Stonechat

Sub zero and amber warnings

The temperature dropped this week. I went to scrape the ice off the car. I started the engine and noted that the external temperature was -6 degrees centigrade. It was sunny, but very cold. The car’s gearbox was frozen and at first, I was unable to put the car in gear. Eventually it thawed out sufficiently and I headed to Holt Heath, a local area of Dorset heathland managed by the National Trust, to take Pippin for his walk.

The sun was low in the clear blue sky casting long shadows. I was wearing four layers of clothing, good sturdy walking boots, a thick woollen hat pulled down over my ears, and thick gloves. I also had my camera with me. Despite the cold the birdlife was quite active, more active it appeared than previous weeks when the weather was more temperate. There were several Robins at the carpark and in the woodland. I could hear a couple of woodpeckers tapping tree trunks, and then I could see them chasing each other through the canopy. Unfortunately, try as I might, I couldn’t get a clean shot. The birds moved so quickly and the autofocus would get distracted by all the foliage and branches. From the colours I glimpsed, I think they were Greater spotted woodpeckers.

When we got out onto the heathland, I could see the unmistakeable outline of a buzzard perched in a denuded deciduous tree. The sun was to my right, at ‘about 3 o’clock’. It was about 200-300 yards away. I could just make out a slight head movement as I viewed it through my telephoto lens, scanning its surroundings. The footpath I was on passed the buzzard on the left, so as I progressed, the sun was increasingly angled behind bird. It didn’t appear disturbed either by Pippin running back and forth along the path, or by me as I pointed my camera lens at it. But then it got spooked and took to the air. It glided with the occasional flapping of its extended wings over the heathland toward the treeline on the horizon, and then it was gone.

We got to see Stonechats and Dartford Warblers. Both these species like to perch on top of gorse bushes and flit around. Sometimes they are visible taking a prominent position, then they drop to the ground out of sight before rising again. I have my camera to Aperture priority of between F8 and F10 when photographing wildlife. Then I push the ISO up to between 400 and 800 in good light like today. This results in a shutter speed high enough to freeze movement enough to get a sharp image. The only adjustment I make for each shot is the exposure compensation. For a bird against a bright sky, I push the exposure compensation up to between 1 or 2 stops, just enough to brighten the image without blowing the light background through the highlights.

Seeing Stonechats didn’t surprise me, but the Dartford Warblers were unexpected. I don’t normally see them at this time of year, even though they are resident all year round. My quest was not made any easier by Pippin’s presence. He is a young, energetic, skittish, Springer Spaniel. At one point I had lined up to take a shot of a Dartford Warbler sitting on a gorse bush. The light was perfect, and I was slowly stalking the bird to get as close as possible without spooking it. Just then a black and white bundle of energy charged past me crashing through the heath causing all wildlife, including my Dartford Warbler, to flee. I was livid as Pippin returned to me, tail wagging, tongue lolling out of what appeared to be a broadly smiling mouth.

I walked on a little further and met another photographer out with his dog, a black labrador. We chatted about the respective merits of each other’s cameras. He had a rather nice compact mirrorless camera with a telephoto lens of 18mm – 150mm. It was much easier to carry around than my bulky full frame DSLR with a 100mm – 400mm lens, but it didn’t have quite the reach for wildlife. I also think the battery life of the DSLR was better than the mirrorless. We were approaching mid-day and he felt that he had missed the best of the light. We exchanged information on possible photo ops on the way back to the car park and carried on, on our respective paths. It was interesting to meet another photographer and share different perspectives. Different equipment is interesting, but the conversation just made me feel again that it is photographers who take photos not cameras. The equipment simply records the photographer’s vision.

I will return to this location, without Pippin, but I’m not sure when. We are promised milder temperatures, but there is also a yellow weather warning (recently upgraded to amber) in place for the next couple of days as Storm Isha is on the way with winds of up to 80mph. The country is bracing itself for more floods and property damage. The ground is already water-logged and the prospect of more rain and high winds is quite concerning.

