Very busy at the bird feeder today! (7 Viewers)

[Kentbloke]

well done with the snipe kent bloke

Or Woodcock even!

 

[captaincarot]

Or Woodcock even!

so it is sorry

 

[michael23]

nice and busy the last couple of days on here, welcome to the new posters.
Been pretty mental and all over the place but i am happy to report a WOODCOCK flew over my house and garden this morning, hopefully i will find it in the garden tomorrow! coal tits seem to have returned with about 4 birds today, hoping for a decent garden watch at some point over the weekend. Still wanting to post some pics, but im still having computer problems.:C

 

[Cheshire Birder]

photos of waxwings always make me sad because i aint seen one.

we've been chasing hares all afternoon, unfortunately the closest we got were footprints and waist deep in a snow drift.

We'll try and get you some Waxwings this winter CC. If you want pics of Hares in spring I know a couple of good place near me if you fancy a trip this way.

i forgot to mention we saw 14 red grouse, a skein of geese that flew past below us hugging the ground across the valley.
and a very large owl, though i didn't get a good enough look at it to tell what species as it disappeared behind a hill, i suspect from the look i got it may have been a short eared owl but i don't know if they live up there either.
we moved lower down and went for a walk in the woods at crowden. here we saw one jay and about 30 gold finches in one tree.

Most likely the owl was a Shortie. They stay in the uplands during winter. What were the geese? Couldn't tell from the angle of the photo.

CB

 

[captaincarot]

Most likely the owl was a Shortie. They stay in the uplands during winter. What were the geese? Couldn't tell from the angle of the photo.

CB

we couldn't tell from the angle we saw them an they were quite a way off before we could see them. they actually hugged the valley bottom all the way up.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

we couldn't tell from the angle we saw them an they were quite a way off before we could see them. they actually hugged the valley bottom all the way up.

Did they call? Maybe worth posting it on the id forum to see if anyone can identify them.

CB

 

[oldbird]

bin 4 days sins i put my feeding station back togather and the birds seem to like it lots of cardinals and dark eyed juncos at the feeders today :t::t::t:

 

[captaincarot]

Did they call? Maybe worth posting it on the id forum to see if anyone can identify them.

CB

they were calling typical goose flying calls, but again it was a bit difficult to hear due to the traffic noise, they were on the opposite side of the woodhead from us and i'm not good enough on goose calls to id form them yet. i've still got lots to learn.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

they were calling typical goose flying calls, but again it was a bit difficult to hear due to the traffic noise, they were on the opposite side of the woodhead from us and i'm not good enough on goose calls to id form them yet. i've still got lots to learn.

Most likely to be Canadas. Pinkfeet don't usually fly that low unless the have just taken off.

CB

 

[captaincarot]

Most likely to be Canadas. Pinkfeet don't usually fly that low unless the have just taken off.

CB

well without prompting you've just come up with the species that we thought they probably were from what we could see

they were so low you can actually see the shadows of the birds reflected in the snow beneath them when you blow the picture up.

 

[michael23]

i missed this post, i had the same problem, your cameras meter has been fooled by the vast amount of snow causing your fieldfare to be underexposed, try your different metering options and you may well find 1 that suits it better,

karpman: I just noticed that you asked if your pictures were too dark, and nobody replied. Well they are too dark.|=)|

I think they are underexposed, this could be because of back-lighting on some, but not on all. Maybe your camera is metering wrong, perhaps try a different metering setting?

I hope you don't mind, but to illustrate my point, I've adjusted the exposure slightly on your Fieldfare picture. I can't do much more as it'll just blow the whites of the Snow too much, but I think you can see there is a lot of detail there that you are missing. Also you can only do so much in post processing, and I'm only working with the low resolution image, not the original.

 

[AlanCh]

i missed this post, i had the same problem, your cameras meter has been fooled by the vast amount of snow causing your fieldfare to be underexposed, try your different metering options and you may well find 1 that suits it better,

Lots of great posts here recently. Meters are always fooled by snow - they expect the scene on average to be grey, and it isn't. Try increasing your exposure by about one stop (Av on Canon).

My large thrush score today on the lawn (snowfield) is:

Blackbirds 30
Mistle Thrush 1
Redwing 1

vs

Fieldfare 1

Our aggressive Fieldfare seems to have been faced down by the shear numbers of Blackbirds - yesterday he (I think) saw off 8 Woodpigeons. The feeders (9) and bird table are very busy with the usual variety (see my last post) - and the 2 Lesser Redpolls are still with us. Looks like we had a Sparrowhawk kill this morning - I didn't see it, but the flurry of feathers on the snow with no mammal footprints look conclusive.

I'll try and get some photos, but light levels are low, and its just started snowing again for the third time today. Looks like I'll be raking snow off the lawn again.

 

[karpman]

Hi guys!

4 fieldfare similar redwing and just had bloody reed bunting on the bird table!!!!

karpman

 

[karpman]

Cheers for the camera tips guys much appreciated!

Just making some pasties and i'm all a dither now managed some photos of the 2 reed buntings visiting my garden!
over the moon i'd have a beer but i drank em last night lol

karpman

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Morning from a frosty east cheshire, still sub-zero temperatures here!!

Had my first ever garden Fieldfare at my parents. Had a few flyovers in the past but never on the deck.

CB

 

[spock]

8 greenfinch came onto the table this morning,first time these have been,and 1 coal tit,
still got loads of B&G Tits,BB,.
But I was well pleased to see the Greenfinch,one of them has what looks like a fluffy beard,I managed a photo or 3 so I will put one up later of this bird,for you all to see,

 

[AlanCh]

Just a few photos from this morning - for the technically minded, taken raw with a Canon Eos 450D and 55 - 250mm IS lens set at 800 ISA (so a bit noisy), post-processed firstly in Lightroom (adjusting levels and sharpening), exported as jpegs and then cropped and resized for the web in Elements 7. Still pretty poor because I took them though the double glazing in not very good light - its cold out there, and I don't have a hide!

Spot the Goldfinches, Bullfinches, Greenfinch, Lesser Redpoll and Mistle Thrush (I think).

All time garden list is 48, this year 26.

 

[karpman]

Cracking woodcock kentbloke missed that one!

Nice stuff!
pasties in the oven over to garden watching again lol

karpman

 

[Mary]

Maybe those in the Leeds area will be lucky!.. http://birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=1694726&postcount=54
Oops, sorry-just reread the post and it says last February

 

[ChrisKten]

My feeders and fatballs have been pretty barren, aside from a pair of Blue Tits, a Robin and a Blackbird, very poor really. However, did get this in the garden today which was a surprise - apologies for crap digiscoping!

Just noticed this, well done with the Woodcock, Mick.