A Mixed Bag Afternoon - on 5th January, 2017

Thursday brought around my regular afternoon out with pal, John. It was John's turn to drive so he had the choice of destination, but I had a pretty fair idea as to where we would be going!

We started off by heading to Loughborough, where the Waxwings were still being seen, although the numbers had dropped. We arrived to find plenty of people there watching them. They were spread out through the area, as the birds were visiting several bushes. However, by the bush that I wanted to be by, there was a small mini-line of photographers rather closer to the bush than I was happy with. The choice was join them, or stand further back with the potential for them obscuring the shot. We chose to join them. I set up for flight shots, but soon realised that this was too close to the flight action to give the result I wanted. We didn't stay long. Here are a few from the five minutes we had here with these birds.

(Bohemian) Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) - Loughborough, Leicestershire

We then set off towards Rutland, on our usual owling route. Little Owls were seen at my Sites Nos. 41, 37, and 34. Here's one from No.37.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.37

 And here's one from No.34

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.34

The outermost part of our excursion was spent at Eyebrook Reservoir, where we spent some time trying to photograph the two Kingfishers that are being seen there. Frustratingly they were both spending time in a tree that is as good as exactly 100 metres from the nearest accessible viewpoint.

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) (female) - Eyebrook Reservoir

We were standing on the inflow bridge and we did have a couple of occasions when one of the birds flew directly towards us or directly away from us. I tried for a shot, but failed miserably. The best that I can say for this next one is that at least it's identifiable!

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) (male) - Eyebrook Reservoir

There was a moment when a Kingfisher appeared from under the bridge and flew into a bush only 35 metres away, but there was a mass of branches from a nearer bush obscuring our shot and it only stayed there for a couple of seconds. One day I'll get a sensible shot of a Kingfisher here (he said with fingers crossed!). In the meantime I'll just have to spur myself on by offering a few record shots taken at 100 metres. At least I managed to find some blue in the wings, unlike on my previous visit!

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) (female) - Eyebrook Reservoir

The pager of the gentleman standing with John and I went off, and he announced "five Whooper Swans at the inflow" which was, essentially, directly in front of us. I instantly picked them up with my bins. John pointed out that we'd get better views from the first corral on the west side of the reservoir, so off we set. Having taken a few shots there, we moved further on to a fence from which we got even closer views. It was pleasing to see drake Pintail here too, a couple of which got in on the action.

Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) - Eyebrook Reservoir

On our return journey we saw Little Owls at Sites Nos.23 and 41. This one, from No.41, was taken after the light was nearly gone, and the temperature was -1°c. My shots were taken at ISO 1000, 1/13s, lens at 500mm and handheld! This was a lucky shot - you should see some of the other frames!

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.41

All in all, we'd had a splendid afternoon in brilliantly sunny conditions (perhaps too sunny?) with a small, but somewhat mixed and rewarding, bag of birds.

My next post might feature some garden birds - but who knows?!

Thank you for dropping by.