#reflecting on how to be not just great but the greatest egret

[montereybayaquarium]

🎵 “Who is that bird I sea, staring straight back at me?” 🎵

[dansnaturepictures]

My 10 Wildlife/Photography highlights blogs- Final post for 2019: My visit to Richmond Park and Bushy Park in October

On 5th October we made our annual October autumnal visit to Richmond Park National Nature reserve and Bushy Park. In all the years that we have been going to Richmond Park we always see a stunning view along the river Thames from high up just before getting to the park looking over some nice trees so often in autumnal colour too. This year I decided to try and get a from car picture of it and I did fairly well. I had a similar moment when leaving Bushy Park later on in the day when I finally photographed the Diana fountain that I see there year after year. As we got into the park we soon heard and then I saw four of initially as we had a toilet stop at one car park the Ring-necked Parakeets one of the main species we try and see on these trips. It was so nice to see them again as I did well throughout the whole day.

In stark contrast to last year’s trip as we drove in to Pen Ponds where we usually park, where after already seeing Red Deers the other main point of the visit in the Scottish highlands that January we didn’t see any Red Deers until having a good walk round the park, we saw many female Red Deers about including one feeding a youngster. This was a fantastic moment seeing my first this year of one of my favourite mammals. It was an important mammal year tick for me too taking my year list to 16 to make it my joint highest ever mammal year list alongside last year and 2015. I went on to surpass their totals that month of course as I mentioned in the autumn highlights post. I am proud to achieve this seeing more mammals this year than in any other did not look likely in the early parts of the year with me stalling on seeing mammal species but ever since the spring I have seen a lot of and some exceptional wild mammals.

As the journey within Richmond to the car park continued we saw a really nice amount of Jays one of my best pictures on the day last year at Bushy Park was of one. Soon after leaving the car we got a stunning close view of a Kestrel in a tree which was one of the more magical moments of this trip this year, I took the first picture in this photoset of this Kestrel perhaps my standout photo on this year’s trip as one of my greatest ever of the species. We first headed to a group of Red Deers my first to photograph on this trip and the first stag with amazing antlers we saw. Here we also saw the familiar in London sight of a group of Ring-necked Parakeets gliding across the sky but this time chasing a Buzzard!

We then walked around the beautiful Pen Ponds I took the second picture in this photoset of another star of this trip this year and always the Egyptian Goose there and walking around this area gave us several of our best Ring-necked Parakeet views and chances to take photos this time around. The third picture in this photoset is one of the ones I took. It gave us such intimate moments with these charming birds. At one moment I was watching one in the binoculars whilst hearing a Red Deer stag roaring and at that moment I knew I was at Richmond! It was also nice to see on the ponds three of my favourite birds the Little Egret and Great Crested Grebe which I don’t usually see here and Pochard which we do. Last year I said it was my best Richmond and Bushy trip for my favourite birds and with these alongside the Jays and Buzzard and a couple of Green Woodpeckers I saw later on too it felt golden for this again.

We headed past the pond to see one herd of Red Deers, and on the way back saw another. We got really close to the heart of the rutting action with these two groups. This is an honour as it’s ultimately the reason we are here and first came to see these majestic mammals in their finest season to watch them. The first group in particular there were many rival stags one of which I got a picture of as we got close to the fourth picture in this photoset around so we really got to see a lot of them running at each other and of course a lot more roaring. I really enjoyed watching this wild species again that day. I also took the fifth picture in this photoset of a female in the second group. Whilst watching the first of these groups and later on too we got a nice late dragonfly sighting this year when seeing a Black Darter.

We then moved onto Bushy Park and firstly scanned the lake shown by the sixth and seventh pictures in this photoset that I took that day we park at to see if we could catch sight of a bird this place gives us such a great chance to see the Red-crested Pochard. I just caught sight of at least a couple on the lake and I was thrilled to see their beautiful and bright colours once more. They are a lovely bird, my 187th this year. Here we also saw some Red Deers as ever and saw and heard the eccentric trills of my Ring-necked Parakeets once more. I probably got closer to Ring-necked Parakeets in Bushy Park this year than I ever had in the park before. I took the eighth and ninth pictures in this photoset of Ring-necked Parakeets at Bushy Park that day, and tenth and final of a Red Deer there rubbing its’ antlers on a tree.

