Today was the day so much rested on, not just for our group but for all six of us.
Group1 were down for another attempt at the double which we'd successfully completed two days previously. Goshawk in the morning, Bonelli's Eagle in the afternoon.
Our group was heading for the Rock Pool hide in the morning, the Reflection Pool hide in the afternoon. That was where Group 1 had been the previous day and they had had great views of the Blue Rock Thrush that owned the rock, guarding it for hours at a time. We were told it was a dead cert! They had later moved on to the reflection Hide where they had views of Crested Tit albeit just before they were due to be picked up.
I was hopeful for both. I didn't realise at the time but the Crested Tits had been viewable from the other two positions in the Goshawk hide and the other two did at least get some shots, on the other hand I had been the lucky one to date with the only shots from our group of the Thrush.
Hopefully all this would change today.
I made one big decision before we left the hotel. I was going to travel light. A recent operation on my back still causing some pain and numbness in my legs but more worrying, I seemed to have picked up a painful knee problem to which I could only assign to having sat awkwardly in the hide the previous day. I knew that the Rock Pool hide involved a short uphill walk so the less I carried the better. My 600mm lens stayed in the hotel and instead I had just my 100-400mm plus a 1.4 teleconverter. More of that later, in the meantime the scramble up the hill and for the first time everI felt my age as I had to use my tripod as a walking stick to take the pressure off my knee.
Still I got there and soon all three of us were sat in the hide eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Thrush!
This is the Rock Pool...not what you might have imagined I don't suppose!
It was some feat that managed to manhandle this large rock some distance and taken several people to do so. A small pool of water was created for each visit by topping up the pool from a supply of bottled water. No wonder the site was guarded jealously by the Thrush. There was little evidence of water for miles around. You could see stunning almond groves for as far as the eye could see.
Beautifully manicured plots, they relied on irrigated water during these dry periods. Today was going to be dry but the weather was changing, a lot more cloud cover and the wind was really quite strong.
We sat and waited..... and waited.....and waited. There was little sign of anything, let alone the Thrush.
Word came through that Group 1 had the Goshawk in front of them for over an hour. Good news there then.
Eventually the first bird appeared, a Rock Bunting. We'd seen them at the other mountain hide but they looked much better here as they were perched on rocks!
The light wasn't the best though
but we were at least encouraged that life still existed up here in the wind!
For a brief while we had visits from several other birds too.
The Crested Lark looked good in this rocky terrain too
There was disappointment when a male Black Redstart, our first, flew in from behind us for the briefest of visits and I certainly didn't see him looking any where other than ahead of us.
He might come back!
But he didn't.
Along with a single Robin we had another bird to photograph, the humble House Sparrow.
It seemed illogical that that we'd find them here, off their normal terrain but this one looked good anyway!
Much better than the ones frequenting the hotel car park who were usually sat on the fence, however, I'd been grateful to see Spotless Starlings sat there on most days.
In the Rock Pool hide though we were beginning to despair of seeing the Thrush. If it hadn't turned up to defend the rock when 5 other birds were present it can't be in the vicinity. The wind was getting stronger too so eventually we decided to move on and try our luck at the Reflection Hide.
At least when we arrived at our new destination the sun had come out again so the light wasn't an issue. The wind though was quite fierce. We felt for the guys up at the Bonelli's hide knowing that if it was strong here it was gale force up there. Would their chances be ruined by the wind? Apparently not! They stuck with it and eventually the female Eagle landed and fed for 15 minutes or so. Great Stuff!
The reflection hide was basically a huge concrete table with a pool in it. The pool and seed attracted quite a lot of birds , the majority by far being Blackcaps.
The female of the species is an exception to the rule that the males are more attractive of the two,
We had as many as 4 all lined up along the pool's edge. Sometimes with other species.
There, I've included a Robin shot at last!
It's the one bird that seemed to be nearly everywhere, as indeed was the Sardinian Warbler!
Thrilled to get some decent images of this species on Day 1, I was now getting quite complacent about them however there was a bonus. Our first decent opportunity of photographing a female.
The wind continued to blow.
as demonstrated by another strong gust here.
We witnessed birds struggling to keep their feet on the table without being blown off. Suddenly I spotted something in the corner of the pool, at first I thought it was a piece of twig blown off a nearby tree. Oh no, this was my favourite sight of the day!
I couldn't believe it, a snake!
Snakes need a drink too.
It's a perfectly harmless Horseshoe Whip Snake but we didn't know that at the time!
