.

Northern Wheatear

Meadow Pipit
Female PheasantA greenfinch in full song in one of the brief sunny moments.

and bedraggled after one of the heavy downpours..

I really want to do some photographs of reed warblers last weekend but its just been too windy through the reedbeds, for a bird that is difficult to get a clear shot of when its calm. So while the Sedge Warblers keeping advertising themselves I spent an hour or so on Sunday afternoon getting a few more for the library....

Return to the Marsh

I went back out to the marsh to try and find some yellow wagtail but failed yet again!! So while searching took some shots of other birds I came across on my travels.

I was up with the larks, a skylark in some early morning light.

An alert meadow pipit

and a swallow on perch rather than a wire for a changeOn the way home I popped into a local site and as I was pulling up in the car noticed a female linnet hopping around collecting dog hair, presumably to line a new nest.

I finshed off the session taking a few sedge warbler shots while they are still being quite visible.