I probably surpassed 2018 as my best of these trips for favourite birds of mine by seeing so many Great Spotted Woodpeckers here, alongside Green Woodpecker, Jays once more and Great Crested Grebe again. This made me so happy. This was definitely the year for me to see both these woodpecker favourite birds of mine together at a pivotal point as my birding year started with them as New Year’s Day year ticks one after another at Lakeside. I had a another really brilliant day trip here. It’s definitely remained as one of my standout day trips of my wildlife and photography year as you just get to see so much top class wildlife packed into two beautiful royal parks. These trips to the capital always feel like a real standout moment of any year for me and that day in October this year was no exception, I had so many special moments the weather really held for us in a time when it was very unpredictable as to what it was gonna do that day too. I remarked after how compared to other trips we do a lot Richmond and Bushy is really wildlife photography opportunities on tap as in a confined urban setting you get so close to it all and I showed that on this day I felt producing so many wildlife pictures as well as landscape of a true variety of species.

That’s the end of these posts then, thanks once more for showing an interest in my relatively detailed celebration of another amazing year of wildlife and photos for me. I always enjoy putting these blogs together, in this year’s case from March onwards! It feels as though from that point I live through such amazing times and enjoy keeping these as almost a diary of reflection in the various posts’ formats. It’s always a cheery time of year to look back too. Now attention turns to my Twitter Dans_Pictures if you know me there for the four of my favourite pictures in certain categories within my photos this year tweets over the coming days and one picture I was proud to take each month, first and last bird and photo and general goodbye 2019 tweets on New Year’s Eve. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and have a very happy New Year.

[dansnaturepictures]

25/12/19-Christmas Day birding at Lymington: Slavonian Grebe and more 

Merry Christmas all! You may have seen on Twitter earlier that my main present this year is a Nikon D7100 camera as an upgrade for my main camera. With our main Christmas dinner all done on Sunday and an evening one today we came to Lymington in the Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve on a very lovely weather day. It proved the perfect place to try out my new camera with lots of wildlife and landscape subjects. I took the first four pictures in this photoset of trees reflected into a puddle and three landscapes. We saw a lot of scenes where lots of wading birds were feeding at once today on the mudflats with the tide out which was so lovely, and I felt we saw a fantastic variety and calibre of such birds this afternoon it felt like a great winter afternoon’s birding. 

My Mum has this model of camera and I had tried hers out at a few places in the summer, one of them here on a very hot and sunny day where I got some great results. The one thing I was nervous of with not getting that much of a chance to test in the summer with was how well this camera did for flying birds a key part of my photography. I got to see lots of birds flying about this afternoon and I did well I think photographing some of them. The first I tried to photograph was a Peregrine darting over shown in the fifth of my pictures in this photoset, a third in two days for me after seeing both of Winchester Peregrines before work yesterday. I also took the sixth picture in this photoset of another bird it was an honour to see fly so close to us today the Cormorant, and seventh of one of the feeding frenzies some Avocets. The eighth picture in this photoset of a nice sky here also followed. 

The bird we had come in the hope of seeing was my bogey bird this year so the one I usually see without much difficulty in a year but struggled to see this year the Slavonian Grebe. This spot has been so good for seeing them out to sea in the past I saw them here twice last year including as a year tick on my 21st birthday but I had not yet been lucky here this year. That changed today though as after waking quite a long way towards Pennington so a different spot to where we usually see them off of Normandy lagoon but had seen here twice in a matter of weeks once quite close in 2017 we spotted a grebe. We could see it definitely wasn’t Great Crested which with the greatest respect to as one of my favourite birds we had realised so many birds were when being hopeful for Slavonian Grebe lately as we really tried for this species. Further looks from me and my Mum and bridge camera zooms in revealed it was definitely a Slavonian Grebe. 

This was my first ever Christmas Day year tick, and it was my bogey bird taking my year list from 198 to 199 to mean I have now surpassed last year’s total and made 2019 my highest ever bird year list total. I could not have even dreamt this doing this with a special bird for me and a quite rare/sought after one at a place I hold so dearly. I took the record shot the ninth picture in this photoset of this bird. 

Every one of the four year lists I keep in 2019 are now my highest ever, my bird year list personal record confirmed by a grebe species as it was last year with Black-necked Grebes at Hayling Island on another sunny day last October. It’s funny it being the day I finally see my bogey bird today too I’ve never quite waited this long in a year to finally see my bogey bird since I have been doing them since 2013, as I saw two of my previous bogey birds in years today too Peregrine and Goldeneye. I also saw two more grebe species today like I saw three grebe species in two days as year ticks with Little, Great Crested and Black-necked in January. 

