Dartford Warbler @ Thursley Nature Reserve 6th March 2026. 1/2500s f5.6 ISO 2500

Welcome to my photography log which is all about the journey not the image quality! This is more blog than gallery. A gallery would contain the best images I’ve taken, whereas this is record of what I’ve been doing, where I’ve been and what I’ve been taking photographs of.

This space captures the images I’ve created since upgrading my camera in the summer of 2024. After two decades with a Canon EOS 350D, I’m now shooting with a Fuji X-T5, paired with the Fuji XF 16-50mm f/2.8-4.8, Fuji XF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 and Fuji XF 500mm f5.6 (the most used lens).

For a list of specific species I’ve photographed, see here.

To see the photographs which document the U3A Bird Group walks, see here.

Click on any image to enlarge it. Best viewed on a larger screen rather than a mobile phone.

This website is hosted on a small NAS server in my office at home. BT haven’t rolled out fibre broadband to my street so my upload speed is limited to 3Mbps, which limits your download speed to 3Mbps. You may have to be a little patient whilst the page builds. 🙂

I can be contacted at richardW5oaks@gmail.com.

April 20th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

A really nice walk around Thursley with a very co-operative Curlew. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been to Thursley wanting to take some nice images of the Curlew, but it either stayed hidden on the ground, or only flew in the far distance. Today, it took to the air time and time again with the distinctive call and flew close by. I even managed to capture it on the small islands. Spectacular.

Magpie, Crow,Teal and Mallard.

April 19th 2026 – In The Garden

This Robin was spying on me.

Long Tailed Tit.

Blackbird.

And there is always a Pigeon on guard.

April 18th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

A mid afternoon walk. Managed to get some images of my second Blackcap, a female this time.

Chiffchaff

Buzzard.

Jackdaw, 6 Egyptian Goose in the distance, Magpie, Muntjac Deer, Crow, Cormorant, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Grey Heron, Black-headed Gull, Tufted Duck, Blue Tit and finally Great Tit.

April 17th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

Two Red Kite today, one a juvenile (lighter body colouring).

Buzzard.

Great Crested Grebe.

Jay, Chiffchaff, Crow, Cat, Peacock Butterfly, Tufted Duck, Black-headed Gull.

April 15th 2026 – Tices Meadow

A lunchtime walk around the meadow, too late for the rain but too early for the sun. Some nice shots of a Red Kite being harassed by a Lesser-Black Backed Gull. The Red Kite was carrying its last meal, shame the sun wasn’t out!

The aircraft has ‘Oil Spill Response’ written on it, and flew very low over the meadow. Robin, Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Magpie, Dunnock, Great Tit, Jay, Black-headed Gull, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose.

April 10th 2026 – Tices Meadow

A late afternoon, cool and cloudy meander around the meadow. Very quiet. But, I did spot a Great Spotted Woodpecker, but as so often it flew off before I got a chance to take a picture. I did however, better locate a spot to find them because I tracked it down to a small group of tree where it was drumming.

Jackdaw, Cows, Canada Goose, Great Tit, Buzzard, Tufted Duck, Herring Gull, Red Kite.

April 9th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

Took the lawn mower in for repair and called in for an hour at Thursley on the way back. Earlier in the day it had been sunny, but by this time it was cloudy and I think there was more photographers that birds…

A nice Goldfinch posing low down on a tree.

Canada Goose.

Two Curlew were airborne at one point, but still too distant, for the type of images I’m really hoping to get. Rather too dull too.

Tufted Duck.

I didn’t get a picture but there were small lizards on the board walk, probably because it was warn after the mornings sun.

April 8th 2026 – In The Garden

I didn’t have a chance to get out today, so only a few photographs taken in the garden. A pair of Blue Tits kept returning and sitting nearby. I think they are waiting for me to go way so they can get in and out of the bird box. I’ll have to move my chair further away and see if they will use the box again or just stay out of the garden.

Blue Tits, Robin and Long-tailed Tit.

April 7th 2026 – In The Garden

The lawn is desperately in need of a cut, but I can’t get the mower to start. After several fruitless minutes I gave up and sat on the patio to work out what to do next. Whilst there I could here birdsong, so I started Merlin and it quickly decided there was a Firecrest singing. I’ve seen it report that before but never seen one, so this time I decided to play back the Firecrest bird song to see if it would it into the open. I’m not sure this is entirely ethical, but it worked and quickly brought it onto a nearby branch, just long enough to get a single shot off. This is my first and only photograph of a Firecrest. Notice the orange strip just visible on the crown.

