Travels

I am finally getting round to writing and posting accounts of my travels from over the past ten years. You can see the relevant pages at the top, under the banner. Yeah, the photos aren't award-winners by any means...

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Very stormy again. More wind, more torrential rain. This is tedious. Returning home from the hospital where I was visiting my mum this afternoon and the roads were rapidly flooding again. These are rubbish iPhone shots as we drove back towards home (no, I wasn't driving!).

Yarmouth

It had stopped raining for at least one day today so I headed for Ryde and Seaview for a spot of seawatching. As I was driving through Newchurch I changed my mind and decided to head to Fort Victoria to see if I could spot the Glaucous Gull which had been seen there during the week, despite it not having been seen since Thursday.
I saw plenty of Black-headed Gulls, a couple of Mediterranean Gulls, four Great Black-backed Gulls, a Great Crested Grebe and a Guillemot but no Glaucous Gull. I met a couple of other birders one of whom, Ian, said it'd had appeared to be sick so, unless it's still around but not in the immediate vicinity, it's either moved on or it's snuffed it.

At Yarmouth estuary and ponds, there were plenty of Wigeon, by far the most numerous birds, Teal, Curlew, a solitary Mute Swan, Black-tailed Godwits and a pair of Gadwall. The gulls were mostly Black-headeds (still no Glaucous!). At the scrape were a Greenshank and more ducks. Bird of the day though, was a distant female Hen Harrier, a bird I've not seen for a long time.

It was nice to meet Steve, who writes the blog The Wild West (he found the Glaucous Gull last week), as well as another local birder, Ian.

I don't know if the gull will ever reappear although I'll keep an eye on the relevant websites. The forecast is appalling for tomorrow and I am back at work on Monday so, if it does turn up again between Monday and Thursday, it'll go unseen by me.

Liquid mud

It was another filthy day in this unusually (even by UK standards!) wet winter. I went for a two hour walk to the next village, Newchurch, and back, the drizzle barely stopped and there was liquid mud underfoot. I did manage to see a few birds, the best of these being Redwings, Fieldfares (two of my favourite winter visitors) and a large Goldfinch flock in trees behind the church.

I didn't take my camera with me, as I thought there was no point in the rain and horrible conditions, so the following pix are crappy iPhone photos.

Hazel catkins are an early sign of spring, although that's still a couple of months away. Great Tits were also singing.

Swollen river

Flooded ground by the river

Path up to the church from the main road which goes through the village. While not in a 'granny-stopper' category, this is a lot steeper than it looks in the photo.

The people who maintain the local footpaths have attempted to tame at least some of the mud by putting bracken and straw down on it. This has only been a partial success.

The two-hour walk highlighted how unfit I am. I was reasonably fit until the end of 2012 when I injured my hip in a surfing accident (I've had to give up completely) and then slipped a disc in my neck a couple of months later. The exercise went down, the alcohol consumption went up...no, I am not fat, fortunately, just very unfit, even though my job is not entirely sedentary. However, I didn't think I was too bad, until I was knackered after a two-hour walk...I don't think I'll be going to the Himalayas any time soon!

Tomorrow's forecast is better, with some sunshine predicted. I'll probably head to Ryde and Seaview.

St. Helens

A rare bright sunny day in a mild, wet and often stormy winter, so it was off to St. Helens Duver, an area of sand dunes in the NE of the Isle of Wight, one of the few places that, although wet, wouldn't be knee deep in mud. A lot of the island has been flooded in the past couple of months and parts of roads badly damaged or even washed away.

The landscape photos were taken with my Canon 6D and 24-105mm lens while the bird shots were with my 70D and 100-400mm, at ridiculous distances and cropped.

There were a few birds around, mostly the usual stuff including Robin, Wren, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Blackbird and Pied Wagtail. A Rock Pipit was on the shore by the lagoons. On and around the lagoons were Little Egret, Teal (approx. 20), Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, a couple of Cormorants, Grey Plover. Flocks of Brent Geese flew in from the west.

Over in the distance, the other side of St. Helens and Embankment Road, something disturbed the birds and the sky was soon filled with agitated swirling flocks of geese, ducks, Lapwings and gulls. I couldn't see what it was that had frightened them but it could have been a Peregrine, Buzzard or even a Marsh Harrier.

