November 2012

25th. A trip along the flooded A370 to see the 11 waxwings at Worle. They've cleared out most of the berries at the Summerhouse pub and Lidl's opposite and didn't really settle for any decent photographs. I spent most of the weekend learning my way around my new Apple MacBook Pro. The university is reluctant to support Macs, but the quality of this machine is way ahead of any PC I've owned.

21st. The most severe flooding I've seen in Flax Bourton. It was fun cycling through this to get to work!

Flax flooding

18th. Chew Valley Lake. The ring-necked duck was in Heron's Green Bay until it was disturbed by a motor boat. I then picked it up in front of Stratford Hide, cruising back towards its favoured spot. Also here was a kingfisher, and I glimpsed a very brown chiffchaff (though I only heard a couple of collybita calling). Seven greater scaup were in the Aythya flock viewed from Herriot's Bridge. I photographed this little grebe from Stratford Hide.

little grebe

little grebe

10th. I sat through a heavy shower to photograph up to six snow buntings at Severn Beach - nice to see this many together.

snow buntings

snow buntings

snow buntings

snow buntings

snow bunting

snow bunting

snow buntings

4th. I went back for second helpings of the Sand Bay hoopoe. I wanted some shots of the bird with its crest up, and used the 1.4x extender rather than the 2x for that extra bit of sharpness. Bird photographers often come in for a lot of stick (sometimes rightly so), but today the photographers behaved admirably, and even shielded the bird from what would have been a lot of disturbance from passers by. Sometimes it's great to engage with dog-walkers, show them the bird, and get them interested. The hoopoe fed within about 5m of the crowd, and indeed erected its crest on occasion.

hoopoe

hoopoe

hoopoe

hoopoe

hoopoe

hoopoe

3rd. A bittern, 2 great white egrets, 2 stonechat at Ham Wall, but no sign of the glossy ibis. A great white egret over Shapwick Heath may have been one of the Ham Wall birds, and a marsh harrier also present. Ten whooper swans along Sharpham Lane.

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