Gale force winds. Hail showers so dense the word shower is inadequate. They lasted just a few minutes but left several centimetres of ice on top of our car and you can guess what the birds did.
In between these inclement events there were moments of excitement. A glimpse of a Raven Corvus corax flying just above the tips of the oaks at the bottom of our back garden was a rarity indeed. These characterful birds are familiar to us in Scotland where their nasal cronk-calls echo down the hills, and a brief look around can usually find a pair cruising by and apparently making comments to each other. But around here we rarely see them.
We see Buzzards Buteo buteo far more frequently but they have been keeping their heads down in the recent weather, until late yesterday, when one came gliding-by on half-closed wings, ‘leaning’ on the strong westerly winds without flapping. The SFs revealed the tail twisting like a Red Kite’s Milvus milvus to maintain stability. A gust brought its slow forward progress to a halt and for a few moments it just hung there, stationary, while the tips of the oaks below it thrashed to and fro, tortured by the demented gusts of wind, which were actually the remnants of the gale-force winds of a few hours earlier.
Another flurry of excitement was caused by a small flock of whitish birds making their way west against the wind and taking advantage of updrafts when they found any. Gulls. A quick look through the SFs and despite the boughs of the oaks getting in the way, the dark head, and white along the leading-edge of the outer part of the wing, revealed them to be Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus although their dark heads are actually Guinness-brown rather than black.
Talking of Guinness-brown, a pair of Blackbirds has taken our back garden into their territory and the female has been visiting our garden to gather nest material. Under normal daylight through the SFs she is a Guinness-brown but in direct sunlight this lightens somewhat, while in subdued light some of her plumage appears almost black. She gathered long-stemmed grass by the beak-full and then mud from our pond and finished off with moss collected from our neighbour’s garden, and dead leaves from ours. She chose a dense laurel bush as her nest site and we wish her good luck. This site has been predated by Magpies in the past despite its proximity to our house, but it has also been successful several times. The last view I had of her through the SFs was of her face almost obscured by the amount of grass stems she was carrying. We look forward to the male starting to sing soon.
The following day had strong gusting winds from the west and intermittent heavy showers and was cold. In the garden the small birds were staying under cover and overhead, only the occasional pair of Carrion Crows Corvus corone patrolling the neighbourhood were to be seen. It wasn’t at all promising and I looked outside less and less frequently as the day went on and didn’t improve. But then there came a shout from Troubadoris and she pointed to a strange swirling cloud just across the valley. Looking closer the cloud was a flock of around 30 large gulls swirling round and round in a tall cylindrical formation, which I took to mean they were taking advantage of a thermal. They were somewhat above us despite our hillside location and it was hard to see any details. I am not very skilled in gull identification anyway but the only large gulls we have identified flying west along and out of our valley have been Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus. There used to be a roost of these gulls on Blithfield Reservoir in Staffordshire to the south-west of us and we have always thought that passing individuals of these species were going there. However, this wasn’t a passing individual nor even small group, it was a substantial flock and my goodness they made a tremendous sight spiralling up and around, and drifting westwards. Lesser Black-backed Gulls are by no means exclusively coastal birds but seeing a flock of gulls was like a breath of sea air in this interminable Covid lock-down and was very welcome indeed.
I hope this series of 3 sets of sighting made with SF 10x32 demonstrates that they perform to a high standard and make very enjoyable companions for birding and nature observation. Of course only you can decide if they meet your own requirements.
Lee
In between these inclement events there were moments of excitement. A glimpse of a Raven Corvus corax flying just above the tips of the oaks at the bottom of our back garden was a rarity indeed. These characterful birds are familiar to us in Scotland where their nasal cronk-calls echo down the hills, and a brief look around can usually find a pair cruising by and apparently making comments to each other. But around here we rarely see them.
We see Buzzards Buteo buteo far more frequently but they have been keeping their heads down in the recent weather, until late yesterday, when one came gliding-by on half-closed wings, ‘leaning’ on the strong westerly winds without flapping. The SFs revealed the tail twisting like a Red Kite’s Milvus milvus to maintain stability. A gust brought its slow forward progress to a halt and for a few moments it just hung there, stationary, while the tips of the oaks below it thrashed to and fro, tortured by the demented gusts of wind, which were actually the remnants of the gale-force winds of a few hours earlier.
Another flurry of excitement was caused by a small flock of whitish birds making their way west against the wind and taking advantage of updrafts when they found any. Gulls. A quick look through the SFs and despite the boughs of the oaks getting in the way, the dark head, and white along the leading-edge of the outer part of the wing, revealed them to be Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus although their dark heads are actually Guinness-brown rather than black.
Talking of Guinness-brown, a pair of Blackbirds has taken our back garden into their territory and the female has been visiting our garden to gather nest material. Under normal daylight through the SFs she is a Guinness-brown but in direct sunlight this lightens somewhat, while in subdued light some of her plumage appears almost black. She gathered long-stemmed grass by the beak-full and then mud from our pond and finished off with moss collected from our neighbour’s garden, and dead leaves from ours. She chose a dense laurel bush as her nest site and we wish her good luck. This site has been predated by Magpies in the past despite its proximity to our house, but it has also been successful several times. The last view I had of her through the SFs was of her face almost obscured by the amount of grass stems she was carrying. We look forward to the male starting to sing soon.
The following day had strong gusting winds from the west and intermittent heavy showers and was cold. In the garden the small birds were staying under cover and overhead, only the occasional pair of Carrion Crows Corvus corone patrolling the neighbourhood were to be seen. It wasn’t at all promising and I looked outside less and less frequently as the day went on and didn’t improve. But then there came a shout from Troubadoris and she pointed to a strange swirling cloud just across the valley. Looking closer the cloud was a flock of around 30 large gulls swirling round and round in a tall cylindrical formation, which I took to mean they were taking advantage of a thermal. They were somewhat above us despite our hillside location and it was hard to see any details. I am not very skilled in gull identification anyway but the only large gulls we have identified flying west along and out of our valley have been Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus. There used to be a roost of these gulls on Blithfield Reservoir in Staffordshire to the south-west of us and we have always thought that passing individuals of these species were going there. However, this wasn’t a passing individual nor even small group, it was a substantial flock and my goodness they made a tremendous sight spiralling up and around, and drifting westwards. Lesser Black-backed Gulls are by no means exclusively coastal birds but seeing a flock of gulls was like a breath of sea air in this interminable Covid lock-down and was very welcome indeed.
I hope this series of 3 sets of sighting made with SF 10x32 demonstrates that they perform to a high standard and make very enjoyable companions for birding and nature observation. Of course only you can decide if they meet your own requirements.
Lee
. But thrilled is thrilled, and you clearly have a case of "If it isn't broke, don't fix it". I'm pretty well satisfied with what I have and feel no urge to splurge for the nominal upgrade. I'm aware not everyone will agree with my position.
