Back again

Hmmm... Last time out I said I'd be back to stay, that was January, we are now a day or 2 away from October, so I'll not make promises.

Smiley Migrant Hawker

Anyway, here I am, with a couple of changes. I've moved from Sony to Canon camera wise. Think I had an A55 on my last post, which I added a Sigma 150-500 to, but the image quality wasn't there. The camera was slow to focus, and much too small a body to hold a big lens like that. felt uncomfortable and I had hand cramps from using it. I now have a Canon EOS 40D, with a Canon 300mm f4 fixed prime lens, which I have recently added a Sigma 1.4x Teleconverter to. I really love the new set up. It actually feels at last that the pictures I see on the screen are the ones I wanted to take when out in the field. The added bonus of the TC not altering the focus distance means that Macro function is improved greatly. The Dragonfly here was only slightly cropped.



Not a great Dipper shot, but a Dipper shot nonetheless!



Birdwise it's been a bit quiet, although this year I achieved both of the target birds I had this year. I managed to find a treecreeper early on, which I found at Hainault Forest (subsequently found a nest just outside Ware, Herts which I sat watching for hours as the parents flitted in and out of it feeding the squeaking chicks). And on my recent holiday to Somerset I found a Dipper in Porlock. Looked up and down a stream that runs through the village and just as I was about to give up found one as we were returning to the car. Learnt 2 things, 1, never give up and 2, Stay where you are and wait for them to come to you. Not sure the second one would work, but it would've saved a lot of walking!



Treecreeper (One of the Ware ones)



Not getting as much time to get out as I would like, but hoping this year to get a Waxwing, so my last couple of days holiday this year I will be holding back on until they arrive and then a trip up to Norfolk may be needed. Hopefully we get numbers as high as we did last year, can't believe I didn't see one last year, kept seeing reports saying they were all around us, but think they were avoiding me!

Anyway I'll be off now, back soon (hopefully) and I'm now on Twitter @mikeebateman  so if I have anything to say I shall shout it from there.

Egyptian Geese

Been away for a while, but I'm back and hope to stay.

Had a mixed start to the new year. I received a new camera for Christmas, a Sony A55 DSLT. I kept with Sony mainly as I already had a Sigma lens and I felt comfortable with the Sony menus etc. Went to Rainham Marshes on 2nd January and 10 minutes into my visit my new camera destroyed the gears in my lens. The Auto focus ceased to work entirely, and you could just about use manual focus if you were desperate Dan... Which I am not.
Anyway the day got a little better as I saw my first Water Rail (2 in the day), and 3 Barnacle Geese another first. There were 2 Female Bearded Tits near the building site of the new hide, none of which I could get decent shots of, bit frustrating.

This was the best I got of the Water Rail.

Took a trip again to Rainham on Sunday (16th Jan). Didn't take the camera, but did take Morgan (Wife) and Lucy (Daughter). It was busy, probably due to the Slaty Back Gull that had been sighted earlier in the week, but quite a pleasant day, if a little windy.
I saw another first for me, a snipe. And just like London Buses, you wait for one to come along and then four come along at once. I thought I saw one at Rye Meads last year, but due to my old binoculars being a bit rubbish I couldn't be sure. Lucy had a nice walk out, although at 3 years old she hasn't quite grasped walking and talking quietly. A stomp on the boardwalk led to another Water Rail flashing it's tail feathers at me as it ran for the reeds, and me decising it was hopeless seeing anything else with my little angel stamping her feet and repeating "I'm hungry" and "I'm sleepy" over and over again, so I decided to call it a day.

Had a tip off from my Uncle John on Sunday that he had seen an "Odd looking Duck, a bit lanky with a zorro mask on it's eyes" at the lake in Barking Park. I read this as an Egyptian Goose, and hoped that it would still be there when I got a chance to visit today. Although cold there was some lovely sunshine today, so I took my camera down there (Still with broken lens) and tried to get a few shots. Now dissatisfied with what I got, but I'm sure I could do better.

Another first for me, Egyptian Goose.

So a pair of Egyptian Goose, around 30 Tufted Duck, and a dozen Shoveller along with the ubiquitous Canada Geese and Mallard all seemingly happy on a horribly polluted lake. I've never seen so much rubbish dumped in a lake, depressing really.

Day 1 in the blogosphere

Hmmm, what to say, what to say... As I doubt anyone will read this pretty much anything will be ok.

So here I am on the blogosphere, my main reason for being here is to keep records of my birding experiences (feathered type), and I suppose anything else I feel the need to gush to the waiting masses.

So if you are interested in Birding, or just general wildlife watching and photography keep popping back to me as I'll be posting pics of my happenings as they happen. Suppose it wouldn't hurt to stick a photo in here...

I live in Dagenham, East London, so my favourite RSPB places to visit are Rainham Marshes (Which is where I found the above Long Tailed Tit), and Rye Meads, but I've also visited the Hayle Estuary in Cornwall, and hope to be spreading my wings a little further afield in the New Year. My favourite place to watch birds is my back garden, where my local sparrows seem to have bigger appetites than my 3 year old daughter.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you come back again soon, Michael.