17 April 2013

A pursuit of Bluetails



A male Red Flanked Bluetail in Goryokakyu Park this afternoon. It was very dark and the above shot is a big crop with lowish shutter speed and highish ISO.

I spent a few hours the last couple of days chasing this very active species around the park. They are a common passage visitor and I see loads of them every spring and autumn but can never get any decent shots, they are just too fast for me.



Yesterday had better light, there were 2 females and 1 male.

The females at least have the blue tail.................



Today was the opposite, 2 males and a female.


I hope they stick around for a couple more days. Just one shot a male close up in good light with a nice background, please.......................................

Yesterday an Osprey flew up the tiny river near my flat and today one was hunting over the moat in the park, it dived but on the other side of the park and I couldn't see if it came up with anything as I was busy getting frustrated with the bluetails. There was also a flock of 10 or so Common Crossbill but I couldn't get close to them. Other stuff included a few Dusky Thrush, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and lots of the common breeders such as White Wagtail, Oriental Greenfinch and Great Tit.

Last week I bit into a baguette and as the bread was a bit hard I cut the inside of my cheek and got a huge blood blister. Foolishly I popped it and now I have a huge great big mouth ulcer there. Hot food, spicy food, salty food...............all no-nos. At least beer soothes the pain...................


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Linked to WBW.

12 comments:

  1. Nice bird and thanks for sharing.

    A couple of things for your mouth ulser. Get some good yogurt (without a lot of sugar, just good, plain yogurt) and take a table spoon in your mouth every few hours.

    Another is to take a paper towel and burn it on a cold plate. It will leave behind a yellow, sticky substance. Dab a bit of that onto the ulser to help it heal. (My dentist said it was probably rich in sulfur).

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  2. Great shots, take clove oil to limit the pain.

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  3. The chase was well worth it. Some nice shots of a real beauty.

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  4. Sounds like bigamy on both days and both ways. Lovely captures indeed of this little bird I had not even heard of.

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  5. a delightful little bird, male and female both

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  6. Nice shots - its remarkable what you can pull off with some of todays kit!

    Cheers and thanks for linking to WBW.

    Stewart M - Melbourne

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  7. Thanks for all the comments (and the mouth ulcer remedies too!)..............

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  8. What gorgeous little birds! It's always fun to travel around the globe with other birders and bloggers...

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  9. Top shot of the male is a gripper! (one Lothian record and that was quite recently). My kind of rarity with even the fems and imms having the blue tail.
    High ISO performance these days is astounding - when I started anything above ISO 800 and cropped looked like a pointilism painting!

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  10. Really great shots, Stu! I've only seen this bird twice and both were females.

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