Boxing Day Redpolls

I admit it, these things really do my head in. I find the 'subtle' differences between Lesser, Mealy, and Coue's Arctic Redpolls very difficult to master. I spent a good while watching a flock of 60 Redpolls at Broom this morning and although there were some clear Lessers in the flock, there were also a lot of intermediate birds too.  The birds above are some of those which weren't obvious Lessers (although the top two are perhaps rather debatable...)

(The images are straight from my GX7 via my iPad. I may get around to re-editing them, or I may not)

Penduline Tits

Sorry for not letting everybody know about these birds at Broom.  They were in a part we probably shouldn't have been on and which just wouldn't have coped with more than a trickle of birders.  Isn't it lucky we had that obliging bird at Priory CP late last year!  It's just a shame one certain birder has thrown his toys out of the pram for not knowing the instant these birds were found.  Can you guess who it is?

Bee-eater slomo

I've just spent a week in Cumbria and wasn't far from the latest Bee-eater breeding attempt at Low Gelt Quarry.  I had to pop in, obviously.  Nice views, if a little distant were had, but they were so far off and quick that I thought a bit of slomo video was the order of the day.  It's not brilliant, but fun.

Hummer in slomo

These are so quick I thought the slomo mode on my iPhone 6 would give me a better view of the action!  Hummingbird Hawk-moth, The Lodge, 9th July 2015

My current digiscoping setup

Not much in the way of words with this post - but I thought I'd add some shots of my current digiscoping set up.  It is the Panasonic GX7, 20mm f.1.7mm lens, Swarovski DCA adapter, and a 46mm-52mm stepping ring.

What you can see on the bottom image is a custom machined sleeve which screws on to the eyepiece mount of the 30x eyepiece.  This then replaces the Swaro sleeve I've got which only attaches to the zoom eyepieces.  The sleeve was created for me by SRB-Griturn of Dunstable and cost around 40 quid.  I'm very pleased with the results I get out of this setup - far better than any digiscoping camera I've used before, and approaching DSLR in quality - take a look at my Flickr album here.

The Wood Storks eye

This is perhaps my favorite shot from Florida earlier this year.  I just can't stop looking at that eye!  I have to admit though, I've processed the image poorly, so I may go back and have another go at it sometime.

Wood Stork, Gatorland, Florida, January 2015.  Digiscoped with a Nikon V1, Swarovski ATS 80 HD and 25-50x eyepiece.

Whitethroat (with bits of a Lesser)

This Whitethroat is giving a passable impression of a Lesser Whitethroat amongst its usual song.  This bird was found originally in 2014 by Roger Hicks in a similar area but wasn't really pinned down until last week when he relocated it.

I haven't yet look up how frequent mimickry is in Common Whitethroat, but this bird not only includes Lesser Whitethroat song in its own, but also Swallow, Common Tern and several other common species (although a devil to catch on video!).  It joins a select group of species I've heard give copies of similar species songs - Firecrests that sounds like Goldecrests, and Willow Warblers that sound like Chiffchaffs - both of which I have now come across several times.

Penduline

Penduline Tit, Meadow Lane GP, 29th December 2014.

This was a stunning find at the back end of 2014.  Digiscoped with a Nikon V1, 10-30mm lens, Swarovski ATS 80 HD and 25-50x eyepiece.

Spotting flycatchers

Summer is here.  Or at least the Spotted Flies are back.  This year I've been fortunate to have a pair appear just behind my house - certainly not a bird I ever expected to have from my garden in the house I am currently in!  These birds aren't those, but they were taken not too far away.  They are a fantastic bird to practice taking images of.  The Panasonic GX7 really pulls out more detail than I have ever experienced from a digiscoping camera - I am exceptionally pleased with it.  So if anyone is dithering about what new digiscoping camera to get, look at one of these and the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens - awesome!

Back on it

Meadow Pipit, Biggleswade, 30th April 2015

Got to get back on this blogging bicycle, so here's an image from my new digiscoping camera - the Panasonic GX7.  It's quite good!