birdpix

There was a very scruffy bullfinch in our garden earlier and a pristine canary......Theres about a dozen places that Ive seen Buzzards this month,its easy to believe that they are our most numerous bird of prey.Watching rooks coming into roost the other evening was magical ,these wonderful birds are criminally overlooked by bird watchers.

At Potteric Carr ,the mozzys enjoyed feasting on my face.A kingfisher landed within easy digiscoping distance ,I framed him and focused ,he filled the lens ,unfortunately some people came into the hide at the same moment and of course he flew away .I had to settle for my usual rubbish picture of a kingfisher -Ive got lots of these now.Later from a path rather than a hide ,I watched another kingfisher perform the catching a fish ,killing it and downing it in one routine(having battered its head against a tree branch first then toss it into the air and catch it again in his beak ,the correct way around).This is always a pleasure to watch.A tree was full of little egrets.Wigeon have started to appear ,even although its not quite autumn,there were still plenty of warblers about.It was ironic that a fluffy fledgling reed warbler sat on top of the reed bed in full view ,it had, as my wife would say baby beak,it was ironic because I had spent a good half an hour failing to see the reed warbler form the piper marsh hide ,moving around in the reed bed in front of the hide.Better still another reed warbler actually flew across the path in front of me before dissapearing into the reeds-an adult this time.From the piper marsh hide ,a few sand martins whooshed around ,there were some ducks , a reed bunting and the afore mentioned invisible reed warbler.Immediately outside this hide however it was entirely different the surrounding bushes and trees being teaming with small birds .A tree creeper was doing the usual ,in the same tree were several long tailed ,blue and great tits ,the one that brought a smile to my face was the willow tit who was apparently in a great hurry.From the Willow hide ,the usual jays were on the bird table taking it in turns with some tits and a squirrel Other Warblers about were whitethroats,blackcaps ,willow warblers and a solitary chiff chaff.The green sandpiper and the black tailed godwits were still there along with snipe ,lapwings ,dunlin and ringed plover ,no sign however of thelittle stint.Fifty odd bird species kept me engrosed for eight hours ,august has had its moments .Oh and I managed to not get soaked this time.