Washington WWT

Had a wander around WWT Washington on Thursday, the light was poor again but we had a brilliant day out with our kids.

The above Sparrowhawk hit something small in a bush right outside of the hawthorn hide (I think it was a longtail tit but didn't have time to see.) then quickly carried it off to eat in the woods.

After sitting in the hide for a while we headed off around the centre where I spotted a couple of different 'birds' above us, the first was a very high flying Eurofighter and the next was G-HEMS - air ambulance - Pride of Cumbria.

My last image was taken on the Wednesday at Wallington Hall but I thought i'd add it to todays posting.

None of the images are good quality but considering the weather conditions lately and my poor knowledge of my still new to me 50D i'm happy enough with what I got.

St Marys 11-10-10

 

had a short spell at St Marys again today trying to get some better light than what I had yesterday but it was just as bad.

The bluetail was once again showing well but kept its distance but I had more luck with the Goldcrests.

Hope you like them?

Nice talking to Brian today too, if I can help you with your 50D Brian please ask - i'm no expert but i'm getting reasonable results with mine now (I think)

St Marys 10-10-10

Called into St Mary's today to see what was about and managed to see the Red flanked blue tail but couldn't get any decent images of it.

The coast has had one of the biggest falls of migrants in recent years today with goldcrests everywhere (litterally everywhere!) but amongst them I found a lovely male siskin who just didn't care about me being near to it and continued feeding as if I wasn't there!

Here's a few from my trip out today - the weather was horrendous and light was almost none existant but the pics turned out nice all the same.

any id help on the next two below please? I think the first is a chiffchaff and second possible barred warbler or female black cap ?

Blyth's Female Eiders

Had a look down the harbour today and managed a few nice (ish) Eider shots.

There's several females in the harbour now and a couple of males - the males however didn't want to be photographed today apart from one that came in really close, getting down low enough for a decent shot was a little tricky.



St Marys Kestrel

managed a walk along the dunes at St Marys yesterday and caught glimps of this Kestrel

there wasnt much else about - just the usual waders, greenfinch, goldfinch and apparently a Merlin but I thought the bird in question was actually this Kestrel!

bored with all this poor weather today I decided to have a walk along the banks of the local river - the Blyth.

Plenty to watch on the mud flats but not really close enough to get decent images of them but I managed a few just for a test of the higher ISO of my new 50D

There were large numbers of Gulls, Redshank, Godwits, Herons, Curlew, Oystercatchers, Cormorants and a few of the little ones in these pics which I think are plovers of some kind ( I'm not very good with wader ID's!.).

Hope you like them