Hawfinched

After trying and failing last weekend I was back at Rutland Water this morning. As I pulled into the car park at Egleton at 08.30 I could see Roger Davis, Dave Scott and Rod Baker amongst others scoping and photographing the trees above the toilet block. Result! The Hawfinch was there, problem as the light and as the light got better the Hawfinch moved further back before vanishing completely. Oh well, I think my digiscoped and iPhone shots came out best but see what you think.

The first two digiscoped.

Hawfinch

Hawfinch

These next two were shot on the Canon 40D and processed in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop. They’re pretty heavy crops as well…

Hawfinch

Hawfinch

This last one was taken on the iPhone 4S using Kowa’s excellent TSN-IP4S adaptor through a Kowa 883 Spotting Scope with the 30x WW lens. I’m well chuffed with the quality.

Hawfinch

Finally a bit of HD video again taken on the iPhone with Kowa TSN-IP4S and using the FiLMiC Pro app.

 

 

 

 

Redwing

After another look at the 1w male Velvet Scoter at Swithland Reservoir, Leigh and I went over to Rutland Water to dip on the Hawfinch yet again… typically the bloody thing showed on a Monday!

To kill a bit of time I tried photographing a few of the Redwing. This is about the only shot that’s anything like ok.

Redwing

Black Velvet

Until just before lunch this blog was going to be called Cherry Choke. Why? Well I decided to head to Rutland Water first thing to see if I could photograph the Hawfinch that’s been hanging around the car park for a couple of days. No joy before the freezing rain and then a know-nothing twat who decided to tell Ian Leaver and myself where the wardens had recently shown him cracked Cherry stones that have been caused by resident Hawfinch. I did cough a bullshit! at one  point.

Anyway back at home I was just settling down to listen live to Fighting Talk when the Twitter feed went off. Not one but two Velvet Scoter at Swithland Reservoir. A quick dash up there to find no birders and the sun making viewing difficult. I soon picked up one bird before Ben Croxtall and Andy Forrayan arrived. I was pretty sure the first bird was a 1W male and this caused some discussion. I then found a female much further away.

Moving round to Kinchley Lane we got very close to this cracking 1W male… I knew I was right. The female kept well out of the way over by the viaduct.

Velvet Scoter

Velvet Scoter

This photo should show the yellow on the bill just starting to show which along with the brownish, coal-black plumage ages it. At sea I guess it would just go down as Velvet Scoter…

Velvet Scoter

To keep in with my original title here’s a bit of the excellent Cherry Choke and Domino.

Going To The Chapel

And we’re gonna get Hawfinch.

Up early this morning Leigh and headed out first to Clumber Park. Arriving just after sunrise the Chapel looks pretty damned gorgeous in the early morning light.

Chapel Of Our Lady

Chapel Of Our Lady

Our main quarry here were the bloody elusive Hawfinch. Numbers seem to be in decline with only ones and twos getting reported but thankfully it didn’t take too much searching to pick up this one. Sadly it never showed out in the open.

Hawfinch

We moved back down the road looking for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but despite plenty of other sightings we were always behind, the best we had was one flying between trees that I promptly lost again.

It was now time to head to a site I’d been tipped off about for Long-eared Owl. A couple of wrong turns and we finally found the site entrance and headed in to the site. We soon found the general area but my directions made me wonder, the place I’d been told to look seemed to have been part-cleared so a quick call into ASBO HQ and I was soon in possession of a number for Rich Collis. He soon had us in the right spot and I quickly for the birds. How many birds can you find? All the birds are in the photo.

Long-eared Owl

A Leo Scoping LEO

Our final destination was RSPB Blacktoft Sands for the raptor roost. Plenty of Tree Sparrow around the feeders. A conservative estimate of roosting Marsh Harrier was 30 birds with two female Hen Harrier and at least one Barn Owl.

Tree Sparrow

Pochard

Cumulonimbus