Added to the threat from Storm Isha I discovered a probable mains water leak this morning just outside my front drive. Fortunately, it is draining away from our property, but our front lawn is getting quite soggy. I have reported the leak to the water authority, and they have promised a response, but the timing isn’t great.

Winter Watch returned to our TV screens this past week. The BBC team were located at Arne on the south-west edge of Poole Harbour. It’s about 20 miles from home by road, but only about 12-13 miles as the crow flies. It’s good to see such mainstream interest in a local RSPB site, but it is probably a mixed blessing. I can imagine that visitor numbers to the site will increase because of the increased publicity. The road from Wareham to the Arne car park is 3-4 miles along a single-track road with occasional laybys for passing places. I didn’t see much of the coverage, but there was a piece on the successful reintroduction of the White-tailed eagle. It’s a huge bird, colloquially referred to as a flying barn door because of its size. A buzzard’s full wingspan is just one wing length of the White-tailed eagle. I haven’t seen one yet, but there has been a lot of excitement generated by its reintroduction in recent years.

Whilst visitor numbers will increase at Arne, it remains to be seen whether other local sites such as Holt Heath will also see an increased footfall. Holt has a mixture of woodland and heathland but is inland. It is primarily used by dog walkers, but there is some cattle grazing and horse riding. During spring and early summer, the heathland has nesting birds such as skylarks and so dog walkers are under instructions to keep their dogs on a lead and under close control during the months that nesting takes place.

I anticipate not being quite so active over the next few days as we batten down the hatches. I have enjoyed getting out this last week. The colder weather brought its challenges, but the brighter crisper weather did improve the light quality for photography and brought out the birdlife more than the recent wet weather. Hopefully, Storm Isha will pass quickly. I will be giving time to some of my indoor projects.

The archiving of old family photos is progressing well. I found an old studio photo of me from 1962 or 1963, which I am now using as my Facebook profile picture. I should be able to make quite a bit of progress whilst Storm Isha rages outside.

I will also give a bit of time to improving the look of the Tuba I am playing in the brass band. It is a silver instrument, and the silver is tarnished in places. I’ve used a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and water to get rid of some of the tarnishing. I also gave it a bath to clean it up. There are a couple of dents which it would be nice to get sorted, but they don’t affect the sound. I’ve ordered some silver cream, which is recommended by the manufacturer to restore the silver to its original condition.

Jurassic Coast

Old Harry bathed in sunlight from Durlston Castle, with Bournemouth pier and seafront in background

In August 2023 I walked the 8 miles from Corfe Castle to Swanage. It was a wake up call as I struggled up the climb to the Obelisk.

The climb to the Obelisk (just visible) – the location of my August struggle

It was halfway up the 220 steps that I was brought face to face with my lack of fitness. In the intervening 8 weeks I have trained for, and last week ran in, the Bournemouth half marathon.

This week I returned to the Isle of Purbeck. Temperatures were more autumnal and it was mainly sunny, only breaking into a rain shower after we had sat down on the grass to eat our sandwiches. The rain was refreshing and quickly passed.

Our route was an 8 mile circular walk starting and finishing at Durlston Castle, just outside Swanage. We followed the South West Coast Path to just beyond Dancing Ledge, where we headed inland to join the Priest’s Way footpath and looped back to Durlston Castle with stunning views of the Isle of Wight and Poole Harbour. The following photos are some of the wildlife along the way. We were at the wrong time of year to see Puffins, but there are recorded sightings of a small number in May at Dancing Ledge. Note to self to return next spring.

Colours of change – autumn to winter

These images observe and record the colour of the Dorset countryside as the season transitions from autumn to winter. The sun shining low in the sky cast long shadows and either back-lit subjects photographed against it or created strong light when facing away from it. The overriding colour recorded here is brown, with one or two colourful exceptions, such as the blue tit with its blue, yellow and green plumage.

