What have you seen

Was at 7500 feet today and saw lots of coughs and several wheatears but the star of the show were 2 Rock Ptarmigan in flight.  

Had a wonderful mornings birdwatching in lovely warm weather.

Saw a White Spotted Bluethroat, not once but on the way back as well. Also saw Golden Orioles in flight twice and once perched on a branch singing away with the sun on him. Watched a pair a Great Crested Grebes enact their mating head bobbing and dancing ritual. Plenty of sights of Reed Warblers and a Great Reed Warbler or two. Ruddy Shelduck, Common Terns nesting, a Heronry and over 50 Mute Swans.

Wonderful.

You’ve just reminded me WN that the heronry at Delft by Ikea looks deserted.

where are you at the moment.

We've moved north to a campsite in Landshut, alongside the River Isar. The walk today started at a little village about 5/6 miles downstream called Eching. The river opens up into a slow running lake with reedbeds at one end and some tern islands in the centre. It was magic.

If you want further details let me know.

Kind of you WN but we will be heading north past Munchen on Sunday. Going up Coburg way before meeting up with my brother on Wednesday.

Saw a Red Squirrel on two separate occasions today, one on our early morning walk at the CL we're staying on and another when we were walking through the woods at Cawdor Castle. There was also an Oystercatcher with one of it's chicks wandering round the Castle's car park!!

GL

We made a long trip to Lakenheah today and bumped into 2 togs who were using Canon kit. Had a discussion on their set ups and focus choices.

The suggestion was to use the single point focus, turn off the image stabilise, do not use converters finally set the focus range at the 10m to Infiniti (or whatever setting you have on your lens) These settings I used today and although the birds were very distant, my feeling is that I did get an improvement. Might be worth a try.

Thanks for the advice BL

A recent visit to Lakes, Buttermere in beautiful conditions with some trout hatchlings on view. We later spotted a pike in Derwentwater following a similar group. 

Sitting outside the caravan last night with a glass of red watching the river activity and a female Goosander floated quickly downstream, followed in precise Indian file by 7 cute chicks, all mini replicas of the female with their red crests and 2 more of them hitching a ride on her back. It was like watching the gondola go down the river in Willi Wonka film.

Apparently the chicks always resemble females when first hatched.