Stock Dove Flock and Buzzard at Cleve Hill

 11th Jan.

Quiet the last couple of days, the regular buzzards are always about on their regular perches and the big flock of stock doves I saw before Xmas were feeding on the field near the barn owl box allowing me to get a fairly accurate count of 330.

                                                                                       

Yesterday afternoon there was no show of the owls so a seawatch in the fading light produced, GND and velvet scoter plus 6 mergansers.

Earlier in the morning I saw 6 shoveler, c.70 teal and 2 mallard in the NRA dyke plus a peregrine.

Late pm I took a moon shot with the RX before going home.

Marsh Harrier and Peregrine Added to the List

 9th Jan

Surprised to see such a beautiful morning after yesterdays rain so a bit late getting out. I walked up to the sluice at C.Coote with MC  seeing very little except a marsh harrier and an unidentified small flock of geese. At the Coote the c.300 strong flock of wigeon were tucked in around the corner and to the west c100 avocets either side of the creek.

Out on Horse Sands there were a good number of common seals and a handful of brent geese and shelduck but not much else.

The large crow flock was roving about between the fields and the empty mudflats and a c.100 strong linnet flock was feeding in the stubble. After the walk back to the car I made a brief stop at LA where I saw a peregrine fly up onto a pylon.

Great Northern Diver and Barn Owl

 7th Jan

Trip to Dover to see the GND plus a couple of shags, razorbills and guillemots plus a unexpected kingfisher, a good test for the RX10.

                                                                                  

                                                                                      

                                                                                  

PM. Another look at the barn owl, the short-eared owl made an appearance but seen off by crows.

                                                                                 

                                                                                     

More Testing of Sony RX10 mk4

 4th/5th Jan

Just a couple of short visits to SS finding red-legged partridges, c.40 fieldfares and 1 redwing, barn owl and short-eared owls at LA. Owl shots taken late afternoon 3.30 and 4.11pm at high ISOs and cleaned up in Topaz.

                          The above were taken with ISOs between 1000 2500 on the 4th

                         The three above were ISO6400 at 16.11pm very low light levels

More Goodies For The Year List

3rd Jan.

I wasn't going out early until I saw Mark C was out seeing barn owl, snipe, peregrine etc. so I got my skates on and on site and up to the seawall meeting Mark where we saw very little as the tide came in. The large c.3000 flock of knot plus c.300 barwits and numerous dunlin soon lifted off leaving us just to seawatch but later found a red-necked grebe followed by a lovely black-throated diver flying into the Swale, picked up by Mark and a distant red throat.  Walked back along the beach after seeing a buzzard on the back field then past the chalets for another look around the Sportsman adding dunnock and great tit. Parted company then as Mark went home leaving me for a look around the LA which didn't reveal anything new but driving back towards the Sportsman and home a female hen harrier flew across the road heading west.

A short walk along the prom at Hampton revealed 14 sanderling and a close cormorant on the breakwater giving the RX another try out.

Finally at 3.30 MC informed the barn owl was out so 30 mins down there to get some shots. Also saw a sparrowhawk fly over.

 2nd Jan 22

I spent a couple of hours on the patch again at Seasalter trying to add a few more to the year list. I saw chaffinch, swans, cetti's around the pub and from the wall by the chalets a Med gull flew west and further on by the seawall start c.80 turnstones and half a doz. grey plover on the breakwaters plus a flock of c.40 ringed plovers on the beach.  Lots of dog walkers coming along so I headed back for another look around the pub area for dunnock but failed again.

Still playing with the RX10, not as good as the Olympus but certainly capable of a good record shot. However, it needs good light but photos cleans up better than I thought in LR. but best of all its lightweight and small.

                                                                      Reed Bunting

                                              Grey Plovers and Redshank and Turnstone

Close Razorbill

1st Jan 22

Three hours at Seasalter produced 51 sp this morning including a very close razorbill and further out a goldeneye bobbing about in the sea with some shoveler. Huge flocks of knot and dunlin were at C.Coote together with grey and ringed plover. Offshore a large raft of wigeon and teal together with a handful of shovelers. Inland 5 stonechats, corn bunting, reed buntings, skylarks, linnets etc. the only raptor was kestrel. A few 'should have seen', included dunnock. black-tailed godwit, wren, chaffinch for a start!

Trying out new camera Sony RX10 4