Digishots

More camera experimental shots taken through the scope - the Jackdaw is an interesting one as he has lots of white spotting down his front.

Eastern Crowned Warbler - South Shields

Great excitement in the UK over the last two days - a first record of an Eastern Crowned Warbler so it was  north we went this morning to be there for first light.  A couple of hundred were already there in position, all nervously wondering if it was still there and then a warbler flitted into view and yes ..... a Yellow Browed Warbler oh dear but all was not lost within seconds out came the star of the show.  As you can see from the shot of the crowd below we were a fair distance from the bird so the shots below of the bird were the best we could do - they are with the Nikon through the scope at 2000 iso! and yes there is a bird there just look in the centre of each pic.  This little bird has had great media coverage appearing in the national press, radio and even the BBC news this evening - I have to say that based on purely looks alone for me it wasn't as smart as the Yellow Browed but for sheer excitement and anticipation  it won hands down.

A few fungi and a lack of Harlequin Ladybirds

This autumn does not seem a good year for fungi, probably due to the near drought conditions we have experienced over the last couple of months however took these few shots in the park this morning - no idea what they are.  The trees are slowly turning some ahead of others - the Lime Trees are turning an acid yellow, the Sycamores are mostly brown due to the lack of rain but the Beech trees and a number of the ornamentals are turning a nice orangey tone. Lots of bird activity particularly migrant thrushes with plenty of Redwings in, a  first Fieldfare, 10+ Mistle Thrush and double the numbers of our usual Song Thrushes and Blackbirds.  Talking of migration I'm told that today the UK has been inundated with Harlequin Ladybirds. The harlequin ladybird is an Asiatic species that was introduced to Europe as a biological control agent.  It was also introduced to North America in 1988, where it is now the most widespread ladybird species on the continent. It has already invaded much of northwestern Europe, and arrived in Britain in summer 2004. A voracious predator it devours greenfly and even our native Ladybird - I have covered all the park this morning and searched our garden but haven't managed to find one - thank goodness! 

Rain at last

Today it has rained most of the day - something we haven't really seen since July so at last the pond and water butts have had a top up!  The rain cleared this evening giving a lovely sunset at the back of the garden and a rainbow to the front so an opportunity to test the new cameras programmed sunset scene - this camera has been criticised for excessive noise at low light levels but doesn't seem too bad (unless you zoom in and then you wish you hadn't bothered).

Normanby Park's Autumn Havest

A cold easterly wind this morning bringing down even more leaves  and a bumper crop of Sweet Chestnuts - the Jays and Squirrels were frantically collecting and burying as many as possible.  Also in the wood this morning a group of ten Crossbills moving around the Larch tops but never settling in to view.

Barred Warbler at Wroot

Here's a dilemma this Barred Warbler is right on the Lincs/S Yorks border so do we count it as a Lincolnshire tick or not? Which ever county,  it is still an exceptional inland record for this rarity.

Normanby Park Autumn Macro shots

Took a few macro shots with the new camera this morning and I have to say I just kept longing for my old Canon at first but after a while seemed to get to grips with the Nikon.  The colours seemed to be much colder than the Canon and try as I might I just couldn't find how to alter the ISO setting.  I have my usual gripe these days and that is the lack of a paper manual - a disc is just no good when you are out in the field!

New camera

I have been looking for a new camera for a while now and having narrowed down my choice to 3 I finally plumped for the Nikon P6000 .  So today had its first outing and I know it's early days but I think I made the right choice as it seems to be customed made to compliment our Kowa scope.  As you can see from the two digiscoped images below, there is no vignetting and these are hand held at 1/60th of a second and the camera only weighs 250g!  I loved my old Canon Ixus 800 but the screen has virtually worn away and the view finder is full of dust so I must try to take more care of this one but so far the Nikon has won the digiscope test handsdown however the next test will be landscapes and macros, which I'm expecting the canon to win but we'll see!

Here's the man!

Autumn Watch at Normanby Park

Well not the BBC team but me - had some great autumn visitors in the park this morning including; 2  Crossbills, 6 Siskins, 30 Pink Footed Geese flying over, up to 8 Jays collecting acorns, 10 Mistle Thrush plus the regulars; Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, large mixed tit flock, Nuthatch, Bullfinch, Goldfinch.  But the spectacle of the moment has to be the rutting Red Deer - there is the most fabulous stag strutting his stuff around the females and he is making the most fabulous noises, I hope to get some photos of him later this week.

Afternoon update - whilst stood in the front garden looking at the mindless vandalism of my car (which took place at the weekend) a further 80 Pink Feet flew over and a Grey Wagtail 20 secs later.

Hornet in North Lincolnshire

Two weeks ago I "bumped into" a Hornet at the bottom of the garden catching Hover flies feeding on the ivy.  As we only have very rare sightings of Hornets up here in North Lincs I rushed back to the house to get my camera but as usual in these cases by the time I returned it had flown off!  However as luck would have it my brother down in Kent has just posted some fabulous shots on his blog of a Queen Hornet mating in his garden so I have "borrowed" one of his shots but to see the really good ones click on the link below - As I understand we are at the very edge of its northerly limit. 

.http://theshadoxhurstgarden.blogspot.com/2009/09/garden-nuptial-hornets.html