A KITE FLEW BY

Had this Red Kite fly by the house today, wish it would have come in a bit closer so I could have got a bit more detail in the shots but it is always a privilege to see these majestic birds. If this would have been 10 years ago this would have been a mega sighting. Goes to show how well the Kites have done over the years to come back from the brink.

                                                         RED KITE 

Nice to see these iconic birds doing so well in the South Wales Valleys 

......AND HERE'S HER MATE

Following on from my last post where a Female Brambling found it's way to my feeding station from it's breeding grounds of Northern Europe. I was very pleased to see a male turn up today, it was with a small number of Chaffinch's that were braving the heavy rain scuttling about amongst the twigs and leaf litter searching for food.

male brambling

 I had a great start to the day with regular visits from my usual suspects including a very photogenic Great Spotted Woodpecker,

male great spotted woodpecker

And a very obliging Wren.

wren

I thought I'd hit the jackpot when a Red Kite flew in close to my feeders, I managed to real off about 20 shots but then realised my settings were all wrong on my camera and by the time I got them right two crows started attacking the Kite and it flew off.

red kite

The shots were massively under exposed so non of them were keepers. The shot above was about the best of them, I tried to bring them back in photoshop but no good. Still it was great to see the Kite and hopefully maybe one day I'll get a photo of this bird that I'll be pleased with (as long as I get my bleeding settings right).

A FIRST WINTER VISITOR

October is the main month when the Autumn migration really kicks in. Most of our Summer migrants have gone back to warmer climbs and our winter visitors start to arrive. It's also the month of my birthday when I get lots of presents but we've already covered that 😉.

Brambling is one winter migrant species that we do get most years, they have already been spotted at different locations around Gwent which made me hopeful that one would visit us at the farm. And to my shear delight a female joined a number of Chaffinches foraging for seeds underneath my feeders. Obviously I grabbed the camera before it disappeared and left me with no proof that the little beauty had popped in. I managed to rattle off a couple of shots so here she is:-

female brambling

I was hoping it would pop up on a post or some other higher vantage point so I could get a better image but it stayed low in amongst the dead leaves and grass.

It mixes quite freely with chaffinches and does look somewhat similar so here's a look at the male and female chaffinch for comparison.

female chaffinch

and the male

It's great to welcome back our first winter visitors of the year lets hope for many more over the next few months.

NEW CAMERA

My wonderful wife bought me a new camera the Canon EOS 7d mark 2 for my recent birthday(now now you shouldn't ask a gentleman his age)

I think I was due an upgrade, although my old Canon 450d has served me well, and still is a good camera. So I've decided I'm going to keep it and use it for general photography, I just have to get a lens for it now. 

The 7d mark 2 and my Canon EF 400mm 5.6 prime lens should be a great combo for wildlife photography.

canon 7d mark 2 and canon 5.6 prime

My new camera has a steep learning curve so I've been watching lots of YouTube videos and I purchased one of these which I have to say is a gem of a book.

I highly recommend this book

I've been blasting away taking loads of photo's as well as reading, watching and learning as I go, the weather has been atrocious but we've had some sunny periods that I've been able to take advantage of. I've been mostly photographing birds around and on my feeders and had a few surprise species come in such as a Treecreeper and a Green woodpecker. Here are some of my efforts, I have used photoshop to enhance them a little bit but overall I feel that the 7d mark 2 has gave me some good results.

jay

nuthatch (with one of Steve Carters rings on it's leg)

great tit

goldfinch (juvenile)

blackbird

male chaffinch

robin

dunnock

green woodpecker (male)

coal tit

treecreeper

female blackbird

blue tit

great spotted woodpecker

I really love this camera and look forward to taking it out in the field. I've still got a lot to learn about it but that will come with time. A big thank you to my lovely wife you've made an old birder very happy.

ANGLESEY PART 3

 Obviously being interested in wildlife and an amateur nature photographer  I couldn't go to Anglesey without trying to first see and then get a picture of a Red Squirrel.

Firstly we went to Newborough Forest (we had heard they were there) an absolutely stunning place but with all the people there, and the actual size of the place not one Red was seen.

Secondly we went to a wooded area on our way to Beaumaris, we parked in a small layby next to the wood where there was a very encouraging sign.

After searching for two hours we hardly saw a bird let alone a Red Squirrel. I was beginning to give up hope at this stage until I commented I was in Anglesey on social media. One of my Facebook friends asked if I had seen the Red Squirrels? after replying our wild squirrel chase had produced bugger all, he told me of a place where he always goes to see them.

Llyn Parc Mawr near Newborough forest where we had gone in the first place was our last hope on our last day, it has a lovely small area with a car park, picnic benches and bird/squirrel feeders. Luckily enough not long after we'd got there a lovely bloke turned up to feed them. He told us he only feeds them on Fridays and Sundays so how lucky were we. He was a very knowledgeable chap who used to do birding holidays abroad but he says he's retired now and only feeds the squirrels and birds on a voluntary basis. He taps the lids on the feeders to let the squirrels know that there's food there. Within five minutes to ours and everyone else's sheer delight they started showing up.

at long last

                             

What a relief to finally see and get some shots of Red Squirrel.

It ended a great week on Anglesey which we thoroughly both enjoyed. We got to see my Manchurian cousins, visited some fantastic places and saw some great wildlife.  We would definitely go back there again so lets hope this pandemic goes away pretty soon so we can all get back to normal.

Who's that fat photographer on an Anglesey beach?

ANGLESEY PART 2

We stayed at Llanfair PG as the locals call it, but if you want to say the full title please be my guest.

It was a good base from which to explore the Island and neighbouring Towns. 

The Island has many a good birdwatching site with a couple of RSPB reserves. We only visited South Stack but sadly the huge sea bird colonies have gone back out to sea where they'll spend the winter.

South Stack

The surrounding cliffs had some Oystercatcher, Rock Pipit, Rock Dove and a hovering Kestrel. The Choughs were there but trying to photograph them was a different matter.

Rock pipit

 

Rock dove

female kestrel

Just down the road from south stack was a beautiful little beach and a toilet block which we were both glad of.

Anglesey seemed to be full of these little coves and beaches.

We found a few of these and also some nice estuaries, -  here is some of the birds that inhabited them.

common (mew) gull

cormorant

curlew 

great black backed gull

little egret

oystercatcher

I was pleasantly surprised to see a small group of Red breasted merganser and on the same part of the estuary were a few male "eclipse" wigeon.

red breasted merganser

male wigeon in eclipse plumage

There's also a colony of Sandwich terns at Cemlyn bay it boasts the largest nesting population of sandwich terns in the UK. I managed to grab this image as it drifted by whilst we were out walking.

sandwich tern

That's about it for the bird images I did see a lot more - stonechat, wheatear, swallows, herons, ringed plover as well as the choughs.

I did photograph one special iconic species of Anglesey and I'll put that in my next post.