What birds or bird have you seen today – communal thread, I hope!

Forecast says it will clear mid-morning so may get out even yet :)
 
Thats held together well after the crop.

Cheers Mike, yes, it seems these little cameras can crop quite well.


Another Saturday, another session, went to "Twitch" for a Purple Sandpiper on the weekend, got lucky with the afternoon weather too, the clouds/rain blew over, to give good low winter sunshine for a few hours. 80 miles round trip, but it was worth the effort.

Cheers Paul.


Purple Sandpiper.
Purple Sandpiper (uncropped). Hampton Pier. 30th-Jan-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr

At times, i got too close to the little beauty! whilst sneaking up on the bird, grovelling over the beach pebbles! Got some weird looks from the local people passing by, but who cares!
Purple Sandpiper. Hampton Pier. 30th-Jan-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr


Common Gull.
Common Gull (uncropped). Hampton Pier 30th-Jan-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr

Turnstone.
Turnstone. Hampton Pier. 30th-Jan-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr
 
SOOC, apart from a crop, ISO 3200 but its a record shot and a first for me :)

I managed to get this through a gap in a mass of branches whilst waiting for a Goldrest I'd spotted earlier that never showed again
shakehead.gif


Treecreeper

Treecreeper by Phil D, on Flickr
 
A couple of lunchtime "sorties" from work this week, saw me trying to locate a reported flock of 80 Brambling, and 50 Twite!!. Ive seen several Brambling before, but not a Twite.
Unfortunately, i could not find either flock of bird.

However, i did come across the reported huge flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing...Not high numbers of Redwing, but massive numbers of Fieldfare!!!...Im talking 100's, at least 500!

I might try for the Brambling/Twite flocks this Sunday?...who knows, i might get lucky? ;)
 
A couple of lunchtime "sorties" from work this week, saw me trying to locate a reported flock of 80 Brambling, and 50 Twite!!. Ive seen several Brambling before, but not a Twite.
Unfortunately, i could not find either flock of bird.

However, i did come across the reported huge flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing...Not high numbers of Redwing, but massive numbers of Fieldfare!!!...Im talking 100's, at least 500!

I might try for the Brambling/Twite flocks this Sunday?...who knows, i might get lucky? ;)

Good luck!

What do use by the way, birdguides.com maybe?

My friend pointed me to it and I subscribed to the extra service for a month. Saw the Glossy Ibis down at Pett Level and then went and looked for the Great Grey Shrike in Ashdown Forest. Nowhere to be seen though, a lot of birders that were there were disappointed as they'd been there for hours!

I haven't had the urge to look for anything else lately as the sun is only ever out when I'm working - which isn't a bad thing being a window cleaner! Typically, my day off, Sunday, is family day with the wife and kids and it's always gloomy to boot :)
 

Why didn't you set the DRL Phil?
…feels like you posted without any PP!!!
 

Why didn't you set the DRL Phil?
…feels like you posted without any PP!!!

Yes, very little pp. Like my Treecreeper above, just record shots, I'm of the belief that this is the main aim of the thread, post what you've seen, although there are some very good quality images posted, cheers :)

Edit- Something else I've just noticed again as well, this is another of my images that is suffering for loss in IQ when posted to the forums from Flickr! I've put a note into admin in the 'what can we do better on TP' thread but it appears to have been over looked for now
 
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I'm of the belief that this is the main aim of the thread, post what you've seen, although there are some very good quality images posted, cheers :)

You're right Phil, it's mainly just post, for fun, what you've seen today. Mainly record shots, though like you say, there are some brilliant shots which could warrant a thread of their own (y)
 
Quick question :-

I was sitting out in my garden for a couple of hours this morning, in my portable hide. I was photographing the birds, obviously :) I had my camera on Raw (as always) with the white balance set to Auto. I use LR and PS for processing my images.

I got to thinking about the white balance as I normally change it with the eyedropper tool in LR. But as I was shooting birds, many images didn't have any grey for me to click on to set the WB.

So I wondered about getting a grey card for my WB but would that be beneficial?

The reason I ask is that whilst sitting in my hide, the light kept changing. One minute it was sunny, next it was cloudy, then it was raining. Would you have to use the grey card for each of these weather conditions or would just the first pic do?
 
First time out yesterday for a while due to weather and family things,got no warning this was coming luckily i had the camera ready set from the previous subject.

DSC_5364.jpg
 
Good luck!

What do use by the way, birdguides.com maybe?

My friend pointed me to it and I subscribed to the extra service for a month. Saw the Glossy Ibis down at Pett Level and then went and looked for the Great Grey Shrike in Ashdown Forest. Nowhere to be seen though, a lot of birders that were there were disappointed as they'd been there for hours!

I haven't had the urge to look for anything else lately as the sun is only ever out when I'm working - which isn't a bad thing being a window cleaner! Typically, my day off, Sunday, is family day with the wife and kids and it's always gloomy to boot :)

I use K.O.S....as in - Kent Ornithological Society, i check whats going on locally a couple of times a day. Theres some serious Birders on there, so they will know about any new/fresh/interesting sightings. Ive said this before, Im a lazy, part time birder ;) so if the bird aint in Kent, then i aint going for it!!!

I work all week too, so i tend to pick the best day on the weekend for wildlife photography. Ive done all that wife an kids on the weekend stuff (havent we all?!) So now i insist i get one day a week on my own, for my hobby ;).
 
Had a good session on Sunday, sighted at least 6 Buzzards, both male and female Sparrowhawk, female Kestrel, a lovely female Blackcap, and various other woodland birds.
Still no sign of the Brambling or Twite though! Some locals did see some Bramblings but i "dipped out" on them once again.

