Frosty like Monday Morning

An utterly glorious morning on Wanstead Flats. Out early for the continuing Wheatear hunt, there was a heavy frost, and one of those curious mists that hangs a foot or so off the ground, yet doesn't extend more than a few feet in the air, remaining a narrow band. Clear skies and a great sunrise. Naturally I didn't realise this until I got to the Flats, and then had to return home and get a different lens. I was glad I did.



Although there were no Wheatears to be found, it didn't matter. You only encounter these conditions very occasionally, and as soon as the sun comes up the frost melts and the mist evaporates. I didn't have much time, but tried to capture a little of it.



 

This stunning start was a portent of things to come. On reaching the West Copse, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker flew in immediately. It spent some time in a tree with two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and whilst watching it, a Green Woodpecker landed in a Hawthorn through the back. Woodpeckers done. Not sure how many places you can see all three species more or less simultaeneously, but I reckon that's pretty special.

The day got better though. Whilst job-hunting on the Flats mid-morning, I got a text from Mark P over at Stoke Newington which told of a Red Kite flying east. Could it? More importantly, could I? It could. I could. About half an hour later, looking in the approximate direction, I was stunned to find a distant raptor with corvids attached heading lazily east. Jizz very good for Kite, though at that range impossible to get any colour on it, nor see a forked tail. I'm ticking it on flight mode and wing length, which I reckon is good enough. If you think it that's bad, I know of people ticking it who didn't even see it, on the basis that if you draw a straight line between Stoke Newington and Wanstead it goes through their patch! I can't mention who of course, that would be totally wrong of me...

I didn't get the anticipated Common Buzzard, but a Peregrine headed towards WALTHAMSTOW was nice, and there were four Sparrowhawk in the air at once at one stage. A rather good day really.

 

Skylark, 1000mm, ISO 800, f8.0, 1/2000s - rock and roll!

Common (as muck) Buzzards

Bit of a Buzzard-fest today from the Raptor Watchpoint in Wanstead. I did almost nothing today. I cooked stuff on a barbeque, I inflated a paddling pool, I quaffed wine, and I looked at the sky. I also fell asleep in the sun, and parts of me have gone pink. Looking at the sky was the best bit. No fewer than four Common Buzzards went over the garden. I wasn't even actively scanning for them. I was lying on my back, head pointing up. Any birds flying to the left or to the right were missed, and I still saw four. The first three were really high, the final one, at half five, low and north-east. Four in a day is amazing, considering that before today I'd had five ever. Let me know if you want any more stats.

Other exciting news? Er......

There is something to be said for spending a day doing absolutely sweet FA. After grinding myself to the bone all week, slaving away over pots and pans, wrestling with dusters and so on, to have a day off was rather pleasant. Might do it again very soon.

Busy Week

Well, no traffic infractions this week, so I must have learned something from my course. In fact I just remembered another interesting tidbit, and one pertinent to birders; Most road fatalities in Britain occur between 2am and 7am on country roads. Presumably because people are tired and distance cannot be accurately judged, but also because nobody sees the incident, and so there is no speedy emergency response. Anyhow, on that cheery note, what has been happening this week in Wanstead? Nothing, thats what. No more Wheatears, no Sand Martins, no Willow Warblers, no hoped-for disoriented Garganeys. I tried, went out early mornings a couple of times, but nothing doing, bar a few joggers - none of whom assaulted me. A few more friendly Skylarks, but that was about it.





So I gave up on Wanstead and instead paid a visit to the long-staying Falcated Duck in Kent. Lovely bird, very fond of bread though. Can't quite bring myself to tick it, but I'll give Monkey directions...Nobody knows where it came from, but it has been at the same farm pond for several months, and it seems very happy, and frankly I was happy to see it. And I just heard that there are four Wood Ducks on Connaught Water in Epping Forest, and I reckon I would be quite happy to see them as well. Could be nice morning out with Charlotte.

"Tick me, you know you want to"

However, moving on to real birds, I put my Staines failure to bed with a visit to Trimley Marshes in Suffolk for the Ferruginous Duck that has been there this week, and actually managed to find it. For people thinking of doing the same, be aware that whilst it only takes an hour to drive to Trimley-St-Mary, it then takes a week and a half to actually walk down to the reserve. Miles. Had I dipped I would have been spitting. And probably crying. As it was, I came away flush with success, but the duck was at the far end of quite a long lake, and I could not even get a few pixels of it. I did find a nice frog though. I may take up Amphibian photography. Much easier, you can get really close, and they don't move, much less fly away. And presumably much less frantic twitching involved. I could start my list tomorrow and be done by Wednesday.

"What?"

Talking of which, I am able to continue my series of "Raptors in less than 100 pixels", as I managed to get a Gos today. Did you notice the way I cunningly linked those two paragraphs? I was quite pleased, given how tenuous this whole blog is. I was thinking of making it a competition, with a prize for the lowest number of pixels used to represent a raptor, but still have an identifiable bird. Here are two more particularly fine efforts.

And finally a surprise. Yet another awesome view of a Great Grey Shrike, but with a twist...

Yup, I got closer than 1km [hint: click...]