Atlantic canary

Atlantic canary, Serinus canaria, single bird on rock, Madeira, March 2016. Canon EOS 7D Mk2. 800mm. 800 iso. 1/600th at f5.6

Taken on the rocks at Porto Moniz, where they were tame in the town centre compared to out in the countryside.  At the time of taking I was not sure if I was photographing a Serin and had to look it up later. Madeira was very poor bird wise. In 10 days on the island I photographed only 4 species, although 3 of those were new to me and the 4th was a new race. The only reason to return would be for the sea bird boat trips to photograph shearwaters and petrels later in the year. It would not be a cheap thing to do, but I would expect to get another set of new species done.

Long-eared owls

I have read about the Long-eared owls that roost in the centre of towns in Hungary for some time and wanted to go to see them. In February I did and it is an amazing sight. Here is an owl that most of us in the U.K. have little contact with. Occasionally roosting birds can be found, but usually they are well hidden and difficult to photograph. In Hungary they are very visible and numerous. The two towns we looked for them were Kisújszállás and Turkeve. Amazingly they are right in the centre of Turkeve roosting in fir trees. Some are more visible than others and you have to spend time finding more exposed birds. It was also a pity it was not snowy or frosty.

I was also surprised to see so many in flight during the day. I assume these were disturbed birds changing roosting locations, but given better weather flight shots may have been possible.

Our guide was Zoltan from www.hungarobirds.com whose hides for eagles we also used.

Long-eared owl, Asio otus, single bird in tree, Hungary, February 2016. Canon EOS 1DX. 800mm lens. 3200 iso. 1/125th at f10. On foot with a tripod.

Tamron 150-600mm lens

My wife is a terrible photographer. I tell her this. But so long as I give her my 400mm F5.6 lens and a camera she is happy to spend long hours waiting and watching for wildlife. So long as she can take pictures she will wait longer than me. We will go back to Africa again this year and so I decided to buy her a Tamron 150-600mm lens to give her extra pulling power. Last week I tried it out on my Canon 7d and was very impressed. With the 1.6 crop sensor the zoom range is larger than I have ever known. The sharpness was excellent except at the 600mm end, but this is not the resolution of the lens. Some pictures were very sharp at 600mm, but most shots appeared to be back focused by quite a long way at this extreme end. I have since done the Micro adjustment and dialed in 15 points. At some point I would like to try it again. I am even tempted to buy one for myself!

Blue tit, Parus caeruleus, single bird on branch, Warwickshire, January 2016

Lesser redpoll, Acanthis cabaret, single bird on branch, Warwickshire, January 2016

Long-tailed tit, Aegithalos caudatus, single bird on branch, Warwickshire, January 2016

All taken with the Tamron 150-600mm mostly at around 400mm.

#tamron150600lens