Recently I mentioned on this blog that I've been suffering from a bit of a photographic 'drought' for several weeks. On Tuesday I decided to do what I usually do to fix such a situation - go to Cannock Chase!!! It was a bit of a grey day, but what the heck!
I found another birder at my favourite spot, who told me that the Yellowhammers and Bullfinches were absent, for some reason, and it was mainly Coal Tits in the area. I set up my hide, and sorted out my 'bait' for the birds, and found that I was surrounded before I finished putting out the bait. I've never seen the birds so eager to feed here! OK, so the birds were a little mundane, but I always like to see Nuthatch, the Willow Tits were in much greater numbers than I've seen here before, the Bullfinches did put in an appearance eventually, a Goldcrest kept flitting into view and flitting out again (no images of that one), and just before I left I had a distant view of a bird which gave me a 'year tick' (and which I'd not seen at all in 2009) - last image on this posting! Due to the dull weather, the images aren't brilliant, but I came away feeling great!
I found another birder at my favourite spot, who told me that the Yellowhammers and Bullfinches were absent, for some reason, and it was mainly Coal Tits in the area. I set up my hide, and sorted out my 'bait' for the birds, and found that I was surrounded before I finished putting out the bait. I've never seen the birds so eager to feed here! OK, so the birds were a little mundane, but I always like to see Nuthatch, the Willow Tits were in much greater numbers than I've seen here before, the Bullfinches did put in an appearance eventually, a Goldcrest kept flitting into view and flitting out again (no images of that one), and just before I left I had a distant view of a bird which gave me a 'year tick' (and which I'd not seen at all in 2009) - last image on this posting! Due to the dull weather, the images aren't brilliant, but I came away feeling great!
Nuthatch
This Nuthatch had a worrying looking growth on the back of its head.
Coal Tit
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Willow Tit
Greenfinch (male)
Robin
Chaffinch (male)
DunnockWhilst in my hide, a couple of Redwing passed through, I managed a distant shot.
Redwing
Bullfinch (female)
Bullfinch (male)
Long-tailed TitAfter about three hours in the hide, I suddenly found that I was not alone any more. A 'mother and baby' group of about a dozen young mothers had chosen this spot to meet up. It got a bit noisy! I decided to take a walk through the woods, and found Fallow Deer in several places (virtually no birds seen, however).
Fallow DeerAfter half an hour or so I returned to my car and was about to leave (I'd promised my wife that I'd be back early to take her out for an Indian), when the cloud started to thin and it got a bit brighter. I didn't put up the hide again but spent a while just looking - suddenly I had a distant glimpse of what looked like a Brambling but then it disappeared when some dog walkers disturbed it. It eventually returned to a distant position, but I did manage a record shot.
Woodpigeon
BramblingWhat a way to end a brilliant day - nearly 500 frames taken in a shade over four hours! Drought over!!!!
What a stunning set of photos Richard. Haven't checked out your site in a while, and am enjoying going back through your posts.
ReplyDeleteAmazing for 4 hours. :-)
Thank you Glen. Good to hear from you again. This place has never let me down yet, but sometimes it gets a bit busy with the 'general public' (mainly dog walkers and cyclists), as well as birders. I shot off just under 500 frames in the 4 hours - took five times that time to sort through them (as always!).
ReplyDeleteJust noticed - must have had a 'senior moment' when I originally labelled the Coal Tits as Long-tailed Tit.
ReplyDelete