Some images, cheers Paul.

Female Kestrel.
Female Kestrel. 7th-Feb-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr

Female Sparrowhawk with prey.
Sparrowhawk with prey. 7th-Feb-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr

Female Blackcap.
Female Blackcap, feeding on Apple. 7th-Feb-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr

Fieldfare.
Fieldfare. 7th-Feb-2016. by Testudo Man, on Flickr
 
I use K.O.S....as in - Kent Ornithological Society, i check whats going on locally a couple of times a day. Theres some serious Birders on there, so they will know about any new/fresh/interesting sightings. Ive said this before, Im a lazy, part time birder ;) so if the bird aint in Kent, then i aint going for it!!!

I work all week too, so i tend to pick the best day on the weekend for wildlife photography. Ive done all that wife an kids on the weekend stuff (havent we all?!) So now i insist i get one day a week on my own, for my hobby ;).

I'm on the K.O.S facebook group and I do check their webpage occasionally. They're a very helpful bunch and I love the pics that Warren puts up and Mark with his Birds of Prey :)

I've just taken a look on the KOS page, the bird headlines are where it's at! Thanks for pointing me there (y)
 
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Sorry about the carp quality,i only took them because of the white on it,first Cormorant i have seen with (now i cant remember the name of it) white in the wrong places.

DSC_5397.jpg

DSC_5405.jpg
 
Not posted for a while as just the usual visitors to the garden. Toady managed a grab shot of a Buzzard going over the house today. There was a pair, but couldn't manage to capture them both in frame. At times struggled to get one due to the trees. Huge crops, about 70%.

Kites where a little to far away for me yesterday, hopefully the rain will stop a bit and I get further chances over the next few weeks.

DSC_8639 by Swansea Jack, on Flickr

DSC_8633 by Swansea Jack, on Flickr
 
SOOC, apart from a crop, ISO 3200 but its a record shot and a first for me :)

I managed to get this through a gap in a mass of branches whilst waiting for a Goldrest I'd spotted earlier that never showed again
shakehead.gif


Treecreeper

Treecreeper by Phil D, on Flickr
Great photo, love this little birds and you got it captured well. Not easy as they seem to spiral round and out of sight whenever I've tried to photograph them.
 
Had quite a decent day over at RSPB Blacktoft Sands nr Goole, watching the Marsh Harriers. There were at least half a dozen, a Barn Owl and a Short-eared Owl, all flying at the same time once over, just a shame they were all,what seemed like, miles away..........well they might as well of been! :banghead: :D

Still good to watch though and another species to tick off mi list. What was interesting, was a Grey Heron stood along one of the reed edges and a Marsh Harrier saw it off, they had quite a spat, again, far far away but I got a couple of very poor record shots!

The sun shone 95% of the time, apart from when this Redshank flew across the water at the closest we came to any bird all day, but I did manage a couple of shots as it passed

Quick edit and hopefully resized correctly.

Redshank by Phil D, on Flickr
 
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I'm on the K.O.S facebook group and I do check their webpage occasionally. They're a very helpful bunch and I love the pics that Warren puts up and Mark with his Birds of Prey :)

I've just taken a look on the KOS page, the bird headlines are where it's at! Thanks for pointing me there (y)

I dont do facebook, and the KOS forum is as "Dead as a Dodo", but i often check on Warrens Blog, he has built up a very good selection of garden birds, that frequent his feeding stations.

Yes, i should have been more specific about searching the KOS website...I click on latest sightings, then click on all sightings...This will give you a daily sightings of all the local Kent birds. In the past 5 years, ive used KOS to locate all the winter Waxwings weve had visit Kent. I didnt visit every location for these stunning birds!! but i did sight Waxwings in Snodland, West Malling, East Malling, Tovil, Staplehurst, and even found my own flock of 40 Waxwings a couple of years ago!

Cheers Paul.
 
I dont do facebook, and the KOS forum is as "Dead as a Dodo", but i often check on Warrens Blog, he has built up a very good selection of garden birds, that frequent his feeding stations.

Yes, i should have been more specific about searching the KOS website...I click on latest sightings, then click on all sightings...This will give you a daily sightings of all the local Kent birds. In the past 5 years, ive used KOS to locate all the winter Waxwings weve had visit Kent. I didnt visit every location for these stunning birds!! but i did sight Waxwings in Snodland, West Malling, East Malling, Tovil, Staplehurst, and even found my own flock of 40 Waxwings a couple of years ago!

Cheers Paul.

Brilliant, thank you for that. Staplehurst is only 5 minutes up the road from me so I'll keep an eye out for when the Waxwings return in the future! ;)
 
Had quite a decent day over at RSPB Blacktoft Sands nr Goole, watching the Marsh Harriers. There were at least half a dozen, a Barn Owl and a Short-eared Owl, all flying at the same time once over, just a shame they were all,what seemed like, miles away..........well they might as well of been! :banghead: :D

Still good to watch though and another species to tick off mi list. What was interesting, was a Grey Heron stood along one of the reed edges and a Marsh Harrier saw it off, they had quite a spat, again, far far away but I got a couple of very poor record shots!

The sun shone 95% of the time, apart from when this Redshank flew across the water at the closest we came to any bird all day, but I did manage a couple of shots as it passed

Quick edit and hopefully resized correctly.

Redshank by Phil D, on Flickr
That's a nice image you have taken, lovely bird too.
 
That's a really nice capture of the Kestrel Phil, the light is very different but I like it.
 
That's a really nice capture of the Kestrel Phil, the light is very different but I like it.

Thanks Chris, it was taken just as the sun was setting below the Pennine hills
 
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