The Greenfinch was back, but kept in the shade.

Robin.

Wood Pigeon, Blackbird and a British Airways 777 flying from Heathrow to Orlando.

A pair of Great Tit. Possibly juvenile because their colours are quite muted.

This Blue Tit was the only bird brave enough to use the bird feeders with me sat on the patio.

I also saw a Nuthatch, but could not get a photograph.

April 6th 2026 – In The Garden

I got home from Thursley, went up stairs to my office and just after putting my bag down looked out of the Window. Haven’t seen the Greenfinch for a while, though I was sure they were using the bird feeder because they sit on it and take so much seed for themselves. The feeder is getting refilled at least once a week. They seem to be flying in and out of the shrubs near by, though I’ve not spotted a nest but don’t want to risk disturbing them by having a proper look.

April 6th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

The last few visits haven’t yield too much but today the sun was out and the wind wasn’t so hard. I also came earlier which also helps as the birds are less active in the afternoons.

I heard a bird in a tree on the boardwalk and it took a minute to two find it, but it was a male Crossbill! I didn’t take long for others to stop and see what I was paying so much attention too and before long at least a dozen birders and photographers we standing around this tree. They eat the fur cones, and if they are nesting take it back to the female who is sat on the egg. The Crossbill nest I photographed a week or 2 ago has completely disappeared. Not sign of it at all. Hopefully Malcolm wasn’t right when he said someone might try to steal the eggs if its location became too widely known but it seems odd that the nest has gone. It was unfortunately within 8 feet of the footpath so anything is possible.

I’ve been trying to get some nice shots of Curlew for some time. In recent visits I saw them, but at such a distinct that the heavily cropped images really didn’t have the image quality I would like. Today, one finally came very close, in fast right overhead but I just could not get it in the frame in focus. This fist shot it the nearest I came to that. The rest are once again heavy crops.

Another stroke of luck was running into more Dartford Warbler. I came across 3 today. The last one was happy to spend 30 seconds nicely posing for photographs, just a shame it was backlit.

Plenty of Stonechat as always.

Linnet, Reed Bunting, a Lapwing in flight, Canada Goose looking like the will be nesting soon and finally another Curlew on the ground where they can be hard to spot.

April 5th 2026 – Tices Meadow

Since Farnham heath wasn’t a great success I called in at the meadow. However, the wind is still blowing and that doesn’t encourage the birds out to play.

The Robins never his away, whatever the weather.

I think the cows would have liked to sun too.

Crows and Jackdaw.

Cormorant.

The Black-headed Gulls certainly felt the wind, it was kicking waves on the water.

Canada Goose and Herring Gull.

April 5th 2026 – Farnham Heath

Windy and nippy when the sun was behind a cloud.

Didn’t see much variety of birds, but did can a couple of nice Blackbird images.

Chaffinch and an aircraft.

These Red Kite shots a disappointing. Most came out soft even though the shutter speed for 1/3200 and f7.1. Its possible the the camera simply missed focus but also maybe there was some heat haze. In this case I’d put my money on mis-focus.

April 5th 2026 – eBird

Since the end of February I had been using eBird each time I go birding. This keeps a record of what species I have seen, the number and location. This enabled scientific studies, such the time of year a species first appears in an area for migratory birds. Allows bird number to be tracked over time for see how populations are increasing/decreasing and where they spend their time.

This is my life list as it stands today. I expect it to increase in the next few weeks as the summer migrants arrive in the UK. I may also visit places where different birds are more prevalent.

April 4th 2026 – Tices Meadow

A quick afternoon visit to the meadow. Still did not manage to photograph any woodpeckers. Three deer were about, and seem to have found a hollow in meadow to hide away in. You can see the head of one just sticking up for a look around.

Lots of Jackdaw alongside the usual Crow.

This Little Egret was quite some way from the water, yet walking around with a large fish! It disappeared by some reeds and the fish had disappeared when it came out again. Presumably its swallowed it rather than abandoned it.

Soon flew away though.

House Sparrow.

Tufted Dusks.

Crows, Lesser Black-headed Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Cormorant.

April 4th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

A cloudy overcast windy day, but the sun did make a brief appearance just as I the opportunity to take a few shots of a pair of Goldfinch.

Graylag Goose. The Canada Goose are settling down on their nests.

Crow and Mallard.

Tufted Duck having a scratch.

April 1st 2026 – Tices Meadow

My first sighting of a Blackcap.

