Wednesday 26 December 2012

Another garden tick

Not one that I wanted, but part of our natural environment. This sparrowhawk seems to treat our garden as his special feeding station. Luckily he was unsuccessful this time:


Sunday 23 December 2012

Cormorant flying on the Teifi

Failed to find the bittern and otter again but managed a flight shot of a cormorant from the Curlew Hide at the Teifi Marshes Reserve:


Wednesday 21 November 2012

Bittern images at last

A good day the the Kingfisher Hide at the Teifi Marshes Reserve:









Tuesday 20 November 2012

Unusual garden tick

This buzzard decided to perch on our rear garden fence. It seems to be a very large buzzard and had me puzzled for some time.


Taken through the glass of the lounge window using my usual kit of Canon 7d, 500mm lens ISO400 f5.6 @ 1/50sec. - yes I should have increased the ISO to 1000!


Wednesday 7 November 2012

Osprey nest erected at the Teifi Marshes Reserve

The Wildlife Trust for South and West Wales employed a specialist contractor to erect an osprey nest on the marsh. The post, platform and nest itself had been prepared beforehand. The day started with getting the nest itself from the workshop - where it had been rebuilt - to the car park for the contractor to take it on to the marsh:


The next job was to take the bog mats on to the marsh - so that the heavy machinery do not sink in the marsh - or damage it unduly:








With a little help from the volunteering team:



Then it was back to the pole:









Now to transfer the nest from the 'mule' to the contractor's tracked vehicle:



And on to the marsh:


Then fitting the nest on to the platform:


and moved on to the place where the nest was to be erected:


How deep is this pond?


Now where are we going to put the nest? (Sorry for the camera shake - I was laughing so much!)


Oh yes -this should do it!



Moving the bog mats into position:


Dig here!


Now for the difficult part:






Fixed into position - backfilled and strapped to nearby willows the nest is in! This is an image of the nest from the marsh.


 And from the car park this is what you see:



Now it is ready - a good home for a homeless osprey!



Monday 29 October 2012

Bosherston Lilly Ponds

On a visit to Bosherston on Saturday morning did not find many birds. The weather was great but this brought out all the visitors and their dogs. The only decent image from the trip was this one of an otter that showed itself for a few seconds:



Sunday 28 October 2012

A day at Penclacwydd WWT Llanelli

Star bird for me was this cormorant catching a fish - in the end it did loose it!


Taken from the Sir Peter Scott hide. I also managed this image of a little grebe:


From the British  Steel Hide I managed this shot of a greenshank in flight:


And this co-operative dunnock - just outside the hide:





Wednesday 10 October 2012

Teifi Marshes Reserve

These images of a snipe and curlew were both taken from the Curlew Hide at the reserve:


ISO400 f5.6 @ 1/800sec.
The snipe was taken through some reeds - to explain the dark patches on the image :)


ISO400 f5.6 @ 1/2000sec.