Dorset birding (3 Viewers)

Paul Corfield · Sep 30, 2007

Thanks for the updates scary-canary. Good photo of the Godwit too.

I was at the Longham lake on Friday 28th at around mid-day. Quite a few Green Woodpecker in all the surrounding fields, 6 Cormorants sat in the pylons by the lake, a handful of Swallows skimming the lake, only saw 2 Gadwall and all the usual other stuff.

Got my new digital slr this weekend so itching to get to the lake to try out some long range digiscoping. Shall wait for a fine day next week.

Just wondered had you noticed the old nest in one of the pylons as you walk up the lane towards the lake? Any idea what would have made it? Also noticed the rabbits in the nearby fields seem to be quite large for wild rabbits, must be cross bred or something.

Paul.

scary-canary · Oct 1, 2007

Paul Corfield said:
Just wondered had you noticed the old nest in one of the pylons as you walk up the lane towards the lake? Any idea what would have made it? Also noticed the rabbits in the nearby fields seem to be quite large for wild rabbits, must be cross bred or something.

Paul.

I've seen the nest too - but didn't start watching the lakes until after it was empty - probably crows or maybe a buzzard. Have you seen the map of Longham Lakes - it may help...
http://www.birdwords.co.uk/longham_lakes_map.htm
There is some other interesting stuff on Dominic's site too.

scary-canary · Oct 4, 2007

Longham lakes today

No sign of yesterday;s ring ouzel, but they were working where it was reported from. New birds for me for the site were two wigeon, two shoveler, chaffinch, willow warbler and song thrush - isn't it amazing how a new patch list can make seemingly common birds exciting again? I posted the shoveler on a different thread to get some id advice here are the pics again. I got some nice pictures of a heron too - beautiful light for photography today

Paul Corfield · Oct 5, 2007

Nice heron photo.

I'm going to head to the lake on Saturday and Sunday for some digiscoping with my new dslr. Probably do a couple of early mornings and get there about 8am.

Paul.

scary-canary · Oct 6, 2007

Paul Corfield said:
Nice heron photo.

I'm going to head to the lake on Saturday and Sunday for some digiscoping with my new dslr. Probably do a couple of early mornings and get there about 8am.

Paul.

Let us know what you see.

Paul Corfield · Oct 6, 2007

My 4 year old son woke us up at 6.30am so I thought I may as well get up. Got to the lake at around 7.45am. Had my best day yet and spent a couple of hours there. As soon as I got to the lake from the lane there were 5 Heron flying low over the water. They were basically messing about chasing each other, being quite vocal and doing some aerobatics etc. It was great fun to watch. That went on for a good hour or so.

Spotted one Little Egret stalking fish on the far side of the lake near the quarry fence. Sat on the barbed wire of the quarry fence there were around 20 Goldfinch. Just over the quarry fence there was a Jay and a Magpie having a dispute over something or other. Saw one Stonechat in a bush just a few feet from me as I approached the quarry. Got a good photo of a Buzzard in one of the big trees by the main road near Longham Lodge. As I finished doing a walk around the lake there was another small flock of about 10 Goldfinch feeding in the small plants that have turned to seed near Green Lane. All the usual other stuff on the lake itself, didn't spot anything new there.

It was quite misty with not much light for digiscoping which was a shame and the sun stayed behind the clouds the whole time. Shall have to invest in a good telephoto lens for times like this I think.

Here's some pics.

Paul.

teamsaint · Oct 6, 2007

wow 22 Spoonbills on Brownsea Lagoon. That's amazing

scary-canary · Oct 6, 2007

Paul - tat's agreat couple of hours and a great buzzard shot too. What camera are you using? I'm using a Nikon d50 with the 100-300 zoom lens which is excellent, but I too would like one of the big lenses. Can't justify spending 1500 pound on one though.
I'll check out the lake tomorrow.
Chris

Paul Corfield · Oct 6, 2007

scary-canary said:
Paul - tat's agreat couple of hours and a great buzzard shot too. What camera are you using? I'm using a Nikon d50 with the 100-300 zoom lens which is excellent, but I too would like one of the big lenses. Can't justify spending 1500 pound on one though.
I'll check out the lake tomorrow.
Chris

I'm using a Samsung GX-1L dslr which is the same as a Pentax *ist DL2 dslr. Samsung and Pentax work together on their slr's and they just put their own badges on the same models. At the moment I've only got the kit lens which is an 18-55mm plus a 50mm f2 lens to use through the spotting scope. I'll have a 300mm telephoto within a week or two though. The slr works well through the scope in good light and that gives in the region of a 2000mm lens but ideally it needs the sun to be out to get a decent shutter speed. I'll try a different eyepiece on the scope on Sunday which should work better in low light.

Paul.

scary-canary · Oct 7, 2007

longham lakes sunday 7 oct

Bit chilly at the lake today but good numbers of coot and great crested grebe. Also five little grebe, several herons and two little egret. Lapwing flying over was a patch tick for me as were blackbird, goldfinch and the egret. Heard a stonechat but couldn't see it.
Lots of wagtails in the horse paddocks, must have been 30!
One huge sparrowhawk flying over the road on the way back past Hampreston.

