More Jays

A number of posts ago I mentioned that I'd been working on a couple of other projects away from the owls, the first being Kingfishers and the second being Jays. The Kingfisher project has yet to produce any results but after a very slow start the Jay project is now gathering momentum.  Originally I selected a secluded location that had the most important requisite.....OAK TREES. The next part of the plan was to create a "feeding table" and this would be topped up every couple of days with a variety of nuts.

 

Up until yesterday all that I had seen there were Magpies, Crows & Squirrels. I was en route to an appointment and did my usual quick stop off to keep the feed topped up, and to my amazement as I was driving off a Jay appeared! That was it, an early lunch was to be had and I parked up the car and waited. I didn't have long due to other commitments but that wasn't an issue, the Jays came back down to the feed almost straight away. There was three in total and they must have been hungry as they demonstrated a bolder approach than I have ever seen before. The light wasn't very good but hey I am not moaning as these are by far the best Jay images I have ever captured. I did do a quick post with a few images late last night but I didn't have much time as I was off to the pub! So this morning I have had time to go through the other images and here they are. 

It was a very exciting ten minutes for me, absolutely brilliant when a long term plan comes to fruition, OK lets go and get some Kingfisher images now!

Eventually!!!

Most of us "birding types" have that certain image of a particular species that in our minds eye we would love to nail a picture of, in my case the Jay was my quarry. It has always been a mythological bird in my life, you hear that it is an easy bird to see if you go to the right place at the right time of year, but so far it has kept its distance from me! I have been very fortunate to capture thousands of owl images that the every day folk would die for and I'd gladly trade some of those encounters for seeing some Jays. After five years of trying to get get close to them they have always proved to be elusive. I have tried on many occasions to get a "record shot" of this "shy away from the camera" bird and failed every time, but I wasn't going to give up that easily!

 

This year we have been graced with a continental influx of them into the UK, so no better time than now! A few birding friends have beaten me to "getting up close and personnel" and achieved some stunning images (well done guys) but this has only given me more encouragement.  After countless visits and thirteen quids worth of peanuts at my feeding station at last it had a few visits, and believe it or not whilst being graced with their presence I had my camera with me!  The light wasn't brilliant as it was late in the day but these are by far the best images I have achieved to date.  

 

I will no doubt be visiting these gems again over the next few days,  I know it is a long shot but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some better light and hopefully some better images?

Waxwings

I gave in, I wasn't going to bother with them this winter but beings as there are so many in Leicestershire at the moment I went to have a look. The light was for ever changing, but I am happy(ish) with the results.

 

 

 

It was a real challenge but I wanted some flight shots, they were a little too high which resulted in heavier cropping than I would have liked, but my first ever proper in flight images of Waxwings.

 

 

 

And no set of Waxwing images should be without the customary "berry shot".

 

 

On the way home a new Barnie site was located, a couple of very shoddy record shots were achieved, the light was atrocious!

 

 

Another Owl Box.

A couple of weeks ago whilst erecting a Barn Owl box at a private location I chanced upon a pile of 50 x long wooden boxes, there approx dimensions were 2 feet square and 12 feet long. They looked absolutely perfect for being adapted into more owl boxes, trouble was they weren't mine!

 

So after a bit of of down on my knees groveling with the land owner I was told to take what I wanted, yesssss! Due to the size of them I was going to need a large undercover workshop/area for storage and working on them, it also needed to be as close to home as possible? So this is where my mate Norman comes onto the scene,  Norman has his own steel fabrication business only a mile from where I live, and he kindly offered me the use of his premises.

 

So one evening last week I made a trip over there with Norman in his flat bed lorry (he's a handy guy to know!). We were going to take several of these boxes back and store them at his premises. I would then go back in the evenings and at weekends to start adapting them into loads and loads of owl boxes. The trouble was we just couldn't lift them, we didn't realise until we inspected them closer that they were made of 1 1/2" ply with two 2" x 3" hard wood bearers that ran the entire length of the box, it also had a 2" ply board false bottom and 8 steel lifting lugs, believe me they were HEAVY and going nowhere!! So our original plan of taking a lorry load of these boxes back to Norm's was discarded, instead we decided to saw one box in half to reduce the weight. Now that was easier said than done, we took it in turns with the hand saw and eventually we got there, it only took us an hour! We were both knackered, but we did have enough strength to load the two halves onto the lorry, just!

