Buckeye, November 11th

Yesterday I set up 10 feeders in the desert south of the town, right next to the irrigation canal. This morning I set up to see what had been attracted to the area. Not very much was happening, so I will continue to bait the area with food and return next week for more observation.

I did manage to see this fellow. He was keeping a very close eye on me and took off as soon as I fired off a couple of shots, but I was quite pleased with this one.

Lake Pleasant

During October I decided to take Alfie and Oscar on an overnight camping trip to Lake Pleasant. It was an eventful trip with plenty of birdlife to capture. However, the real excitement came when the tent fell down after sunset and we had to relocate to sleep in the car! That is the first time a tent has ever fallen down on me! Alfie really didn't settle and was disturbed by the nocturnal wildlife that was in abundance. It ended up being an adventure that I will probably only do on my own next time!

Arlington Butte November 4th

This week I finally managed to get to Arlington to see what bird-life was around. I set my hide up at 04.30 am and sat in the peaceful darkness waiting for the sun. As the sky started to lighten (but still way too dark to get a good shot) I noticed an Egret stood in the water about 15ft from me. Unfortunately a couple of duck hunters scared him off when they started shooting at the other end of the lake! My frustration was short lived as I realized that if the Egret had not seen me there was little chance that the hunters had. I did not want to be at the working end of a shotgun cartridge so I whistled a couple of bars of 'The Adams Family' to let the hunters know where I was. Usually I carry an orange vest, which I can hang from a nearby tree or bush to make my presence known, but of course today I left it behind! The birds didn't return for the next 2 hours, largely because the hunters kept talking between themselves.

As I was driving home I spotted these guys sat in a tree. They were close enough for me to get these shots, but the image required some pretty heavy cropping. As I crept closer to the tree one of these took flight, but the other sat for the next 2-3 minutes allowing me took continue shooting.

I headed back to Buckeye after a this and made my way to the quarry to the south of the town. I didn't see a great deal of activity in the trees, but was able to fire off a couple of shots of this Osprey as it circled above me.

All in all a reasonably successful morning - even if I missed that first Egret!