So is destiny going to grant me the promised land of 200 birds in a year with three days where I will birdwatch in 2019 remaining? Or does finishing on 198 birds in 2018 and 199 this year mean 2020 is the year for 200? I don’t mind right now as I still just cannot believe I have beaten my Scotland trip propelled total of last year and now recorded my highest ever amount of bird species seen four years running. 2019 has been a year I have been so lucky to see so many extraordinary and spectacular bird species. Definitely one of my best ever! And this could just be one of the greatest, not really planned, Christmas presents I was ever able to get. I am so glad I decided to come here today. Before leaving I took the tenth picture in this photoset of a Little Egret. 

Wildlife Sightings Summary: My first Slavonian Grebe of the year, five of my favourite birds the Great Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Shelduck, Brent Goose and Peregrine Falcon, Little Grebe, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Shoveler, Teal, Wigeon, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Stonechat, Reed Bunting, Blackbird, Carrion Crow and I heard Pheasant. 

Posts of my 10 Wildlife/Photograph highlights blogs of 2019 that posted recently that today would have probably featured in as it was one of my standout days this year, my amazing year of birds: https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/189436153779/my-10-wildlifephotography-2019-highlight-blogs times seeing some of my 28 favourite birds this year: https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/189455994626/second-instalment-of-my-10-wildlifephotography and my New Forest adventures this year: https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/189613026495/the-third-of-my-wildlife-and-photography My last of these posts tomorrow evening. 

I hope you are all having a great day today!

[dansnaturepictures]

10 Years of me visiting the Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve-A celebration

Exactly a decade ago today two very important things happened in my life, my football team won a second consecutive Premier League title after a thrilling title race went down to the last game and I attended a wildlife fate on the grounds of the Pennington part of this nature reserve, seeing such birds as Skylark and Whimbrel for the first time. Since then, whether we’ve visited Keyhaven, the Lymington end by Normandy Lagoon, that Pennington car park or as we only once have so far walked from one end to the other I have had amazing times for seeing wildlife at one of my very favourite nature reserves. In this post I will say what I love about it, do an ultimate wildlife sightings summary where I adapt my regular blog feature to say some of the greatest and most unique species I have ever seen at Lymington-Keyhaven as well as introduce the ten pictures in this photoset ten of my favourites I’ve taken there over those years.

I had to make sure when doing the say what I love section I did not copy what I said in this post to mark ten years of me visiting Blashford Lakes in February as I love them for similar reasons, you can see just so many birds and other wildlife from this site because it’s a fairly vast precious wet bog and grassland strip at the bottom of the New Forest and it has varied habitats in it too including lakes, reedbed, woodland, fields, the sea and beechy areas too. There is always something to see here. I think Keyhaven-Lymington’s best asset is how many waders, geese, ducks etc. it attracts it’s such a hub for coastal wildlife, like Blashford a visit to any part of the site is one of the first things I want to do every year to start the building of a new bird year list. I believe and share the opinion with many that with views over to the Isles of Wight and Hurst Spit and castle this is one of the most beautiful nature reserves in Hampshire which I always enjoy. The 8th and 9th picture in this photoset of Lymington in 2015 and Pennington in 2016 indicate that nicely I think, as well as the 10th picture in this photoset last year’s boat reflected Lymington shot showing what beautiful colours can be brought out here on a sunny day and what a charming place this is I think.

So like with the Blashford post below is my ultimate Lymington-Keyhaven wildlife sightings summary, mentioning some of the greatest birds and other wildlife I have ever seen from this reserve over the 10 years and some more common ones which this is such a key place for seeing every year.

My Ultimate Lymington-Keyhaven Wildlife Sightings Summary: Seven of my favourite birds the Brent Goose, Little Egret, Shelduck, Great Crested Grebe, Kingfisher, Dartford Warbler (as shown in 2014 at Lymington in the 3rd picture in this photoset), Sedge Warbler and Buzzard, Eider Duck, Pintail, Garganey, Green-winged Teal, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-breasted Goose, Bean Goose, Egyptian Goose, Cattle Egret, Spoonbill (shown in the 5h picture in this photoset here in 2016), Great Northern Diver, Slavonian Grebe, Grey Phalarope (as shown at Keyhaven, 2017, 2nd picture in this photoset), Stilt Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Whimbrel, Long-billed Dowitcher, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Sanderling, Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Ringed Plover, Common Tern, Little Tern (as shown in the 1st picture in this photoset, my New Forest Seasonal Snaps winning photo at Lymington in 2017 interestingly I was confirmed as winner of that a year ago today I didn’t know this happened nine years after visiting this place before), Sandwich Tern, Iceland Gull, Bearded Tit (as shown in the 7th picture in this photoset at Pennington last year), Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Wheatear, Skylark, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, Little Owl, Short-eared Owl, one of my favourite butterflies the Red Admiral, one of my favourite mammals the Fox and Roe Deer.