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I had a moment of madness last week and decided to take out a bank loan to buy a Canon 500mm lens. The bank approved it, as I have almost paid off my existing loan with them, and sent me the papers to sign, but I've realised that it is incredibly stupid to get into debt to just blow money on something which costs as much as a new car, which I can ill-afford and which won't improve my photography anyway (getting closer to birds with my 100-400mm is the key, as is technique). So, I've chickened out and decided I'm not going to take out the loan after all, because adding another seven years onto my existing loan is not the most sensible idea. I'll save for a second-hand 500mm prime or I might look at the new 150-600mm Tamron which has just been released, which is exciting the photography community (initial results from it are promising) and which I can afford.

To be honest, thinking about it, I'd rather spend money on travel. I am not exactly paid badly but it is often a case of 'either/or'. I'm off to New South Wales (Australia, of course!) for a couple of weeks in March/April and I am thinking of a trip to Nepal later this year or next.

Still here!

I am still here, life had caught up with me big time during 2013 with family problems (my mum got seriously ill and nearly passed away), other problems and a new job. I'd not been out birding since the Bluethroat back in March! Hopefully 2014 will be better!

This year I am going back to Australia for three weeks in March and early April although, this time, I won't be stopping off anywhere, this is a straight out and straight back trip. Obviously I am planning to do some birding and photography while I am out there which, of course, will appear here. I am hoping this trip will be more of a success than my last one in 2009 was...while it was not a complete disaster, it wasn't entirely successful either.

Forest Kingfisher, from my 2009 Australia trip

In addition to my Canon 6D I've got a 70D which, as it has an APS-C sensor, will be better for birding. However, I think most of my photos will be more for blog illustration purposes rather than pure photography, we'll see. That said, I'll always try to take the best photos possible but I think I've got a bit discouraged by websites with cracking close ups of rarities and common birds alike, all taken on Canon 1D-series cameras and 5/600mm telephoto lenses which cost as much as a decent second-hand car and which completely blow my efforts from the water. Yes, I have got a bad case of 'lens envy'!
I am also going to try to get back into doing a bit of sketching.

I've not renewed the hosting for my website because it was a pain to maintain but I am planning to get a new Flickr site, which I'll put all my old - and new - photos on.

Bluethroat

One of my all-time most wanted birds has been the Bluethroat, a scarce vagrant to the British Isles but so far I'd never seen one, as they mostly appear on Shetland, North Norfolk or Portland (the latter is close but not easy to get to in a hurry from here).
I had a text yesterday from my friend Bob to say there was a Bluethroat at St Helens Duver, an area of sand dunes in the north east of the Isle of Wight, but as I was stuck at work there was nothing I could do about it at the time. I arranged to meet Bob, who dipped yesterday, this morning at 0930.
Checking Derek Hale's website, the bird was a member of the southern European race, the White-spotted Bluethroat.
It had initially been sunny first thing but had quickly clouded over, was bitterly cold in the east wind and I soon regretted neglecting to bring a hat and gloves. Last year was horrible, gloomy, wet and cold and, so far, 2013 is shaping up to be as bad with the coldest spring for 50 years.
Bob and me walked around the area it'd had most recently been seen but saw only Dunnocks and Robins, both of which are around the same size as a Bluethroat. However, I spotted a movement and had a feeling it was *unusual* and, sure enough, there it was. We were soon joined by other birders and got excellent views of this bold little bird.

I took some photos but, these days I am using a full-frame camera (I have got into other forms of photography such as landscapes and maritime photography), so have had to crop them even more than normal but, at the same time, trying not to overdo things. On a full-frame camera, in this case the Canon 6D, a 400mm lens really is a 400mm lens and not effectively a 640mm! I had to trade in my 7D in order to afford the 6D but will save for the rumoured 7D Mk II when it comes out - if it comes out - or another crop camera to complement the 6D and for occasions such as this.

And here are the best of my shots from this morning, all cropped.

What a super little bird! A truly stunning little creature which has made 2013. It's shaping up to be a shit year for many reasons but this little bird has helped salvage it somewhat! A great start to the Easter weekend.

As I said, the day was cold and a bit grey. This is the view over the harbour looking towards Brading Marshes (beyond the row of coniferous trees) and Embankment Road.

Other birds included Teal, Brent Geese and Kestrel, plus the very common stuff such as the inevitable Blue Tits, Magpies and Woodpigeons.

Brent Geese

I hadn't been out birding in ages, for a variety of reasons, so as I had an unscheduled day off my temporary job and it is spring-like for February I headed to Seaview and Culver, where I met up with my friend Bob, another birder who I hadn't seen in ages.

The Brent Geese were out in force but no doubt thinking of flying back to Russia.

Culver was extremely quiet, with a few Meadow Pipits, plus the usual corvids and gulls. A lone Skylark was singing, pretty early for that I would have thought.