Friday 15 April 2011

Black Scoter, Stag Rocks: Record Shots...


Struggled to get anything decent on the drake black scoter - a combination of dull evening light and a not so close subject. Great thru' the scope, but tricky even with the 2.0 extender on the 500mm...

Still, my first UK tick of 2011 and a new county bird!

The journey up with Phil was just about to become tedious as we left the speedy A1 dual carraigeway and progressed north on the single lane north of Morpeth... but the casual westward drift over of the presumed just-left-east-chevington immature white-tailed eagle gave us a conversation point for the rest of the drive! The eagle was getting a lot of gip from some jackdaw, but our "right place, right time" gave us a fly over no more that 20 meters infront of the car and a height of only thirty feet!!



The thin line of the scoter flock can just be made out on the image below...

3 comments:

The Farne Islands said...

Great picture. I was lucky enough to see it this morning.

Alan Tilmouth said...

Believe it or not John, you weren't alone, David Steel on his way to the NTBC Indoor Meeting actually got it too.

John Malloy said...

Neil O had it also, south of Morpeth!

Nice to see the Farne Island wardens when we arrived too...