Oxon Bird Pics Spring/Summer 2008
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Greenshank, Port Meadow, Oxon. 30 August 2008
Quite unlike the tame Dunlin below, this Greenshank
was very wary - this is a heavily cropped (too) distant
shot.
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Dunlin, Farmoor Reservoir, Oxon. 29 August 2008
A ridiculously tame bird - it kept coming right up to
me, within inches - far too close for the long lens!
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Ringed Plover, Port Meadow, Oxon. 10 August 2008
A somewhat distant pic of one bird from a quite wary
group of 11 Ringed Plover and 10-11 Dunlin, including
both adults and juveniles. Also 1 Golden Plover briefly.
Port Meadow was much drier than my last visit, with
plenty of apparently promising mud for waders.
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Dunlin, Port Meadow, Oxon. 19 July 2008
A confiding group of 10-11 birds, including both
adults and juveniles.
Port Meadow at the moment has very muddy edges, with
which I became closely acquainted during this "photo
shoot"!
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Dunlin, Port Meadow, Oxon. 19 July 2008
See above
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Dunlin, Port Meadow, Oxon. 19 July 2008
See above
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Dunlin, Port Meadow, Oxon. 19 July 2008
See above.
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Sand Martin, Port Meadow, Oxon. 12 July 2008
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Common Tern, Port Meadow, Oxon. 4 July 2008
I took >200 pics of these terns, completely filling
a 2Gb memory card, but few were particularly good!
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Common Tern, Port Meadow, Oxon. 4 July 2008
See above
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Common Tern, Port Meadow, Oxon. 4 July 2008
See above
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Sedge Warbler, Otmoor, Oxon. 31 May 2008
From the first blind...
My first visit to Otmoor for some time was reasonably
successful, with Turtle Dove around the car park (seen)
and Grasshopper Warblers (again seen) in the field nearby.
Also Hobby and drumming Snipe, but I missed the Marsh
Harrier.
Also a probable Hairy Dragonfly (the real target of
this visit) briefly in the ditch by the main track, but
it quickly clouded over causing the dragonflies to
disappear and I couldn't be sure of the ID.
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Lapwing, Oxon. 24 May 2008
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Great White Egret, Farmoor, Oxon. 21 May 2008
As Nic Hallam says on his excellent Farmoor birding
website, this was definitely the bird of the spring there
(and probably in Oxfordshire as a whole).
This splendid bird was too distant for good results,
even with the x1.4 TC, but I was quite lucky in that it
seemed to depart very shortly afterwards.
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Great White Egret, Farmoor, Oxon. 21 May 2008
See above
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Swift, Farmoor, Oxon. 17 May 2008
There were loads of Swifts aound the causeway this
morning, but they were very difficult to get on to, and I
quickly gave up and tried for the waders which were at
least moving much slower.
I was surprised to find out that this shot turned out
OK, one of only 2 I took!
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Turnstone, Farmoor, Oxon. 17 May 2008
A more obliging bird than the Grey Plover, but this
was nothing like as tame as Dunlin and Stints often are,
and of course last autumn's remarkable Grey Phalarope.
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Grey Plover, Farmoor, Oxon. 17 May 2008
A wary individual on the causeway, which didn't allow
a close enough approach for good results with the EF400 f5.6.
The overcast conditions didn't help either.
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Temminck's Stint, Port Meadow, Oxon. 16 May 2008
A heavily cropped record shot taken in very poor
conditions - almost dusk, and it was raining.
The next morning the light was better, but the bird
has unfortunately gone!
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Sparrowhawk, Home, Oxon. 26 April 2008
Sparrowhawks are reasonably regular visitors to the
garden, attracted by the 'food' on offer around the
feeder.
This bird had just finished devouring its unfortunate
victim, within reasonable photographic range of the house...
This 'bonus' completed a reasonably successful
photography day (see below).
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Arctic Tern, Farmoor, Oxon. 26 April 2008
The only one present this morning. Despite the dark
tip to the bill, this is an Arctic, which sometimes do
show this feature in early spring - a remnant of winter
plumage.
Note also the short neck and head, as well as the
narrow, well-defined dark bar along the trailing edge of
the underside of the primaries.
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Black Tern, Farmoor, Oxon. 26 April 2008
One of four birds present in the morning.
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Hobby, Farmoor, Oxon. 26 April 2008
One of two birds present over Shrike Meadow. A bit
distant, but my best Hobby pic to date.
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Great Crested Grebe, Farmoor, Oxon. 26 April 2008
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Pheasant, Kingston Lisle, Oxon. 12 April 2008
In the rain!
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© All pictures copyright Stephen Burch |
