Photographing Quicksilver, a little time with Swifts

Sunday and with a decidedly chilly weather forecast we decide on a family walk along the landward side of the pines between Holkham and Burnham Overy Staithe. Part mobile football match, part birdwatch and part picnic we make our way along a surprisingly quiet path heading west from Lady Anne's Drive.

Female Wheatear, Burnham Overy Dunes

I didn't have any great birdy expectations apart from getting to add Spoonbill to my year list and sure enough we saw a number of these around the Cormorant colony as expected. The only other year tick was a Greenshank that I picked up as it called as it flew over whilst we had our picnic in the dunes.

Male Wheatear, Burnham Overy Dunes

The dunes didn't hold any Ring Ousels that I could find and in the cold northerly wind migrants were thin on the ground so two or three Wheatear's were nice to see and included a very tame female that allowed me to shuffle within a couple of metres of her.

Swift, Burham Overy Staithe

As we walked on the landward side of the seawall back towards Burnham Overy Staithe, large numbers of Swifts buzzed around our heads and I got sucked into one of my favourite summer pastimes trying to photograph Quicksilver aka as Swift photography. I really didn't have the right kit with me a ten year old EOS 400D body and an even older Canon  100 - 300 mm 1; 4.5-5.6 lens the auto focus on which wheezed slowly in and out far more slowly than the Swifts moved through the sky which made the already tricky task of photographing them much harder.

Swift, Burham Overy Staithe

Nonetheless I had a great time, Swifts are such charismatic birds and so unpredictable in flight, just when you think that you that you and your camera have finally focused on one, it does a sudden shimmy and is gone. One eagerly anticipated moment when photographing Swifts, never guaranteed and never predictable, is when one fly's so close to your face that you can hear the rush of air through its wings and for a second you wonder if its wing brushes against you, will slice your ear off.

Swift, Burham Overy Staithe

I took lots of shots, most were out of focus, but one or two were OK as record shots and I have shared a few here.

Swift, Burham Overy Staithe

Whilst waiting for the Swifts this male Kestrel worked its way down the sea bank and for a moment or two was almost directly overhead an din good light. A very pleasant twenty minutes.

First half of May catch up

As family bereavement and a busy work schedule have limited the amount of time in the field, having said that I've still managed to bump into a few nice birds in the first half of May.

 Saturday 3rd of May
A visit to Titchwell Creek with the kids for picnic and play in the sand was a lovely family outing. On the walk down from the Brancaster Beach car park we had a Wheatear on the golf course practice green and a singing Reed Warbler. At the creek I saw my first Little Terns of the year and a couple of Sandwich Terns and was able to watch a couple of Marsh Harriers over Titchwell Marsh. When we arrived I counted 19 Common Seals hauled out on the saltmarsh and as the tide dropped these swam down the creek right past as much to the kids excitement. The only downside was that as I attempted to get a nice low angle shot of no2 son he threw sand all over my Panasonic Lumix which now needs to go to the menders.

Titchwell Creek

Tuesday 6th May
Saw my first Swifts of the day a couple of birds out of a meeting room window in Norwich and more over Hunstanton in the evening.

Swift

Wednesday 7th May 
Spent a day in the Ouse valley in Cambridgeshire and popped into Little Paxton Pits where I had great fun watching some Great Crested Newts in a pool by the Visitor Centre and hearing some Nightingales in the scrub. Moved on from here fro a brief visit to the RSPBs Ouse Fen reserve near Needingworth and enjoyed watching two Hobby's hunting over the new Marsh surrounded by tens of Swifts and listening to a booming bittern and calling Cuckoo, also had great views of a singing Garden Warbler here.

RSPB Ouse Fen

Saturday 10th May
A walk round Ken Hill Woods was enlivened by a singing Turtle Dove a rare sight and sound these days.

Monday 12th May
Driving through Sedgeford in the morning it was nice to see my first House Martins of the year. In the afternoon I took a brief diversion off the A140 in Titchwell and up the Choseley Road here I was treated to great scope views of a 'trip' of ten Dotterels feeding in a roadside field. A Corn Bunting singing just up the road from the Dotterel was a nice find as they have been scarce around Choseley this year.

Cemetery Tick and other stuff

Common Buzzard, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

I had a very enjoyable and productive lunchtime walk around the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich with a work friend today.The fine weather from the weekend was still with us and the cemetery looked wonderfully green highlighting the wonderful glowing red leaves of the Copper Beaches. Chiff Chaff's and Blackcap's were both in song and my friend heard a brief snatch of Swallow song, quite a mega record here.

Overhead I saw my first two Swifts of the year always a great sign of the impending arrival of summer. But the best bird of this short walk was a Common Buzzard high overhead mobbed my a Carrion Crow. Neither of us had a pair of binoculars with us and we wondered for a while whether this might be a Honey Buzzard, but came to the conclusion it was a Common Buzzard, something borne out by the heavily enlarged image above taken on my TZ30 compact camera

Holly Blue, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

It was also great to see a few butterflies on the wing including perhaps my favourite UK species the Orangetip.

Male Orangetip, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich