Saturday 25 January 2014

Mountain Hares

Today I went up onto the high moors to try and photograph Mountain Hares Lepus timidus. They were fairly easy to spot in their winter coats against the non-snowy moors. However getting close to them is a bit tricky, I managed to get really close to one, then the next difficult bit is getting the camera up high enough without spooking them, from the rear end photos you can see I spooked a few. The weather turned bad very quickly so I scarpered back down.






 
 


 

Sunday 19 January 2014

Waxwings and Two Barred Crossbills

Today I went to see if I could get any better photos of the Two Barred Crossbills but they wouldn't come down low enough. Waxwings are thin on the ground this year but there are as few in Sheffield at the moment. There is also a fine drake Pintail of dubious origin in Hillsborough Park but there weren't any Goosander like there has been in recent years.









Wednesday 15 January 2014

Redwings and Fieldfares getting desperate

After a while, once winter thrushes have blitzed berries of their favourite trees in more rural locations, they become more desperate and this weekend they started to feed on a yellow rowan near my house allowing me to get a couple of decent pics.

 Fieldfare
 Redwing
 Goldeneye
 Greenfinch
 Mallard
 Reed Bunting
 Smew
 Tree Sparrow
Redwing

Monday 6 January 2014

New Years Birds

With the weather forecast to be sunny up to dinnertime I went to Lincolnshire to try and get some shots of a Black Throated Diver (Gavia arctica). As it happened it showed really well and there were also other stuff to have a productive morning. Frustratingly for the second time in a week I have seen Roe deer next to the motorway when I can't stop (they must know).


 Black Throated Diver showing the diagnostic white patch on the flank


 Kingfisher

Male Pochard
 Great Crested Grebe
 Female Goosander