I saw 3 Jay today.

Two Oyster Catcher were on the far side of the workings, and a fox was taking a quiet drink nearby. Two Grey Herons were onsite too.

I also observed 2 Swann, a Buzzard, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull and the inevitable Robin and Black-headed Gulls.

The hide entrance is still only passable with wellington boots.

March 31st 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

A late afternoon walk around Thursley. Actually quite quiet for birds, mainly Stonechat but that probably just the time of day.

I was watching Stonechat several times, trying to catch the moment they took flight off a perch given that the never sit still for too long. This is the result. (click to enlarge)

I saw a snall dark bird fly in and land on the tussock in surrounded by water. Only after I’ve got the image on my PC, can I crop in enough to see that its a Pied Wagtail. Its hard to spot, but it is there.

Nice to see another Goldfinch.

This is the first time I’ve seen Teal as Thursley.

A Wren that was moving in and out of last years dead heather. A Little Grebe, 3 Tufted Duck images followed by a Linnet, a Willow Warbler and a brief glimpse I got of a Dartford Warbler.

I wanted to take some landscape shots, ang given the sun was getting low in the sky, there was a nice warm glow to the light. However I had the XF 500mm lens on the camera and really didn’t fancy changing it because I know that as soon as I have done that I’ll was the 500mm put straight back on again. So, these were taken with the wrong lens really…

And here are a selection of Stonechat.

March 31st 2026 – In the Garden

Something a little different today. I heard a bird calling/singing in the garden which was different to anything I’ve heard in the garden before. I took a recording of it, and identified it as a Nuthatch using Merlin. After some manipulation in Audacity, this a brief clip of it. You may need to increase the volume on your device.

March 28th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

Back to Thursley to see if the morning sunlight improves the images I can get of the Crossbill nest. This is the female. I ran into Malcolm who I had met yesterday. This time he had his spotting scope and was set to sit and watch the nest for hours.

I also wanted to try and get some closeup images of Curlew, but although I did see one, it was quite distant so these images are heavily cropped and sharpened.

I also spotted a Red Kite, taking a few images as it landed on the dead tree. Again very distant and as always image quality if reduced when sharpening and cropping to such a large extent.

As usual plenty of Linnet and Stonechat about.

As I walking back to the car park and Goldfinch sat singing and not at all bothered by me pointing a camera at from just 6 meters away.

First Little Grebe I’ve seen for a while.

The Canada Goose are settling in for summer.

March 27th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

A dull and overcast day with some drizzle here and there. Even so, I wanted to see if I could take some more Dartford Warbler images. As I was walking around in a section of the reserve where I had heard on my last visit that there were Crossbill, I ran into a gentleman who said he had spent the last 2 hours looking for them. I told him where I had heard they were, which was only 20 meters away, and within 2 minutes he’d found their nest. I would never have seen it myself, so well hidden was it even though it was almost right about the footpath. I was taking shots of the Dartford Warbler from almost the same exact spot last time out.

The Crossbill nest had the female (grey) on the nest and the male (red) would visit from time to time to bring food. No sign of any chicks.

I saw two birds fighting, but actually it most likely courtship. The first time I have seen Skylark.

Lots of Linnet about today.

Several Dartford Warbler but none close enough and in poor light. Such a dark birds really needs to be seen in sunlight.

My first sighting of Curlew and Thursley this year. Too distant really, but the song they make is unforgettable!

My first sighting this year of the Graylag Goose.

The Canada Goose are getting are beginning to settle down for nesting too.

Lets not forget the Mallard and Tufted Ducks though.

March 26th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

Another quick visit to the meadow. Seems very quiet on the bird perspective. I had a good look around to try and take some images of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

Great Tit, Jackdaw, Black-headed Gull, Tufted Duck and a Coot.

The water levels are still high and most of the islands are submerged. Getting into the hide requires wellington to cross the water which is ankle deep now.

Red Kite.

March 22nd 2026 – Keyhaven and Pennington Marshes

It was a bit of trip but worth it in the end. A walk along the sea wall taking photographs of birds in the lagoon on inland wide of the sea wall. Looking back at the images now, I think heat haze was a factor in some of them. And right crops don’t look too good but the wide shots the ok.

This is a Common Redshank, the first time I have seen one of these.

Another new bird for me, the Black-tailed Godwit.

I have seen an African Spoonbill at Birdworld, but that’s just not the same as seeing a European Spoonbill in the wild. It was catching small fish quite effectively with its huge bill.

