Some other of the pool birds…
Midsummer Road Trip 2023 #12
Category: Woodpeckers
Midsummer Road Trip 2023 #6
There were several Siberian Rubythroat singing (shame about the lighting) and as you can see this was one was ringed.
The Brown Shrikes didn’t come close again but the Wrynecks were some compensation.
Midsummer Road Trip 2023 #5
We planned to go back to the Brown Shrike location at sunrise the next day to get better lighting…
But it was foggy and we were tired after the first night in the car so we slept in at the hotel. By the time we got to the spot the harsh bright sunshine had returned.
There was pair of Wryneck at least.
Shame about the lighting. Very soft images.
A local Wryneck
A nice find near my apartment this afternoon. Although it flew off before I could get a decent pic…
A morning on a campsite #4
There was also a pair of Grey-headed Woodpecker around…
A morning on a campsite #3
A common bird of campsites and parklands…
A morning on a campsite #1
We had a night on a campsite last night…
After being serenaded by Jungle Nightjars all night (including a brief glimpse in the twilight) we were up at sunrise and there were lots of birds: a flyover White-tailed Eagle and Osprey, Japanese Green Pigeon, Brown Dipper, Grey Wagtail, several species of thrush…
…and several species of woodpecker…
Breeding season in full swing as you can see.
A very slow March
A very very quiet time at the moment: for various reasons I haven’t been out much and even when I do there aren’t many birds around. 2022 has been a bit of a slow year across the board.
Here are a few common local birds from the last few days.
A quiet Friday afternoon
I had a quick walk around the block this afternoon: not much around. A few Eastern Great and Varied Tits, 20 or so Dusky Thrush and this lone Pygmy.
A Goshawk in town
I’ve been walking around the neighbourhood this week looking for Waxwings with no success. But I did see this juvenile/first-winter Goshawk nab a pigeon.
Annoyingly my R5 froze as it flew off (this happens occasionally: very frustrating for such an expensive camera). Maybe it made no difference as the AF on my ancient 100-400L M1 is very sluggish on the R5.
F***ing twigs.
Also around were Eastern Buzzard, Winter Wren, 10 or so Dusky Thrush, a male Goosander and this Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in the local park.
Another wet Sunday
Still really mild. We were out east today: a few interesting things around but not great for photography. The above Peregrine posed nicely and there were also several White-tailed Eagle around, a lone Mountain Hawk-Eagle and 000’s of Black-legged Kittiwakes offshore.
Here’s a common local species: you can see it’s a male by the red flash on its head.
Grey-headed Woodpecker
Pretty quiet in town recently but this male Grey-headed Woodpecker was in one of the local parks this afternoon.
