A stop start beginning to the new season

 The first Wheatear of Spring is an important moment for me and usually comes around the 23rd. This year though it was early and involved a Westerly Gale and cold conditions so its no surprise that I did not see another one in the following week.



The real highlight of the week, though was finally catching up with the Penduline Tits at Weston airfield.

It was my forth time of trying that really paid off with just distant views or no views each time before that. This time though they flew into the reed mace nearest the footpath and stayed for at least an hour.




They are one of the smartest birds to visit the UK and may yet become a breeding species. Currently, though these appear to be the only 3 in the country. Some fantastic pictures by "real photographers" show that they are actually eating micromoth larvae from inside the seedheads.


I was pleased with the results I obtained but when I heard the Siberian Chiffchaff again, that I had found and identified from here on an earlier visit, then the difference in skill came to the fore. Now I am pretty happy with my bridge camera, it does what I want, which is capture more or less identifiable pictures of the birds I see. As I often have identified them by call, its good to have my thoughts confirmed. If I had the photography skills of, say Carl Bovis, then I could take the type of pics he does....but I don't, so I cannot !


Here is what I mean, first my photograph of the Siberian Chiffchaff


Please note this is cropped from the original so appears larger in the frame !! Exactly !!


Now here is Carl's picture, taken while he stood in a similar position to me



Carl is on twitter @CarlBovisNature and I would recommend having a look at his postings. I love seeing people excel at what they do and bird photography is one of his standout talents.

The rest of the week I saw more mammals and butterflies than spring arrivals with this Small Tortoiseshell posing well


Mammals included the, always distant, Hares at Dowlais




Rabbits in the Gordano,





And best of all this Fox today, which seemed unbothered to be running straight towards my wife and I watching from a small road




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