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GND - Priory CP Bedford (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ruby
- Start date
I saw this bird today up to about 2.15. It was found yesterday morning. The park is pretty easy to find from Bedford town but is basically on the south east side of town. Brown tourist signs will take you there. There seems to have been a bit of an inland influx with birds in Bucks, Leics, Derbys and one in Staines which might be nearer to you perhaps? You'd be very welcome to come to Beds of course - this bird is pretty approachable. Check out the photo on our club website - www.bedsbirdclub.org.uk taken by Nigel Blake.
Best wishes
Richard Bashford
Best wishes
Richard Bashford
Ruby said:
Ruby
Well-known member
graeme782 said:
As it happens, I DID go for the one at Staines - I had been aware of this one, but suspected views might be distant, as I know that the reservoirs at Staines are pretty big...
I had hoped to have a whole day out and therefore fancied a trip somewhere different, but it all went pear-shaped, so a morning out was the best I could manage.
Anyway.... GND had obviously read Graeme's post, because it did show very well, before disappearing never to be seen again - there were a couple of us there, and we didn't see it fly, so I imagine it was just lurking somewhere that we couldn't see it.
Also there were at least 3 male Goldeneye and one female - looking very splendid in the bright sunshine and 2 Black-necked Grebes.... Couldn't help noticing that the cull of Ruddy Ducks didn't seem that effective - there were at least 50 there!
Turned into a bit of a red-letter morning, as I popped into Bookham Common on the way home and found Common Buzzard, lots of Redwing, Bullfinch, Nuthatch, Goldcrest, and best of all, a Firecrest!
Ruby
Last edited:
I'm glad you asked the question as I'm considering going for the Bedford bird tomorrow, seeing the photo on the Beford bird club site makes me think it would be worth the trip...
cheers for the info on this bird.
I went this morning and had great views of it, unfortunately the light and the fence (couldn't get into the marina) stopped me getting the best angle to photograph it... but that didn't stop me shooting 200+ frames on it, I will post something later if I got any half decent shots.
It went for a fly about at around 12:25 and according to birdguides flew off east at 13:30 so it seems I got there just in time.
I went this morning and had great views of it, unfortunately the light and the fence (couldn't get into the marina) stopped me getting the best angle to photograph it... but that didn't stop me shooting 200+ frames on it, I will post something later if I got any half decent shots.
It went for a fly about at around 12:25 and according to birdguides flew off east at 13:30 so it seems I got there just in time.
Ruby
Well-known member
postcardcv said:
Very nice images Peter....
Not sure how your one was behaving, but the one at Staines was not being very co-operative photo-wise.... It would only stay up for a few secs, and then went under for quite a while only to re-appear a fair distance away.
Quite a challenge for the digi-scoping method, and it was only when the bird moved away to a bit further distance that I was able to get any shots at all that were anything other than ripples...
All the best.... Ruby
Ruby said:
It spent much of the time fairly close in (about 10-15m out), and spent a reasonable amount of time on the surface. However it tended to go right out into the middle when it was doing anything interesting (like preening or flapping), so I just got lots of very similar shots. The worst thing was the fence between us and the bird, which I reckon will have degraded the images to some degree.
