20251118 Goldcrest & Hume's Leaf Warbler, Holkham Pines & Holme Dunes

 

20251116 Goldcrest
Shot to demonstrate Depth Blur in background but also foreground. 
Isolates the target very well.
A quality bokeh achieved from a 'small sensor' jpeg.

20251116 Goldcrest 
Study of the wing at F5.9, head and tail out of focus.
The Big Black is a bright lens fully open, and performs well in the darkness of the pine belt.

20251118 Chiffchaff
F7.1, only closed 1/3 of a stop, is the sweet spot of The Big Black.
Should have been a Pallas's on a very dull grey morn at Titch...
Again a bright pleasing image obtained though.

20251118 Hume's Leaf Warbler
On arrival the bird popped up... but sunk back into veg never to show again??
Excellent background and close on path, initially all look well set.
Weak yell-brow type call infrequently heard all day...
Ticker's tweet of the day: 'you got a caterpillar in the sea-buckthorn'...
Being an exponent of extremely long range bird photography,
 this recalls the most famous comment on the first flyby Glossy shot off Norfolk back in the day...
'you got a lobster pot'... credits to follow.

20251106 Long-tailed Duck & American Golden Plover, NW Norfolk

 

20251106 Long-tailed Duck
North Lagoon Snettisham.
2 juveniles here, as the 2 that shot past Cley on 28th Oct... qv below.

20251106 Long-necked Duck

20251106 American Golden Plover
Titchwell Freshmarsh.
Lesser bulk than the Eurasian Golden Plover.
Obvious primary extension showed at range.

20251106 American Golden Plover
Darker spangling on upper-parts and blackish cap above solid supercilium.

20251106 A Golden Plover
Bird flew below the main E Golden flock.
Showed as slighter and darker overall.

20251106 A Golden Plover
Dark grey under-wing coverts were easily seen at range.

20251106 Firecrest
Low in veg by pools. Yellow-browed Warbler also in area.

20251105 Common Crossbill & Pied Wagtail, Little Snoring

 

20251105 C Crossbill
Adult Female drinking from puddle.
Small flocks also seen along the Suffolk coast suggests a good winter for this irruptive species.

20251105 Pied Wagtail
1st winter.

20251105 Pied Wagtail

20251105 C Crossbill
Male and female.

20251105 C Crossbill
3 males 1 female.

20251109 C Crossbill
Mid morning shots in direct sun. Heat haze from the flat ground caused most shots to be binned.

20251109 C Crossbill

20251109 C Crossbill

20251109 C Crossbill
Male bathing.

20251109  C Crossbill

20251101 Brown Shrike, Hollesley Common Suffolk

 

20251101 Brown Shrike
Bird very happy within MOD base and therefore completely undisturbed.
Posed on the perimeter fences frequently.

20251101 Brown Shrike
Very small amount of Depth Blur applied still isolates the target well. 
Note slight loss of fine feather detail on the outer edge of bird.

20251028 Water Pipit, Cley Marshes

 

20251028 Water Pipit
Without Depth Blur.

20251028 Water Pipit
With minimal Depth Blur a noticeable improvement in isolating the target bird, 
and this leads strangely to a tighter crop...

20251028 Water Pipit
With Depth Blur.

20251028 Water Pipit
Walked effortlessly over the detritus about Bish hide, Richardson's Scrape.

20251028 The Robert Gillmor Hide
 Arrives 12 years on from major winter flooding...
which wiped out the original North Hide.
Thankfully a new era in hide design dawns, mobile and floats.

20251028 Long-tailed Duck
Zoomed West inshore, ID realised too late...

20251028 Jack Snipe
...and the now infamous white feather... for directions by the school teacher to the bird??

20251030 Red Phalarope
Spinning with female Shoveler.
Pope's Pool from Walsey Hills... 1680mm, F11

20251031 Fieldfare
Salthouse. Many overnight arrivals.

20251031 Starling
Numbers increasing each night into reedbed roost.

20251026 Glaucous Gull, Weybourne

 

20251026 Glaucous Gull
In rain and overcast grey, with strong Westerly wind.

20251026 Glaucous Gull
1st Winter.

20251028 Glaucous Gull
Flying along Cley Beach in sunshine.

20251021 Black-faced Bunting, Spurn

 

20251021 Spurn Point
As Filey Brigg haven't made to the end as yet...

20251021 Black-faced Bunting
Initially skulking in verge of track.

20251021 Black-faced Bunting
470th British Isles Lifer.
Does skull ossification effect feather zones, and therefore can be seen in the field?

20251021 Black-faced Bunting
The bird cautiously walked out onto the road but then a couple of Bate Diggers on electric bikes
came along and flushed the twitch and the bird...

20251021 Black-faced Bunting
Pale pink bill with slightly greyer upper mandible adds to the plain faced effect.
The very pale yellow ochre sub-moustachial patch being the most striking feature.

20251021
Lacked grey in ear coverts, face and neck sides, only detectable in the nape.
Probable 1st winter female.

20251021
As above without depth blur...
Pink legs and feet noticeable and strode well on the deck.

20251021 Black-faced Bunting
Bird perched and in shade became more Reed Bunting like.
Note crown feathers raised.

20191010 Reed Bunting
Cley reedbed, here tail flicking.
Dark grey in bill, legs and feet.

20181029 Reed Bunting
Blakeney Spit