Jim's little warm-up

[JimS]

#10 Red Kite (Milvus milvus): nr Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK, 25 November 2023

 

While not the most common, this is perhaps one of the most conspicuous birds in this area - it's hard to go a day without looking up and seeing one or many circling high above.

 

Bird-detection and continuous AF did well while this one flew behind the foreground tree.

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm (cropped ~2x), f6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 640

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by JimS
Adding exif info

[JimS]

#11 European Herring Gull (Larus argentatus): nr Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK, 25 November 2023

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm (cropped ~4x), f6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 1250

Edited December 1, 2023 by JimS

[JimS]

#12 Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris): nr Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK, 25 November 2023

 

Poor bird didn't get a very attractive-sounding binomial. I was pleased how the ProCapture worked here, pressing the shutter at the instant the bird took off, I ended up with a few 10's of frames of it perched, then 4 frames of various stages of launch before it disappeared stage left.

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm (cropped ~2x), f6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 1250

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm (cropped ~2x), f6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 6400

Edited December 1, 2023 by JimS
Adding exif info

[JimS]

#13 Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus): nr Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK, 25 November 2023

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @170mm (cropped ~2x), f5.8, 1/2000s, ISO 500

Edited December 1, 2023 by JimS
Adding exif info

[JimS]

#14 White/Pied wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii): nr Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK, 25 November 2023

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm (cropped ~2x), f6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 6400

Edited December 1, 2023 by JimS
Adding exif info

[JimS]

#16 Goosander (Mergus merganser): nr Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK, 25 November 2023

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @100mm (~4x cropped), f5, 1/2000s, ISO 640

Edited December 1, 2023 by JimS
Adding exif info

[JimS]

#17 European Robin(Erithacus rubecula): nr Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK, 25 November 2023

 

Last bird of the day, singing heartily about 30 minutes after sun-set.

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, f6.3, 1/2000s, ISO 6400

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by JimS
Adding exif info

[JimS]

#18 Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus): back garden, UK, 29 November 2023

 

Added one to my tally as I saw this robust Wood pigeon pirched in my neighbour's tree. I should have been working, but was gazing out the window seeking inspiration. He/she (is it possible to tell?) was there for a while, giving me time to grab the camera and fire off some shots.

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm (cropped ~2x), f6.3, 1/400s, ISO 640

[TonyQ]

Coming along nicely @JimS!

[JimS]

6 minutes ago, TonyQ said:

Coming along nicely @JimS!

I'm pleased to be in double-figures. Maybe 25 this year is a realistic target

[Tdgraves]

Great additions @JimS (p.s. we used to live in Haddenham)

[JimS]

On 12/2/2023 at 6:23 PM, Tdgraves said:

(p.s. we used to live in Haddenham)

 

Not far from me at all, and it's a lovely area!

[JimS]

I'll be soon into the 20's after a productive afternoon walk in London's Hyde Park at the weekend. I learned a lot... about Egyptian geese that might be Egyptian but aren't geese, common gulls that are gulls but aren't (at least in Hyde Park) the most common, black-headed gulls that are the most common, but almost all had white heads, and the others had brown heads.

 

#19 Common gull (Larus canus): Hyde Park, London UK, 2 December 2023

"the bill often has a poorly defined blackish band near the tip, which is sometimes sufficiently obvious to cause confusion with ring-billed gull" says Wikipedia. From what I read the ring-billed gull is only rarely seen in the UK, so with no other information to go on I assume this is the common gull, even though it was very uncommon, being the only one of its kind I saw all afternoon.

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @100mm, f5.6, 1/500s, ISO 200

 

[JimS]

#20 Black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus): Hyde Park, London UK, 2 December 2023

 

The most numerous gull in the park, at least this weekend, in their winter plumage with white heads and the little dark smudge behind the eye.

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @292mm, f6.2, 1/500s, ISO 800

[JimS]

... though one lone specimen refused to accept that winter is coming...

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, f6.3, 1/500s, ISO 800

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, f6.3, 1/500s, ISO 1000

[JimS]

#21 Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus): Hyde Park, London UK, 2 December 2023

 

The last of the weekend's 3 gull species. Only one spotted amongst all the black-headed gulls.

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @186mm, f5.9, 1/500s, ISO 1000

 

[JimS]

#22 Feral pigeon / rock dove (Columba livia): Hyde Park, London UK, 2 December 2023

 

No chance of a trip to London without bagging a feral pigeon, but the first one I stopped to photograph was this absolute unit of a bird with uncharacteristic plumage.

 

(As an aside, I hadn't noticed before that the Photos app on iPhone will identify bird species. I copied some photos over to my phone from the camera, and noticed that the app identified them, I was impressed it didn't hesitate in naming this as a rock dove despite the unusual plumage.)

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @169mm, f5.8, 1/500s, ISO 1600

 

Pleased so far with the tracking focus on this camera/lens combo:

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @100mm (cropped ~ 2x), f5, 1/500s, ISO 250

[PeterHG]

It’s quite unusual to see a Black-headed Gull still in summer outfit ( yes, a brown head…). Beautiful photos, also the flight shot !

[Peter Connan]

17 hours ago, JimS said:

... though one lone specimen refused to accept that winter is coming...

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, f6.3, 1/500s, ISO 1000

 

That's me right there.

Winter always comes too soon!

 

Welcome to the wonder of bird naming "convention". Galana's Rule has many exceptions to prove it.

Nice shots Jim!

Edited December 5, 2023 by Peter Connan

[JimS]

14 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Galana's Rule has many exceptions to prove it.

Galana's rule? I'm intrigued, guessing this is something I'll pick up as part of my indoctrination to the world of Big Year

 

Meanwhile... continuing with some Hyde Park pics, here's a non-native. I assume these still count? I mean, they're native to somewhere, and they're not in captivity.

 

#23 Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri): Hyde Park, London UK, 2 December 2023

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @100mm, f5.0, 1/500s, ISO 2000

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @253mm (cropped ~2x), f6.1, 1/500s, ISO 4000

 

[Galana]

1 hour ago, JimS said:

I assume these still count?

There are few rules on Big Year except I think the bird should be alive, free winged and, of course photographed in the current year so your Parakeet certainly counts.  (Perhaps I should re-phrase that as "it qualifies". I am sure it has not yet mastered that 2+2 = 4  ). One term you will come across here is 'EBC' which is the shorthand for the maxim "Every bird counts" of which you will see, and maybe have already seen, several examples. Viz @Zim Girl's Mousebird on her thread.

 

Peter has mentioned 'my' rule which I have used to help novice birders get to grips with bird ID. I just suggest they describe it and quite often the name of the bird is just the same.

e.g. A duck with a tuft on its head, A Diver with a red throat. You have had a couple already that work OK.

#14. The male of that Wagtail is Black and White.  Pied Wagtail, although foreigners allege it is just  a race of the continental White Wagtail.

It also works on your Parakeet whether you call it Ring-necked or Rose-ringed.

Of course no rule is infallible hence the Brown head on your Black-headed Gull but that is because (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus) claimed it first.

The rule has to be used with circumspection. You can see Manx Shearwaters a considerable distance from where I live but Common Gulls are very common here and there are over 450,000 around the British Isles with about 49,000 breeding pairs.

 

[Kitsafari]

@JimS coming along very nicely! good shots, even of the rock pigeon, which reminds me that I haven't added that to my count. 

[Peter Connan]

@JimS, sorry for taking your thread off topic a little.

And @Galanasorry for abusing/making fun of your rule just a little bit.

When I was a school boy our education system consisted of English schools where Afrikaans was taught as a second language, all other tuition being in English, and the opposite. I was in an Afrikaans school, and thus was taught English as a second language. The curriculums are different.

 

From grade 1 to standard 9 (we had 2 grades and then 10 standards), we were taught that each rule had "exceptions to prove the rule", which never made much sense to any of us Afrikaans boys because there are no such things in our language.

Then I had to shift schools. The English teacher at the new school was a bit of a rebel. She had a set of rules of her own, completely different rules with no exceptions. Unfortunately I (and seemingly many of my class-mates) never did fully understand this set of rules, but the result is that "the exception that proves the rule" has become a bit of a thing for me.

 

However the reality is that with so many species world-wide, and local names in different languages, not to mention local variations and weird, fragmented populations of "the same" birds with colour (or other) variations, no system is ever going to work properly.

 

With regard to rules, I see them this way:

1) Birds have to be alive (with the exception that if you find a bird being eaten by something else, and that bird is still identifyable, you may claim it).

2) Birds have to be non-captive (with the exception that you may find a local free-living species that has entered an aviary or a building while foraging and is now unable to escape).

3) Birds should have a sustainable local population (like your Parakeet) although of course you would probably have no way of proving that the specific bird you photographed was not a recent escapee.

4) The picture should be good enough that an expert can make a reasonably positive identification.

5) The photo should have been taken that year ( unless you are like @Dave Williamstired of competing by the "rules" and just showing us beautiful photos for the love of it).

 

Of course, I have no right to be making rules here...

Edited December 6, 2023 by Peter Connan

[JimS]

 

#24 Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea): Hyde Park, London UK, 2 December 2023

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @236mm, f6.1, 1/500s, ISO 1250

 

OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @385mm, f6.3, 1/500s, ISO 1250

 

[Galana]

8 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

And @Galanasorry for abusing/making fun of your rule just a little bit.

Don't worry. I didn't. That's beauty of this Forum. We are lucky that Matt is so generous with us.

Liked your school tales. A lady English teacher! In my day us newly pubescent boys could not be trusted with one of those.

 

Back on topic. That's a lovely shot of the heron @JimS