Sheep Egret

I was out and about early on Saturday morning (23.2.08), searching for a Firecrest which had been seen a little north of Peterborough, when I got a call. Brian Stone had seen an egret fly past his house (just west of Peterborough) and was "as certain as I can be" that it was a Cattle Egret. Now, there have been loads in the country recently (perhaps 85 in total), but this was still something special for around here.

Brian declared that he was committed to going off to relocate the bird, but, though I made as encouraging noises as I could muster, this was surely wild-goose-in-a-haystack stuff. I had little hope for the poor fellow.

An hour later, though, and Brian was calling again. The bird was in a sheep field near Fotheringhay, Northants (but still in the Peterborough recording area).

So, when I got home, I rudely bundled the entire Weedon family into the car, delivered my daughter to her singing lesson and took Jo and Eddie on a Cattle Egret hunt.

Half an hour later I was hobbling as fast as I could in the direction of a distant Brian Stone. The egret was wandering around the fields getting bullied by butting lambs, and I never really saw it feed (so, it seemed likely to move on, soon). But it was there and very pleasurable on the eye.

A mere handful of hardcore Peterborian birders saw the bird, and another fistful of the Northants brigade. By midday, though, the bird was apparently seen by no-one else and there are one or two local birders left in a deeply-frustrated state of dipping anguish.

At the current invasion rate, though, surely the next Cattle Egret won't be long coming...

Norfolk DSLR-ing

Bittern



Snow Buntings

Turnstone

Common Gull

Digiscoping technique (A640)

Bird Watching magazine editor Kevin Wilmot adopts the handheld digiscoping pose for the Canon PowerShot A640.

I've recently had quite a few calls asking how I go about digiscoping with my Canon PowerShot A640 (which I use with a Kowa TSN-823 scope and 32xW eyepiece)

In the Digiscoping Made Easy DVD I used a PowerShot A95 with a sort of metal tube (a Lensmate) clipped onto a bayonet fitting on the camera. The tube slides neatly into the scope eyepiece, centring the camera and holding it just the right distance from the eyepiece – there was no vignetting at any magnification and it worked beautifully.
I upgraded to the A640 because it has twice the megapixels (10 rather than 5) and the macro is amazing (with an incredible close-focus distance of about 1cm).

The downside is that there isn't a convenient Lensmate-equivalent to connect for digiscoping.

Fear not, though, there is an easy solution – plastic tubing.

Below is the step-by-step guide to how I do my digiscoping. To align the camera with the scope eyepiece, I simply use a plastic ring cut from some plastic piping from a DIY store.


I use one of two rings. The deeper one lifts the camera slightly further away from the eypiece, to stop vignetting at the lowest camera magnifcation. The thinner one is for when the camera is slightly zoomed in. (I worked out the distance by measuring how far back I needed the camera until the vignetting disappeared).

If I am going to be digiscoping all I do is whip out the relevant ring, comme ça...

...then I pop the ring in the scope's eyepiece.

So, it looks like this.

Then all I need to do is insert my camera's lens in the tube.

So, you end up with a set-up looking like this...

...or, if you like, this...

Then you snap away. Here, once more, is Kevin Wilmot impersonating my digiscoping technique beautifully...

Norfolk digiscoping

Bittern


Snow Bunting

Teal

White-crowned Sparrow


Turnstone
Aaaah, a day in Norfolk in sunshine with two cameras: sheer bliss. Life without plaster is so good. Shame I could hardly keep my eyes open (neighbour noise). Still, I had the best views I've ever had of a Bittern, a visit to the White-crowned Sparrow and a chance to digiscope some close Snow Buntings and Turnstones.

Of course, all pix are clickable, so go back up and click them!

I took quite a few DSLR shots as well, but these will appear later.

Thanks very much for taking me, Kevin du Rose!

...for luck

Spiders' Webland

BNG... a slight return

Black-necked Grebe

It was a beautiful frozen morning today, and I took the opportunity to go out on my own for the first time this year (which sounds like I am what is technically termed a nutter), driving down to Orton Brick Pit to search for the Black-necked Grebe (further evidence?).

The bird was easily found near 'the mound', but straightaway swam far out.

I met the bird's finder, Dave Bradley (and his black lab) and he assured me that the bird spends more time close in than not and is not perturbed by humans.

While I waited, though, I tried a few sketches...

However, it wasn't until the farmer of the adjacent land set off an extremely loud explosive rocket, panicking all the birds, that the grebe swam back to its favourite corner, where I was waiting. Oh, for more time...

Also seen this morning were two Green Woodpeckers, Kingfisher, Great Spotted Woodpecker, two Red-crested Pochards and a few pairs of displaying Goldeneye, including a female with her head down inviting a drake to climb aboard. He didn't quite seem to know what to do, so showed her his orange feet one at a time, instead!

Barn Owl

Barny and Kes

This Kestrel was pestering the Barn Owl for what appears to be vole it is carrying.

Gullage at Dogsthorpe Tip

Glaucous Gull and friends



1st-winter Iceland Gull

Adult Caspian Gull

1st-winter Caspian Gull (with deformed bill)
Went gulling today with John Wright and Kevin Du Rose, with a cameo appearance by Brian Stone. We spent the morning at Dogsthorpe Tip, Peterborough and amassed the following highlights:
Glaucous Gull, 1, 1st-winter,
Iceland Gull, 1, 1st-winter,
Caspian Gull, 2, adult and 1st-winter,
Yellow-legged Gull, 2, 2nd-winters
Here are the digiscoped shots.

Iceland Gull

African Jacana

Vervets at the waterhole

Red-backed Shrike

Rock Hyraxes

Learning to walk

My plaster came off on Tuesday evening – earlier than I had been led to expect. Still, nearly seven weeks resting my right leg has caused it to be forgetful. So, I am having to slowly teach myself to walk again.

I'm hopeful that I will still get a chance to see that Orton Brick Pit Black-necked Grebe, now...

Putting binoculars to good use

Grapes

Barn Owls

Dovekie video

Little Auks, Snettisham, Norfolk, 5.11.06
Canon PowerShot A95 with Kowa TSN-823M + 32xW

This Little Auk was one of a couple at Snettisham, Norfolk, late in 2006. It was particularly tame, and you may well hear the sound of the assembled photographers' shutters giving it some welly. It wasn't bothered, though, believe me...

Cute baby rhino

In a nutshell, I'm now using Firefox to blog, and it has opened up the world of Blogger videos. So, I'm going to post some of my old archive videos, which have never surfaced on the web before.

Here is one I took with my old Canon PowerShot A95 at Mkuze, South Africa, in July 2006. I was on a digiscoping trip with Swarovski Optik and we'd spent the day in the area. We had a quick last dash to the waterhole hide before we had to leave the closing park. It was our one last chance to see a White Rhino, and we got lucky – two mother rhinos were there with their young babies.

This little fellow is particularly plucky-looking in a hide-behind-mummy sought of way. Note that she only has one ear!

Waterski-ing hummingbird

I found this video (among my old Peru pics) of Purple-collared Woodstars coming down to bathe at the tiny pool connecting ponds at the lodge at Chaparri, northern Peru (digiscoped video).

About 11 seconds in, one of them comes sliding in from the left, gliding across the surface like a waterskier. Check it out.