Firecrest! - on 20th January, 2020

The day after publishing my last blog post, in which I stated that I'd been having difficulty getting out, Lindsay stated that she felt in good enough condition to be left on her own for a while if I wanted to head out for a spot of birding for a few hours. So, having sorted out after lunch, I had a quick look at Birdguides, and saw that Firecrest had been seen for the preceding few days at Whitemoor Haye, which is only about 20 minutes from my home. 

To put things in perspective, Firecrest is far from common in the English Midlands but does get increasingly more common in the southern part of England. I have had only four previous sightings of Firecrest, and only managed any sort of photos on two of those occasions. For those of you not familiar with this bird and its behaviour, it is a tiny bird (sitting in size between Wren and Goldcrest - which is UK's smallest breeding bird) and has a reputation to be constantly flitting about in hedges and is, therefore, not an easy bird to photograph. 

I arrived in the area at around 13h40 and, as I approached in my car, was told that the bird had not been seen all day! However, as I arrived at the actual location, I was informed that it had been seen a few minutes earlier but had disappeared into an inaccessible area behind the hedge.

The road is a narrow single-track road and so I had to go a few hundred metres up the road to find somewhere where I could park my car. I then started walking back towards the group, but had only gone a few metres before a fellow coming the other way said he'd just seen a small bird flitting around in the hedge. I soon spotted it, and it was the Firecrest. Waving arms brought the group to us and I enjoyed a session of just over an hour in the company of this bird.

With it flitting about incessantly, all we photographers were having a difficult time getting shots, particularly as it spent virtually all of its time working the far side of the hedge and, when it did come into view for a second or two, it was unpredictable as to whether it would be against a light or dark background. My photos are, therefore, not good. Here's the first shot I managed to fire off!

Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) - Whitemoor Haye

Subsequent shots were equally mediocre, but are included here as I have never done any better with this species.

Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) - Whitemoor Haye

This state of affairs continued for quite some time and the bird was starting to roam further away from us, favouring a tree probably around 20 metres behind the hedge. I was standing alone in a spot where I could observe it in the distance, when it flew into the hedge directly in front of me - and started to preen! It stayed in one spot for a full 12 seconds - I have never seen this species stay in one spot for so long -  but the other people looking for it just couldn't get there before it departed again. It wasn't ideally positioned, but here are a few from that interlude:-

Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) - Whitemoor Haye

After over an hour of almost continual waving the camera around, my arms were aching and it was time to depart as I felt I was unlikely to get any better shots, with the bird getting more and more elusive.

I did stop a little way down the road at Croxall Lakes and spent some time in one of the hides there, and this might feature in a future post, although nothing outstanding was seen.

I'd had an extremely enjoyable afternoon and felt that I'd maximised my freedom with a Firecrest being a real highlight from a birding point of view, even if the photography wasn't all it might have been.

Thank you for dropping by. I'm not sure when my next blog post will be, or what the subject matter might be either. The weather forecast does not look too good for the next five days, with wind and rain featuring for much of the time.

P.S. Around the Whitemoor Haye area there are several other places named XXX Haye or XXX Hay, and I was curious to know what the meaning of Haye was. It seems that it is derived from an Old English word for hedge and means 'enclosed field'. Such enclosures were often where deer were kept over winter for the supply of venison.

The Draw of a Firecrest - on 28th January, 2019

I have recently been away from home for a week, visiting Speyside in Scotland. The following is a post I prepared before I departed, fully expecting to be overloaded with photo processing after my return.

It seemed that I had only been getting out birdwatching approximately once a week, and I was starting to get stir-crazy. On this day, prompted by the sighting of a Firecrest, I reckoned that it was time to go somewhere I'd not been for many years, and that was Attenborough Nature Reserve, near Nottingham (yes, the Nottingham of Robin Hood fame). This is only about half an hour from my home and, as I had things to do in the morning, I departed after an early lunch.

I expected it to be relatively quiet on a Monday, but arrived to find that the main car park was very tight for space and the overflow car park was full! I managed, however, to find a spot in an unofficial lay-by beside the access road.

My first job was to try and find the Firecrest. It had been reported as being in bushes by the approach road, just before the level crossing. I spent probably around 20 minutes looking, but there was no sign of it visually or, more importantly, audibly. I then went into the nature reserve.

Fortunately, the place was not as crowded as I thought it might be. I first made my way towards the Tower Hide, checking my camera settings by shooting a Dunnock beside the main path.

Dunnock (Prunella modularis) - Attenborough NR

Shortly after turning off the main path, towards Tower Hide, I stopped to photograph a couple of Egyptian Geese. Although these are now very common birds in these parts, it was here that I saw my first ever Egyptian Geese on 1st January, 2006, at the start of my birdwatching interest.

Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) - Attenborough NR

Just before reaching the hide, three Robins were vying for my attention, perching on three consecutive fence posts. Here's one.

Robin (Erithacus rubecula) - Attenborough Nature Reserve

I spent around 20 minutes in the hide, with nothing showing close enough for photography, and not much of interest showing at all. I then set off with the intention of visiting as much of the reserve as possible, primarily to get a feel for the place for future visits, rather than taking time to observe the birds.

It was a brightly sunny day, with low winter sun by the time I left the hide at around 14h00. As much of the water that I passed was of small areas surrounded by trees, the light for photography was quite challenging at times, and the results are not my best.

A distant Shoveler was in open water.

Shoveler (Anas clypeata) (male) - Attenborough NR

Sadly, I burned out the white on this Great Crested Grebe, otherwise it might have made a reasonable shot. I include it, however, because of the eye, shining like a jewel.

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) - Attenborough NR

The real stars for me, however, were the Goosander. I saw one at a great distance soon after leaving the hide, but then I found that I was seeing them on almost every bit of water I came to. The drake Goosander is often said to have a green sheen to its 'black' head plumage when seen in the right light. I have never seen a purple sheen like that on the first drake I photographed.

Goosander (Mergus merganser) (male) - Attenborough NR

There is no colour sheen visible on the heads of the drakes in these next three images. However, winter sun on rippling water gives some delightful effects.

Goosander (Mergus merganser) - Attenborough NR

The sheen is visible on these next images, as is (sadly) the burn-out on the whites!

Goosander (Mergus merganser) (male) - Attenborough NR

I suddenly realised that I was at the furthest point of the reserve, it was 15h30, and my car was parked on the wrong side of the gate which would be locked at 17h00. This might not sound too bad, but I was 2 km from my car as the crow flies, and twice that distance on the path I would take. I had to hurry!

Just before reaching my car I met a person coming in the opposite direction. He'd just seen the Firecrest in the area that I'd been scanning earlier. He warned me, however, that views were difficult as viewing was straight into the setting sun. I quickly moved my car to the overflow car park which is outside the gates and set off to try and find the Firecrest.

It didn't take long to find it, as it was calling continually but, to my great disappointment, my camera chose this to be the time to fail. It's a problem that hits me every two or three months, and it's an electrical disconnect between the camera body and the lens. The solution is to dismount the lens and work the connection pins (cleaning the contacts at the same time). In the circumstances, it was difficult enough to get a bead on the bird, but the difficulty was compounded by the fact that only about one in twenty presses of the shutter button actually did anything. Add that to shooting straight into the sun. and I was not expecting to have anything at all when I came to examine what I'd taken.

When I came to load my shots onto the computer, I found that around half the shutter actuations hadn't opened the iris, so the shots were virtually black, but I did have just one shot that, although awful, will just about pass as a record shot!

Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) - by Attenborough NR

After a quick call to Lindsay to say I was going to be later home than expected (again!), I set off homeward, happy in the knowledge that I had, at least, seen a Firecrest for the first time in several years, even if the photographic opportunites that afternoon were below par. 

For the past few months I've been wearing one of these wrist devices, akin to a 'fit bit'. I have been trying to raise my fitness by increasing the amount I walk. For example, if I have not got a lot of heavy shopping to carry, I tend to walk into town, rather than drive. On this day, I noted that I'd walked just over 10.4 km (approximately 6½ miles) at Attenborough NR - my longest walk since getting the device. My total for the day was just over 13.0 km (8 miles). I realise that, for many, this may sound like a trivial distance, but I'm pleased to have done it.

I am not sure what my next post will feature, but there could be some snow in there somewhere!

Thank you for dropping by.

Coleshill on 24th February & 1st March, 2009

Prompted by reports of two good birds within a short distance of each other, I headed off to Coleshill on a bright-looking Tuesday. It took me a while to find the location for the Black Redstart, but once there, the bird was directly in front of me when I arrived. The light started to go, and so I decided to head off to find the Firecrest before it was too late - guided by a local birder who knew exactly where to go. After a brief false alarm with a goldcrest at close quarters, we found the Firecrest almost immediately. The light was terrible, however, and so the photos were grim.

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Black Redstart

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Firecrest

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Goldcrest

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The following Saturday was a beautifully bright day, so I went back. However, after more than two hours, round a time when a local birder said that "it's always here at this time", I decided to give up, thinking that it had probably moved on (all the goldcrests seemed to have disappeared also), and take another look at the Black Redstart.

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Black Redstart