They can grow up to 1.5 metres but this was just a third of that size. We debated to whether we should move it as it might scare off any birds but was it poisonous? Were we at risk! It's generally agreed that snakes with round eyes are not venomous, those with slit eyes are. King Cobras are deadly though and they have round eyes! Paul, being nearest the door volunteered to go, I decided to go with him to get some close up shots but the snake was off like a shot the moment the door opened. Amazingly it vanished in to thin air and how it appeared on top of the table was a mystery too. Seems they can travel to places you wouldn't expect! With hindsight maybe we should have left it to see what would have happened, I can't think it was a threat to any birds but there again what does it eat?
Anyway, with that visit over the next best thing was another Black Redstart male visiting.
It landed right in front of us.
With my 100-400mm plus a converter attached the minimum f stop is F8. At this distance the depth of field would be too shallow so to keep the whole bird in focus I closed down the aperture to f10. The downside is that as the bird was likely to move or the wind might move it, I needed a higher shutter speed. I opted for 1/1250th of a second. Using auto-iso ( apologies if you have no interest in photography!) this then bumped it to 10,000. which would horrify some!
Looks OK to me but I just take photos for fun really.
Back to f8 can you see what I mean about depth of field on the next one, the tail feathers are not sharply in focus. It's a lower shutter speed too, just 1/400 sec so auto-iso produced 1600.
Not sure which is preferable really. Anyway, the female took up some better positions and poses than we'd previously had seen.
Sadly though, the Crested Tits didn't appear before pick-up time.
Still, there was much to celebrate back at the hotel with everyone pleased that Group 1 had done the double. We were envious too that instead of Black Rabbit, the Goshawks had been baited with not one, but two perches of Red-legged Partridge, a much more natural looking and less gory prey for these photographs. Once again though only the female Goshawk had come down to eat, likewise only the male Bonelli's. Two birds hadn't appeared at the provided food for nearly a week now.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but instead of going to the reflection pool we should have requested a visit to the Goshawk hide for our turn for an afternoon session.We might have had the male Goshawk back as they often reappear late afternoon and meantime we'd have had an opportunity of Crested Tits which appear on a very regular basis..usually.
Mind you, we'd have missed the snake!
TBC
Group1 were down for another attempt at the double which we'd successfully completed two days previously. Goshawk in the morning, Bonelli's Eagle in the afternoon.
Our group was heading for the Rock Pool hide in the morning, the Reflection Pool hide in the afternoon. That was where Group 1 had been the previous day and they had had great views of the Blue Rock Thrush that owned the rock, guarding it for hours at a time. We were told it was a dead cert! They had later moved on to the reflection Hide where they had views of Crested Tit albeit just before they were due to be picked up.
I was hopeful for both. I didn't realise at the time but the Crested Tits had been viewable from the other two positions in the Goshawk hide and the other two did at least get some shots, on the other hand I had been the lucky one to date with the only shots from our group of the Thrush.
Hopefully all this would change today.
I made one big decision before we left the hotel. I was going to travel light. A recent operation on my back still causing some pain and numbness in my legs but more worrying, I seemed to have picked up a painful knee problem to which I could only assign to having sat awkwardly in the hide the previous day. I knew that the Rock Pool hide involved a short uphill walk so the less I carried the better. My 600mm lens stayed in the hotel and instead I had just my 100-400mm plus a 1.4 teleconverter. More of that later, in the meantime the scramble up the hill and for the first time everI felt my age as I had to use my tripod as a walking stick to take the pressure off my knee.
Still I got there and soon all three of us were sat in the hide eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Thrush!
This is the Rock Pool...not what you might have imagined I don't suppose!
It was some feat that managed to manhandle this large rock some distance and taken several people to do so. A small pool of water was created for each visit by topping up the pool from a supply of bottled water. No wonder the site was guarded jealously by the Thrush. There was little evidence of water for miles around. You could see stunning almond groves for as far as the eye could see.
Beautifully manicured plots, they relied on irrigated water during these dry periods. Today was going to be dry but the weather was changing, a lot more cloud cover and the wind was really quite strong.
We sat and waited..... and waited.....and waited. There was little sign of anything, let alone the Thrush.
Word came through that Group 1 had the Goshawk in front of them for over an hour. Good news there then.
Eventually the first bird appeared, a Rock Bunting. We'd seen them at the other mountain hide but they looked much better here as they were perched on rocks!