Oyster Catcher.

I can’t drop in any close with losing too much image quality, but click on the images to enlarge them and check out the colouring on the side of this Lapwing. Heat haze was definitely a problem here because I’m shooting across water in the sun, but you can still see the feather colouring even if its not as sharp as I’d like. If you expand the third image is pretty obvious. There is nothing that can get over head haze, its just physics. The only alternative would be to shoot first thing in the morning or get a lot closer.

Curlew are a red listed bird. I did photograph one at Thursley Nature Reserve last summer and it has a very distinctive and memorable call. I heard this and managed to get some flight shots, and later a few of them on the ground. I counted 5 in total. They use that large bill to catch insects from the air and poking around in the soft ground.

Another bird I have only previously seen in the Birdworld if the Pied Avocet.

Little Egret. If you look carefully you will see the small fish they were eating out of the lagoon.

I haven’t seen Brent Goose since I went to Hayling Island last March.

Lots of Teal and Widgeon.

Also Northern Shoveler, Mallard, Great Created Grebe, Less Black Backed Gull, Canada Goose, another Common Redshank and a Linnet.

Cormorant.

And a few bits and pieces.

March 21st 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

Yet again, a trip to Thursley to try and capture some more images of the Dartford Warbler. Yesterday I really didn’t achieve much, the birds just did not want to co-operate. Today was completely different. I spotted several and in different locations. Some singing, some not. All spend most of their time down in the gorse our of sight, but pop up every now and again and give you a few seconds to get some photographs. I should, just pick out the best and only show a few images, but I can’t help myself and over post.

First, some on in flight shots of the Dartford Warbler.

My Fuji focusing system just isn’t good enough to maintain focus on small birds that move to quickly. Canon, Nikon and Sony are all significantly better in that respect. We’ll see what progress Fuji make when they announce their next generation of camera’s in September. My Fuji does a much better job when the bird in relatively static. Image quality can still not be as high as I would like, but that is down the fact the they are small birds and even with a long lens you need to crop significantly.

I also photographed a Linnet for the first time, plus the usual Stonechat.

And finally some more stylistic Stonechat in flight.

March 20th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

I only had 90 minutes that I could spend at Thursley, looking for the Dartford Warbler again and Crossbill. I’ve seen reports and pictures of both online recently.

I briefly saw a dark bird on top of gorse, but it very quickly dropped down into the bush. With the naked eye I though perhaps there was a dark area in the bush and took a photograph anyway, just in case. Looking through the view finder and zooming in close on the image I took I could not see anything, but once back home I can see the head of the Dartford Warbler that I was looking for, Had I known I would have waited longer in the same spot hoping to get another shot. Can you spot it?

Later I did locate an area with the Dartford Warbler using Merlin. I did see a pair of them fly up into a tree but my view of partially obscured and by the time I had repositioned they had moved on. Its a challenge but if I can get a good shot of them it will be worth it.

As you see here there were lots of Stonechat displaying well.

A Chiffchaff hiding in a tree, Crow and Canada Goose.

March 19th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

A really nice morning at the meadow. Ran in to Lens, Richard, Mark, Dina a some others on the mound. I keep looking for the Greater Spotted Woodpecker that I see Jack regularly posted photographs of, but still can seem to find it, even though it quite a big bird.

House Sparrow, male and female followed by a Robin. It ringed with ‘AB’ and must be the most photographed bird at the meadow. It is quite tame because Len feeds it direct from his hand, with meal worm I think.

I only saw the Red Kite briefly but I’m sure it flies more often when the sun is out.

I was hoping to get a good close up of the Black-headed Gulls sweeping low over the water, but getting in the frame and in focus when they were so close and changing direction all the time proved just about impossible. In some of these images you’ll notice flies in the air which they are swooping down to catch.

Jackdaw, Dove, Magpie, Coot, Swans and Herring Gull having a wash.

Pigeon and Black-headed Gulls on posts.

March 18th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

I spent 3 hours hoping to get some nice shots of the Dartford Warbler, but it only made a brief appearance and that was strongly backlit. I did run into Jon Hawkins who got some good images of it over the other wide of the reserve. Its a matter of luck whether you happen to be in the right place at the right time. Sometimes you just have to put the hours in.

Today I tried shooting with pre-shot enabled because I’ve seen other online suggest it helps the camera nail focus more often. That is definitely not my experience today, like the last time I tried it. So it will be the turned off again after today.

These are the Dartford Warbler image I captured.

Plenty of Stonechat about, and singing too so perhaps they are looking for a mate. I saw at least one pair together on the same bush. The male has the darker head and stronger colouring.

The first image is a Reed Bunting and the next a Crow that was watching me very carefully.

My sky’s obviously need some work, some the colours just don’t look realistic which seems to happen when I change the colour saturation. I may try masking the bird to as to avoid saturating the sky’s, but sometimes they look wrong straight out of camera.

A Buzzard.

A Red Kite and a Stock Dove.

Little Grebe and Tufted Duck.

I think this may be the first time I have captured images of ChiffChaff.

March 17th 2026 – U3A Bird Group at Tice’s Meadow

A pleasant walk around Tice’s Meadow with Richard and Pete as guides. Its always good to go out with the group and a guide even though I’ve visited many times, the extra eyes help find the birds I would otherwise miss. Naturally to sun didn’t come out until we were leaving.

The first 2 images were taken with the birds in silhouette so I had no idea what the were until edited. A Jackdaw and a Jay, right by the main entrance.

In this first image, the gull just right of centre is a Mediterranean Gull (the black head covers more that the Black-Headed Gull). The third image shows a Starling perched on the Swift box, and if you click on the image to expand and, look carefully and you can see one inside it. Fifth image is a Cormorant, followed by two Moorhen. Image 7 is a Buzzard, then a white Pidgeon or Dove which I could not decide how to categorize in eBird.

Black-Headed Gulls.

Oyster Catcher in a group of gulls. Its a fairly poor quality image but they were distant and this is a very heavy crop.

Mallard.

Great Tit, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Stonechat and Robin.

March 16th 2026 – In The Garden

I left the camera on a tripod again to see whether the birdbox of getting used. Its certainly getting interest although I didn’t capture any entry or exists.

I also tried to get some shots from in the bird table. Still can’t get the camera to refocus and taking a timelapse, and I didn’t really have enough depth of field. I might get better results on a sunny day. The table attracted Great Tits today.

March 14th 2026 – In The Garden

I didn’t get out today, but took some more photographs of Greenfinch’s on the garden bird feeder. I figured out the reason the Nuthach fed on the peanut kernels and the Greenfinch stuck to the mixed seeds. Some birds have a narrow pointy beak and other a broad beak. The pointy narrow beak is better for getting insects, spiders etc out of crevices and bark and can get between the wire mesh of the feeder. Birds with a broader beak use it to break open seeds and thus need the larger hole to feed from.

Todays pictures are an improvement on yesterdays, but I’ve figured out that I didn’t have the focusing configuration set up optimally for this scenario. The camera is on a tripod, and because birds are too shy for me to anywhere too close, so I’m using timelapse photography with an image taken every 2 seconds. With continuous autofocus and bird tracking enabled. Unfortunately I had is set a single focus point, which works well when I’m out and about but for this I think its probably better to have a wide focus box so that it can detect a bird no matter where it is in the scene. Next time the sun is out I will try again.

March 13th 2026 – In The Garden

Just as I finished the blog entry below, I looked out of the window and noticed a Greenfinch on the bird feeder. I was soon joined by a female so maybe they are nesting nearby. They sat and gorged themselves on the bird seed, ignoring the peanut kernel’s and dropping half of the seed on the floor. The were followed by a pair of Nuthatch which definitely preferred the peanut kernals.

None of the images is sharp, my camera just could not seem to get accurate focus for some reason. I’ll try again tomorrow when the sun is out.

March 13th 2026 – Tices Meadow

Saw a Nuthatch using the bird feeder in the garden first thing this morning.

Tices wasn’t much fun today. Windy, cold and not much happening at all. Thus usual suspects.

March 11th 2026 – At Home

I heard an owl out the back of the house. Merlin identified it as a Tawny Owl, and if I listen to the examples Tawny Owl sounds online, it is a perfect match. I’ve heard it before, spanning several years. They are very territorial and once their territory is established in the autumn of their first year, they will stay for the rest of their life.

March 11th 2026 – Tices Meadow

Very quiet on the meadow today and quite breezy which may not have helped.

A Buzzard.

I saw 3 different Grey Herons. They have been absent for a few weeks.

Tufted Ducks and Canada Goose which are steadily increasing in numbers.

Black-Headed Gull and a Crow with an apple core, 3 Cormorant sat on a fence and lots of Gulls.

