Wol

We went for a quiet drive round the lanes on Boxing Day night in the hope of seeing some Tawnies.  In the two hours we were out we only heard one Tawny, but did see two excellent Barn Owls instead.  Check out the finely feathers tarsi - if you see any Barn Owl pics without these hair-like feathers, the photos are probably of a captive bird.

Off out owling again tonight with Sam.  Hope we find some Tawnies this time!

Pure Azure?

Very interesting bird!  Does this Azure Tit look-a-likey have some Blue Tit in it?  What's it doing in Buckinghamshire, in late August-early September?  Do people keep them as cage birds?  Lots of questions surround this bird however stunning it looks.

Edit - so it would appear, thanks to local birders investigations, this is an escaped Yellow-breasted Tit.  Close, but no Arctic cigar!

Bramble finches

The upper shot was taken with a Canon 400d, and 300mm IS f.4, the lower shot taken digiscoping using a Canon S90, Swarovski ATS 80 HD, 20x eyepiece, and universal adapter. Both shot RAW and converted using Canon DPP, then resized in Photoshop. Pretty similar quality I would say. Bramblings, Southill, 9th January 2011.

Big momma!

We saw five of these chaps in Vancouver - Grizzly Bear, June 2010. We spent a long while watching this mother and cubs ambling around the river bank and showing their gentler side. Really fantastic.

Do bears shit in the woods? I don't care! When you're that size, in my opinion, you can shit wherever you want.

In search of Winnie the Pooh

Shy and difficult to observe. We only saw 28 Black Bears in and around Vancouver Island in the two weeks we were there. We made several special boat trips to look for them from Tofino, also saw some while looking for Grizzly Bears from Telegraph Cove, saw some at night, saw one behind our cabin, several along the road-side, four from a pub...

Grrrr!

Black Bear, Vancouver Island, June 2010. More to come...

It needs a shave

Just back from 14 days in the Gambia. I spent about five days doing 'serious' birding, and the rest duding around the hotel grounds, spending plenty of time by the swimming pool. This gaudy beast was found just behind our room. Bearded Barbet. The Gambia, December 2009.

Wolfie!

Birds weren't the only thing on the agenda for our trip to Brazil. These Manned Wolves at Caraça Monastery are fed every night on chicken and kitchen scraps by the monks. They attract quite a crowd and up to 100 people can be seen sitting around the patio waiting for these amazing animals to come in each evening.