Blue-winged teal

Blue winged teal, Paxton Pits;

And the prize for the worst ever photo of a golden oriole goes to...

ME!!!

Photographing bats...

...not such an easy tasks:
photos were taken on manual set up and manually focused in very low light, as you can tell!

perhaps something to work on as it would make a creat capture if you get lucky!

Arlesey NR Macro Debut

Arlesey Nature Reserve seems alive at the mo and full of colour...
Garden Warbler, Blackcap, chiffchaff, wren etc etc all singing away whilst I was there. The added bonus of a great spotted woodpeckers nest was nice.

Large Red and Banded Demoiselle were patrolling the rides in the wood and mosquitos were EVERYWHERE!!

I concentrated on the Macro photos (must get a 100mm macro!!!)

I was really pleased with this one but can't decide which crop I like best so here are both:
When returning I caught up with the grey wag family that have recently fledged, here is one of the youngsters:
A return visit for some more 'macroing' is certainly in order!

Derby Dippers

Dipper were the main target of our trip to The Peak District. We started at Lathkil Dale where we saw 2 dippers but they were both less than confiding! the numerous redstart and colourful grey wagtails kepts us occupied however.

From there we moved on to Padley Gorge and found one dipper in particular that carried on visiting it's nest numerous time whilst Ed and I watch for over an hour. What a lovely bird this was posing in many different places but on an unfortunatly gloomy afternoon. I'm still really please with the photos and plan to return to see these Charasmatic little birds....Strange one of it up in a tree...

Famous Grouse

I know, it was an obvious title.

I thought these would be boring birds but they were really good fun. This added with the fact that they are endemic to Britain made for a fun photography session despite less than perfect light - another visit may be in order...sneaky one behind a rock:
Taken at Stanage Edge in The Peak District, May 2010

Shaolin Kez

I was out on my bike round Arlesey NR and stumbled across this little chap...
He couldn't fly so tried running :-(. When I caught up he layed on his back and when ever I went near he went for me with both bill and talons!! I had to de-robe and wrap him in my top - hence the Shaolin look!

So here I was walking out of Arlesey NR half naked with a Kestrel in one hand and my bike in the other! Unfortunatly this coincided with the arrival of a rush hour train - great!!

I put him up for the night and went for a test flight the next day but to no avail - off to the vets it was and he is now at a wildlife centre being looked after...I miss him!It's not known what was wrong with him as neither I nor the vet (who is actually qualified to inspect!) could find a problem...
fingers crossed for him!

Playing in Poo

There is a great photography spot nearish to my house where birds are attracted to the insects swarming around manure left out by a farmer.

Best thing to do is sit in your car and wait but I decided to go for a wallow, there is some nice variety here:

Reed Bunting:Yellow Wagtail:Wheatear:Almost a White Wagtail: