Demons Of The Swamp Vol.3

Fans of The Cramps will get the title and if you don’t like The Cramps a. What is wrong with you? b. Why are we friends? Maybe we’re not.

Anyway, a blog post. First in a year? Does anyone still read blogs? If so read on.

Yesterday I went on my first twitch in absolutely ages. What did I twitch? A Purple Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio, some call it Western Swamphen, I still prefer Purple Gallinule. Will it ever be accepted onto the BOU British List? I doubt it but then Chinese Pond Heron made so maybe.

Anyway one arriving at RSPB Minsmere we were soon watching Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station. I mean the Swampmonster.

Sizewell B

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphen

After a while of watching the Swampdonkey walk round a pool a sort of purple haze descends on a man and it was time to head off to the visitor centre to buy some china tea cloths or something and a coffee and bacon butty.

Around the centre, as well as the stench of composting toilets, are lots of Buddleia bushes. These attracted a steady stream of insects and a steady stream of photographers.

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Peacock & Red Admiral

By now we needed to see more birds and better insects so yomped a whole 300m to look at the Stone Curlew, two adults and a chick. Can’t be too many places you can see Purple Gallinule and Stone Curlew in the same reserve.

Back towards the centre we dipped Pantaloon Bee but scored with the Beewolves and a bonus if somewhat shy Purple Hairstreak.

Beewolf

Beewolf

Purple Hairstreak

We finished our day watching a pair of Honey Buzzard put on a full flight display over Westwood Lodge at Walberswick. The three lifers in the day Brian Moore’s granddaughter Rosie certainly hit a purple patch!

All photos were either iPhonescoped (still or 4K video) or taken using the camera on the iPhone 6S. Stills from video were taken using the StillShot app.

 

 

 

Phonescoping Workshops

After plenty of emails back and forth, I’m pleased to announce my first phonescoping workshops at RSPB Titchwell on 1 November 2013. For details see here.

iPhonescoping

After work today I dropped into Thornton Reservoir to catch up with the Black-necked Grebe. A lovely little bird that showed pretty well at the Village end of the Reservoir. This species is one of the few where I prefer the American name – Eared Grebe. I still prefer Slavonian Grebe to Horned Grebe though. Apart from Pied-billed Grebe, Slav is the only one I need for Thornton now.

I took a good few images with the Coolpix P310 but I wanted to do some iPhonescoping so out came the Kowa TSN-IP4S adaptor. I cranked up the zoom on the eyepiece to 40x and did a few test shots before it moved too far out. The ones using Camera+ app came out better than the Kowa Telecamera app. I couldn’t get my exposure right due to the glare off the water.
Before I could do any video the bird swam out of range.

To finish the image I cropped and processed it in Snapseed.