Bearded Tits

 I had a couple of first time experiences yesterday in that I made use of the good weather and some unexpected free time to head off to RSPB Leighton Moss in Silverdale. That was the first of my firsts because although I have been a member of the RSPB for some time and former colleagues at work had advised me many times that I should visit I had never been to Leighton Moss before.

It is an amazing wetland habitat with so much to see, there were red deer, egrets, various wildfowl species, marsh harriers, and more dragon flies that I have ever seen at one time before. At one point I was watching a great egret feasting on dragonflies by picking them off reeds and snatching them from the air with such precision.

The second of my firsts was to see a pair of Bearded Tits, or Bearded Reedlings as they are also known. I had been told there were two potential sites where I might be lucky enough to spot them although they tend to be more active at the beginning and end of the day so there was no guarantee that I would spot any. Leaving one hide I was told by some other visitors that they had just seen three of these wonderful birds and told me where I should look. When I arrived there were two other photographers who were also on the lookout but they had not seen them yet and one had been waiting over an hour so I wasn't very hopeful.

I was determined not to give up too quickly and after a little while I spotted a male on the reeds at the edge of the clearing, unfortunately it was obscured by the reeds so there was no photo op, I could at least say that I had seen one and that for me was quite exciting. It was also enough to make me stop around a little longer and see if it ventured into a better spot. I was not disappointed and finally I was able to capture a few shots of this stunning male Bearded Tit. They are a little soft because of the distance being pretty much at the effective range of my 100 - 400 mm lens. The guy next to me was using a 200 - 800 mm lens and the difference between his images and mine was noticeable and left me with a touch of lens envy, however I am happy with the shots I was able to capture and my first sighting of these wonderful little birds was a real treat making the journey to Leighton Moss well worth it.

Did You Get My Best Side

 My first post for 2026, and the first in some time is from my first foray with my camera in quite a while too.

Even though I am retired life is still very busy and finding the time for hobbies can be difficult, and at this time of year when the weather is colder, my bones are creakier, and the light is less predictable getting out for a spot of photography is a challenge.

All of today's shots are from Martin Mere Wetland Centre from 14th January. It was a really cold day and the light conditions were changeable most of these images were shot with a high ISO (as much as 12800) so I have had to a little work to reduce the noise. I think they have mostly turned out alright. 

    Male Pochard

    Male Pintail

    Black Tailed Godwit

    That Pintail again...

    Male Reed Bunting, coming in to land

    Reed Bunting, about to take off...

    

     Male Greenfinch

    Male leucistic Reed Bunting with a chaffinch looking on

    Launch time for a male chaffinch 

    One of my favourite birds, a Long-tailed Tit. Did you know that these are truly social birds, over 50% of their nests have non-parent birds assisting with raising the chicks. Wonderful little things.

Fledgling

 One of the nicest surprises during my recent visit to Ness Botanical Gardens was to spot this beautiful fledgling robin. I had stopped for a moment in the shade of a thatched shelter on the edge of the rock garden overlooking a pool. I could hear a rustling sound above but in the shade it was hard at first to spot what was making the noise. It was in fact two little robins that had clearly just fledged and were exploring the space above in the moss and straw of the roof. 

This little fellow had, I think, been feeding on bugs and spiders because as you can see it has some spiders web stuck to its beak.

You can get a sense of scale when you look at what it is perched on... its feet are tightly holding onto an LED light from a string of garden lights. The light fitting itself is about half the size of a typical matchstick, so not only can you see how small the bird is but also you can gauge how light it is given that it did not move the light or the cable at all.

As an adult this bird will have a striking red breast and a  beautiful song that will captivate anyone who sees and hears it. But, as a fledgling it would be easy to miss or overlook. I wonder if like the ugly duckling in the famous fairytale and song this little bird does not see its potential. 

Feathers and Fluff

 

Here we have a selection of birds starting at the top with a mallard duckling, then a black necked stilt and finally a Puna teal.

All of the pictures were taken in Chester Zoo but the first two species can be seen in the wild around the UK whereas the teal is a resident of the Andes in Peru. It has a striking blue bill.

The ducklings were sat with their mother in the shade of a picnic table and while a common sight I couldn't resist the calm relaxed expressions.

The stilt is very elegant and I loved the reflections as it carefully waded through its pool in search of food.

