Thursday 5 January 2012

Year list soaring...


...not quite.... but I did manage my first good bird of the year in my second visit of 2012 today. I got there pretty late today - as usual I peered into the large barn near Reads Rest Cottages. It took me a while to spot a promising looking shape crouched up in a corner but I got it in the scope and it was the Barn Owl! My first owl species at CFBW this year (it was very closely followed by a calling Little Owl). Being late in the day and a little overcast, the light was not great and by the time I started thinking about shots it was really rather dark - the only way I could find to get any kind of image was to whack the compact camera to a 15 second exposure and 3600 ISO then photograph the screen with my phone - improvisation see - result shown here.

I'm now on a mighty 28... I know it's not great but I have only been twice this year and both visits have been brief late afternoon ones. I still need Nuthatch, all woodpeckers, Mistle Thrush, Redwing etc etc etc.