Better Wood Sandpiper pics & some healthy competition

Well, I say better, but still not that great! The light was bad (slightly backlit bird for most of the pics; I had to put the camera in full manual mode and play around with ISO and exposure compensation settings until the result looked mildly representative of the bird) and the distance of the bird from me was significantly greater than desired. Stunning birds though! Both were still present by early evening (3rd August). Here's a couple of pics:

Now onto something that's not wildlife related. I think the majority of the readers of my blog also read Gavin Haig's blog, and his recent cycling-orientated posts have inspired me to start using Strava to see how I compare to other cyclists in the area. I thought I'd start out by trying the Seaton-Axmouth segment, where you need to ride as fast as possible from the bridge at the mouth of the Axe, to Coronation Corner. The wind today was easterly so it was blowing from the right. I don't think this was too detrimental to my time, although no wind would have been preferable (or a southerly but that would be cheating in my eyes). I headed out after work to give the sprint a go. Here's the result (first ever attempt at a sprint this long):

5th out of 76, not bad! The interesting bit of info for you here is that not only was this done in heavy clothing (I wasn't embarrassing myself with figure-hugging lycra), but I was riding a MOUNTAIN BIKE. I rode home and swapped over to my road bike (cheap and heavy, Carrera Virtuoso) and achieved this:

3rd. This included having to slow down whilst a car pulled over in front of me. Pretty sure getting to the top of the leaderboard is within reach fairly comfortably :). Sprinting I can do. Hill climb segments?? Hmm, no thank you!

Wood Sandpiper and Little Gull at BHM

It seems as though EVERY patch birder with a camera apart from myself got the Wood Sandpiper up nice and close this morning. Ahh the joys of  not having a single free morning in a week. I popped over in the evening after work and got fairly distant views of the Wood Sandpiper. In fairness, had I not been working, and had time to get decent shots of the Wood Sand in the morning, then I probably wouldn't have gone in the evening and therefore would have missed the Little Gull... (Kindly pointed out by Ian Waite). Again it was distant, but it's something I can add to my all time patch list (yes, really).

If you want to revisit some less rubbish shots, I managed to get some decent ones of Wood Sands last year... there is a wide and varied selection!! click here
Or for a shot of 3:

Wood Sandpiper at BHM, and a Poplar Hawk-moth

A brief break from the holiday-related posts...
A text from Steve informed me of the presence of an adult Wood Sandpiper over at bhm, so naturally I went to have a look. It was there, but distant. Here's a rubbish but vaguely recognisable photo of it (the bird on the right of course):

My evening was spent trying to compose a decent pic of a Poplar Hawk-moth which was found at work today. I quite like a couple of the pics but they're definitely nothing special (I don't put moths in the fridge to make them slow!!).

It's worth clicking on these pics to view them slightly larger (if you like moths, that is). They're quite sharp.

Doorstep wildlife!

Well, on the doorstep of our accomodation on holiday at Center Parcs, Longleat. Here's a few pics. All of them (except the birds on nests, which were only a few paces away) were taken through the window of where we were staying.

And here's some video footage (shot with the Lumix):

The next post will have pics of birds which are far more interesting! But they were also captive/trained. We visited Longleat Zoo and the Hawk Conservancy Trust, so there's going to be a lot to include. There were a few wild birds to photograph too; there was a wild bird feed at the HCT which is meant to attract Grey Herons and Red Kites. Unfortunately none of the latter graced us with their presence...

Pics of Bittern, Great White Egret, Marsh Harrier + more

Just an extension of my previous blog post really. I've had time to have a quick look at a few of my holiday pics. Here's some from the DSLR from the day we visited Somerset Levels. Image quality is awful as all birds were VERY distant (with the exceptions of the Little Grebe and Tufted Duck). Getting any shot in which a Bittern/Great White Egret was recognisable was my priority as I'd never seen a Bittern before, and only once seen a GW Egret.

Alert Tufted Duck (Marsh Harrier flew over)

Tiny Toad! About the same flat area as a 5p piece.

Unfortunately it was impossible to take decent pics of the Bittern, Great White Egret or Marsh Harrier due to the direction of the sunlight (although all subjects were distant anyway). Overcast would actually have been preferable to sun which was nearly directly from above. The problem is most evident on the GW Egret pics; the highlights are blown, but the underside is in shadow! Nevermind, at least we saw one!
I'll post again within the next 2-4 days with more holiday pics and info. I'll probably cover the wildlife which we saw from our accomodation. There was a fairly diverse range, and not all of it desirable...

Holiday Day 2- Somerset Levels

With todays forecast being the least bad for the next few days, Naomi and I headed to Shapwick in the hope of seeing some of the rare species which inhabit the area. Our list of birds to see consisted of Bittern, Great White Egret, Peregrine Falcon, Hobby and Marsh Harrier. We managed to see ALL of these! We also got cracking views of some not-so-rare but unexpected birds such as Little Grebes, Great Crested Grebes, and Tufted Ducks. Naomi took some photos on the new Panasonic Lumix whilst I used the DSLR. I'll put up a couple of her pics as the laptop can't read the high speed card from the DSLR, or open the RAW files. Here's one of Coots & Goldeneye:

And here's one of a Great White Egret (honest, it IS there):

Photos from the DSLR to follow when we return!! A couple of the Great White Egret pics are almost mediocure standard, but I wasn't so lucky with the other birds from our list due to how far away they were. We might go there again if the weather improves; the quality and quantity of birdlife certainly was impressive!

Holiday time!

I've now got a week off! There should be plenty of pics to post when I get back, though not taken in Devon (will mostly be Somerset, and probably also some not-so-wild animal pics; we're planning on going to a Zoo...). I'm taking a lot of camera gear so I'll most likely see nothing of interest (with the exception of at the Zoo)... You know how it is! Bye!