Rare wheatear and more swallows

Sunday 29th April 2018

Another dull start and actually drizzling with rain when I set out on a walkabout, didn't really see much of note until I got by the model aircraft field, the female wheatear made up for a dull morning.

The same this afternoon, very dull and quite chilly, no sign of the Wheatear though, fled off to pastures new.

Stood there with Jason and a couple of housemartins flew over.

Lots of buzzard activity, a lone heron flew over.

And so down to Stonechats Lane, hung around for a bit and then just about ready to go back home and the swallows appeared.

This mistle thrush is standing guard, a magpie had been attacking the nest.

Macro

Thursday 26th April 2018

Had a few things to do today but managed a walk with the close up equipment

Saturday 28 April 2018

Raining and the light was awful but had to get out for a walkabout, only took the bridge camera so quality of photos this morning is poor.
Saw whitethroats, swallows, kestrel, buzzards, herons, goldfinches and many others, you can see by the landscape shot how dull it was, hoping for it to be a touch drier tomorrow.

My favourite photo of 2018 so far.

Saturday 21st April

Felt shattered when I got up this morning, think the sun and the walking got the better of me over the past few days, so off out early to see if the fox had taken the food from last night, he had.

Breakfast and then a stroll down by the three pools to see what butterflies were about, blues, tortoiseshell, peacock, orange tips, what a joy to see so many, only a few photos though as they are too quick at this time of the year.

Had a rest this afternoon and then out again to try and see the fox, but it didn't show and I left after 90 minutes.

Have shown the photo below from St Michael's Stourport as it's my favourite image from 2018 so far, not everyone's cup of tea but I do like infrared, love the way the ivy has taken over the graveyard, ivy shows up really well when coupled with bright sun and infrared, all about where the sun is positioned and how strong it is, taken with an Olympus C5060 bridge camera, 15 years old now and processed in Affinity Photo.
I have titled this one 'Forgotten'

White-Pinion spotted moth from down Stonechats Lane.

Wednesday 25th April

Must say I haven't been out for any long walkabouts lately, hay fever is bad at the moment, seems to get worse as each year passes.

Here's a couple from today on the school run.
Stourton

Axborough Lane

And one from down by Spennells this morning on a very quick walk.

Weather has to get better, doesn't it?

A really nice sunny start today, this was my view after I entered the top of the corn field, just love this view looking toward the Abberley Hills, sadly the weather went dull after this, hopefully forecasters are right and will improve this week.

Tuseday 17.04.2018

Well with work this evening and the weather being crap I decided to stay indoors and try and sort out a workflow for my infrared images in Affinity, I think I may now have the basics of something to work with. 

Here are a couple from last week, taken in Cookley alongside the Staffs Worcs canal.

Just hope weather is going to improve as I have some new filters to try on my full spectrum converted camera, fingers crossed for tomorrow.

For anyone interested the camera I use for most of my IR work is a 15 year old Olympus bridge camera, C5060, 5 mega pixels and still works a treat.

I also have a Sony a200 which is converted to 720 nm.

Years ago with film cameras the use of an IR filter meant the use of a tripod because of the extremely slow shutter speeds, now though with digital and the sensor being changed to IR you cannot tell the difference in shutter speeds to a normal camera.

Wednesday 18th April
A walkabout early this morning, saw buzzard, kestrel and possibly a merlin up by the pipeworks in Heath Lane, on way back down saw 4 yellowhammers, saw 2 more of these along Stonechats Lane.
Very quiet otherwise.
This afternoon on school run I drove along Whittington Hall Lane where I took this image, was so warm by now, about 24 degrees, was used by the BBC for the weather.

Tried my new IR filters out but not too impressed, but not giving up with them just yet, with infrared you need the conditions just right, well I do anyway.

Thursday 19th April
Lovely start to the day, skies soon burned off to leave it just looking like summer blue.

Nice to see the white bells out.

Got myself in place last night waiting for the muntjac to appear and this fella popped along instead, got some mange as you can see by the tail so have sent off for some treatment, not the best of photos as I was quite a way off, am going to move closer tonight.

Friday 20th April
A busy day but managed a few photos, first two are of the Tufted ducks on Captain's Pool.

A trip then to St Michaels at Stourport, like wandering round there as I am still looking for ancestor.s graves, found and photographed another possible today.
This is the view from off Chapel bridge.

Here's a busy bee from the graveyard.

And so back to Spennells, sat in wait for the fox, but no joy tonight, saw a heron and pheasant in the distance..

Muntjac

Having spotted a couple of Muntjac deer over the past few days I specially made an early start this morning to try and get some pics, I was not disappointed, at 6.30 am this young buck was on his way home, light very poor but hopefully get a better one at some point.

Saturday was a much brighter day and had a couple of walkabouts, saw a swallow and also think I saw a willow warbler, but it could have been a chiff chaff so for now I'm not sure.

Also seeing quite a few yellowhammers at the moment, saw 8 the other morning.

Although the weather has been crap I have the past 4 days had a picture on each of them used by the BBC.

Following on from this morning, I got a message from my friend Jason about some Corn Buntings so I quickly grabbed my camera and popped down Stonechats lane, tipping it down with rain I saw 10 of them along with 3 or 4 yellowhammers all in the same tree.