THE SECOND CHANCE SEDGE

Well this was lucky ..

I cold only stand there and watch these the day before and had decided I was going to be in too much pain to go back and film them. My camera equipment was also buried .. deep.

But I dragged out my .. Nikon P900 after I realised I was being .. forced outside once again and I managed to get lucky ..

And film and photograph that Sedge Warbler ..

https://www.flickr.com/gp/89426160@N05/06FnQH

EDIT: 

I forgot to add that just prior to seeing this Sedge Warbler I heard what I thought sounded like a loud .. grasshopper. I then thought "Wait a minute? That is not a Grasshopper Warbler is it?" and then a warbler appears. There had been a rumour of one being seen or heard and I thought this is what this bird was.

I have not been an avid bird watcher since I was a child, concentrating more on other animals like exotic finches, reptiles, amphibians and fish over the years. As soon as I saw the pictures in a book I remembered what a Grasshopper Warbler looked like and could not believe that I did not remember its pattern and colour ..

But then I do have this memory issue which I have had a number of years that has progressively gotten worse over a long period of time.

SHELLS, OYSTERS & ALDERS

A bit late uploading these .. and the videos but .. that is because of my memory issues and I have two cameras, or had that day, to deal with.

I forgot about this non-professional camera!

Anyhoo .. we went out on a warm but very windy day .. which blew me about while I was filming with the zoom at full .. win .. chat! Lol.

This was on Walthamstow Wetlands .. or opposite Walthamstow Wetlands .. not sure if it is all the same place. Another place is called The Paddocks .. no .. just don't! It is on Ferry Lane in Walthamstow not far from Tottenham Hale.

While out we saw Shelducks, Oystercatchers and some Alder Flies, the latter I do not ever recall seeing before that day. Caddis Flies, yes. Alder Flies not so sure ..

THE ELUSIVE CHIFFCHAFF

Well the weather has not been great and if it is not turning or feeling cold it has been bloody too windy, often both.

Along with a health scare followed by a car accident that then seemed to aggravate another health condition that then fired off a series of .. distracting symptoms and pain things have been a little busy.

Plus and several weeks back now I placed myself on a course to start my own business and this will tie in, when over on around 4 weeks, with something else occurring.

Something else that will vastly improve both my photography and videos in everything.

So I managed to get out with my camera and  decided that absolutely everything would now be done in manual only for the next couple of weeks. To re-familiarise myself with all the manual settings as well as any new ones.

So I did not really leave the house with the intention of really doing a wildlife shoot ... except on th way back I saw an opportunity to finally film and photograph a Chiffchaff!

Yes they are commonly heard and yes they are not much to look at ... but their shyness along with the fact that they are normally always high up in the leafiest trees has presented me with a challenge that has been going on a couple of years now.

Yeeeah ... I also need to be more patient and get used to setting myself up in ideal spots and staying there.

Yeeaah there is also going to be a swathe of new equipment and not just in photography either.

I know EXACTLY what I want to buy and it involved around half a dozen to a dozen items but I am not going to name brands or models, I do normally like Nikon, as I do not want to tempt fate. I am funny like that. Long years of tempting fate for me personally has never ended well. Normally due to someone else but it has never ended well, almost never.

Chiffchaff ...

Video of Chiffchaff Singing

WHITETHROAT WARBLER - SYLVIA COMMUNIS

I had a hard slog today. It hurt.

It was also damned hot, which made it harder.

But I persevered up in incline that goes on for roughly 1.5 miles and to a spot that was actually around 4.1 miles away from home.

That incline is not the only one I have to climb to get there either!

But for the first time this year, of 2016, I managed to get to one of my favourite spots I affectionately call the 'Crop Crossing'. Though it is technically not a crossing. Unless your in a tractor in which case it is a crossing.

It was flooded with yellow from the Rapeseed being grown in the fields there and the sky was brilliant blue with some nice clouds in one direction.

While I was there I saw a bird singing while flying high but then landed on some telegraph cables and looked look a Whitethroat Warbler after initially thinking they were Skylarks.

The singing from the cable should have been a signal that they were not Skylarks!

I realised they were indeed Whitethroats when I saw the videos and pictures on my PC when I got home!

Oh and there was a Buzzard out hunting. There are normally a pair of buzzards that are either in this vicinity or some woods about a mile or two south of this location.

SOME WATER FOUL - SHOVELLERS, TEAL, LAPWINGS

A little earlier than the Greater Spotted Woodpecker shots and videos are these few water fould species ...

Remember, camera now faulty, replacement in couple of weeks.

Teal, Shovellers, Gadwalls and Lapwings ...

Lapwings and Shovellers ..

 Teal taking flight ..

Shovellers ..

Lapwings ..

Lapwings and Shovellers ..

THE GREAT CORMORANT - Phalacrocorax carbo

This one was a weird one.

Nothing much on this lake I normally check while out hunting things down but some ways off I see something that looks a lot like a Heron from where I was standing.

As I looked though it did not look right and looked too small, though it looked bigger than a Little Egret. In body mass at least.

I then zoomed in, after nearly not bothering, and see a beak like a Merganser, or Goosander, and then saw the chest and thought this looked more like a Cormorant.

Only the whole of its breast was pale.

Not being great on water foul but I do see a lot of Cormorants here they are normally black all over. I thought maybe the females have a pale breast like this one or even the youngsters.

When I got home I had a better look at the pictures, video and looked online and realised it was a Great Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo.

Do not know if this is a good spot or not, lol, waiting to hear back from one of my brothers who would know better than me. Probably not but at least it is another ticked of the very long list..

A few pictures and a video ...

My God the pictures are dreadful! Funny I nearly bought a new camera a month ago, starting to think I should have bought it now!

THE GREY WAGTAIL - Motocilla cinerea

Spotted in a rough part of Enfield where the people that are undesirable and treat nature and wildlife like its their personal dump liver in large numbers ...

So imagine my surprise when I spot two Grey Wagtails likely stopping off on their way to somewhere else, if they have any sense at all?

After some local idiots go right past me I manage to film and photograph them... barking dogs and other barking dogs on chains scaring the shite out of the devil himself ... ERRR EFFING CAMERA HERE YOU HBRAIN DEAD FAGGITS!! Lol!

Well once they returned after flying over the top of some houses and I thought I had missed the opportunity I then filmed and photographed them!

I would not eat there son, you don't know where its been?!

Or to be more precise, you do not know what effing crap the locals have thrown out and the insects have eaten!!

Now was it along here and then ... left?!

Oi! NO BALL GAMES!

Come back! I am not the idiot with the barking dogs!

Careful where you prod that thing!

THE JACKDAW of CONFUSION

I got a surprise when I spotted this near my home and at first it looked so light I thought it was a Hooded Crow?!

I had not seen one of those since I was in Italy some years ago and my brain was confused because it should not have been there! But after looking at the video again I realised it was a Jackdaw! Buggering fool!

Still not used to seeing these and cannot remeber the last time I saw one ... couple of pictures and then a video ...

The video of the Jackdaw of confusion ...

THE FIRST FINCH FILMED

A hen Chaffinch I managed to get when I went out on a wildlife hunt.

Oddly I have been out a few times in horrible muggy heat and yet the leaves are still to appear!

I cannot decribe how weird that appears to me, I was sweating and had only a t-shirt on and yet I was looking at bare trees as if it was still mid winter!! At the time as this was over a week ago now. This was in an earlier spell of warm weather....ooooh no I am getting this wrong I am thinking about when I was at Lea Valley Park but there was nothing about!

This was the day before yesterday! Yes I was in Forty Hall and a nasty bailiff had left a notice for me despite them bing told I not only do not owe money, but not supposed to pay the money anyway and also they have broken the law by coming to me! Yes that was the day and I am not getting into that about Bailiffs here and it is covered in much detail on my corruption blog

asaintcalledallnights.blogspot.com

It is over Council Tax and they have been sent by the Council but despite my Doctor telling me I know more about my condition than he does and that I am teaching him everyone else thinks that not having that pieve of paper from him that they can then totally disregard the law. Infortunately for them I have trapped them which is shown on that blog and they will clearly be shown to be totally ignoring the facts because of a piece of paper! Except on my corruption blog you will see a piece of paper that states that I have an upcoming appointment with Guy's Hospital who are the leaders in the UK for my condition of Fibromyalgia which causes loads of pains around the body that are not actually there, yeah I know mad, right?! It screws up the signals in the nervous system all over the place and causes some really horrible things! I have 120 symptoms and all down to this one condition though they told me for 13 years it was not possible! Oh and I diagnosed it! They knew for sometime what I had and kept it from me I just do not know how long. They definately knew for over 6 months and I think it has been several years! So much so that the Parliamentary Health Services Ombudsman have asked me how much money I want? lol!

Personally I am annoyed the PHSO asked me that! I certainly was not expecting it.

Amy how that is for another place but it has the potential to disrupt the many blogs I have been working very hard on! So a little warning things might go a bit dead for awhile, lol.

That hen Chaffinch...

VIDEO OF A JAY

VIDEOS of FAMILY OF LITTLE EGRETS - EGRETTA GARZETTA

OOPS I fogot to post these videos of a family, or group, of FIVe, count them, Little Egrets that were feeding alongside a pair of Northern Lapwings.

FAMILY OF LITTLE EGRETS - EGRETTA GARZETTA

Along with the two Lapwings I sptted no less than THREE Little Egrets together and all feeding?!

This is an unsual site and while I was filiming, yes I filmed them and over on my YouTube account along with the Lapwings, a guy came up behind me and said 'wow that IS unusual....you don't normally see three together!'

Well within minutes of him walking away two more appeared out of nowhere and they must have been hiding in the grass?! So there was a total of FIVE in all, all together and I think it must have been a pair and their chicks. I would wager that they bred on the Lea Valley Park somewhere between Hook Marsh Scrape and Holyfield Lake?!

THE NORTHERN LAPWING - VANELLUS VANELLUS

This was a bit of a surprise as this spot at Hook Marsh Scrapes does not have too much there in the summer months whereas the winter can have some real great birds. Today was very different though as you will see from both this post and the next one.