HOUSE BUILDING

Went to a local water body this afternoon hoping to photograph Dippers, none showed but I did notice these Coot who are well on their way to completing their nest. Just hope they don't get to much disturbance off the local dog-walkers.

carrying some material

getting ready to put it in place

off to get a bit more

coot

Amongst the other birds were Canada Goose and the local Mallards.

canada goose

female mallard

 Mmmmmm pity about them Dippers.

Bold Buzzard

Whilst driving down the Lane which leads to our house this Buzzard was sitting on a fence post I stopped the car and watched it for a good few minutes it didn't seem at all bothered by my presence. I got home grabbed my camera and drove back up to where it was perched it still sat there bold as brass just looking around it's surroundings. I managed to grab some nice shots of it before it finally decided it had enough of me a took off.

buzzard

buzzard

take off

This was a bit of a lucky encounter but it made my day.

THE TAWNY'S ARE BACK

With the end March now upon us the new breeding season is beginning to happen with birds starting to display, pair up and some are already nest building with some already on eggs.

We checked the three owl boxes a few weeks ago and all that were in them were Grey Squirrels which gave us a bit of a fright as they dart out of the boxes.

The squirrel squatter 

This week though after checking them again I was delighted to find the female in there and hopefully sitting on eggs. 
This short clip shows her sitting in the box.

These owls have been in this box for a few years now and the female has always been a great parent and as the clip shows she is not easily spooked.

The Owls must have thrown the Squirrels out and I was delighted to see them back again.

KITE CHICKS

The spread of the Red Kite from it's only breeding sites in Mid-Wales is at least one conservation success story.
I live right on the border of two county's in South Wales Blainau Gwent and Torfaen where there has been regular sightings of Kites during the last few years. A nest was found four years ago in  Blainau Gwent one chick was ringed and a picture taken by Mr. Steve Roberts under schedule 1 licence. It was the first Red Kite chick to be ringed in the county but sadly the chick didn't make it the nest failed due to heavy rain that spring. It's nesting tree was badly damaged in the autumn storms we think by a lightening strike and so the birds deserted the site altogether.

the first red kite chick to be ringed in blainau gwent

A bit of good news though is that another Kite nest has been found in the county and they have bred successfully over the last couple of years.
And there's more great news a pair have now bred successfully in Torfaen for the first time, where one chick was ringed and picture taken by Kim Kirkbride under schedule 1 licence.

 This is fantastic news for the area but also shows that the Red Kite's are expanding their range, lets hope that they become a common sight in the years to come.

A big thanks to my buddy Stephen Carter for the information and the pictures "cheers mate".

DIGISCOPING

I've  been trying my hand at a bit of digiscoping over the last couple of months, I must say it is a lot more difficult than I thought. I've got a Luyi spotting scope this is a decent scope in good light but the zoom on the fixed lens isn't great (its crap to be honest) but it is a budget scope and I've had some good use out of it. I also bought a couple of adaptors one for a compact camera and another for my iphone. The results I have to say are not great or even good not a very sharp image and a hell of a lot of noise. Even with the help of photoshop they're still well below the standard I can get with my digital SLR. 
Here's a selection of images I've digiscoped.

a gathering of swallows with a couple of house martins before they set off on migration

ravens preening each other

raven

female kestrel

There would have been I feel some cracking images there especially the Kestrel but either me, the scope or the rest of my digiscoping equipment wasn't up to the job. I've done quite a lot of research on techniques, camera settings etc so I do feel I need to upgrade.

My darling wife bought for my birthday an Olivon scope and it's a cracker, the only trouble now is non of the adaptors fit over or on the eye piece so will have to search ebay for some adaptors that do, it's getting expensive this!
The two big factors that's making me battle on with it is the reach digiscoping gives you and some of the quality images you see in books and on the internet.
So hopefully I'll get it right and will be able to photograph distant birds and wildlife and share with you some quality images (fingers crossed) so lets go have a look on ebay. 

FIELDFARE

After photographing the redwings a couple of weeks ago I've been trying to get a pic of our other winter thrush the Fieldfare. There are plenty of both species about but getting close enough for an image has been proving quite difficult. Finally after many attempts I managed to get close enough to this individual to bag a couple of half decent shots.

fieldfare

  
Whilst concentrating on the Fieldfare this male Stonechat landed on a post nearby so I was able to get an image of him.

stonechat

With watching and photographing wildlife you never know what's going to turn up whilst driving down towards my house at night this Woodcock was on the side of the lane. Apologies for the pic but it was taken with my phone with the car headlights on the bird. As soon as the lights went off it the Woodcock took off onto the night.

Woodcock

With the Autumn migration coming to an end and winter starting to set in it will be interesting to see what else turns up.

FIRST TO ARRIVE

Redwings have just arrived over the last couple of days, no Fieldfare yet though. 
This winter thrush migrates here from Northern and Eastern Europe to spend our much warmer British winters here with us.

Redwing

This Reed Bunting was also sharing the berry tree.

reed bunting

Lets hope the Fieldfares start coming in soon otherwise all the berries will be gone.