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Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website |
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Home | Trip Reports| Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Contact | Links |
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Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website |
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Home | Trip Reports| Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Contact | Links |
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Bittern, Calvert Lake BBOWT, Bucks 16 February 2016 Continuing with my current theme of out of Oxon excursions, I'd heard that Bitterns were showing well from the hide at this BBOWT reserve. With a good forecast, on this afternoon visit I was lucky enough to get this brief and somewhat distant view not too long after I arrived. That was pretty much it though - there seemed to be only one bird, showing only occasionally. Click to enlarge |
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Brambling, Barbury Castle, Wiltshire 30 January 2016 It took quite some time for this one bird to appear and then only very briefly. Far fewer present today than some previous reports and only this one came down from the surrounding bushes for about 5 secs! Thanks for Mark (Early Birder) Chivers for the heads up on this site! Click pic to enlarge |
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Penduline Tit, Horsebere Pool, Gloucester 23 January 2016 My second notable tit species in a week (see below)! This one was however a completely different challenge and was never close enough for anything other than this highly cropped record shot. |
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Pintail, Slimbridge WWT, Gloucestershire 23 January 2016 In between two visits to the Horsebere Pool for the Penduline Tits (see above), I decided to nip down the M5 for a quick visit to Slimbridge. Conditions were unfortunately rather dull and although there were plenty of birds around in was an uninspiring day. I spent some time trying for photos of Pintails from the Martin Smith hide and this was the most interesting one I got. Click to enlarge. |
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Tufted Duck, Slimbridge WWT, Gloucestershire 23 January 2016 The Robbie Garnett hide presents some great opportunities for flight shots of duck and other photographers get brilliant shots there. But this hide is not designed for tall people and is hence pretty uncomfortable for me! There was wasn't much action either and this was the only worthwhile shot I ended up with. A start though to this challenging topic... |
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Crested Tit, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 Just one or two birds in amongst the Coat Tits, showing well as they say in the car park! Helped greatly by generous portions of peanut butter - thanks v much to Mark (Early Birder) Chivers for that invaluable tip! Click to enlarge |
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Crested Tit, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 Another shot. |
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Crested Tit, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 And another... |
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Crested Tit, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 The head-on view! |
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Crested Tit, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 Final shot! |
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Great Spotted Woodpecker, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 Even this chap was after the peanut butter! |
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Coal Tit, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 The Coal Tits went berserk - even taking it out of my hand at times! |
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Tree Creeper, Loch Garten RSPB, Highland, Scotland 16 January 2016 Just passing by, showing no interest! |
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Teal, Lodmoor, Dorset. 21 October 2015 See below. It is quite remarkable to be able to just walk up to a Teal and get this close without it having flown off ages earlier! Unfortunately by now the sun had gone. |
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Black tailed Godwit, Lodmoor, Dorset. 21 October 2015 Along the path that runs down the western side of this reserve, it is clear that the birds have been very used to human traffic and so allow a close approach. |
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Great black-backed Gull, Portland Bill, Dorset 21 October 2015 A crop of the photo below... |
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Great black-backed Gull, Portland Bill, Dorset 21 October 2015 This bird came very close unlike any other sea bird during my sea watch! This is full frame, and crops well - see above. |
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Rock Pipit, Portland Bill, Dorset 21 October 2015 This bird came pottering up to me during an unproductive sea watch in poor weather, when I was sheltered behind the obelisk. |
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Hooded Merganser, Radipole RSPB, Weymouth, Dorset 20 October 2015 What a super bird! Shame it is considered to be a probable escape. Click to enlarge. |
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Hooded Merganser, Radipole RSPB, Weymouth, Dorset 20 October 2015 With a forecast for sun today, I went back to Radipole at just after dawn and eventually found the 'Hoodie' down by the Gurkha restaurant (under the road bridge from the reserve centre car park). |
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Mediterranean Gull, Radipole RSPB, Weymouth, Dorset 18 October 2015 In the car park with many Black-headed Gulls - just as the sun was disappearing into a low bank of cloud at dusk. The Hooded Merganser was around but the light for it was poor. |
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Osprey, Weston Turville Reservoir, Bucks 26 September 2015 With Oxon pretty quiet at present, this long staying Osprey in fairly nearby Bucks seemed a better bet. Initially I managed to miss it for a few hours but eventually it showed quite well from the main embankment on the NW side, nearest the entrance. The light is better from here in the afternoon - later the better. Click to enlarge |
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Osprey, Weston Turville Reservoir, Bucks 26 September 2015 As above, except the bird was a little closer for this shot, although the sky wasn't as blue! |
© All pictures copyright Stephen Burch |
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