tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59733872024-03-07T17:57:14.679+00:00ToadsnatcherStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.comBlogger386125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-5100410620387176122015-10-05T13:17:00.002+01:002015-10-06T13:40:41.716+01:00Great White Egret on the house list!
This Great White Egret flew by the house this morning at 0825 and I relocated it half an hour later along Glassmoor Bank east of Pondersbridge. House tick #142!
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-77649572170287717542014-03-14T15:54:00.003+00:002014-03-14T15:54:42.392+00:00Gift your gear with Rohan
What better way to get breathe some life back in to your old gear - Gift Your Gear is an ongoing campaign to get those os us with wardrobes and drawers full of gear that's not being used anymore, but still has plenty of life left in it.
Its dead simple - take any of your unwanted gear along to your nearest Rohan store and they give you 15% off anything you buy at the same time. Simples!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-91173515772383039242014-01-16T11:33:00.001+00:002015-06-16T09:01:06.620+01:00FOR SALE - Leica binoculars, camera and iPhone 4
I have the following items for sale.
Four pairs of Leica binoculars (all brand new) -
- Leica Ultravid 10x32 BR
- Leica Ultravid 10x25 BR
- Leica Ultravid 8x20 BL
- Leica Geovid 8x42 BRF-M
Leica D-Lux 2 compact camera (second-hand)
iPhone 4 (second-hand)
Read on for more details.
LEICA BINOCULARS
All the binoculars are brand new and have never even been opened from their Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-81920719650695769342013-12-29T18:02:00.001+00:002013-12-29T18:14:51.069+00:00Gear review - multi-pocket vests
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
0
false
18 pt
18 pt
0
0
false
false
false
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-58818290913274344132013-08-12T19:36:00.001+01:002013-08-12T19:36:34.740+01:00Northern Greece - 11 - 18 May 2013
Steve & Liz Dudley
Hotels
Dadia Forest/Evros delta area - Hotel Thrassa in Tichero, three nights at €40 per double room per night.
I've used this hotel a couple of times before. Its very welcoming and comfortable. Good breakfast, limited evening meal option (check when booking for availability), but excellent when offered. Wi-Fi available throughout the hotel.
KerkiniStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-56319278353332430512013-05-17T19:58:00.001+01:002013-05-17T19:58:58.299+01:00Northern Greece - Day 6 - a quieter final day
Our last day in Northern Greece and we took it a little easier. It might have been a recce week, but its also a holiday!
We spent the morning away from Lake Kerkini checking sites in and around the town of Sidirokastro and bumped in to at least six Rollers at two sites. Saw some woodpeckers and a Masked Shrike too, plus a pair of Rock Nuthatches visiting their nest and stuffing all sortsStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-10386606041549819232013-05-16T19:24:00.002+01:002013-05-16T19:24:55.146+01:00Northern Greece - Day 5 - Lake KerkiniAfter a morning spent running around the mountains in search of peckers (Black and Grey-headed Heard but not a single bird seen), we headed down to the lake for a 3 hour private boat trip out on the lake and in particular, to the drowned forest. And wow! It was simply amazing. One of the best bird spectacles I've ever enjoyed. The sights, sounds and smells are just fantastic and rival any seabirdStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-86860155680209056252013-05-15T16:41:00.000+01:002013-05-15T19:52:23.271+01:00Northern Greece - Day 4 - Lake Kerkini
White Pelicans, Eastern Embankment
Hundreds seen on and over the lake during the day.
We spent the whole day around Lake Kerkini enjoying the wonders of this fabulous area.
We only scored two woodpecker species in our search of the Vironia tracks in the morning, a fly-over Lesser Spotted but good perched views of Syrian. Great Spotted was heard.
Night-heron, Mandraki Harbour
Only a Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-65198122766299534242013-05-14T20:05:00.001+01:002013-05-14T20:05:24.104+01:00Northern Greece - Day 3 - Nestos Forest & Mt Paggaio
Roller, Nestos Forest
Travel day today, but you wouldn't have guessed the amount of birding and quality birds we saw!
