Garth Peacock
Catching up on the last couple of weeks or so.

Archive

Friday 4th October - North Norfolk

Monday 7th October 2024

Tanzania Day 8 - The Serengeti

Saturday 5th October 2024

Two trips out with little to show.

Wednesday 25th September 2024

Tanzania Day 7 - The Serengeti

Monday 23rd September 2024

Abberton Reservoir - again

Thursday 19th September 2024

Abberton Essex

Wednesday 11th September 2024

A morning at Grafham Water

Thursday 29th August 2024

After holiday blues

Thursday 22nd August 2024

Trying out a new lens

Monday 5th August 2024

Tanzania Day 5 - Ngorogoro Crater

Saturday 27th July 2024

Kevin Robson's Tawny Owl hide

Thursday 25th July 2024

Local stuff

Saturday 20th July 2024

More local stuff

Saturday 29th June 2024

Catching up with a local rarity

Friday 14th June 2024

Tanzania - Day 1 - Arusha

Monday 13th May 2024

View Blog Archive >>
Monday 20th March 2017

When are you going to update your blog, someone asked me last week, much to my surprise. I have now met a few people who regularly read it - many more and I will feel like a celebrity!!! Anyway, here is the update starting with Monday 6th March.

A new species for me, Little Bunting, has been regularly reported just over the Cambs border at replica watches Great Barford, Bedfordshire. Being advised that the morning  light was better, I arrived to find a few birders already there with confirmation that the bird had been seen several times so it was a matter of being patient. Several appearances later, it never came out into the open, feeding on seed under scrub so it was a case of making the best of it.

Certainly not a prize winning shot but a new species for me anyway.

The following Monday, I returned, with a friend, but this time it only showed for a few seconds - disappointing - so I made sure the camera was still working by taking a few shots of the Reed Bunting flock

and a Red-legged Partridge that suddenly appeared to feed on the seed.

With nothing more to show from the couple of days, readers can now understand why I have not rushed to update this blog.

A few days of being rather under-the-weather then prevented me from any further outings until last Friday when I visited nearby Paxton Pits as a small flock of Scaup had been reported. They was no sign at the place where they had been seen the previous evening and with nothing of interest from Hayden hide, I carried on to the new Kingfisher hide overlooking Herony North - and there they were - in the South West corner so distant and constantly feeding but a total of 8 birds.

Maximum distance required - 500 lens and 2x converter, trying both the full frame Canon 5Dmk4 and the cropped sensor 7Dmk2 to give more reach.

even males displaying to a female

and a male wingflap

Surprisingly, the images taken by the omega swiss replica full frame 5Dmk4 were much better, despite the extra cropping required so they made up the majority of the keepers.

With the dark background of the trees, a Great Crested Grebe stood out for a more atmospheric shot.

On the way back to the car, I stopped at Hayden hide and was tempted by a Great Tit near the feeders

and a Collared Dove. Despite being very common these days, I have very few decent shots of this species - too common so usually ignored.

That wound up the last couple of weeks or so. More images in the Recent Additions section.