Red-legged Partridge

Walking through Singleton Park late this afternoon, I spotted the Red-legged Partridge that I had seen last weekend, again in the field at the back of St. Paul's Church. I hurried home to get my big lens, and spent the last hour or so before dark attempting to get some photos and footage of this seemingly out-of-place bird.

At first, the partridge sheltered from the rain in the lee of a hedge, but eventually it ventured into the open, and I poked my lens through the hedge to get this shot:

After a bit of sneaking around, I managed to get close enough for a reasonable portrait:

The bird wandered across towards the church car park, and at one point seemed to be trying to hide from me behind the kerb:

By now, it was getting dark, and I was down to 1/160th of a second at ISO 1600 and maximum aperture for this shot: 

The bird was now wandering across the car park, so I thought I'd better leave it alone, in case my presence caused it to walk into the path of a passing car!

I also managed a bit of video footage:



Glossy Ibises at Pembrey

I've finally worked out how to transfer footage from my video camera to my computer, so here's some belated footage of the Glossy Ibis flock which turned up at Pembrey in Carmarthenshire in September 2009:



Something unusual happened whilst walking up through Singleton Park on Saturday afternoon, when I looked across into the field at the back of St. Paul's Church, and saw, of all things, a Red-legged Partridge feeding about 30 metres away. I only had my 50mm lens with me, and when I tried to sneak up behind a hedge to photograph it, it scurried off into some distant undergrowth. I returned next morning with my big lens, hoping for some closer shots, but I could only managed this distant, heavily cropped, rather poor quality, shot:

It's a bit of a mystery as to how the bird got there, as this is an area surrounded by roads and houses (although I did see one a few months ago on some upland farmland about a mile away, so perhaps it strayed from there). I haven't seen it since, but I will certainly be keeping an eye out for it when I pass that way.

This afternoon, I had a couple of hours to spare before dusk, so decided to head over to Three Cliffs Bay. The sun was shining when I left Swansea, and I hoped a nice sunset might develop. No chance, as by the time I arrived at my destination, thick cloud had appeared, and before long it was raining! Only birds of note were two Ravens, a Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk circling overhead, a Grey Heron, and a single Ringed Plover on the beach. I took a few landscape shots, but all are dull and dreary. Bit of a dead loss of a day!