We drove from Tichero to Nestos Forest where we were wowed by the riverine forest. After a drive by Roller we drove right in to a Black Woodpecker by the roadside! What views. It was too quick for the camera though. We had more flight views of the same bird as we birded Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-74222804744339154422013-05-14T19:51:00.001+01:002013-05-14T19:51:17.717+01:00Northern Greece - Day 2 - Dadia and Evros Delta
Purple Heron, Evros Delta
We spent the morning up Kapsalo enjoying the raptors as the temperature rose. Our tally for the 1.5 hours we were there was -
Black Vulture 8+
Griffon Vulture 7+
Lesser Spotted Eagle 2
Short-toed Eagle 4+
Long-legged Buzzard 2
Common Buzzard 3
Honey-buzzard 1
Eurasian Sparrowhawk 1
Hobby 1
Peregrine 1
In addition we had great views of Blue Rock-thrush, Crag Martin,Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-15422500218038329592013-05-12T20:36:00.004+01:002013-05-12T20:37:54.051+01:00Northern Greece 2012 - Day 1 - Dadia ForestLiz and I arrived in NE Greece yesterday and spent our first full day out in the Dadia Forest with, despite a big thunder and lightening storm at lunch time and overcast and cool weather through the afternoon, we racked up 15 species of raptor plus a host of other goodies.
Spur-winged Plover was a real surpise this morning less than five minutes from the hotel at Thermaria Pools near Tichero Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-31314229720927790832013-04-11T19:46:00.000+01:002013-04-11T19:47:37.308+01:00New adaptor for my iPhone 4With a little help from my best mate I now have a new adaptor for my iPhone to combine with my Leica APO scopes for some in-field phonescoping!
Take one eyepiece cover and cut a hole in it. Make some slight adjustments to a iPhone hard case cover and stick the two together. Cost - eyecup came with scope and hard covers from as little as £0.99 - I spent £2.99 for a nice one!
My iPhone simply Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-31774095540532379992012-11-19T17:17:00.001+00:002012-11-19T17:21:47.307+00:00iBirder has arrived!
iBirder®
Virtual birding for the busy birder!
Incorporating MiBird software, applications include –
MiView – your human-eye view of your patch, local reserve, twitch site
MiBino – scan the scene for birds
MiScope – zoom in with your optics of choice - up to 200x magnification!
MiGuide – feature by feature voice over talks you through your virtual bird ID Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-7045364946276129062012-11-19T16:56:00.002+00:002012-11-19T16:56:45.182+00:00We love Claire West!Yes, we've fallen in love with Claire West's fabulous, vibrant, colourful, energetic artwork. We've bought two pieces recently.
The Bird with the Golden Ring,
acrylic on canvas, 30cm x 30cm,
Claire West, 2012.
Foxy Foxy,
acrylic on canvas, 40cm x 40cm,
Claire West, 2012
We bought them from our new fave gallery, the Itch Gallery in Oakham. The owner blogged aboutStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-31168745473258983012012-11-16T17:29:00.003+00:002012-11-16T17:30:02.729+00:00Great White Egret, Wypes Dole, 16 Nov 12
A couple of record shots of this egret found by Charlie Kitchen yesterday. This was my third visit (seen also yesterday afternoon and this morning) but this afternoon provided the best chance of some images as the bird was much closer to the drove and more active. I was amazing just how well hidden a large white bird could be once it started feeding in the dyke. And it seemed to be catchingStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-34169868848005519072012-07-27T16:04:00.001+01:002012-07-27T16:04:14.884+01:00New pond pulls in the dragsI'm just lovin' our new pond. It measures around 9m x 2.5m and at its deepest its around 1.8m.
We thought hard about the planting and the two sides of common reed at the 'formal' end of the pond are growing well and look great, and replicate the dykes around. The reeds themselves are great for perching damselflies.
