The crossbills were too high up but there was also a flock of Hawfinch.
And lots of Nuthatch. These have been unusually common this autumn/early winter. Some are a bit more reddish below, perhaps another subspecies? Who knows…
And on a mild day the ice receded and this Great Egret was fishing for tiddlers.
There was a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers in the local park yesterday…
These first 2 shots are the male, the bottom one is the female.
A couple of common woodpecker species near my place this afternoon…
No crossbills near my apartment the last week. Have they gone?
I looked for the White-winged Crossbill from yesterday but couldn’t find it. Very dark and cold too…
The Common Crossbills were still around.
And this one was in a flock in the tiny park near my apartment.
The crossbills are still in town but mostly high up…except when they come down for a drink.
There are several flocks in town and they are all very restless and mobile. I tried some BIF shots and found something interesting on the wholly crappy pics…look at the odd one out.
A nice flock in town, they stayed mostly high up but some came down to the puddles.
Crossbills aren’t the only birds on the pine trees…
3 species of heron about near my apartment including 8 Great Egret.
Also around were Dusky Thrush, Daurian Redstart, Nuthatch, 3 species of tit, Long-tailed Rosefinch, the injured Whooper Swan and 5 species of duck including 4 Goosander.
In the tiny park near my place there were 4 species of tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, a small flock of Brambling, 1 Hawfinch, a male Daurian Redstart, 1 Long-tailed Rosefinch, several Dusky Thrush, 2 Eurasian Nuthatch and 4 Crossboll. On the river were Great Egret, Grey Heron and above was a Eurasian Sparrowhawk. Not a bad haul…
Not great photos. Shoulder issues etc etc…
To give my poor shoulder a rest I’ve been using the 600 f/11 the last 2 months (as opposed to the 500 f/4). But it was so dark in the park this morning that I borrowed my old 100-400L M1 from my wife as I knew f/11 would be unusable. I still had to use ISO 6400 though.
Amazing what noise reduction software can do these days (at least with small low-res images like these).
These were taken in a park to the east of town. Crossbills are everywhere this autumn.
Some of the common birds that seem to be everywhere this autumn…
Also around are flocks of Brambling and Siskin as well as a flock of Bohemian Waxwing. And lots of Eastern Buzzard.
Most of the same species as a few days ago plus Brambling and Red-flanked Bluetail and the Grey-headed Woodpecker posing nicely…
A lot of interesting birds in the park recently…the first Daurian Redstart of the winter, 3 species of woodpecker, lots of Nuthatch, 4 species of tit…
And near my apartment this female Bullfinch was skulking around.
