Materials Man

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A couple of visits to Lochwinnoch RSPB centre over the last few days gave great views of many juvenile birds.  Of particular interest was two juvenile great spotted woodpeckers that were feeding from the nut feeder only a few metres from the photo hide.  My first visit on Sunday afternoon found the photo hide full of huge lenses and just enough room for me to fit in.  Great views were had of the woodpeckers and numerous other birds.  On Tuesday night the weather was still fine so I decided to pay another visit – this time I found the photo hide empty and had it to myself for a very enjoyable couple of hours viewing the birds.  The two juv woodpeckers were constant companions for the whole time (mostly one at a time)  with a few visits from an adult male.  Numerous Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits and Chaffinches were also in attendance.  On both Sunday and Tuesday I had great views of a Reed Bunting and Redpoll, the latter a bird that I had only seen once before Sunday.  As well as the little birds there was also a family of Rooks present – one adult and three juvs – the adult rook in the way of clever corvids had managed to figure out the seed feeder and was clearly showing the youngsters how to use them.  All in all a few great hours of viewing.

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Last night was the first outing to the site where the Long Eared Owls live. After an hour and a half of walking around and no sign of any activity, we spent 20 minutes standing close to the rough moorland that is a favourite hunting ground.  Just as the sun was begining to set I caught some movement and there was the Owl.  It flew within 20 feet of us and landed in a nearby tree where it spent 10 minutes surveying the surrounding area; it then flew to a another tree close by and continued its vigil.  After about half an hour it decided that it had had enough of us pointing binoculars and cameras at it and flew off into thick conifers.  The light wasn’t great but I managed a few half decent snaps.  All in all a fantastic result on the first owl viewing outing of the season.

Finally I have added a post to Ian’s site.   

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I do have some good photos but as for great, I am not so sure.  As a beginner to DSLR photography I am still finding my way and experimenting; after a year there are still many functions on my camera that I have no idea what they do, and many of my photos are down to luck.  As a beginner to photography I have probably chosen the most difficult subjects – wildlife and in particular our avian friends.

Two weekends ago myself, my wife and two of our friends spent the weekend in Dumfries and Galloway with the intention of seeing some geese.  At this time of year the Solway Firth provides a wintering ground for tens of thousands of geese, the majority of which are Barnacle Geese along with Canada, Greylag and Pink Footed.

We arrived at our hotel on the Friday night with severe weather warnings in place and the prospect of a miserable day on the Saturday.  True to the forecast, the weather on the Saturday morning was wild with very high river levels on the River Nith and strong winds.  Full waterproofs were donned when we arrived at the WWT Caerlaverock reserve and five or so hours were spent ducking from hide to hide through the foul weather with plenty of geese to view but few other birds were braving the storm.

I had resigned myself to the whole day being a washout, when at 3pm it was as if a switch had been pressed – the wind dropped and the sun came out.  As the sun came out we saw a female Sparrowhawk hovering on the wind – she was promptly mobbed by a crow and landed on a fencepost not far from the hide – unfortunately the light was still poor but I managed a couple of mediocre photos.

On the way back from this hide after the sun had come out, I was dodelling along hoping for a good photo opportunity as the others left me behind.  My dodelling did prove a good opportunity.  As I was wandering down the track I spotted a hare sitting ‘drookit’ on an embankment only a few metres from the track and by far the closest view of a hare that I have had.  I expected him to dart off as soon as he saw me but instead he wandered slowly across the path allowing me to take a few snaps.  When I caught up with the others they had seen a flock of redwings which I had missed, but I was glad of my encounter with the hare.

We  made our way back to the hide nearest to the visitor centre as the sun was setting for good views of many ducks and waders.  A sord of Mallards floated by, lining up for a good photo and a pair of Roe Deer came out to feed.

After a warming cup of coffee at the visitor centre we made our way back to the hotel past a spectacular sunset for a hearty meal and a few pints.

On the Sunday we had planned to visit the RSPB centre at Mereshead, but were scuppered by flooding on the access road.  We decided to drive to the nearby town and walk along the beach to the reserve which turned out to be a round trip of 15km, meaning that we had limited time at the reserve.  The detour did have a silver lining in that we saw a pair of Brent Geese bobbing on the sea – a new bird for me and taking the goose count to five species.  The other highlight on the Sunday was approximately 200 Pintail on one of the ponds at the RSPB reserve.

A good weekend was had with a count of 52 species  even with the poor weather.