The light wasn't the best though
but we were at least encouraged that life still existed up here in the wind!
For a brief while we had visits from several other birds too.
The Crested Lark looked good in this rocky terrain too
There was disappointment when a male Black Redstart, our first, flew in from behind us for the briefest of visits and I certainly didn't see him looking any where other than ahead of us.
He might come back!
But he didn't.
Along with a single Robin we had another bird to photograph, the humble House Sparrow.
It seemed illogical that that we'd find them here, off their normal terrain but this one looked good anyway!
Much better than the ones frequenting the hotel car park who were usually sat on the fence, however, I'd been grateful to see Spotless Starlings sat there on most days.
In the Rock Pool hide though we were beginning to despair of seeing the Thrush. If it hadn't turned up to defend the rock when 5 other birds were present it can't be in the vicinity. The wind was getting stronger too so eventually we decided to move on and try our luck at the Reflection Hide.
At least when we arrived at our new destination the sun had come out again so the light wasn't an issue. The wind though was quite fierce. We felt for the guys up at the Bonelli's hide knowing that if it was strong here it was gale force up there. Would their chances be ruined by the wind? Apparently not! They stuck with it and eventually the female Eagle landed and fed for 15 minutes or so. Great Stuff!
The reflection hide was basically a huge concrete table with a pool in it. The pool and seed attracted quite a lot of birds , the majority by far being Blackcaps.
The female of the species is an exception to the rule that the males are more attractive of the two,
We had as many as 4 all lined up along the pool's edge. Sometimes with other species.
There, I've included a Robin shot at last!
It's the one bird that seemed to be nearly everywhere, as indeed was the Sardinian Warbler!
Thrilled to get some decent images of this species on Day 1, I was now getting quite complacent about them however there was a bonus. Our first decent opportunity of photographing a female.
The wind continued to blow.
as demonstrated by another strong gust here.
We witnessed birds struggling to keep their feet on the table without being blown off. Suddenly I spotted something in the corner of the pool, at first I thought it was a piece of twig blown off a nearby tree. Oh no, this was my favourite sight of the day!
I couldn't believe it, a snake!
Snakes need a drink too.
It's a perfectly harmless Horseshoe Whip Snake but we didn't know that at the time!
They can grow up to 1.5 metres but this was just a third of that size. We debated to whether we should move it as it might scare off any birds but was it poisonous? Were we at risk! It's generally agreed that snakes with round eyes are not venomous, those with slit eyes are. King Cobras are deadly though and they have round eyes! Paul, being nearest the door volunteered to go, I decided to go with him to get some close up shots but the snake was off like a shot the moment the door opened. Amazingly it vanished in to thin air and how it appeared on top of the table was a mystery too. Seems they can travel to places you wouldn't expect! With hindsight maybe we should have left it to see what would have happened, I can't think it was a threat to any birds but there again what does it eat?
Anyway, with that visit over the next best thing was another Black Redstart male visiting.
It landed right in front of us.
With my 100-400mm plus a converter attached the minimum f stop is F8. At this distance the depth of field would be too shallow so to keep the whole bird in focus I closed down the aperture to f10. The downside is that as the bird was likely to move or the wind might move it, I needed a higher shutter speed. I opted for 1/1250th of a second. Using auto-iso ( apologies if you have no interest in photography!) this then bumped it to 10,000. which would horrify some!
Looks OK to me but I just take photos for fun really.
Back to f8 can you see what I mean about depth of field on the next one, the tail feathers are not sharply in focus. It's a lower shutter speed too, just 1/400 sec so auto-iso produced 1600.
Not sure which is preferable really. Anyway, the female took up some better positions and poses than we'd previously had seen.
Sadly though, the Crested Tits didn't appear before pick-up time.
Still, there was much to celebrate back at the hotel with everyone pleased that Group 1 had done the double. We were envious too that instead of Black Rabbit, the Goshawks had been baited with not one, but two perches of Red-legged Partridge, a much more natural looking and less gory prey for these photographs. Once again though only the female Goshawk had come down to eat, likewise only the male Bonelli's. Two birds hadn't appeared at the provided food for nearly a week now.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but instead of going to the reflection pool we should have requested a visit to the Goshawk hide for our turn for an afternoon session.We might have had the male Goshawk back as they often reappear late afternoon and meantime we'd have had an opportunity of Crested Tits which appear on a very regular basis..usually.
Mind you, we'd have missed the snake!
TBC
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