March 7th 2026 – Crooksbury Hill

I’ve seen lots of birds reported at Crooksbury Common and also as Crooksbury Hill. However, I didn’t encounter much until at last moment in the car park I spotted a flock of 15-20 Siskin and then my first sighting of a Goldcrest. Click on these Siskin images to expand them and pick see their yellow colouring, though I undoubtedly overdid the colour saturation.

These images of a Goldcrest are not great either, but they are my first images of a Goldcrest. In one image you can just make out the gold stripe on the top of its head.

March 7th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

A quick visit to see if I could find the Dartford Warbler again. However, it was chilly and breezy with no sign of the warbler, and few birds visible at all. The only images I captured were a pair of Canada Goose, a lone Little Grebe and a Stonechat.

March 5th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

After the success of Thursley it was back to the meadow to see what’s happening in the sun today. A partially obscured male Reed Bunting and a Stonechat.

Lots of Tufted Duck today. The birds that all left when the working froze over in January and gradually returning.

March 5th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

I have seen a couple of posts on Facebook this week of the Dartford Warbler. A bird I have never seen, so I went out at lunchtime on a mission to take its photograph. I expected it to take ages, and to probably not see it at all.

I walked out of the car park at Moat Pond down the dirt track, and as I had no idea what it sounded like I used Merlin on my phone. Within 5 minutes slow walk Merlin picked it up and all I had to do and stand still and wait. Sure enough, in no time at all, it hopped onto a branch, started singing and remained in place long enough for me to get, what I think probably my best bird photograph yet!

Dunnock and Stonechat.

Two different Buzzards.

A Mallard, Goldfinch, Tufted Duck, a pair of Mallard and a Robin.

March 4th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

The BBC forecast sun all day, but it was misty and cloudy on the meadow. I hung around for 2 hours before giving up and going home, and literally as I sat down the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the day.

Nice to see that a pair of Great Crested Grebe have returned. They are one of the species that left the works when it froze over in January.

Dunnock singing, Canada Goose, 2 Cormorant (the other dozen left during the January freeze too) and Mute Swans in flight.

The Black-headed Gulls are very noisy and active at the moment. Many now have there summer breading plumage.

March 2nd 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

A good day for sunshine, but I did it again. I took ages to figure out I could not get images sharp before realizing the focus selector switch has been knocked out of position. So, these are those taken once I finally figured it out.

This Red Kite was being harassed by a crow for quite some time. I suspect the crow is being territorial. After soaring for a while, it dived down to the ground and was quickly surrounded by crows. I suspect it caught lunch in the process. The images of it on the ground were very distant.

Coal Tit, House Sparrow, Great Tit, Goldfinch on the feeders.

Canada Goose and Crows on the ground, Crow, Dunnock.

I wasn’t sure what this was, but Len knew immediately its a male Reed Bunting. Checking afterwards, its because this is the summer plumage which differs from the winter plumage I had seen previously.

Tufted Duck, Black-headed Gull and Wood Pigeon.

February 28th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

Since Thursley seemed to quiet, I returned to Tice’s Meadow.

Nice to see the Canada Goose again. I expect there will dozens by the summer.

A Squirrel on a telegraph pole, Blue Tit and Black-headed Gull.

A distant Red Kite and Tufted Ducks.

February 28th 2026 – Thursley Nature Reserve

I felt the need for a change and I haven’t been to Thursley for a while. Still very quiet….

Its been a good week for Buzzards though…

Stonechat.

February 25th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

The sun is back!! And today the raptures were up, both Red Kite and Buzzards were hunting, and not so high I could not get images of them. Unfortunate I set exposure compensation in the wrong direction when trying to bring some light onto the underside of the birds against a bright sky. Lesson learnt (again).

Buzzard.

Red Kite.

Swan.

Jay.

Black-headed Gull.

Grey Heron, Canada Goose and an Airbus Helicopter.

February 23rd 2026 – U3A Photography Monopoly

Upon arrival we were all given 3 locations at random to take a picture. These will be shown at a future meeting to see what variety of images can be taken between us. I’m not very happy with my images, but tried to do something that I thought others might not have already done. I could see people taking close up images, which is the obvious answer, something to create an abstract based on shapes and colour.

The first image is the statue of a shivering boy in Victoria Gardens with a double exposure to give it a ghostly feel. The second is also a double exposure of 3 statues in the new Brightwells area, again giving a kind of ghostly feel. The final image is a close up of a crane doing construction work on East Street. I may submit one of the versions where I have reduced the sky to a much darker and more dramatic feal.