The animals and birds seemed curious. Not all dashed for safety at the first sign of a human, but a few were content to stop, stare and assess the danger. The deer particularly held my gaze for quite some time before being spooked. The female stonechat was bold perched on a teasel very close to me and was in no hurry to move on. Others were more skittish – the heron took to the skies at the first sign of human presence.

The Stonechat is so named because the sound it makes is like two stones or pebbles being banged together. The male has the darker head. The female is a more muted brown. These birds are quite widespread and I see them all through the year at different locations. They are normally seen sitting prominently on the top of a gorse bush or hawthorn bush or heather, before flitting into the air to catch a passing insect.

I have numerous shots like this of both the male and female, but this is probably my best example where the bokeh effect of the background enhances and isolates the main subject. This shot was taken at Badbury Rings in Dorset, but I have seen them at Longham lakes, Stanpit Marsh, Hengistbury Head, Whitesheet, RSPB Arne and Canford Heath – all local sites.

Digiscoping

Digiscoping is a new word credited to French birdwatcher, Alain Fosse, in 1999. It refers to the technique of attaching a spotting scope to a digital camera for the purpose of taking close-up photos of birds and other wildlife from a distance. Two other pieces of essential equipment are: an adapter to attach the camera to the scope, and a tripod to hold the combined camera/scope.

There have been subsequent technological improvements in cameras and lenses, giving the amateur wildlife photographer the ability to capture stunning close-up images with light weight, hand-held cameras. However, for the past few months I have been experimenting with digiscoping with mixed results. Early results were disappointing: poor focussing, lack of sharpness, and dull images.

I reached a turning point in January during a morning visit to Stanpit Marsh, on the eastern shores of Christchurch Harbour. There was bright sunshine, low in the sky. I set the magnification of the scope at a mid-point. On maximum magnification not enough light is let into the camera, and on the minimum setting the image is distorted around the edges. My subject was a Little Egret, a large white bird, which stood out very clearly from its background. It wasn’t troubled by my presence and in any case, I didn’t need to get too close.

Spurred on by this success I returned a few days later in similar conditions, but this time it was colder and there was a frost covering on the grass. My attention was drawn to a small dark coloured bird flitting around a gorse bush, a male stonechat. It stood out from the white frosted background. This bird was more challenging than the Egret. It was constantly moving and was a lot smaller.

The activity requires a lot of concentration to track the bird as it moves and to keep it in focus. There may have been some frustrated muttering under my breath. I had chosen to set myself up just next to the main footpath. There were only a few people around, due to the cold. One passer-by was walking her dog and, curious at my concentrated activity, she engaged me in conversation. I felt torn between maintaining my focus on the stonechat and not ignoring a polite request to chat. I chose to chat. After a few minutes I was able to resume my photographic efforts, feeling slightly more relaxed. Fortunately, the stonechat was still around.

I moved on to other subjects: a redshank and a curlew. In my opinion these were less successful due to the contrast between the subject and the background.

In subsequent months I have used the technique to capture close images of the Great Spotted Woodpecker and the humble, ever present Robin. I have yet to perfect the tracking of a bird in flight. I recently tracked a Buzzard but struggled to keep the bird in shot as well as manually adjust the focus on the scope.

Digiscoping requires the right conditions: strong light and a strong contrast between subject and background. It requires patience and persistence to perfect the technique. Advances in technology may ultimately render the technique obsolete, but not yet.

The Stonechat

This black, white and orange bird is quite striking in appearance. I went out earlier this week in freezing temperatures There was a bright, low sun shining in a cloudless sky. This small bird just sat himself in front of my camera. I love the bright colour and the contrast with the white, frozen grass. For comparison I include a photo I took in mid summer. The winter colours are a little more muted. There are about 56,000 pairs in the UK, mainly around the southern and western coasts