KESTREL, HOBBY AND TERNS

Well Saturday (all day) and Sunday (just the morning) I re-visited the "reedbed", remember this site is "maligned" as a site where no decent images can be obtain...well I'm no David Tippling but I seemed to be able get images from the site. Something also worth noting about this site is that it sits at the back of a farm (part of his land) and is part of the even more maligned ELS scheme, you only have to read some conservationist blogs out there to see the criticism the ELS schemes get, sure some have abused the scheme,sure some of only done half-heartily etc but when you get a farmer who does do it for the right reasons it works, it really does. Plenty of warblers around the site, there is two Cuckoo's present (male and female) sadly I could get near them...didn't really try to be honest and a lot of Sedge Warblers have finally turned up too...I did try for them but failed for a "clean" image.
So the three favourite shots from the site after the weekend are........

HOVERING COMMON TERN

A SLOW START FOR ME FOR MY ULTIMATE FALCON...THE HOBBY

KESTREL, FEMALE

The hobby was coming in for a drink but was to far away for portrait, afterwards it carried on chasing Swifts, too high up. The Kestrel I'm ashamed to say my fieldcraft let me down, I crept along a hedgerow popping my lens around a tree to get the image, I then noticed the well hidden nest box, she was on sentry duty, so with only three images I crept away a deftly as I could...I don't like photographing any bird at the nest site so was somewhat embarrassed I didn't see the nest box, felt well guilty afterwards, the male returned with worms in it's bill, so hopefully no harm.
Finally a Robin, couldn't resist it in full song, got that at Eastfield Park.

MY LOCAL SPARROWHAK AND BITS AND BOBS

Well just to keep those informed, Mr.and Mrs.Sparrowhawk seem to be doing fine. A quick chat/visit yesterday at Paul's house confirmed things are moving along at pace. The female judging from her behaviour is definitely sitting on eggs. She never moves, even when the male brings in food, when he brings nesting material in she doesn't even leave the nest to place the twig, the one time she did move was when the male was absent and a squirrel approached the nest and the female just lunged at it sending the squirrel into free fall to the ground, quite comical, not sure it survived no way of checking as it's impossible to get near the nest. The male is an odd bird, I looked at Paul's list of prey and pulled a face when I saw on the list "slice of bread", it wasn't from Paul but from many of the slices left out by the residents for the mallards and gulls. Wouldn't have believed it had I not seen the male bring back a slice of bread during my visit. I enjoyed watching the male chasing a Jay that strayed to near the nest, the male regularly sits on one tree a few feet from the nest keeping a vigil on her (see image below), though the Jay is a regular visitor so it's either brave,stupid or soon to be food.....

I've personally been busy, taking an exam to add another dangerous goods to my current ADR license, football of course and then there's work, every time I've been able to get out with a camera it's absolutely poured down or like today damp and miserable, I must have slept through summer, a quick stop of at Billing Aquadrome on the way to a friends house at nearby Cogenhoe proved interesting. There was a "hatching" of loads of insects, I think they were May fly's but it seemed like every Common Tern,Swift,Swallow,Housemartin and even three Sandmartin had found out. On the Marina lake there was approximately 80 Swifts, 20 Swallows, 12, Housemartins, 3 Sandmartins and 1 Hobby the Hobby chasing the swifts and swallows and everything else chasing the Mayflys. Sadly the weather was appalling so my excuse for poor images. All the images were done at ISO 1000 on the swallows I had to go +1 2/3 over exposing just to get the dark areas brighter (no point going for swifts in such poor light) on the terns I was able to drop the ISO and exposure but the light was still terrible (see first image) and the rain was pelting down you might just make out the rain in the second tern image

OH, OH, MY SISTER IS GETTING CAMERA HAPPY!!!

Well I have to admit I get quite jealous of the birds in my sisters garden, I often offered to swap houses but she isn't playing fair. I can't blame her, nice "rural" area with plenty of good birding habitat, in fact there HAS TO BE a Barn Owl nearby.
She keeps saying "I have this one bird it does....what is it", my normaly polite response "How do I know? Take a photo" (told you I was jealous) so she finally did, from her Blueberry device so quality always going to be dodgy

Well apart from quality, the very dodgy looking statue (who the hell is it Linda? Jesus doing karaoke?) and I'm not sure you had to tear your nets down lol lol, but she asked me what they were...House Sparrows, the bird I keep telling you that you're lucky to have so many of....she moans about their noise, but she does have a lot with birds nesting all over the place. I  ALSO LOVE THOSE SCENIC VIEWS OF THE COUNTRY- SIDE LINDA (I'm only jealous) and they're hunting for insects in the brickwork. Who needs a TV when you can watch that?
I have lurking somewhere in my room a very old Nikon D50 and 300mm VR lens, if I can find the battery charger, I think I might have to give Linda a crash course of the basics and see what she can get....no doubt I'll post them....you'll have to have a word though Linda with the owner of that "barn" and see if he has an owl in it for me.......and find out what them "waders" are too.