Wildlife Photography across the Water: Surprise Garden Visitor on Sunday

Monday 25 January 2010

Surprise Garden Visitor on Sunday

I have seen a Reed Bunting in the garden on a couple of fleeting visits over the last couple of years but they are very infrequent.

I rattled off a few pictures today of this one that popped in for a few feeding sessions, essentially just for record purposes. Taken through glass it is not as sharp as I would like obviously and with the messy feed table, but thought I would share it with you all anyway. Virtually full frame and ISO 1600. 1Dmk111, 500f4L + 1.4 EF TC

It provided a bit of light relief for me while I was wading through a massive report I am writing.

This male is on its way to breeding plumage.

Martin

2 comments:

Julian26 January 2010 at 20:04
Nice image Martin, greatly complemented by the uniform background.

We had a similar long-term visit that started before Xmas, however my wife and I only had the female to ID from (beautiful head markings and strongly speckled breast BTW for a little brown job!). Excited by narrowing it down to a few more rare buntings (Little, Rustic or Lapland) brought in from the far north, we (a few days)later got the answer when we caught sight of the male in the snow - interesting how the vivid black I'm used to seeing in summer was sort of half brown half black in winter.

What was even more impressive for me on Saturday (after a week of post-snow earlier (read dark!) starts to work) was hearing quite an unusual & quite melodic song coming from one of the boundary trees. No binos to hand but 95% sure male reed bunting. Not quite Robin material but well impressed with short song compared to the grating call I normally associate with in summer. May be marking out a territory with other half due to being spoiled with all the feed we've been putting out this harsh winter. Fingers crossed!

Best regards
Julian
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Anonymous27 January 2010 at 12:22
On the subject of garden visitors, it's the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this coming weekend. It only needs one hour over the weekend and provides the RSPB with valuable data.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.