Feeding Time

By way of a change this week I visited a local beauty spot where a feeding area is set aside for the numerous small birds in the vicinity.I hadn't visited this spot for a few years and had forgotten how good it is for bird photography.You can sit in your car close to the action and obtain some nice shots of the comings and goings.The weather was still unsettled with gales and yet more rain but a few brighter interludes helped the proceedings.The birds visiting were the commoner small birds attracted by seeds and food left by visitors to this picturesque part of Lancashire.I have shown below some of the many images I took of Great Tit..Blue Tit..Coal Tit..Long Tailed Tit..Robin and Nuthatch.It was a nice way to spend a few hours not far from home and return pleased with the results. Hope you enjoy my efforts and thanks for looking in.

A Welcome Return

Most days since New Year seem to have been depressing with very grey and gloomy weather.We are currently in a cold snap with many parts of the country suffering heavy snowfalls and much disruption to everyday life.Lancashire has come off lightly with very little snow but the gloomy weather is still with us as I upload this latest posting.Yesterday however brought a welcome return to brighter weather with sunshine but it was still very cold.Also making a very welcome return to Preston was a party of waxwings.The waxwings had been reported on Monday as five in number in the Corporation Street area of town.I had to visit Preston yesterday so took along my camera just in case.I went straight to the location and spotted some waxwings on the cotoneaster bushes which still had lots of berries.Cotoneaster seems to be the least favourite berry for waxwings but is currently all that is available.I was pleasantly surprised to eventually discover that there were fifteen waxwings and they came to feed on the berries very close to where I was waiting.I enjoyed some excellent close up views of these beautiful winter visitors and the best of the images I obtained are shown below.It would be nice if they stay awhile but I think they will quickly move on as they will soon be heading back to the breeding areas in Northern Europe.Thanks for looking in and let's hope for some warmer weather.

Wader Watching

This week has seen some high tides along the Lancashire coast and I made a couple of visits to a favourite high tide wader roost near Southport. A half hour walk is needed to reach the area and it's remoteness means the waders are not disturbed too much as they rest during the high tide.This week it was very quiet and the weather was cold but dry which was very favourable for the camera.I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours either side of high water and was able to capture some nice images of the waders coming and going to their roosting sites. The vast majority of the birds were knot but there were also good numbers of bar tailed godwits,oystercatchers and grey plovers.I am hoping to get closer to the birds on the next series of high tides and maybe obtain a few close ups of this fascinating group of birds.

Blogging Again

It's nice to be posting again after a very depressing and gloomy beginning to 2013. I was becoming frustrated not getting out with the camera.I decided one afternoon last week to visit a location not far from home where barn owls can be seen. The light was very poor but a barn owl did show for a while and I managed some images shown below.The head on shot was very pleasing when the barn owl came for a look at me and I fired off a salvo of shots,one of which was reasonably sharp and heads the post.Another outing was to look at some very different birds.A number of ring-necked parakeets have been present in the grounds of Lytham Crematorium for a number of years but I had never photographed them.A sunny day on Saturday was an ideal opportunity to catch up with these exotic residents and again the images are shown below.Finally a trip out yesterday,when more gloomy weather returned,resulted in the images showing some of the large numbers of pink footed geese present on the mosslands around Pilling. Nice to be back in business and hopefully I will be out and about again soon as brighter weather is promised for the rest of this week. Thanks for looking in and a Happy New Year to all my followers.