As well as recieving news about the Great Egret at upton, on saturday morning i also recieved news on a Mega wheatear for the Midlands, a female DESERT WHEATEAR has been found up on Titterstone Clee hill by non other than fellow bird blogger, The Shenstone Birder!
So on Sunday morning we headed up there, so i can see my 3rd Wheatear species of the year in Britain, and to break my yearlist record!
I spotted the twitch as soon as we arrived, just below the car park, We parked in the upper car park and walked down, Seconds after joining the crowd i spotted the female DESERT WHEATEAR sitting on a steep bank not very far away, we watched it for the next 2 hours or so as i got to grips with this new species. And i was left how strikingly different it was to both Northern and the Pied Wheatears i have seen, I mean the Wholely Black tail was obvious to see at this range, as was all the features, but overall it looked paler than the 'other' wheatear's.
But despite at times the bird being very close (20ft), the gale force winds and horrible 'side light' were messing up every photo/Video i took, The scrum of photographers were having a ball with very good light behind them, But for my angle, the bird was in a constant shadow on one part of the body and complete sunlight on another, combined with the paleness of the bird, every image came out overexposed or just generally 'burned out'. But here are my Efforts:
4 comments:
I'm glad you got to see the bird Craig. There is never any gaurantee that birds such as this will stick around for a while.
As for your photos, they are far better than mine. The day I found it it was late afternoon, gale force winds, really poor post rain light and the bird was very active...not staying still for more than a few seconds!
I may pop bavck up thur or friday to see if I can fare better!
Jase
Im quite glad to have seen it too :) It was great that it stuck around untill sunday for the crowds!
I heard it was really bad up there on friday and saturday, but tbh, i found it hard to believe while i was up there in the gale force winds with the bright blue skys!
Well if you go back up, Good luck, I may try and get up sometime to see that Snow Bunting!
And Cheers for finding it, im sure many birders much apreciate it :)
MB
Hi Craig congrats on getting your 3 rd Wheatear of the year , i saw the Norfolk bird and had similar results with my photos .mouta
Cheers Rob
Im glad you got the norfolk bird, they are very nice to watch.
I guess it was quite windy on the coast too :p
MB
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