Urban Thrushes, a Whooper and a nice goose

Ed and I took a mini twitch to see the white fronted goose at Broom today - took a quite a few very cold minutes to get on to it and after it was located we enjoy distant but nie views - great stuff!

Also in there was a Barnacle gooose and after a while the whooper swan flew in. Here is a rubbis record shot, it really was a wintery scene: On the drive back we stumbled upon a massive flock of buntings and finches, containing predominantly yellowhammers but also corn buntings and reed buntings. Was a nice sight but as with everything at the mo you can't help but feel bad for what they are going through.

After this Ed and I sat in our cars by a berry filled bush and, despite the strange looks from some Civilians, enjoyed photographinh the winter thrushes attacking it (there are more pics on my flickr);

Fieldfare:Redwing:OK this one was flashed but it shows the lovely colours on the bird:Also visiting this small bush were song thrush, mistle thrush and blackbird - all the common winter thrushes -laaaavly

Dan

Snowy Stroll around Arlesey

A casual walk round Arlesey didn't produce what I hoped for but it was lovely to see some local birds that I wasn't expecting.

I started off the day heading back out to where I had seen lots of thrushes whilst dropping the missus to work. Redwing, fieldfare, blackbirds, songthrush and mistle thrush - I managed 2 decent-ish shots of a redwing and blackbird because they were rather flightly;Was nice to see so many but you can't help but feel sorry for what they are going through - keep your bird feeders full everyone!

After breakfast at home I noticed a pied wagtail in the garden so decided to cover the lawn in mealworms and nuts and lie down in the snow with the camera and wait - it didn't take long for it to come back:After a little while another wag came in and they engaged in a pretty hostile fight; all of which I bloody missed with the camera as it was so fast...well right up untill one had pinned the other in the snow behind the bird table:
After all this excitment Ed and I decided to take a walk down Arlesey Nature Reserve in hope of seeing water rail and kindfisher - both of which escaped us!

highlights were however:

15+ snipe feeding in the unfrozen ground near the river.
Grey Wagtail
Kestrel and Sprawk
Highlight for Ed- a Horse biting my head when I was trying to photograph the Grey Wag!

here are some record shots:Water from the weir was splashing the overhanging trees and freezing producing an impressive sight:All the best,

Dan

Hants day trip

Haven't posted for a while and have a few photos to share from my day trip with Ed and Ben - hope you like them;

The first few are from the New Forest - lovely spot where the birds are extremely tame!!
Many Nuthatch photos as I love them (great birds!!):Blue tit:Coal tit:Great tit:Marsh Tit:
and from the coast there where it was mega cold;

Meadow pip (taken using a 400mm f2.8 that some chap let me have a play with - weighed more than I did!):Turnstone:
We finished the day watching the Hawfinch roost in the New Forest - was lovely to be back in my second home county and looking forward to my next visit later in Jan.

Dan