 

So that brings me to this morning, Col Green and I went over to Norms to take a closer look at the boxes and work out the best way to adapt them into owl boxes. When Col saw them he wasn't very impressed, the simple and quick task of converting them into owl boxes was far more complicated than I'd made out, oh no I was in trouble! 

 

Anyway after Col had given me a bollocking we got on with the task in hand, he can be seen here using Norm's fork lift truck to manoeuvre the heavy timber. Not the wide angle shot that I'd have liked but I forgot to take my camera with us so these images were taken on Col's phone (he doesn't look very happy does he?).

 

It took us far longer than anticipated and sadly a lot of the timber was wasted. It wasn't just a case of sawing the long box into segments and then adding a side and an end. We had to completely strip it down and then discard the false bottom and hardwood bearers before re-assembling what was left, but with Col's expertise we did it! Even though the box size was now 30% smaller than we originally planned it was still dam heavy, we reckon double the weight of any other box we had ever made. Normally we are able to take a box up the ladder before fixing it into position, there was no way we could possible do that with this box, but fear not I had a plan!

 

I made a quick call to the land owner where we wanted to site the box, I explained our dilemma and asked for his assistance, he was only too willing to help. He knew that if the two Barns Owls he'd seen recently around his farm were to remain we had to act fast.

 

And here is the secret weapon, it made easy work of getting the both of us up to the correct height so we could mount the box, it made Col a happy chappy too!  

 

 

And finally, our newly designed box in it's final resting place, do ya like it?

 

I will be returning to the box very soon to put on some roof felt to help protect it from the elements. Apparently it is the kind that adheres with the use of a blow torch, but that's another story and another mate that's been hoodwinked into helping me!

Close views, site 218.

Glorious sunshine earlier in the week allowed for a very rare opportunity to get some owl images in brilliant light, makes a change I suppose as I am all too quick to complain if the conditions are poor.

 

This particular owl (at my site No 218) doesn't take kindly to cars stopping within the confines of his territory and more often than not comes for a closer look, he's quite an inquisitive guy! He seems to have three or four favourite perches with the bright yellow footpath way-marker being one of them.

After I'd captured a few shots of him from distance I chanced my arm and shuffled the car back and forth to get closer, oh he was having none of that and flew to another perch only a few feet further away, there was now a Hawthorne bush between us but he continued to watch me through the gaps. A quick change over to manual focus and I was still able to capture him giving me the stare.

For the next five minutes he sat quietly assessing the situation, he couldn't see me as I was obscured by my camo screen. I think that once he realised there was no threat it was OK for him to return to another of his favoured perches. I'd seen him on this particular gate post before but never managed an image, the car was always at the wrong angle.

 

I have "a thing" for images of owls with dark backgrounds, (don't ask me why, I don't know?) but I do know that I was very pleased he landed on it as these next two images are easy my favourites from this session.

 

He bobbed and weaved his head from side to side in that characteristic way that owls do checking that the coast was clear, once satisfied all was OK he returned back to his favoured "yellow post". He was now very close, and the next two images are full frame shots taken at a focal length of 300mm.

 

 

And finally just for good measures, the owl duly obliged by landing on the footpath sign again that I captured him on during my last visit.

 

  

Only this time I managed to zoom out enough (120mm) to get all of him and the sign in the frame, thanks owl!

 

Stupid Owl.

Yesterday evening I re-visited my newest Barn Owl site that I first located a couple of weeks ago. I was hoping it was still hanging around and if so would show whilst the light levels were still OK? I haven't yet managed an image of it that I'd say was "a keeper" so I keep turning up night after night hoping that eventually it will be captured. 

