A white New Year

2 January 2010
Two sunny mornings on the trot for the new year and while work got in the way of any walks, today held some great sightings on the way in. First this Barn Owl at Gayton. It had just caught a mouse and wolfed it down in seconds before it flew a short distance and perched.

Now the trouble with Barn Owls is this - I can't get a decent photo of them. A few good shots at Titchwell in 2008 but that aside most of my pictures are washed out. OK I know I should be underexposing as they are white birds, but time is always so short, that a quick fire out of the car window is all I usually manage.No time for checking and changing settings on the camera. If I have it all geared up for Barn Owl type birds then I never see one and something else comes along which requires standard settings...

So here is such a shot, they are meant to be ghostly, but this is ridiculous it is too pale and lacks detail. So not having made any resolutions, I now make it my resolution for 2010 to get a good shot of a Barn Owl. Watch this space.

The hedgrerows were stuffed full of Redwings, and a few Fieldfares. A rough guesstimate of about one and a half thousand Redwings in the tweny odd mile journey into work.

They are one of my favourite birds (see Blokes and Birds page 31 if you want confirmation). I would love a hide staked out in front of fruit filled fields in snowy conditions to get the best pic, but one resolution a year is enough and so it'll have to be birds hidden behind twigs in hedgerows for the time being.

and then nearing the coast thousands upon thousands of Pink-footed Geese in dozens of skeins all over the place.Not a bad commute to work and makes working over the New Year much more enjoyable/acceptable/bearable.