February 21st 2026 – Tices Meadow

Yet another visit, but still very muddy and bird activity seems to be pretty low. The cloud was quite dark and that is reflected in these images.

A Wren and a Redwing.

In the stream/river that runs though the meadow, there was a lot of woody material that looked like it might cause a blockage. I noticed some movement and it turns out to be a Siskin having a bath, and a Goldfinch taking a drink.

My previous Red Kite images were all taken when the bird was very high and the images had to be cropped heavily. Today, it was very high too, soaring on the wind looking for prey to eat. But after a while it appeared behind my much lower in the sky over trees. So, these retained some image quality by not having to cropped so heavily, but suffer from the sky being so dark. One day, I’ll be in the right place at the right time and catch a Red Kite that is not too high, not too far away and in good light.

The Egyptian Goose we making lots of noise, may be building up to the breeding season.

Not so many Cormorant around at the moment. I’ve figured out that the white feathers that some not have on there head, indicate breading plumage. No sign of them building nests that I could see and its hard to see where they would do that on the workings, so I guess they might go elsewhere for that. The Little Egret and Grey Heron have all disappeared probably to nest somewhere else.

Black Headed Gulls. The head turns black in a breeding season and you can see that on some.

As always there are Mallard, Tufted Duck and Blue Tits. I also saw a pair of teal but they were so far away that image has no quality left at all after cropping.

February 17th 2026 – Farnham Heath

Not many birds to see this afternoon. I expect that in a month of so it will come to life and the weather improves, summer migrants arrive and the breading season gets underway.

Blue Tit and a Robin.

A Crow feeding on the ground.

Long Tailed Tit.

February 14th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

Finally some sun. Still not that many birds about though!

Dunnock.

Stonechat and one of the meadows 3 cows.

Shoveler.

Black-Headed Gull and Coot.

Goldfinch.

Pied Wagtail.

Tufted Duck, Robin, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Long-Tailed Tit and House Sparrow.

Red Kite and Red Poll.

February 10th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

Very dull and damp. Light rain at times but did see some Goldfinch.

February 6th 2026 – Farnham

A quick trip to see if the Peregrines are back on the church tower. They weren’t but maybe next time. Very little to photograph at the moment just Jackdaw, Magpie and Herring Gull. But, spring is only a few weeks away!

February 4th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

Nice to have some sun today and thankfully isn’t wasn’t even cold enough to necessitate gloves. Still not many birds about though and the paths remain muddy with ankle deep water in places.

Blue Tits still present in large numbers.

Dunnock.

Coot, Teal, Tufted Duck, Egyption Goose, Cormorant.

Little Egret, Lapwing and Herring Gull in flight.

British Airways, sleeping Pochard, male and female Tufted Dusks, Robin, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Long Tailed Tit.

February 1st 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

Another winters day at the meadow. Damp, dull and muddy. Not so many birds around these days, though Merlin picks up there noise, I’m not seeing them. As an experiment, todays images were edited using DXO Photolab 9, which has a 1 month free trial. Its quite expensive to buy, so I’ll probably revert back to Capture One once the free trial is over.

First up is a Jackdaw, which was present last spring in huge numbers so it will be interesting to see if the same thing happens this year. As usual there were countless squirrels in forest, lots of tits and of course the 3 resident cattle.

A pair of Redwing. I saw someone else had spotted a fieldfare today on the meadow and posted a great image of it on facebook but I’ve not seen one myself yet.

Blue tits, Dunnock, , Blackbird, Chaffinch

Black-headed Gull

On my last visit I saw Cormorant doing a mating style dance, today its the Egyptian Goose. Spring must be round the corner.

Whilst I have captured them in flight before, this is the first time I’ve seen them taking off.

Nice to see a Jay.

Lapwing.

So, what do I think of DXO Photolab 9. It got the expose better than Capture One, but I’ve over done the colour saturation. It reduced the export times but I could achieve the same in Capture One with a little more discipline.

January 28th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

A quite walk around the meadow this morning. I only saw one other person. From a bird perspective it seemed quiet. The first bird I encountered was this Dunnock.

This Reed Bunting was on the reads next to the hide.

Stonechat.

Herring Gull, Moorhen, a pair of Tufted Duck, Coot, Pochard, Swan, Pied Wagtail.

And the obligatory Cormorant, Lapwing and Herring Gull. Two of the Cormorant appeared to be doing some kind of co-ordinated mating ritual, must be the good weather today.

