2012 Review

Poor weather and Christmas commitments have meant that the camera has not been taken out for its regular walk for a week or so. Instead I have been reviewing my first year of serious bird watching and looking back over some of the pictures I have taken.

I was very clear when I started the year that I was interested in taking pictures of birds and  not in twitching or in maintaining tick lists. The twitching I can still do without but the tick list I found impossible to resist.

I have taken pictures of 156 different species this year. I have seen a few more than this but not managed to take pictures of them all. These misses range from the easy, Mute Swan, through to a Hume's Leaf Warbler which I could see but just could not get into the viewfinder. Very frustrating.

So here are a few of the pictures I enjoyed taking this year.

Black Redstart

Kestrel with prey

Kingfisher

Linnet

Redwings always manage to look blurred, as in this picture, but it is clear that the berries in front and
 twigs behind are all sharp so this is marking and colouration on the bird.

Spotted Flycatcher 

A rather washed out looking female Stonechat.  She was feeding a nest of young but seemed keen to have   
her picture taken and flew back regularly to show me what she had caught.

Wren

And finally I had to include a picture of the Warnham/Adur Osprey. I spent a long time trying to get a picture of this bird until one day it came swimming past pretending to be a duck.

Later on I managed to get a few pictures of it trying to lift a large fish out of the Warnham Mill Pond.

I hope you enjoyed the picture. Good luck with your birding in 2013.