The other of ten of my favourite pictures from here over the years in this post are a Redshank at Lymington earlier this year a Black-headed Gull in 2015. Here’s to many more years of going to this reserve.

[dansnaturepictures]

19/12/17-Blashford Lakes: Lesser Redpoll and my first ever Caspian Gull take my bird lists to big milestones

We set out to Blashford Lakes again today where I soon took the first picture in this photoset of the woods before arriving. We first headed to the woodland hide where it was lovely to see such a variety of colourful feeding woodland birds and hear their wing beats as they flew as we had a window open. I produced the second and third pictures in this photoset of two of them, the Greenfinch and Brambling. But there was one bird we had come to try and see specifically in the woodland hide today and we saw it, the Lesser Redpoll I photographed in the fourth today with a Siskin. Last Monday’s visit there for me was in aid of trying to see this bird too, I usually always see them early on in a year here, it was the last bird on my list of targets to see that I set out originally early on when I reflected on what I had seen and what I had left and renewed later on in the year.

I find when you’re looking for a Redpoll here often seeing birds just quickly fly in and in darkish conditions and not much else technically everything seems to look like a Redpoll to me, mostly notably Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Siskins for many reasons. When I caught sight of the bird today I thought it was the former as it was with one and was a plain finch but as it flew down onto a branch then on to the feeder I noticed it was much smaller and had the Lesser Redpoll markings. It then came back for us to see again after it flew off. I was thrilled and slightly relieved to have seen this bird now this year as I usually always see them in the New Year here, this is only the second December I’ve ever seen this bird here so that just indicates how lucky I feel to have seen it because after not seeing one here in January, February or March I thought it may pass me by this year. Before leaving the woodland hide I took the fifth picture in this photoset of the Grey Squirrel and I took the sixth showing how icy and misty it was here today on the pool near the Ivy South hide when walking past it.

Our last destination of the visit was the Tern hide where we had known Ring-billed and Caspian Gull had been about. It was the latter we would have luck with today as a kind man showed us it in the telescope and from our own limited scope views and camera zooms in we could make it out the big bird at the left end of the islands. This was my first ever Caspian Gull so it was always going to be special for me, the fact it was my fourth life tick this year seen from the Tern hide on Ibsley Water here was entertaining and quite something I thought the majority of my new birds in 2017 have been seen here now, but it was actually my 250th bird in my life. This was a milestone I’d edged closer and closer to and life list milestones mean a lot to me as you never know when one might next crop up for me. It’s been a brilliant journey making up that 50 after seeing my 200th bird in 2013 and its come up quicker than I had expected, I was so glad I could squeeze it into my record year list year as it was fitting somehow. 2017 really has been beyond imagination in how amazing it has been for me bird wise.

Typically of my 2017 as a year list and as a birdwatching year the Caspian Gull sighting not only was my 250th bird in my life but was my 190th bird this year. I am just over the moon with that total it beats my previous record of 2016 emphatically by 9 now and I am just so amazed by what an incredible year it’s been. I say a lot about finishing so close to milestones and I would have always been thrilled to finish on 188 which I made up on Saturday with a Hen Harrier seen at nearby Ibsley Common but there was something inside me like last year when on 178 with 180 that said I might never get the chance again to be able to see 190 birds in a year so what if I could do it. For me it is just an unbelievable total, obviously being only 10 from 200 birds seen in one year and obviously its only 60 behind my life list total now. I worked out this year I’ve seen 75% of the birds that I have seen in my life.

What’s also a great testament to my amazing year I think is that I seemed to get more year ticks than ever later on with four in December now and it’s all been brilliant birds as if you go that long without seeing something in a year it’s usually something special. Most of these later year ticks were birds I saw in 2016 and things I thought might be exclusive to it between this year and last year but I did see them which highlights a reason I said before of why I broke my record again this year. I’m not going to post the links again as I’ve said it a lot before but it meant six of my bird year ticks in November and December which obviously would have gone onto my most amazing birds seen in the general birdwatching opener of my 10 Wildlife/Photography highlights blogs of 2017 missed it with it being posted in November. Likewise for these two the wildlife bit of the New Forest trips one which went out also that month. So I will just end by saying in the moment the Lesser Redpoll and Caspian Gull are right up there with some of the most spectacular birds I’ve seen in 2017 and greatest pieces of New Forest wildlife this year!

