Wednesday 29 April 2009

COLLARED FLYCATCHER!!!

News broke yesterday of a collard flycatcher at portland but details were a little sketchy, probably because it was in someones back garden.

However today after getting back from my lectures I saw it was viewable frmo the road, so after some gentle pressure on the guys we headed over to see it.

On the way a pied fly was reported nearby aswell, this is a bogy bird for me so I was very excited by this point.

After breaking the land speed record with Sam as my co-driver and Robbie for emotional back up we arrive to find a decent crowd of people:(Crowd pics from Sam White: http://www.birdportfolio.co.uk/ well worth a look!)

The bird was visable right away and what a bid it was!!!! Stunning and a lovely male aswell, after shooting off a few recordshots of the bird I just watched it, working the tree and 'flycatching', it was fantastic!! right here are some EXTREMELY dodgy record shots:They don't do the bird justice but the view I had through I very kind blokes scope did!!

Happy with our views we went in search of the pied fly at reap lane, but no luck :( dip again with the pied :(. there was a steady trickle of swallows going past and heading north the whole time. the depression of missing another pied fly was nothing a quick trip back to see the collard couldn't sort out. After seeing it again we headed home, via a Morrisons salad bar, with smiley faces!

The next bit seems a little silly...
I have now seen spotted fly (obviously) ('phonescoped' hence bad quality as I didn't have my Dslr then):red-breasted fly (bedfordshire) and collard fly....but NO pied fly..when will I ever see one?!?

Great day with the team

Dan

2 comments:

Edward Taylor said...

Awesome pics mate! Collared Fly is defo much better looking than Crested Lark. Brilliant tick!

Marcus Conway said...

We have loads of pied fly's up here - send us a collared please!
Nice blog.

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