Beckton

On Saturday morning I tagged along with Paul 'boy' Hawkins at Beckton sewage works for some ringing. Due to cold conditions Paul used two small nets so he could check and process safely and quickly and let the birds free to feed.

12 Chiffchaff, 1 Robin, 1 Linnet and a Goldfinch are now carrying a BTO ring. Always interesting to see Paul check the age, weight, wing length etc and it still amazes me how tiny Chiffchaff are...

Once we had packed up we went off to photograph the Siberian Chiffchaff in amongst 30+ Common Chiffy's, not easy with a few pale birds but you know when do, very pale on the breast  and flanks, no yellow in the eye strip and has a strong Siberian accent.

Common Chiffchaff

Goldfinch

Linnet

Robin

Siberian Chiffchaff

Through the looking glass

This male Green Woodpecker has been visiting our garden regularly now for over the past two weeks and at times shows quite well.  The only problem is trying  to photogragh it through the glass window like the image below...

ISO 640 5.6 plus 28mm double glazed unit

Wax on Wax off

Saturday afternoon I kicked started my Ingrebourne Valley patch year list for a whopping total of 57 species with Barn Owl, Grey Wagtail, Redpoll and Red legged Partridge being the highlights. Most, if not all the time spent on the patch I was trying to refind the Great Grey Shrike that was seen briefly on Friday late afternoon by Dave Mc ( well done btw) So a bigger total would of been more achievable.

Sunday morning I went along to Harold Hill near the B&Q and had about ten minutes with the 22 Waxwings before they flew off. Good views but light was dull so had to push the ISO to 1000 to get any chance of a reasonable image. So what with seeing the 4 Waxwings at Rayleigh last weekend and finding a single bird near the circus tavern/Esso garage in Purfleet the same day 2017 is being a good year to see one locally.

Waxwing in Harold Hill

Birthday birding

So the 2nd January is my birthday and I'm 46 today and with all the presents,cards and piles of money to open it wasn't a early start. However  I arrived at Rayleigh weir at 9.40am to see the 4 Waxwings at the glamorous industrial site in the Mc Donald's car park. With the fast food restaurant being very busy the Waxwings was always being disturbed when feeding as the trees are very close to the road and foot path.
Light was good but with the temperature being bloody cold, I've got a bit of camera shake even with using the mono pod.

Always  good see though and a good year tick!