The fast and the furious

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For the uninitiated The Fast and The Furious is a hugely popular film series with lots of heavily muscled men shouting at each other, scantily clad girls running about the place and extremely fast cars burning up and down highways at speeds above the national speed limit.
This blog posts contains none of the above.  But the Internet is a vast place and any one of the aforementioned can be found very easily via the world wide web (which I STILL don’t have after nearly a month – but that’s another story).
Anyway lets get going.
Westhay was the place (again).  After waiting out the dreadful weather I pedaled down in the afternoon.  Buffeted by gusty wind, I was certainly not very fast but far too tired to be furious.
I visited what I think is the “Lake hide”.  A Cettis was belting out a tune but I couldn’t see him for the life of me.  2 Great Crested Grebes were busily nest building and one of them came close enough for a half decent picture

Great Crested Grebe

London Drove in all its glory

View to the side

After a while I decided to get some pictures of Swifts – such a cleverly named bird.  Unlike Swallows which should be called “Fasts” and House Martins which should be called “Quickies” (oh er).
Now I was starting to get furious.  I couldn’t get anywhere near any of them!  By the time the camera had focused they were half way to Weston!
I left the hide, grumbling to myself.  But I didn’t give up.  Along the track I noticed the Martins were flying really low and also coming very close.
I also bumped into Mark Fisher (the man with an extremely big lens – oh er!).   He had seen some otters, I was a bit jealous if I’m honest.  However he is from the army so I wont call him names.  I bet he's got some great photos on his Facebook page – sadly I can’t look at them yet as I don’t have the Internet (I won’t mention it again)

Then Andrew came up the track, all freshly pressed and suited up from work – It didn’t really go with the surroundings
At that point we got a bit obsessed with getting a Swift, or House Martin.  My furious levels were rising but in the end I got these.

 Andrew - You see what James was doing wrong was trying to get these zippy darts with a big old 400mm lens when what you really need is a Macro. Yes you guest it I was using that uber all rounder the Takumar 50mm Super-Macro on my Canon 70D. Single shot mode to boot. I managed to get these............

Some Swifts were about

James in all his fury

James and Mark Fisher 'comparing'

Andrew was in a bit of a hurry and had to get back.  Leaving me with the Fast little devils zipping about.  I didn’t get any more worthwhile shots.
Then I had a phone call from Andrew.  The baby Tawny was back! Mark had spotted him.  Much higher up this time.  So he can either fly or has a grappling hook…

Andrew - Mark was the man who spotted it. I ran back and he kindly lent me his bloody great 500mm F2.8 (I think) beast. It is very nice but maybe a tad too heavy for me. I did get this though which I'm chuffed with.

Tawny Owl Chick using 500mm

and using the 50mm

Back to James............

We then met with 'The mushroom man' (Steve Balcombe) and much exchanging of business cards took place.
On the way home, the wind was behind me.  I was fast and no longer quite as furious (just don’t mention the Internet…)

Linnet on a brick

POSTSCRIPT:  After reviewing some images from the other day.  It appears the tatty harrier I saw may well have been a tatty Red Kite.  Here are some terrible pictures to prove it.

Sleeping like a baby

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Babies.  They are cute in the right circumstances.  Mainly when they are sleeping…
Of course at this time of year most of our wildlife is doing just that.  There are loads of cute baby bunnies and little fluffy swans milling about the place.  But its not often you see a really cool baby.  Until now…
After some delicate negotiations with the boss I managed to get down to Westhay for a bit.  As I cycled along I considered what the next day would bring.  Negotiations are all about give and take.  Sadly the “give” bit for me will no doubt involve trips to various retail parks searching for soft furnishings and lampshades…
Still, the day was young, the sun was out and I was on my bike.  Perfect.
The pedal down was surprisingly quiet.  Not even that many Swallows or House Martins along  Godney river.  At Westhay everything looked rather splendid.  All in bloom, lush and verdant.  But… it was so quiet.

A single Mallard laughed loudly at me from behind the reads (is it just me who thinks they laugh?)
Cettis… Their psychotic outbursts were rather few and far between.
Swans… Well yeah there were loads of them I suppose.
I was struggling.  Luckily a Marsh harrier did put in an appearance but it was miles away.
A couple of Hobbies were flying high, probably trying to find where all the Swifts had gone.
I sat by a small pool rather forlornly.  I tried for some Dragonfly shots but the critters just don’t like staying still.  At this point I was texting Andrew, moaning.  A bad sign.
Luckily fate had something good in store.  A tractor was blocking my way out of the reserve so I went back the way I came in and I’m glad I did!
I spied Jerry Hawker standing on the track taking pictures of what looked like a squirrel (he was even more desperate than me).  Except it wasn’t a squirrel.  It was this…

What a stunner and so close!  Although he was only a few meters from the track he was quite well camouflaged.  He didn’t seem bothered at all and stayed asleep whilst I took a few snaps from the pathway.
He was sleeping like a baby.

For the love of God(ney)

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For a few weeks now we've been saying what a wonderful summers day it's been. Well we were lying. It was all wishful thinking. They were actually only the beginning of the end of spring. Today however was almost the real deal. That sun was a proper sun, that blue sky was a proper blue, that breeze was a proper breeze. All in all it was the perfect combination after all we are British and you don't want it too warm now do you.

The idea of the day was to take it back to the good old days when James and I had the bright idea of starting this bloody blog. A nice day out with lots of birds, lots of banter, lots of beer and a bit of cycling. This was the plan and that's how it happened. (You were expecting a 'but' there weren't you). Nope it started as it usually did with not a lot of activity. VP2 and 1 at Hamwall were quiete and our spirits dropped a little thinking we would not have much to report. We then reminded ourselves that this is exactly how these things pan out.

At this point I must make a bit of a confession. I'm writing this with three pints of cider in me and all the pictures that are ready to load are not in chronological order. So while I sort myself out and work out which picture of a swan was taken before or after the Hobby picture here's a picture of some pretty flowers taken. . . . .  erm sometime before or after the swan took the head off a small child. . . .  enjoy

(Best viewed while humming the theme from the Gallery sequence of Vision On)

Ok I think I've remembered what was what.....................

We went through to the Scrape where not a lot was happening. A guy walked passed and informed us of a Cuckoo in plain view and a pair of Bearded Tits just up the track. We were off. We stopped at the cross roads of Noahs hide and Mear Hide. Somewhere we had not really bothered with before despite being a nice little spot. The waters just in front of the bench is a particularly beautiful sight. A Grey Heron making a perfect photo opportunity.

It suddenly all started to get exciting. There was pair of Woodpeckers gathering insects for the young, a Cuckoo flying strait over head, a White Throat sing its heart out and a low level Hobby.

Cuckoo coming atcha!

At one point James got a bit distracted by the fish under the bridge. In particular a rather hansom Pike...

An excellent shot of a Broad Bodied Chaser by James

So we were thinking of moving on when we heard the distintive sound of a Swan taking off. Six in total came straight down the water and only just missed a small child on the bridge. That would have made an excellent picture but we weren't quick enough. Instead James managed what is possibly the best non cropped picture he's ever taken!!

The best picture James has or will ever take!

And my effort

Two Bitterns went across the path. James managed it but my manual focus let me down

James' arty moment!

I took this shot of a distant pair of birds and I'm not sure what they are. Any comments would be appreciated. They are probably young Gulls but you never know.

ID anyone??

So we moved on stopping only to get this one eyed chap at an undisclosed location. Last time I saw him he had two eyes. Not sure what happened but he's doing ok.

One eyed rat!

Next stop was London Drove. We didn't stop much along the way but headed to the hide at the bottom. Quit a few people in there but they did the traditional thing and left as we arrived. As for birds it was a bit thin on the ground but macro saved the day.

Possibly the best macro pic I have or will ever take.

As for birds we spotted a Male Marsh Harrier and one Cuckoo along the way.

The debrief was calling and we sped off back up the track to head to Godney but not before James decided to stop by the fields being harvested at the entrance. He had spotted one Buzzard and wanted a picture. I carried on only to stop dead at the next field where there were over forty of them flying or walking through the field along with all the Herring Gulls. It was quite a sight and kept us amused for quite some time. I was a little dismissive of James' insistence he had spotted a Red Kite. Indeed he did. His Red Kite duck was broken for the year.

Take note Mr Morrison

 

That Kite

James' Kite

So what more! We well deserved a debrief now.

The Sheppy was looking as uber cool as always. The beer even better.

The view was pretty cool

This Sparrow Hawk flew past twice. I didn't realise James had snapped it

What more would a cat want!!

The sun was warm but not hot, the beer was cool but not too warm and the breeze was refreshing but not too cool. It all added up to a perfect end to a day. We had our cameras with us and managed this shot

James' 400mm

My 50mm

We had to leave unfortunately so mounting our bikes we rode off. Now I don't condone this but I must admit to having a few. The ride home did seem rather hard compared to previous. The rear end sliding around a bit. I put this down to the ale until I looked down and realised I had a flat! Why is it always the rear one!! The one that's a pain to change. Changing a puncture while merry is an interesting experience and takes a little longer than expected!

Blackbird on an Ivy post

But you'll be glad to know I made it home safely.

We did aim to meet up with Robin Morrison but missed him, probably by a whisker. He did get some excellent shots of two Bitterns and three Cuckoos in flight. Well done, a bit better than we managed at Hamwall but we had better beer :¬P