I had booked two days off work and today was all planned out with an early start. Then I woke up at 2.25am with a raging sore throat and never slept again until it was time to get up :-( Consequently we had a late start and things were not looking good. We had a nice session at Marazion, but no Glossy Ibis. We dipped on Rose-Coloured Starling and Trevor said he wanted to look at Penberth. There we bumped into four bird watchers from out of County who had been told that there was a Yellow Browed Warbler seen at Penberth this morning. My interest lifted, but I decided not to make a nuisance of myself and we sloped off to St Leven Church to look for a Wryneck, which I was not confident about finding, but Trevor kept saying “I know it’s here”! I saw something from the corner of my eye land in a hedge, and Trevor confirmed he had seen it too. I started to believe he was right and caught a glimpse of it again and followed it into a small tree. I got some bad shots there before it headed off again. Now I was obsessed! We walked down the coast path about 200yrds and I turned back with the sun behind me. Trevor headed on in front and then I heard the alarm call in the hedge next to me and I knew it had to be the one. I got closer and closer and the alarm call intensified. The only way to see it was to flush it and for a moment it was so loud I was afraid it was going to attack in defence! I backed off (thinking to myself, what a twonk)… it flew – straight over Trevor’s head (he didn’t see it) and disappeared. We went back to the car and I checked the camera and although I was convinced, Trevor had not seen it and I wanted a better shot so off we went, back down the lane. It appeared almost immediately beside me in the hedge. How lucky we are. It stayed there for ages – I took a LOT of shots, some of which are below! My head count for the day was 51, so I forgot about my sore throat and stuffy nose for a while :-)
.
This was the first one, which I thought would be enough to confirm my ID...
.
.
I had a good opportunity to watch this bird and it was just beautiful. The markings are amazing.
.
.
.
.
.
Well done sweetheart. Not an easy bird to find and photograph especially at the range you have.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the sight of me transfixes them for a short period of time ;-)
Hi Angie,
ReplyDeleteWow what an experience and encounter you did!!! Incredible, it is so exciting to read your lines, I just feel like I was behind, stretching my neck to look for the bird too, and try to hide well to get a nice shot... This is the way I like it, with the excitement of the species to see and get a picture of!! Congrats on this one, it is a gorgeous bird that I've unfortunately never seen.... Thanks for sharing this intense moment.
PS: I tend to realise that there is nothing better than birding when you have a flue, cause then you get frozen and your running nose does not run anymore :-)
Supertastic capture.. Well Done !
ReplyDeleteNo comment Abbot !!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris and yes, you forget all about the cold at moments like this.
Thanks Mark.
Fantastic Angie,outstanding shots.
ReplyDeleteTop notch in my book,you did brilliant.
Well done.
John.
Wonderful pics & good description - the painting in my Eur guide shows a rather ho-hum bird, but not your pics - and did I understand correctly? - a lifer!
ReplyDeleteThank you John & Chris. Yes Chris it is a life tick. I've been looking at it more closely this evening and it looks like a Juvenile (in my un-experienced opinion) and it amazes me how birds fly such long journeys on migration. I've been thinking about the Swifts (they left us weeks ago) and the Swallows are few now. I only saw two today. They are incredible. We are very lucky in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on this lifer Angie AND the superb pics. Just the tonic to cheer the spirits. FAB
ReplyDeleteThank you Frank.
ReplyDeleteI am so envious! Lovely photos of such an attractively marked little bird. I have never seen one apart from in books of course. Very well done!
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon Angie :)
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWell done, your photography is superb, a difficult bird to find and photograph.
ReplyDeleteSam
Thank you Sam :-)
ReplyDelete