 

It did eventually grace me with its presence but sadly it was too dark for any quality images. There was however enough light left to admire its grace as it quartered the rough pasture seeking out its prey. But after tonight this individual is really concerning me, on a couple of occasions it floated up and over the boarding hedgerow and then drifted across the adjacent busy road just missing the passing cars!

 

The proximity of the road to its preferred hunting area is just too close, as can be seen in the image below, the owl is flying only feet from the passing cars which are zipping by at 50mph!      

It is only going to take a slight glance from a car travelling at that speed and the consequences for the owl are going to be terminal, I feel totally hopeless and fear a carcass is going to be found very soon.

 

Just what can I do?

Staying Put.....For Now!

When I had a some time off from work a couple of weeks ago I couldn't believe my bad luck, the weather was pitiful at best and it ruined all my birding plans. But now on reflection I consider myself to have been quite fortunate as I could have been off work this week. The conditions at present are  atrocious, with the high winds and persistent torrential rain getting out at the moment is an absolute no no!

 

So with any kind of birding abandoned for this weekend myself and four buddies decided that Saturday would best be spent making the relatively short journey up the M1 to watch the mighty Leicester City FC play the Owls? The Owls being the nickname of Sheffield Wednesday FC, it was a rather damp visit to the steel city but the 4,000 travelling away supporters were rewarded with a fine display and a 2-0 victory.

 

So that now brings me to today (Sunday), looking out of the window this morning the rain has ceased a little but the flooded fields means that yet another birding day  has to be abandoned. This got me wondering as to how the local owls will be coping in these adverse conditions? I don't think it will effect the Little Owls too much as the high water levels will offer them plenty of drowned worms to feed on but I fear the worse for the Barn Owls. They are very reluctant to hunt/feed in wet weather  tending instead to just sit it out in some sheltered barn or tree hollow getting hungrier by the day.

 

This got me thinking as to how the three juveniles at the "owl cam" site would be fairing? A quick look through yesterdays recordings and all three of them were found to be safe and sound roosting in the barn. They all looked to be in pretty good condition with no apparent weight loss, so for these guys the local hunting/prey doesn't seem to of been effected too badly.

As I flicked through more recordings to see what else had been happening they all disappeared!! Could they have gone out "day hunting" during a rest bite in the rain? No that wasn't the case, what they did was hop up on top of the nest box and spent the rest of the day roosting up in the eaves. In this screen shot (below) the most developed of the three youngsters prepares to go up, the other two followed suit shortly after.

 

So for now these owls are doing OK, I think that the layout of where they live helps because they can hunt/move into a complex of adjoining barns without having to venture outside, other local Barn Owls don't have that luxury and I fear the worst for them if this weather continues.

 

But in order to help these three youngsters and their four siblings that fledged from this same site earlier in the year I have saturated the local area with more nest boxes. They have all been erected in barns/old building (rather than on trees) and fingered crossed when they eventually be used once they are found. But it doesn't stop there, more boxes are needed in suitable sites a little further a field, so if you would like to assist me in getting more boxes up you can! Please do not forget that there are still some of my 2013 calendars available (see at the top of this blog for more info) all the proceeds will go towards more boxes.

 

Cheers Paul.

 

PS For those of you who have very kindly ordered one of my calendars (and the payment has arrived) they are being posted out to you tomorrow (Monday 26th)..........thank you!

Little Gems

There is no doubt about it, owls are without doubt my favourite bird species, big uns, little uns, fat or thin it doesn't matter. It would be frightening if I actually knew how many hours I must have spent watching, studying and photographing them? But occasionally it is good to leave them alone and spend sometime with a different species altogether.

 

Last week when John and I went to Norfolk we saw loads of different bird species, it was a refreshing change to spend time watching something else rather than owls. But for me none of them really hit the spot. Yeah they were good to watch for half an hour or so but where was the  "character" that the Little Owl for example just oozes? None of them grabbed my attention and I quickly got bored and wanted to move on. That is apart from the Sanderling, what a brilliant little wader, I was absolutely captivated by them. The Sanderling is a small plump sandpiper of 18–20 cm in length. It does not breed in the UK, but is a winter visitor and passage migrant in spring and autumn, journeying to and from their high Arctic breeding grounds.