Anyone know why they play gull alarms calls here? Can't see that it works or that there is any real need for it.

Paul Corfield · Oct 7, 2007

Ah, so that must have been you I saw walking around the lake this morning? I'll say hello next time. I got there at 7.20am. Not much going on compared to Saturday, the Heron weren't anywhere near as playful. Got an ok photo of a Little Egret and a Swan taking off. Came out quite good seeing as the lens was just two cardboard tubes with an old telescope lens for the objective and mounted on the camera as a prime focus lens. Shall develop the idea a little further. Actaully this year is the first year I even purchased a spotting scope, up till now I've built all my own from acquired parts.

Here's three pics, any idea what the little bird is in the third one, not very good quality I'm afraid.

Paul.

scary-canary · Oct 7, 2007

Paul Corfield said:
Ah, so that must have been you I saw walking around the lake this morning? I'll say hello next time. I got there at 7.20am. Not much going on compared to Saturday, the Heron weren't anywhere near as playful. Got an ok photo of a Little Egret and a Swan taking off. Came out quite good seeing as the lens was just two cardboard tubes with an old telescope lens for the objective and mounted on the camera as a prime focus lens. Shall develop the idea a little further. Actaully this year is the first year I even purchased a spotting scope, up till now I've built all my own from acquired parts.

Here's three pics, any idea what the little bird is in the third one, not very good quality I'm afraid.

Paul.

I guessed it was you - thought i'd catch you up but never made it. I reckon the third bird is a dunnock.
Chris

scary-canary · Oct 11, 2007

Quick look at Longham lake

Five shoveler and eight wigeon were the highlights on the lake today and a raven gonk gonk gonking on one of the pylons - are they regular here does anyone know?

Paul Corfield · Oct 11, 2007

scary-canary said:
Five shoveler and eight wigeon were the highlights on the lake today and a raven gonk gonk gonking on one of the pylons - are they regular here does anyone know?

I saw two Raven making some noise on the Pylons last weekend so I guess they are around.

Hope to get to the lake at the weekend. Got a lovely new scope arriving hopefully on Friday which will give me a nice 720mm prime lens for the camera.

Paul.

scary-canary · Oct 12, 2007

Paul Corfield said:
I saw two Raven making some noise on the Pylons last weekend so I guess they are around.

Hope to get to the lake at the weekend. Got a lovely new scope arriving hopefully on Friday which will give me a nice 720mm prime lens for the camera.

Paul.

How are you going to attach it to the camera?

Paul Corfield · Oct 13, 2007

scary-canary said:
How are you going to attach it to the camera?

The scope arrived today. I got an 80mm William Optics ZenithStar telescope and it looks like the one in this attached photo but mine is in black. To attach the camera to the scope I'm getting a bayonet adapter to convert the Pentax bayonet fitting to a standard 42mm T-mount thread. Then I screw a T-mount to 1.25" adapter into that. The 1.25" end goes into the scope where the standard 1.25" telescope type eyepieces would normally go. The camera will just sit at the end of the scope as if it was mounted to a camera lens and you use the scopes focusing wheels to focus the image. The focal length of the scope is 480mm but because of the ccd size on a digital camera you have to multiply that by 1.5 to get the 35mm equivalent. That basically gives a 720mm lens at F6 which is good enough for fast shutter speeds. When it's all set up it will look something like the second photo. I did some tests today just hand holding the camera behind the scope and it will focus from around 6m to infinity.

Paul.

scary-canary · Oct 13, 2007

It'll be interesting to see what results you get with it - looks great!

Paul Corfield · Oct 13, 2007

Got to the lake at 7.45 this morning. Dark and miserable but at least the drizzle just about stayed away. Nothing out of the ordinary today, plenty of Heron, couple of Little Egrets, some Meadow Pipit just over the fence by the quarry and the usual mixture of ducks, Coots and Grebes on the water plus one Jay in a tree by the lake. Had a play with the new scope but can only hand hold the camera till the adapters arrive. Here's a few pics.

Paul.

scary-canary · Oct 13, 2007

Longham lakes, saturday 13th 4pm

Good numbers of duck today including one pochard and two ruddy ducks.

Paul, pictures look great considering you're hand holding it. I'm inspired to see if I can fix my old Kowa to my slr - any ideas as to how to do it successfully?

Paul Corfield · Oct 13, 2007

scary-canary said:
Good numbers of duck today including one pochard and two ruddy ducks.

Paul, pictures look great considering you're hand holding it. I'm inspired to see if I can fix my old Kowa to my slr - any ideas as to how to do it successfully?

One quick test would be to stick on something like a 28mm lens and hold it up to the eyepiece of the scope. See what sort of shutter speeds the camera offers up. With my old spotting scope I found it was only usable on a bright sunny day and even then the results weren't all that good and that was with a top quality eyepiece. I think slr's through spotting scopes are reserved for the top 3 makes like Pentax, Swaro and Leica. Other than that I'd go the route I've gone and get a good quality telescope which are a fraction of the cost of a spotting scope but the optical quality is comparable.

Paul.

Dorset birding (3 Viewers)

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