Thank You, Melanie! - on 4th July, 2015

For my birthday, our wonderful daughter, Melanie, kindly bought me an hour's photographic session with a falconer, Simon Tebbutt. I have mixed feelings about falconry, as I prefer to see birds in the wild, and sometimes I get the impression that there is little love lost between falconer and his birds. However, they do serve a useful purpose in getting people closer to the birds so that they can appreciate these splendid creatures and, hopefully, gain greater respect for their wild counterparts.

For the wildlife photographer, there are other benefits. An orchestrated photo session allows one to play with camera settings to establish what is best for the combination of plumage and light. Even more useful is the opportunity to hone one's skills for flight shots, if the session includes flying, as this one did - overall, an extremely useful practice session

The session was booked to be between 14h00 and 15h00 and I was asked by the falconer to be there by 13h30. As it was to take place near Rutland Water, I used my usual owling route for most of the journey, having a picnic lunch en-route - but only spotting one owl on the outward. I arrived in good time, but my confidence was not boosted by, after 13h30, people asking if I was the falconer. In the event the falconer and his daughter arrived a little after 13h45.

We were walked down to an area of grass where falconry facilities were set up. I was the only person for the photography session, the rest of the group (approximately 12 persons) were there for a two-hour handling session. We were then given the necessary Health and Safety briefing.

I was then taken by the falconer's daughter to the area where the birds were being held. They'd brought five birds;- a Barn Owl, an Eagle Owl, a Goshawk, a Harris Hawk, and a Red-tailed Hawk. If you know me, you'll not be surprised that I opted for a session with the Barn Owl first. I'll also point out that the light kept changing from brilliant sunshine to heavy cloud, and back - not easy when your subject is primarily white!

Just a quick note. Contrary to my normal practice these days, I'll not be giving scentific names for the species as cross breeding is rife in the falconry industry. Furthermore, I did consider doing some removal of jesses, etc. in the post processing but decided against it as that would be falsifying the record.

Barn Owl (male)

Following this, I had a session with the Eagle Owl. Doug and Noushka, if you're reading this, have a look at those feet in the second image - my, that bird looks powerful!

Eagle Owl (male)

Having tried some shots of the Eagle Owl in a different location, I asked for another session with the Barnie at that location too, but it didn't work so well. 

Barn Owl (male)

I'd missed the flying session with the Goshawk whilst the above was taking place, but I was called over for the flying sesion with the Harris Hawk. I was told that, because this is not an everyday venue for these birds, the birds had to be tethered or there would be a risk of losing them. A very long cord was attached to the jesse of the bird, with the other end being held at the receiving end. The falconer's daughter (sorry, but I've forgotten your name) took the bird to the limit of the cord and, on indication from the falconer, released the bird which then flew to the baited glove. Here's a few of the Harris Hawk.

Harris Hawk (female)

Whilst the falconer was setting up for the Red-tailed Hawk, I had a static session with the Goshawk. I'd have loved to had a session with this one flying!

Goshawk (male)

The finale for my session was with the Red-tailed Hawk flying.

Red-tailed Hawk (female)

It had been a very interesting and exciting experience and, by the end of the hour, I'd fired off 772 frames!

Wanting to make a day of it, and not being expected back for tea until early evening, I headed off for the Egleton side of Rutland Water. My main objective was to find some dragonflies, but I wasn't over-successful.

By the small pond near the visitor centre, I photographed a couple of butterflies.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) - Rutland Egleton

Large Skipper (Ochlodes venata) (male) - Rutland Egleton

On the way to Redshank Hide, I stopped for a while to try and get some images of a male Banded Demoiselle. There's plenty of room for improvement in my efforts, but these are some of my better ones!

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) (male) - Rutland Egleton

On the approach to Redshank hide there were a number of damselflies, including Common Emerald, which I tried to photograph and failed miserably. I did, however, manage some of Common Blue Damselfly and of Ruddy Darter.

 

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) (male) - Rutland Egleton

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) (female) - Rutland Egleton

Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) (immature male) - Rutland Egleton

From Redshank Hide there was little bird life showing. I did see Brown Hawker, and probable Common Darter dragonflies, and also this distant Four-spotted Chaser.

Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) (female) - Rutland Egleton

It was now time for me to start setting of homewards. The day was truly completed by seeing Little Owls at four different sites on my way home, although none were photographically cooperative! I can't leave a post with Little Owl sightings without an image, so here's one from that day.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.46

I'd had another splendid day - thank you Melanie, and shot well over a thousand frames! Thank you, also, to Simon Tebbutt and particularly his daughter for looking after me so well.

Thank you for dropping by. Next time it'll be back to the natural world!

The First Half of November - 2014

Whilst the first half of November was reasonably rewarding from the point of view of sightings, it didn't offer much in the way of photographic opportunities - due to distance, light, wind and rain!

Owls

I've only one owl image that is just about good enough to offer, and that was taken on 1st November whilst doing a bit of solo owling. Little Owls were seen at five different sites that afternoon.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.48

Odds and Sods

The same day that the above image was taken, I paid a visit to Launde Abbey, where I had a (distant) sighting of a Kingfisher for the first time in a few months!

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) - Launde Abbey

Soon after this, my session was interrupted by the arrival of The Hunt. I've never seen a bigger hunt gathering - there were hundreds of people involved! I understand that it's a legal loophole that is exploited which leads to a falconer accompanying the hunt wherever it goes. This one had a couple of guys in tow - one with a Golden Eagle and one with a Harris Hawk. The Golden Eagle was kept hooded but I did get a shot of the head of the Harris Hawk. I won't give scientific names for these birds as a lot of interbreeding and hybridisation takes place in these circles.

Harris Hawk (domesticated) - Launde Abbey

I gave up here and headed off to find fuel for the car. En-route I found myself being approached at great speed by a runaway horse. Fortunately, it was intercepted by some guys who came careering down the road in buggy, nearly losing control at one point! I'm surprised that the passenger didn't get spread all over the road!

Five days later, I was back at Launde with Titus. There were a couple of very skittish Teal on the fishponds there, which fled to the next pond whenever we saw them - at over a hundred metres distance. Just before we left, I spotted one asleep on the lower, very brackish-looking, fish pond at only about 50 metres distance.

Teal (Anas crecca) - Launde Abbey

Our Garden

One aspect of our garden which gives me concern is that we've lost a more-than-acceptable number of birds to window strikes this year - possibly four (I don't keep records of this). On a wet and windy 12th November this Goldfinch hit my study window. At first I thought it was dead as it lay with its wings spread, so I took a photo of an aspect of Goldfinch that is not usually seen for a long enough time for the eyes and brain to register - what a fabulous looking bird! I'm delighted to report that I picked it up, saw that it was alive, put it somewhere comfortable and that it suddenly regained consciousness about half an hour later and flew off.

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) - our garden

 We're starting to see the winter visitors in our garden. We'd had our first Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret) in late October (exceedingly early - usually not until late December!), and then again on 14th November (and once since then), but no photos were obtained. Our main excitement has been the continuing visits by Grey Wagtail (which insists on coming only in bad weather) and regular visits by Goldcrest, with two birds on two occasions. We usually only have two or three sightings, of a single bird, each year. I've still not managed any decent shots of the Goldcrests, which favour a shady place outside my window where the leaves are still on the tree.

Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) - our garden

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) - our garden

You can see the problems with trying for shots of the Goldrest. Those leaves really interfere with attempts at focus, by which time the bird has gone! For a bird that seems to have such a happy disposition as it flits around, it certainly has a very sad expression when viewed front-on!

That's all for this post. The next one will feature some owls!

Thank you for dropping by.

The Scottish Highlands - Pt.2, 28th May, 2013

This post will be dedicated to just one day of our Scottish holiday, and even then it won't be the full day. The main reason being that not a single bird that features in this post is a wild one. The blog header is, for the same reason, only there for the duration of this post (so if you read this after this post has ceased to be current, you'll wonder what the heck I'm talking about!).

Tuesday 28th May

My wife had been wanting to visit Dunrobin Castle since we stopped outside it late one day last year. This day, therefore, was set aside for 'tourism' now that the Bank Holiday weekend was over.

We arrived at the castle, to be told that the falconry demonstration was starting in the gardens in five minutes time!  Well, perhaps this did help in my decision to concede to my wife's wish to visit here!