Pretty Flamingo

 Today I am following up yesterday's flaming excellent abstract with some more conventional shots of the flamingos at the zoo.

I have seen flamingos flying in the south of France but never had an opportunity to photograph them in the wild. So to get some shots I had to see them in the zoo. They are currently in the breeding season, in fact several birds could be seen sitting on eggs ( I wont say on nests because they actually create a mound of earth with a rim around the top and lay their egg on top). In previous years the zoo  staff have removed the eggs and replaced them with wooden replica eggs to avoid the risk of predation while the actual eggs are placed in incubators where they could hatch safely. However this year for the first time, since the flock is housed in a new and spectacular aviary, the eggs have been left with the parent birds and will be allowed to hatch naturally. Perhaps I will go back in a few weeks to see the new chicks, that would be quite something.

The colours of the birds' plumage at the moment is quite stunning, so vibrant and eye catching.

I went to the zoo...

 ... and one of the first things I photographed was this:

So it may seem strange to pay for entry to a zoo and then photograph a bird that i could photograph almost anywhere else however when an opportunity arises it is important to take it.

I actually really like Jackdaws, I think they are a very handsome bird, they are alert and curious too. Their striking blue eyes really stand out against their glossy plumage.

It was nice towards the end of my visit to also see the pair of birds on a branch, I think the male was definitely trying to impress his mate, but she was playing it very cool.

Atlantic Puffins

 Here are shots of three different birds from my recent trip to Skomer. I will take a break from posting pictures of the birdlife on the island and go onto other subjects, so I wanted to make this post special with some really nice shots. I have already written about some puffin related facts in previous posts so I won't repeat that here, instead I will just let the pictures do the talking. These are such stunning, beautiful birds and it was a real privilege to photograph them.

Stonechat

 For today I am taking a break from the puffin and other seabird shots and have shared a few images of male and female stonechats. I photographed these on Wooltack Point while waiting for the crossing to Skomer. There were lots of songbirds flying about and singing loudly but most were very difficult to spot let alone photograph. With a bit of patience however I managed to get these shots and I really like the colours with the gorse in full bloom as a backdrop. It is very likely that I was close to the nest in these shots because they commonly nest in gorse, and why not? with its sharp thorns it provides a natural protective barrier to would be predators. They lay 5 or 6 eggs and will generally have 2 or 3 broods in a nesting season. That seems like a lot of work for such little birds.

Fly Past

 Every single photographer I saw and spoke to on my trip to Skomer was after a shot of a puffin coming into land; shoulders back, feet forward and wings outstretched to achieve a stable landing, and after that it was a shot of the birds in flight. As one guy said to me "the success rate is less than 0.5% but we keep on trying". He was not wrong, it is so hard to get a good shot of these birds in flight. They are small and super fast and for me it didn't help that I had the shutter speed too slow for the first few attempts. The first three shots above were shot at 1/640 sec which was clearly too slow to get a clear image, and even the last shot at 1/2000 sec is not as sharp as I would like. The problem is tracking such a small bird at speed, maintaining focus and keeping camera shake to a minimum. Perhaps the guys with gimbals on their tripods had better luck but despite the shortcomings I think that for these hand held shots I did OK. 

Great White (Egret not Shark)

 I had pretty much given up on my visit to Burton Mere yesterday. I had managed a few shots of geese in flight and I had watched a pair of Marsh Harriers flying off over the reed bed but there was not much else within range to photograph. To cap it all I twisted my ankle and had decided to call it a day.

On the walk back to the car park I stopped briefly at one of the screens where I had seen a Little Grebe and a Great White Egret before. The grebe was on show but with the sun directly in front of me all I could get was a silhouette. Then this egret flew down and started fishing close enough that I could get a few pictures. I watched as it caught several fish and I managed to get several good shots of it with wings extended, fish in its beak or just stood poised regally with one eye watching for its next catch. I actually took over 100 images while I was watching so it was a good end to what had otherwise been a disappointing trip.

The images above are variations on just one shot, the penultimate shot of the day.

Obviously the first one is rotated through 90 degrees and I have converted it to black and white. I have cropped it slightly to centre the image and I have added a slight vignette. I am always on the lookout for heart shapes in nature and when I took the original photo I knew that I would be able to create the above image and I am super happy with the result.

The other pictures are, as I say from the same shot, they have been given slightly different edits but apart from the change to black and white for one and the addition of the vignette there is very little change to the actual raw data.