We have plenty of ponds plants coming through now, bought, begged and stolen, Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-20329203857131154912012-07-06T15:31:00.002+01:002012-07-06T15:32:26.923+01:00Garden pond - plants and drags
Its hard to believe looking out over the drive which is largely water thanks to nearly 24 hours of rain, but this was yesterday lunchtime and Jax (thats his curly locks in the bottom right corner) and I sat having lunch enjoying the sun in our new garden, and in particular how fab the garden pond is doing as we watched four drag species buzzing about.
The common reed planted down two Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-91339147916026509352012-03-09T17:51:00.001+00:002012-03-09T17:51:53.084+00:00Bittern!
Look what just winged in from sculpture Celia Smith - its the Bittern we commissioned for our new pond (currently under construction - see here).
Ain't it fab! It stands around 45cm high and is made from wire.
For more Celia Smith see here.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-2480567794365920712012-03-01T10:20:00.001+00:002012-03-09T19:02:17.046+00:00Northern Greece, February 2012
Dalmatian Pelican
Mandraki Harbour, Lake Kerkini
Uncropped, as it was in the viewfinder! You could almost smell it.
I'm just back from a long weekend in Northern Greece with fellow Peterbirders Brian Stone (The Natural Stone), Chris Park and Don Gardener.
As is usual these days, I take far too few photos as I would like in and concentrate on the birds. All of these bar the Grey-headed Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-7290238103100754762012-02-08T17:34:00.001+00:002012-02-08T17:48:37.587+00:00Odd-plumaged Blue Tit
A Blue Tit with a nice blue chest! Not the best photo but I'll attempt to get a better one if it sticks around.
Seen today in the garden - not seen before today and since I watch the garden constantly clearly a newbie driven in during this cold snap (other new birds arrived in the garden today too).
My contribution to the BTO's Abnormal Plumage Survey.
Not the first plumage oddity we've hadStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-5877130721763055862011-12-19T15:05:00.001+00:002011-12-19T15:05:26.885+00:00We've finished the house!
It's finished! More photos on our renovation blog here.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-30920651032225973142011-12-19T15:02:00.002+00:002011-12-19T15:03:39.390+00:00Yellowhammers
Just two birds feeding in a ploughed field containing 145+ Corn Buntings and 85+ Yellowhammers near the house on 7 Dec.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-54808334009244461832011-08-23T13:08:00.005+01:002011-10-27T09:55:20.563+01:00Birdfair 2011
So, its August which meant Birdfair! Three days of slogging around the tented birding festival at Rutland Water. And as usual, three days is never enough! Sorry if I missed you. My weekend in brief!
Day 1 - arrived at 0900 and spent an hour with Vine House Farm enjoying a nice latte from the best coffee stall at the Birdfair - the Coffee Man outside Marquee 2. My 1000 appointment with MinoxStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-79626557014160694072011-08-06T10:49:00.002+01:002011-08-06T10:53:48.418+01:00Turtle and pecker in the gardenThere was a time I used to get up to a dozen Turts in the garden. Not any more. They stopped breeding on the fen a few years back. They still breed within three miles of here but this is the first Turt of the year hear.Despite its relative lack of trees, the fen can be good for peckers. I've seen all three species in ten years here. A single record of Lesser Spotted just outside the village in a Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973387.post-42185270039397588032011-07-15T17:57:00.010+01:002011-07-18T14:06:47.125+01:00Bamboo clothing - some reviews and thoughtsPhoto mastergardenproducts.comOver the years many of us have ditched natural fibre clothing for the technical benefits of man-made fabrics. I know I was fed up of damp cotton t-shirts, so swapped them for high-wicking, polycotton alternatives which stayed dry. In recent years though I’ve been trying to be more ethical in my purchases and trying to reduce my carbon footprint (haven’t we all?).Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00760882228804363193noreply@blogger.com0