Thursday 26 August 2010

Just enjoy it.

Monday was a pretty miserable day but I still managed to have a bit play with the Redshank down on the shore. Obviously the light wasn't the best so a static bird had to be the choice!
Tuesday I was out on an early tour in poor conditions to start with. The weather didn't clear as quick as I had expected but it didn't spoil the day. The first good find of the day was this Juvenile Cuckoo that allowed a reasonably close approach and a few digiscoped shots.
Predictably the Mountain Hares were out in force prior to the disturbance of extra traffic.
It was good to see these beasts gathering pace over the wet moorland and kicking up a bit of spray but there was not much chance of getting of photo of that. We had a couple of Golden Eagle flying around as the rain eased off and a few Ravens too. Stonechats were in good numbers and also a few of this mystery bird.
I had a few attempts at this bird when it was in the open and they were all blurred as the camera decided the grass behind was a better option! So the Yellowhammer, for that is what it is, ducked when I took the shot above! We headed off to another Golden Eagle site and wandered up the hill to wait things out. Finding a bit of shelter from the wind we awaited the arrival of the bird we'd already seen flying around. It didn't take long before the bird cruised in front of us but it was heading away and eventually landed out of sight. We had the youngster flying briefly before that landed too but, once again, it was distant. A bit of a wait and the Golden Eagle was back in the air and circling to gain a bit of height from it's hiding place...
...and then it headed towards us at a low level. It wasn't that easy to follow with the camera against the land but it came past at head height just before it disappeared from view.
You can imaging the smiles after that encounter! Another close encounter with a Golden Eagle at our next spot didn't have the cameras raised as we were too fresh from the last one! We did pick up two WT Eagle in flight along the way too but it had been an enjoyable day with some fantastic encounters.

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