Christmas Break

Over the Christmas break I managed a few days out.  Firstly I took the family to Donna Nook to see the remaining seals, all in all we had a nice day.

The following day I visited my fav place at the moment to see the SEO's again :) Sorry to bore you with more pics.  The light wasn't great at all but it was great to see them again and this was the first time I have managed to get a photo of a owl with a vole.

 A quick few hours to the local chase where the norm birds where showing but I had to get a nice Robin as it is that time of year.

A mixed few weekends.

Two weekends ago I took another trip to see the SEO's as the weather forecast was good.  On arrival the weather was good and there were perhaps already around 10 people there.  A quick scan around and we noticed some familiar faces whom we hadn't seen for a while so it was nice to catch up with them. 

By approx 2pm more and more people turned up to the point when there was approx 20 + people present.  This didn't stop the owls showing but they didn't seem to come as close as the previous weeks.  This was not surprising due to the number of people and the noise also. 

The light did make up for this and this time I managed to get some shots at ISO 400 rather than the typical ISO 800 I had been shooting the weeks before.

 More pics of the owls can be seen on my flickr site. 

This weekend the weather forecast was also good but we opted to visit my local ground Cannock Chase in the hope to get a few Redpolls and Siskin.   I got up there early morning and the sun was out but we could see some  bad weather coming in.  In wasn't long before it started snowing heavy :(
By the time Ken arrived the weather had changed again and it looked like we were in for some better.  The next few hours were spent in sun, rain and hail :( along with our friends John and Trev :)

Although we didn't see any Redpolls or Siskins and the light conditions being hard most of the time I was happy with the outcome.

Woody and Short Eared Owls again

After last weekends disaster we decided to visit the short eared owls again :)
As we had a few hours to kill we opted to call into Whitacre heath to see if anything was around.  On arrival there didn't seem much but a Great spotted Woodpecker was returning on a regular basis so we managed a few shots. 

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Around noon we headed off to hopefully see the SEO's although the wind was quite strong.  On arrival we met with good friends Ian and Joe :)

The sun was out but so was the wind.  we waited with only a quick viewing of one before it settled back down.  As Joe said the minute the wind died down the owls came out to play :)

This was prob the closest we had seen then and for the last 45 mins of light we were treated to some great views.

A few of my favs from the day.  I just can't get enough of them :)



Catch up time (but not alot)

I haven't really had alot of time to post due to work commitments etc so here is a catch up from the last few weeks. 

Following the Short Eared Owl visit I was lucky enough to visit again a few times and the light was
better whilst the owls also came a little closer.

The following weekend Ken and myself headed to Knypersley to hopefully get a few shots of the Bramblings.  Upon arrival with met with Steve S and he gave us directions to where they were along with a few tips.  We opted for the car park area and it wasn't long before we got to see the Bramblings through the bins.  Trying to get good pics of them was another things though.  This was the best I managed but hopefully more to follow soon.

On Sunday we decided to head to Conwy to photograph the snow buntings.  This was a good idea as the sun was out but what we hadn't looked at was the 40+mph winds :(
Ken took a walk to locate the snow buntings but came back "sand blasted".  It was so bad he couldn't even keep his eyes open. 
A wait in the car and then a breakfast didn't help as the wind was still to strong and there was no chance of talking any pics. 

We decided to leave even though we hadn't even got the camera's out.  A quick call into Knypersley again on the way home but yet again the wind was too strong and all the birds had taken cover.  Oh well there is always another day I kept telling myself.