Eureka

I have treated myself to a new camera. A Canon Powershot SX50, and went to the patch to road test it and compare the results with my old Nikon Coolpix digiscoping camera. All went well as far as photos are concerned.

Here is one I took by digiscoping a Reed Bunting

and here is one with my new camera:

The results look pretty similar, but the digiscoped image is cropped, while the shot taken with the new camera is not.

Brother-in-law technical support not required, a universal card reader has done the trick.

Anyway, on the camera is a very nice photograph of a Little Owl, a dodgy photo of a Grey Wagtail, and several shots of Reed Buntings etc. Hopefully I will be able to share these with you at some point.

Now is that time:

It was a cold and frosty morning, and with frozen water everywhere I didn't see much else.

A quick summary of the year reveals that I have equaled my previous best year here, (2010) recording 118 species plus Feral Pigeon. Highlights were the Marsh Harrier, Great Grey Shrike, Mealy Redpoll, Whooper Swans, and Short-eared Owls.

There were a number of other good species for the patch, like Whimbrels, Red Kite, Ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Goshawk, Merlin, and Corn Bunting, while several more expected species only just sneaked onto the list with one day only sightings, eg Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Oystercatcher, Little Egret and (disastrously) Tree Sparrow. Birds I failed to record in 2013 included Great Black-backed Gull, Shoveler, and Pintail. The only species I know to have occurred without me seeing it was Crossbill, seen by Matt Willmott...Oh, and a Common Tern seen by Jon Yardley. I had almost airbrushed that one from my memory as I was there at the time, but not close enough to see it.

2014 promises more competition. I still intend to try for a photo list, and Mike is still up for trying a rival list at Middle Spernal Farm Pools plus Haselor scrape, and yes I have signed up for the Patchwork challenge again.

Happy New Year to everyone reading this blog.