Wildlife Sightings Summary: My first ever Caspian Gull, my first Lesser Redpoll of the year, my first Field Vole of the year, four of my favourite birds the Pochard, Kingfisher, Little Egret and Jay, one of my favourite mammals the Fallow Deer, Jackdaw, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Siskin, Brambling, Grey Wagtail, Cormorant, Herring Gull, Mandarin Duck, Tufted Duck and Goosander.

[dansnaturepictures]

18/11/17-Super bird sightings at Hayling Island

Today we did something we haven’t done for I’m not sure how long and return to the place we went for our wildlife watching/photography/dog walk yesterday. I posted about that trip here: http://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/167594419647/171117-hayling-island-oysterbeds-and-a-call-into As you can see from the 1st picture in this photoset I took today it was a very different day weather wise with the sun and blue sea replaced by a murk, cold and a bit of rain towards the end. I sensed from the beginning that this would also be a very different photographical day, instead of loads of photo opportunities like I had yesterday this would be one where I would button up and sacrifice the pictures to look at birds in binoculars and take ID shots mostly. We had come to see if we could see two birds that were ones that would be far away on the water today the Velvet Scoters and Great Northern Diver that had been reported and we did manage to see them.

But firstly as we arrived I saw loads more Brent Geese in the mudflats with the tide out and as I enjoyed the sight and reflected on how many I saw here yesterday I was thinking that as much as anything with these birds I love seeing loads of them together. I think this is because what originally made me fall in love with them and make them one of my favourite birds was seeing hundreds fly over my head at nearby Farlington Marshes which is a wonderful natural experience.

We then walked down a bit to where you could get a better look out to sea and we could just make out some dark looking birds bobbing up and down far out. Many camera zoom ins from myself and my Mum revealed they were the Velvet Scoters and I was thrilled as this was an amazing bird to see. This was only my third ever sighting of them and they’re definitely one of the greatest birds I’ve seen this year. This took my year list to 185 which seemed weird as my life list lingered on this figure for a while ending 2010 on this figure I believe but that still only feels like yesterday so to now be able to have seen that many birds in a year is just phenomenal.

A walk up to the train signal (Its sort of a stature big signal thing to remember a railway line that was once there to non-locals/those who don’t know) where my next amazing bird moment of the day would occur. On the little bay type bit between the land and the road bridge allowing access to Hayling Island I was looking at grebes in the binoculars, we later worked out they were Slavonian Grebes, but funnily I actually spotted something even more interesting than this incredible species behind them. I could just make out the distinctive shape of the Great Northern Diver and more camera zoom ins revealed it was the second bird we had come to see today. The zoom ins weren’t just to mere ID aid standard though as I produced one of these pictures as a record shot the 2nd picture I took today in this photoset. This was my 186th bird of the year I would be so proud to call that my record bird year list total if it ends like that and as I said today anything I see now is a bonus after beating my personal record by 5 birds which is a bigger margin than when I beat it last year now. This really was just as special a bird to see as the Velvet Scoter today in my eyes but what made it sweeter was that it was a much closer view and I spotted this one first whereas my Mum had picked out the Velvet Scoters as I did in early 2016 at Portland so they are becoming one of my birds in terms of picking them up in our group and knowing what to look for. It was lovely to spend the next few minutes watching the Great Northern Diver doing something I hadn’t seen one do in my handful of sightings of them a lot which was live up to their name and dive a lot.

The thing about both year ticks today is that it was two of the few things my 2017 year list lacked, a scoter and diver and these particular species were both such key parts of my 2016 year list. For me in a nutshell why I managed to beat my record year list of last year this year was because there’s a whole load of species that were really unique to my 2016 and big parts of it that I did see this year too but then there’s also a big amount of special species I saw this year but not last year. So being in November now looking back and picking apart my personal year list ultimate success of this year it was always gonna happen I think and I am like I did in 2016 now just living it and making the most of being able to say I’ve seen more bird species this year than I ever have before. These two super year ticks would have easily gone on my list of most amazing species seen in a year in my 10 Wildlife/Photography highlights of 2017 blogs opener about my birdwatching year as a whole but that post actually already went out on Monday so here is a link to it if you wanted to read about my phenomenal year of birds as a whole:  http://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/167457601107/my-10-wildlifephotography-highlights-of-2017blog

Wildlife Sightings Summary: My first Velvet Scoter and Great Northern Diver of the year, four of my favourite birds the Shelduck, Brent Goose, Great Crested Grebe and Little Egret, Slavonian Grebe, Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Black-headed Gull, Rock Pipit, Goldfinch and Kestrel.