Midsummer Road Trip 2023 #5

Wryneck

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.

Wryneck
Wryneck

A morning on a campsite #1

Great Spotted Woodpecker

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…

Brown-headed Thrush

…and several species of woodpecker…

Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker

Breeding season in full swing as you can see.

A Goshawk in town

Goshawk

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.

Goshawk

Also around were Eastern Buzzard, Winter Wren, 10 or so Dusky Thrush, a male Goosander and this Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in the local park.

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker

Another wet Sunday

Peregrine

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.

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker