Tuesday 7 February 2012

Keep it small.

Sunday was a bit overcast but the football and rugby were taking up most of the day after a quick walk in the morning. Three Wigeon and the odd stag were the best of the day. 
Monday was an absolute stunner with blue sly, no wind and 9 degrees!! It was the ideal conditions to dig out some of the small stuff that I haven't seen this year. I got a trio of goodies as soon as I arrived with 4 Skylark scurrying about amongst six Reed Bunting...
...and a Pied Wagtail not too far away.
The Starling flock was up to a couple of hundred birds - cracking birds.
I could see another flock of small birds sitting on the wires a few hundred yards away but just too far to ID them. I walked up the road to get a better view picking up Kestrel, Hen Harrier and 120 strong flock of Barnacle Geese. I'd seen the small birds drop to the ground so all I had to do was find them without disturbing them. A bit of careful walking and I had them in my sights and a bit of patience and they had made their way towards me - 14 Twite were the prize.
The male House Sparrows were looking very smart as they kept an eye on the ladies.
The next stop was for the reptiles, surely they would be on show in this heat! I checked the area carefully and finally located one basking in full view.
I was happy with the haul for the day so I decided to park up and just see what would come by. Plenty of stuff out on the loch with the highlights being a Slavonian Grebe, one Black-throated Diver, plenty of Razorbill and an Oystercatcher that was in full display mode - he never shut up and flew past every couple of minutes.
One more stunner before the day was done - a male Siskin on the feeder.

3 comments:

Stuart P said...

Great photographs Bryan

Tammy said...

Great series of photos Bryan!

Bryan Rains said...

Cheers folks.