This falconry display has the reputation of being one of the finest in the country, and after seeing it I wouldn't argue, although I'm not really a connoisseur of such things.  The falconer here has an amazing rapport with his birds, and clearly loves them. He is also fascinating to listen to, and I was torn between listening, watching, and trying to take the photos!

The session started with him introducing a Harris Hawk - possibly the most common species in falconry, but none the less a magnificent bird. He seemed to control the bird just by using his eyes and a few words.

Harris Hawk - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

One of the things that set aside this display from other falconry displays was that, instead of exclusively using artificial stands for the birds to perch on, the display made full use of the surrounding trees and walls.

Harris Hawk - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

The next bird to appear was a magnificent Gyrfalcon, although it looked more like a Saker to my uneducated eye (thank you Doug for putting me straight!). This was in training, and he was constantly telling it that its approach was too high, although this did give me some flight photo opportunities! Trailing jesses have been 'removed surgically' from the next two images for aesthetic reasons!

Gyrfalcon - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

Whilst the Gyr was displaying, a Peregrine Falcon appeared (presumably as a result of some unseen signal), and put on its own display, swooping from walls to high up in the trees and to various other parts of the castle grounds. The flight was too fast and too low for me to get any good flight images, the one below being the best I could manage.

Peregrine Falcon (male) - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

The birds were, of course, rewarded by food for their performances. I'll spare you the gory images, but I was surprised to find that the Peregrine's reward was a rabbit that it tucked into with relish! I didn't see what sort of relish it was though! The feeding allowed some close-up images.

Gyrfalcon - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

Peregrine Falcon (male) - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

After the display, I went up to the area where some of the other birds that hadn't been involved in the morning display were on show. In talking to the falconer he informed me that he'd be flying owls in the afternoon. Sadly, I'd promised my wife that, after going round the castle, we'd go to the Falls of Shin, so had to pass on that experience! Here are some of the other birds on show. The first was described as a Bengal Eagle Owl. This is almost certainly what is usually named Rock Eagle Owl, or Indian Eagle Owl, with the Latin name of Bubo bengalensis.

Rock Eagle Owl - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

Golden Eagle - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

Goshawk - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

Eurasian Eagle Owl - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

I do believe that falconry displays have a useful place in today's society. They enable youngsters, and even adults, to relate to the fabulous world of birds of prey and are, therefore, likely to help the cause of protection of such creatures in the wild. From a bird watcher's point of view they enable close-up views of birds that would probably only ever otherwise be seen at great distance through a 'scope. From a photographer's point of view they provide fascinating subjects and an opportunity to practise a wide range of one's skills in a short period of time - I've never done so much quick twiddling of settings in an hour!!

On the downside is that these birds are, I believe, all bred from generations of 'domestic' stock which are traded around the world. There is always the possibility that some are hybrids. Indeed, the falconer told me that one of the birds I asked about was 50% Lanner, 25% Saker, and 25% Peregrine (or something similar - I didn't take a note). This last shot of a falconry bird, taken as we left the area, may be of the bird in question.

hybrid? - Dunrobin Castle falconry display

I then did my husbandly duty and accompanied my wife round the gardens and castle - I must admit that they were well worth the visit. Here's a photo, taken on my phone.

Dunrobin Castle - from the gardens

We'd also missed going to the Falls of Shin last year, and planned to do it in conjunction with a visit to Dunrobin. However, we were reminded by our friends that the visitor centre at the falls, including the branch of Harrods, had recently burned down. A phone call to the estate office resulted in a statement that the car park and centre were closed and they did not know whether the falls were accessible. We decided to risk it, and found that the car park WAS open, and that there were no problems accessing the falls. However, we didn't witness any Salmon leaping and the falls, although scenically very pleasant, were far from spectacular! Judge for yourself!

Falls of Shin

We had some amusement as we returned to our car from the falls. A typical extended Indian family were sat having a picnic at a couple of surviving picnic tables in the middle of the burned out ruins. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to take a photo!

I started this post by saying not a single bird in the post would be a wild one. The day is not yet ended, but I must finish this post as the rest of the day does feature wild birds! The third and final instalment will come soon!