My blog is mostly about wildlife, particularly birds, walking, days out, all growing things and anything else that comes to mind.
To view pictures in larger format, just click on any picture for the picture gallery....

Friday 2 January 2009

A Waxwing Twitch

Pete had mentioned that there were reports of Waxwings up his way and was I interested? You bet!! So today saw me, prior to dawn breaking, motoring up "north" to meet Pete for (yes - I have to admit it!) a twitch.

Well, thanks to a passing "Birder on a Bike" (is this a new birding cult?) we found them and, as we arrived, they flew off! I managed nothing more than a record shot - in fact I nearly committed the cardinal sin of deleting them before I got them up on the PC; glad I didn't.


That 30 seconds of excitement over, we then headed off for Amwell and, for me, a first visit. I was very impressed at the size of the reserve and also the number and variety of birds. Good stuff!

I managed a few pictures, but the light was dreadful as it seems to be these days (you'll get fed up with my saying this soon).

"After Amwell" (that sounds like a film title!) we headed off for lunch, and to get warm again. We had a great meal at the Rainbow and Dove - nice one Pete :D

Here we go:
Great Tit

Long-tailed Tits


female Chaffinch

Male Reed Bunting

Female Reed Buntin

Male Wigeon

Great Crested Grebe

Cormorant
(I hadn't noticed that it had been ringed until I got the picture up on the PC)

Canada Geese


An excellent day
(and one that also brought my year list up quite respectably.)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely shots, especially the Cormorant in flight.

Paul.

Graham James said...

That shot of the Long-tailed Tits on the coconut is a beauty, Tricia

Cheryl said...

Great post Tricia....and the photographs are great. The long tailed tits is a beautiful picture and shows their acrobatics......

Tricia Ryder said...

Thanks Paul, Graham and Cheryl.

It was lovely to have a reasonably close up view of the LTTs and the Cormorant treated us to a "fly-past" whilst we were in the hide

Janine said...

LTT Feeding Frenzy! Great shots T.

Tricia Ryder said...

Thanks J :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Tricia
I want a camera like yours, great shots!!!
I have looked Amwell up I think it is in Hertfordshire, is that right? My daughter lives in Hatfield, so may look the place up next time we are there.

Have a good weekend, Jackie.

Tricia Ryder said...

Thanks Jackie. Yes - it is in Hertfordshire and here's a link:
http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/herts/reserves/amwell.htm

avalon said...

Happy new year tricia, love the new blog header. A great start to your photgraphic year loved the long tailed tits on the coconut

Tricia Ryder said...

Thanks J. Thought it was time for a change of picture. The LTTs are really appealing (and you might see/have seen some on another blog too ;) )

Anonymous said...

Well you lucky person!! Waxwings, i dipped when they payed a visit Ooop north. They were in Chorley for 2 days and i missed both such is life lol. Nice pic's by the way.


paul.

Tricia Ryder said...

Paul - if we'd been 30 seconds later, we'd have dipped too!

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