January 25th 2026 – RSPB Pulborough Brookes

The nature reserve is an hours drive away, and cost £3.50 to park and £5 entry as a non member. Entry is free to RSPB members, but that itself is £5 per month. I won’t be returning very often at this price. 😊

The reserve has 4 hides, 3 of which I found. 1 had no birds in view at all, 1 was closed because of flooding but the remaing hide was very good. The reserve had lots of visitors, I’ve never seen so many people with spotting scopes and binoculars.

As you can see in this first images, there was a huge number of birds on the water.

These Meadow Pipits are new to me.

Another first for me is the Pintail.

More Teal than you can shake a stick at!

Nice to see Canada Geese again, they disappeared from Tice’s Meadow in the autumn.

Widgin also present in large numbers.

A good number of Shoveler.

Some deer were seen crossing the water at the far side. Someone owns a nice house on the shoreline, and a fox on patrol.

Is there anywhere in the world that Mallard have not conquered?

If you look carefully, you can spot Snipe and a Lapwing here.

January 22nd 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

A quick afternoon walk around the meadow today. Very muddy, plenty of standing water and didn’t stop raining the whole time. Thus, not too many birds to photograph. As before, a lot fewer birds on the water since the ice at the start of the month.

The water level is risen sharply lately.

Some nice in flight shots, particularly the Shoveler as it really shows off the colours on their wings. Shame it wasn’t a sunny day .

This female Pochard was a surprise, took a few minutes to confirm its ID online.

Even the paths are flooding at the moment.

House Sparrows both male and female, Blue Tits and Dunnock.

January 20th 2026 – U3A Birdwatching – Frensham Little Pond

I joined the group for a walk this morning for the first time. It was cloudy and cold and dull lighting for the most part. The highlight was spotting a Crossbill, a first time for me. I was surprised at how close I could get without it taking flight.

My shutter speed wasn’t really high enough but these are the best I managed of the Heron.

I thought I was looking at Tufted Ducks, but Richard correctly identified these as Pochard.

And these are the real deal, Tufted Ducks.

Great Crested Grebe.

Cormorant.

And finally, who doesn’t like a few Swann images.

And to complete the record of birds I saw on the walk, a Black-headed Gull, Coot and Mallard.

January 16th 2026 – Tices Meadow

Another walk around the meadow today. Very quiet in the bird sense. Many birds on the water seem to have flown away when it froze over last week. Could not spot much in the forested areas either. However, I did spot a Red Kite soaring overhead.

A couple of environmental shots of the far distance.

Magpie‘s.

A Starling, Swan, Perrigin sat alone in the distance, a pair of Shoveler, Black Headed Gull staring down two Lapwing, Tufted Duck, Teal, Coot and a Herring Gull.

January 14th 2026 – Tice’s Meadow

A misty start to the morning in Tice’s Meadow and very few birds visible on the water.

January 13th 2026 – Bushey Park

We were driving to Surbiton today to collect another ebay purchase so called in at Bushey Park. It was overcast and raining the entire time, which you can see in many of the images. A birds, a Grey Heron and a few lots of Black-headed Gulls.

The deer were mostly congregate on one place, where the park staff put out food.

January 6th 2026 – Tices Meadow

A very cold day at the meadow today, but some nice snowy images which make a nice change. This fox was followed by crow for at least 10 minutes, must have been hoping for some scraps?

The pair of peregrine falcons were both present, eating lunch. I think it was crow that was eaten.

I stalked a great spotted woodpecker for a couple of minutes until it flew off. This was the clearest image I managed to get. Same story for this jay.

This probably one of the nicest herring gull pictures I’ve captured for a while.

Some canada geese arrived back today too. I expect they were looking for water that was not frozen over.

But, the open water is very crowded now.

Nice to see a few goldfinch too.

Chaffinch.

House Sparrow.

There is always a robin about to be photographed.

And finally some other images I like.

January 4th 2026 – Tices Meadow

A cold walk around the meadow today. The workings were largely frozen over, and all the birds were over on the far side where there was still unfrozen water. Spotted my first Siskin.

Black-headed Gulls fighting.

One of the local Foxes.

And some panorama just for fun.

January 2nd 2026 – Tices Meadow

A cold but sunny afternoon walk around the meadow. Unusually, I did not see any Heron for Egret. These are the first images I’ve taken of Redwing.

Robin in the sun.

Some nice effects looking through the reed bed into the sun.

And a Blackbird, Squirrel, Cows, Pied Wagtail, sleeping Pochard and Coot.