 

Several were seen on the beech at Hunstanton feeding along the edge of the surf, and if one employs a bit of stealth and patience they can be quite approachable. I reckon John and I got to within about 20 feet before they got nervous and scampered away along the beach. And when they move they really move, they are very energetic little birds that hardly stand still! Their little black legs are just a blur when running so as to freeze the action high shutter speeds were needed, and that is where our problems started because the light levels were atrocious. But I did my best under the conditions allowing and here below were my best efforts from the day with my 300mm.

So if you have never had the chance to watch these stunning birds you should make the effort and get down to a beach near you now, you won't regret it! I for sure will be returning to see the ones at Hunstanton again and hopefully next time the light will be more forgiving?

Birding Week - Thursday

Firstly I did not do a "birding post" for yesterday (Wednesday) as it was an utter disaster. I did get out for most of the day but my three target species evaded me, yes that's right no Kingfishers, no Jays and not even any owls! Aside from all that the weather was glorious, bloody typical.

 

So today (Thursday) my mate John Starie and I opted for a change of scenery, we went to Norfolk. We had a smashing day but the photography opportunities were very limited indeed, we had heavy fog all day!

 

Anyway it has been an extremely long day and I am far too tired to waffle on about what we got up to so as to give you a feeling for what we saw (when the fog lifted slightly) here are a few images.

 

Bar-tailed Godwit - A beautiful bird with striking plumage, shame it never came close.   

 

Brent Goose - Pretty boring I know but we were limited to what came within range.

Spotted Redshank - A bit distant but never the less a nice find in Thornham Harbour.

Turnstone - These comical guys were everywhere.

 

Little Egret - Feeding at Stiffkey, possibly the closest I have ever been to one of these birds, nearly frame filling images with my meagre 300mm lens! 

 

Redshank - Several of these were seen feeding in the muddy estuaries.

 

Absolutely my favourite bird from the day, the Sanderling. A small flock were feeding along the coastline on the beach at Hunstanton. It took a while but eventually we got close enough for some nice images. I have never photographed these before and I can highly recommend them, they are a super smart bird.

 

 

I can't recommend the north Norfolk coast high enough, the variety of species is just unreal, even if  it is foggy and you can't see the birds most of the time! We stayed away from the more popular Titchwell and Cley and instead  concentrated on the harbours and desolated beaches. One word of advice though, Wells Next The Sea is a total rip off, £4.50 to park the car and then to make matters worse £9.50 for Burger and chips at the Sea-View Restaurant, stay away or take plenty of cash!

Birding Week - Tuesday

In comparison to yesterday the weather today was an improvement, it was still overcast and blustery but at least it was dry!

My first port of call today was the new Barn Owl site that I located late last night, I was there at first light hoping to catch it out hunting. And would you credit it, just as I pulled up it flew straight past me and into the lower of the two holes in the tree. It did poked its head back out for a few brief seconds to have a quick look at me and then that was that!

 

I waited around for an hour but it wasn't coming back out, so I moved on. My second location was to check up on how the Jay feeding station that I set up yesterday was progressing. No joy there either, the nuts hadn't been touched! Oh well, I suppose it is early days yet, I am sure it won't be long before they find them?

 

The rest of the morning was spent looking for SEO's, I was positive that after all the rain we had yesterday any local birds would surely be up hunting early, none were seen!

 

I also called in to see my new Little Owl site No 220 again. So far I have only seen the solitary bird here, and guess what the story was the same again today, and it was sitting in exactly the same spot!

 

  

Moving on down the road I went to a local reservoir, recently I have seen a lot of Kingfisher activity here so my intentions were to go and position a few landing/feeding posts. No Kingfishers were seen whilst there but the posts are now up, maybe later in the week they will pay dividends?

