March 28th 2011

First stop this morning was Brandon Marsh for the Spotted Crake at East Marsh,no sign since 1st light & with the hide soon becoming full & standing room only decided to head over to Draycote for the Black Redstart again no sign although it was reported on RBA & Birdguides as showing well (Funny that as it was thick fog at the time & with at least 6 of us in the area at the time,we certainly didn't see it or any other birders!!) Anyway decided to head over to Wappenbury woods with Bob Hazell & Richard Mays & joined up with Steve Valentine in the search for Light Orange Underwing (National Scarce B Moth) where we had at least 35 a new Moth species for me,Bob then disturbed another moth which turned out to be a Early Tooth-striped another new species for me,i ended the day back at Brandon just for a year tick of Willow Warbler.

Light Orange Underwing (top 3 Male  Bottom Female)

 Early Tooth-striped

March 27th 2011

Decided to have a day out on the Suffolk coast today & try & get some reasonable images of the wintering Twite & Shore Lark at Dingle Marshes! what nobody said that it was a good yomp of about 1 1/2 miles from the carpark! At least 4 Northern Wheatears seen along the shingle ridge fresh in from their wintering grounds was a good start,when we finally reached the feeding area we were rewarded with at least 10 Shore Lark & upto 20 Twite with the odd Reed Bunting,Skylark & Linnet feeding with them! Next stop was Dunwich Heath where we had reasonably good views of several Dartford Warblers & a few Red Deer on the heath. 

March 26th 2011

Dull cold & overcast today so didn't bother with the camera,just had a quick check at Shustoke,Kingsbury WP & Wishaw for migrants but apart fron Chiffchaff all was quiet,popped into Coton lakes & was rewarded with upto 50 Sand Martin (a welcome year tick) also Cetti's Warbler calling from the hide!

The rest of the day spent working on my new Blog which will concentrate on the Rare & Scarce Birds ive managed to photograph over the last few years to the present day!!

Link Here http://dave-hutton.blogspot.com/

March 20th 2011

An afternoon spent at Whitacre Heath in the company of Pete Walkden,basically photographing anything that came within range!

Marsh Tit (Notice the duller cheeks & the white spot on bill)

Willow Tit (Cleaner cheeks & all dark bill)

 Lesser Redpoll

Mealy Redpoll

Bank Vole

March 19th 2011

Another chance to get out locally this morning despite only getting to bed at 7:30 am this morning i was up & out by 10ish not wanting to miss out on the good weather,destination Whitacre Heath again gettin back to basics with the commoner species + the Mealy Redpoll (again makin the most of the extension tubes!)

 Willow Tit

Willow Tit

  Lesser Redpoll

 Mealy Redpoll

 

Lesser Redpoll

March 17th 2011

A chance to get out local this afternoon to test out my new Extension tubes on the camera at Whitacre Heath
which worked well & allowed me to photograph the birds from the hide at a closer range than would be possible using my standard set-up! At £150 a set not cheap but cheaper than buying a new lens.

 Mealy Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll