Topic: Birds

A list of articles tagged with 'Birds'.
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Andy's Stag Do

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

Rough and ready, unedited set of pics from Andy's Loukes' stag do. There might be some dodgy quality ones, as I just uploaded as quickly as possible.

London, January 2006

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

A proper test of my new camera: London in the Winter sun. The lack of an image stabiliser coupled with the low light conditions made for some frustrations, but it wasn't as grainy as I thought when I first got it: I'd accidentally pressed the high speed button and got a high-ISO, very grainy pic. Also don't know how to use the rose properly - it's supposed to shield the lens from glare, but just ended up getting in the way of my wide-angled shots.

We weren't quite sure what the hell was going on when we started getting ushered down this covered roadway, until we ended up with a big crowd of people watching the Horse Guards doing their thing - so, a nice surprise in the end.

Peregrines, Chichester, March 2005

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

It seems like every year, after spending cash on better equipment, I get just slightly better photos of the Peregrines on Chichester Cathedral.

The first year, the pics I took were with a 3x zoom lens which just about captured enough information to identify the bird by shape. Last year the 10x zoom on my camera allowed me to see markings etc. This year the 10x zoom lens was beefed up with a 1.7x attachment, and you can just see the glint in the bird's eye, even if the pics are grainy and heavily cropped. Maybe next year I'll have a telescope attached to a camera, and get... well, just slightly better pictures.

Chichester and Fishbourne

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

This is my attempt at some solo birdwatching, which is to say, going out on a cold, windy day, take a lot of photographs, and hope that I can make them out when I'm back somewhere warm. A couple of short movies I took on the day didn't make the cut - I took them more to get the sounds of the Redshank warning calls, but all I got was the sound of the wind.

To cut to the chase, there's a lot of Redshank here, along with Dunlin, Oystercatcher, and Grey Plover. Oh, and the usual Mute Swan, gulls etc.

Clumber Park, January 2005

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

The Nottingham RSPB post-Christmas walk. A good day for Treecreepers, Nuthatches and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers; however, of the dozen or so shots I took of Treecreepers there was only one really good one. Better than none at all though!

Norfolk Birdwatching, December 2004

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

A trip to Norfolk, looking for King Eider at Titchwell, Rough-legged Buzzard, and Lesser Yellowlegs at Stiffkey. We got the latter, but the light was so bad that hardly anything came out from that leg of the trip - which is a shame, as we got some great views of Redshank on the banks of some of the channels.

Titchwell was pretty good for Robins - they came extremely close - and some waders, but the light was variable and so action shots were right out.

Attenborough, December 2004

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

Taken before the visitor's centre was opened - the door's still boarded up.

The reason there are twitchers in some of the photographs was due to the appearance of a Sora Rail, the photographs of which are elsewhere.

Sora Rail, December 2004

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

At the end of December a rare Sora Rail arrived in Nottinghamshire, a long way from its usual stomping grounds in America (perhaps migrating when it got pushed off course by one of the many hurricanes this year?). There have only been around a dozen ever seen in the UK, so it attracted quite a bit of attention. Some week or so after it first appeared I got a chance to see it in person, and after only a few minutes of waiting it not only appeared, but almost walked right up to the waiting crowd.

The photographs below show quite clearly what distinguishes this bird from other rails - the beak colour, the white on the tail, even the white dot near the eye.

Colwick Country Park, December 2004

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Gallery published by Richard Goodwin

These shots are from the Notts RSPB "Tinsel Walk" pre-Christmas trip to Colwick. There's some debate as to whether the Red Crested Pochards are countable - they seem to be in every other county, as they're now a self-sustaining population, but some people in Nottingham don't seem to agree.