thelonegourmand

Birdfair Weekend 19-20-21 August 2011

Early Friday morning saw us setting off on the train down to Rich's hometown of Nuneaton in preparation for our annual visit to the Rutland Birdfair. We stayed with his parents on Friday/Sat night. Friday night was spent sitting outside a pub for a few beers with Dave Hutton.
Saturday morning dawned with the promise of nice weather, Dave picked us up and we headed up to Rutland. A great day as always, plenty of banter and it was great to meet up with old and new friends. The weather was kind apart from a few minutes downpour of rain later in the day, otherwise very warm and sunny :)
I recently had a photograph published (a Med Gull) in David Lindo's debut book "The Urban Birder" and I met up with David for a chat and to receive my signed copy of the said book. Pleased as punch as it is my first book publication :)
I also met up with Jith from "Walk with Jith" who specialise in holidays in Sri Lanka. I travelled with him on a birding trip in April 2010 and got nice photos of a Sri Lankan Blue Magpie which Jith is using on his stall banner.

Black Darter (female)

Common Darter

Emerald Damselfly

Common Lizard

Migrant Hawker

Millipede

Southern Hawker

We headed back to Nuneaton late afternoon then Dave picked us up Sunday morning to come back up to Lincs and to have a return visit to Crowle Moor. Lovely sunny day and yet again the Horseflies were a pain! Still we saw some nice dragons etc. The target species were Black Darters, this proved difficult with the males, they just wouldnt keep still for long! The females were a little more obliging. A great weekend and huge thanks to Dave for running us about :)

Far Ings NNR 17-8-11

Chiffchaff

Sand Martin

Willow Tit

Willow Warbler

Didnt quite get out as early as we had planned! Went to bed at midnight, set the alarm for 3am, but the snooze button was not applied properly so we slept a bit late! Up at 6.30am though and after a cuppa and a bite to eat we headed off for an early morning walk up to Far Ings via the Humber Bank. A ten minute stop off at Chowder Ness only produced a few Black Headed Gull , 5 Shelduck and a couple of Linnet- the tide was right in. All was quiet really apart from a gathering of Swallow and Sand Martin near to the tile works. We had a hour or so at the Ness Farm end of the reserve but the Wednesday work party were busy strimming and raking the causeway so obviously no birds around! We decided on a walk back to the new Visitor Centre for a coffee etc. There were 5 Grey Heron - all seen together - on Pursuit Pit. We walked on through Barton Reed Bed where we watched a party of Long Tailed Tit, a couple of Willow Tit, a family of Willow Warbler and a couple of Chiffchaff. There were also a few Migrant Hawkers on the wing too.

Operation Little Grebe Part Deux 15-8-11

With a pleasant evening in store (weather wise) we headed back to see the Little Grebe family. For the next couple of hours or so I enjoyed an intimate observation of their parental duties, such a privilege! I spent most of the time lying low on my tummy in the mud, getting nettled and scraped rather a lot. I managed at one time to get even closer by patiently waiting for both adults to dive at which time I had about 3 seconds to inch closer dragging myself and my camera/lens along - not an easy task! A small price to pay though for the pleasure of watching their busy little lives at close hand. Photography wise it was somewhat difficult mainly because of the position of the Grebes and the light at the time. Mostly they were either side lit or I was shooting into the sun - so didnt really achieve the shots I would have liked but just observing them was a pleasure in itself. Here are a few shots I obtained, there are one or two more on my Zenfolio site http://mandywest.zenfolio.com/