 

On my walk back to the car I did see this Cormorant perched up on a log, I got down low and crawled through the long grass to get nearer. True to form, as soon as I raised my head above the cover off it flew!

 

 

On my way home I called into see the owls at my site No 19, both of them showed well up high in the tree.

 

 

And finally I returned back to the first location of the day, the new Barn Owl site. I got there an hour before dusk hoping it would be out hunting in some reasonable light. It wasn't, it waited until the light had all but gone and only then I got a very brief glimpse of it as it headed out into the fields in the distance to hunt!

 

 

I am not going to give up on this owl, I now know it has spent the last two nights at least roosting in the same tree. If there is any justice in this world tomorrow will be my day!

 

 

Birding Week - Monday

What a bloody wash out today was, rain rain and more rain!

I knew all my plans for the day were scuppered as soon as I opened the curtains this morning, doohh!

OK a change of plan was needed, rather than concentrating on getting images I thought I'd do some groundwork and preparation for some images at a later date. Currently the UK has an influx of Jays from continental Europe, the reason is an apparent acorn crop failure in their home lands so they are now here in their thousands gorging themselves on our acorns.

To date my best Jay image is shockingly bad at best and what better time than now to try and improve on it. I went out in search of some nice oak woodland and as one would expect the Jays were there too. But they are a naturally shy bird and getting close to them for an image is not easy. Therefore I have set up a feeding station to try and encourage them out into the open. This consisted of a sawn up tree trunk that will act as a table and on top of it I have piled it up high with peanuts. I will return each day for the next week and top up as necessary with more nuts, that is if the Jays find them? Once they get into the routine of being fed I will set up my hide and hey presto my best Jay images will be captured.........oh how I wish it is going to be that easy! But we will see, fingers crossed I may get lucky towards the end of the week?

 

Setting up the Jay feeding station took up most of the morning, in the afternoon I flitted from site to site searching for Short Eared Owls, no luck there either! Because the rain continued to lash down I headed for home around 3pm, a quick stop off at my new Little Owl site No 220 that was first located last week did give me a chance to take my first image of the day. The owl was located in exactly the same place as I saw it last time, sheltering up against a tree trunk out of the wind and rain. Don't be fooled by the image though, it gives the impression that it was dry and bright. But believe me the conditions were awful, it is amazing how today's modern day camera equipment and editing soft wear can brighten up even the worse of days.   

I left the owl at my site No 220 where I found it and continued my journey home. It was now getting quite dark, but not dark enough for me to miss the unmistakable white face of a Barn Owl poking its head out of a hole in a roadside tree! Little Owls use to reside in this tree and even though I haven't seen them for well over a year I always slow down whilst passing in the hope of seeing one again. And what I saw this afternoon  took me totally by surprise.

 

Where had this Barn Owl come from? How long had it been there? Was it one of the previously rung birds from another site? Currently I do not have the answers to the origin of this bird, to be honest I wasn't really bothered at the time, all I wanted to do was get some images of it. For a good few minutes it sat there at the hole entrance watching me watching it, then it leapt out and took to the wing.

It didn't fly far before it landed on a fence post 90 degrees to where I was parked. It seemed curious of my presence and just stared back at me! 

Eventually it ignored me and went off hunting. 

Despite the conditions for photography being absolutely abysmal I did get a flight shot before it departed, below and new blog header above. Again the wonders of my camera soft wear made the image just about usable?  Shot at 4.10pm, ISO 3200, F2.8 and 1/300 second. 

So another new Barn Owl site has been found locally, I think my nest box programme is slowly but steadily starting to pay dividends. I am now making more sitings than ever before, or is it just a coincidence? 

Barn Owls - Roof Cam.

A quick video from the local Barn Owl site where we have the two camera's. This footage is from the camera that is situated up in the barn roof, it shows the three juveniles messing about, just as youngsters do!

Click on the arrow to view.

As can be seen they are well developed and well feathered now, this could well be the last siting we have of these guys before they finally fledge the natal site.