Lots of Year Ticks

Well Spring has finally decided to arrive, with no frosts over the last few days and a reasonable amount of warm sunshine. Today promised temperatures in double figures and a southerly air flow, with rain in the afternoon, so I went down to Amwell as usual.
Jay had been present for a while and mentioned a Sedge Warbler and two Willow Warblers down near the marina, as well as a few hirundines, and the only other thing of note was the regular 1s Yellow Legged Gull. Graham White mentioned that another Sedge was present near the main hide but did not tell us about the Kittewake he had seen.

 I saw a House Martin distantly over the woods before making my way down to the marina, but the fine sunny weather we had been experiencing tuned to dull cloud and a cool wind started up, and I guess this shut the warblers up. Making my way back to the watchpoint I got my second year tick in the form of Simon-I have not seen him since well before Christmas.
Over the course of the next hour or so small flocks of Sand Martins went over, with a few more House Martins and at least three Swallows. Two Egrets seemed to be in the breeding mood, as were the Grey Herons. Also at least four Redshanks and the regular two Oystercatchers were present, plus a few Teal, Snipe  and Goldeneye still. A nice bonus was the re-appearnce of the Jack Snipe. Simon got a nice video clip, but it was a little too far away for my camera (but still much better than the Tewin bird).

 Luckily Julie had arrived as well as one or two others that I knew and we all had excellent views through the scopes. In fact it was one of the few Jacks that could be easily picked out without optical aid.
 Eventually Simon departed and Julie and I accompanied him up to Tumbling Bay. The local Grey Wagtail was feeding around the lock, and we heard several Blackcaps, a Treecreeper and a Redpoll, but failed to locate any Willow warblers.

We got back to the watchpoint around noon, but things seem to have quietened down, the Jack had gone and there were only a few hirundines left. I got home about the time the Marsh Harrier went over.

Another Bittern Image run through the Nik Collection

Recently I took advantage of the price reduction in the niksoftware Nik Collection. Its one of those imaging suites that I've had my eye on based on numerous reviews and recommendations, but I thought that the investment was rather prohibitive considering the number of tools already available to me. However, over Easter I decided to give it a go and downloaded the full suite.
Its a bit of a learning curve, but the basics are easy to grasp. I ran two PanStarrs images through the HDR Effex pro and noise reduction routine and was impressed in the amount of detail i was able to get-though the uneven colour casts were undesirable as was the over enhanced dust on the sensor. Previously I have used the Photoshop HDR routines as well as the free luminance-hdr and like the way Nik renders landscapes.
The noise reduction routine Dfine works well, both automatic and manual, though generally I find that Lightroom works just as well. Maybe I have yet to find a suitable image to try.
The Bittern image was a trial run through  Viveza. The ability to add control points to selectively adjust various parts of the image without masks was useful-I wanted to tone down the water and bring up the reeds a bit (the image was taken during a cloudy spell but the water was still well lit). It was then run through Sharpener pro which did a very good job of bringing out the fine detail without producing artefacts. Different routines for printing too which is handy.
Basically it is early days (not tried Silver Effex, or Color Effex yet)but I am getting to like using the Collection.

Not Quite Spring

Lovely sunny day today. The weather forecasters said the bitter north/easterly wind of the last few weeks would be gone. They were lying. Nice and warm in the more sheltered locations, but up at the Amwell watchpoint this morning it was still horrible when the wind picked up.
Bill and Jay were present when I arrived, and later on Julie and Tony appeared. One of the wintering Bitterns showed on and off all morning in the bays left of the main hide. Two Oystercatchers were present for a while, and two Redshank, several Snipe and Lapwings remained all day. The recent Jack Snipe did not show-Bill says its an evening bird. A small flock of Wigeon dropped in and there are still some Goldeneyes around.
Lots of raptors enjoying the sunshine, and while tracking a flyover Grey wagtail Bill and Jay picked up a very distant Raven being mobbed by a Kestrel.
No summer migrants, and the only passage seemed to be several tens of Chaffinch going east.

Comet Pan-Starrs

Finally got a clear night. Went out at 830pm and drove out to the same spot I went to near Wood End. Encountered two Badgers and a Tawny Owl on the way.
The comet is very low in the north west, and has faded over the last few weeks. In binoculars it is not too different in brightness to the nearby Andromeda galaxy, and would be borderline naked eye visibility were it higher in the sky. It has a very nice broad fan shaped dust tail which shows very well on some of the high resolution deeper images that I have seen, and ideally I would have preferred to use something a bit longer than the 100mm lens Zeiss lens. Exposures were made at iso 800, 30 seconds at f4.

Aston End

At last a hint of warmth in the sunshine.
Walked around a
Aston End and up the river Beane (reasonable flow for the time of year so maybe the water table is recovering).
Not a great deal to report. Little signs of spring with virtually no flowers out, and few trees and bushes have any sign of leaves breaking. Even the willow catkins are still in bud.
Two separate pairs of Grey Partridge made a change as it's normally red Legs around here now. Five Buzzards displaying over High Wood and New Wood, and the pair of Red Kites are still present. Heard the Little Owl a bit north of the paddocks but could not locate it. From the ford, up the river to the plantation by Long Lane I counted five Chiffchaffs.

Rye and Tewin

Just as cold as yesterday! Siskin still around coming down to the feeder.
Went down to Rye meads in the morning, largely because they had plenty of hides to keep out of the wind. Arrived moments after the gate opened so sat in the car park hide for a bit. A Grey Wagtail flew over and  a Chiffchaff was lurking in the bushes.
A few Shelduck are on the reserve, with one sleeping on the Draper scrape. No waders, but plenty of gulls and a few Shoveller and Teal. The lagoons were pretty much the same.

Spent some time in the Kingfisher Hide. Chiffchaff singing outside occasionally. Male Kingfisher arrived and sat outside the nest hole for a long time, with another appearing briefly. Both Kestrels active in the nest box.

 Left at 1130 and went home via Tewinbury. The reserve has had a lot of work since my last visit a few years ago and looks quite good. A couple pointed me in the direction of a suspect Snipe, but this proved to be a Common. However, behind it and largely obscured was a Jack Snipe. It remained on view all the time I was present, but never really came out into the open. Also it was rather too far away for the camera.

                                                                                              

Amwell

Fed the birds this morning, breaking the ice on the bird bath and it felt quite nice in the sunshine, still a bit cold but much better than it has been, so I decided to get down to Amwell.
Felt very nice getting out of the car, and debated wether I ought to take a layer off. Glad I did not, as the wind at the watchpoint was vicious. Bill was present, so we had a chat. A few raptors came up in the sunshine-five Buzzards, a Kite and one or two Sparrowhawks and Kestrels. A Chiffchaff was calling from the reeds in front of us, as well as a Cetti's. Few waders present, a few Snipe and Lapwing, though I later heard a Redshank. Seems like the Oystercatchers have not settled down, and the presence of large numbers of Black Headed Gulls may be a factor.
Went down to Hollycross, encountering a female Bullfinch in Cherry Plum by the bridge and she was soon joined by a male. For a few moments a Chiffchaff started to sing but soon shut up as the sun went in. Nothing much else, i thought I heard a Treecreeper but could not pin it down.There are still a reasonable number of Siskins present and around ten Goldeneye remain, but it looks like most of the winter ducks are leaving-the last Wigeon seems to have gone and there are only one or two Teal left.