Dipper and garden birds

Been playing around with the settings on my new Sigma 150-500 and quite pleased with the results this morning. Using it on a monopod with fast ISO 2000 and stopping down to F8 which allows fast shutter speeds of at least 1/1000th of a second. Vibration reduction set to position 1.. Lovely morning sunshine today.

great

Ring Ouzel

went to Stanage this lunctime and saw a single female Ring ouzel

Black Grouse

We went to North Wales last Sunday and had great vies of several Black Grouse lekking at World's End. We then went onto Old Colwyn and managed to pick out a drake Surf Scoter amongst the thousands of Common Scoter. We also saw a pair of Rock Pipits. We then went onto the Great Orme. We failed on getting the reported black redstart and ring ouzel but saw 3 fine looking Wheatears enjoying the warm sunshine.

Garganey

A nice pair of Garganey were present at Elsecar reservoir today. Heard my first Chiffchaff of the year as well.

Kielder Goshawk

Had a fantastic bright and sunny Saturday 17th. March at Kielder Forest. The target were Goshawk  and we were not to be disappointed. We arrived before 9 and saw none for the first couple of hours. We did see enormous numbers of Crossbill though and it was great watching them feed and get good experience in listening to their calls. We saw several soaring Common Buzzards before a brief drive in the car to get some refreshments. As we drove out onto the main road we watches a male Goshawk fly over the road and circle back several times before disappearing ofcourse before I got to the camera! We then returned to the Bakethin area and watched at least 2 Goshawk sky dancing, climbing high then diving with folded wings and shooting back up still with closed wings like a roller coaster. It was quite spectacular.
On the way home we stopped off at a service station just before Carlisle ob the M6 and was at least 200 Pied Wagtails on the car park area and in the trees getting ready to roost. We picked out one White wagtail amongst them. Kielder is a fabulous remote area and I look forward to returning again.

Dipper

Local news in Greenfield. Plenty of siskins at the garden feeders daily. A single goldcrest continues to come to the feeders several times a day. I saw a pair of Dippers on the river for the first time this year as well as a grey wagtail.   One of the dippers has 3 rings on it, the other slightly smaller looking ? female is unringed

Yorkshire Trip

Myself and Dave Evans had a day in Yorkshire yesterday Saturday 3rd. March. We headed first to Fairburn Ings where it was very quiet. We went onto Wintersett and Anglers C.P. where we got good views of the long staying American Wigeon on Anglers followed by decent but distant views of the Drake Smew on Wintersett. The Black necked Grebe took a bit more work But we eventually got onto it with good views through the scope. We also found a very nice Willow tit in the trees calling loudly. It was then onto Old Moor where we failed to see or hear the cettis warbler but were rewarded with a Peregrine and good views of the Willow Tit and finches on the feeders. We also saw a pair of Long tailed tits building a nest.