Monday 6 February 2012

A cold day at Ynyshir

Friday looked like a nice day so we decided to go up to Ynyshir RSPB. At first we saw very few birds - nothing but Canada Geese out on the Saltings and nothing from Marian Mawr Hide. Domen Las Hide at least had some birds swimming on the river and in time produced a few good birds:

A bullfinch:

 A dunnock flying with the bullfinch:


A female Goosander:


And last a 'funny looking' cormorant. I could see that it was a cormorant but it still puzzled me so I sought the advice of experts. Arfon said that it was a 'photograph of continental race of Cormorant (sinensis). The clinching id feature is the gular angle - the shape of skin behind the bill. This race has become increasingly common in recent years and there are now a large number of inland breeding colonies in the UK.' I assume it is of a male in breeding plumage:


All taken with my Canon 500mm lens with 1.4 converter ISO1000 f8 at between 1/1250 and 1/2500sec.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Glossy Ibis in Pembrokeshire

Over the last week or so Pembrokeshire seems to have become the centre for glossy ibis. There have been three regular birds in various positions near Marloes for over a week. A few days ago these were joined by two more in the St. Davids area. Then two days ago a flock of 23 were seen flying over near Carew. For the full story look at the Pembrokeshire Birds blog.
On Wednesday we decided to have a look for ourselves and went down to Marloes. The three birds were there alongside the road in the 'alternative' site marked in the Pembrokeshire blog. The only problem I had was that I was photographing straight into the sun - so here is one of my efforts:


Taken with my Canon 500mm lens - no converter / extender - ISO1600 (why?) f8 @ 1/1250sec.