13 Nov 2013

13 Nov 13 - Diver Fest

The weather today has been uninspiring, but that was good as I had to stay around the house waiting for my 10x32 bins to arrive back from Swarovski. Despite being only 18 months old, they had  developed a ghost image on the left eye piece, resulting in a blurry offset image of any bright backgrounds (this is with the right eye closed). Turning the binoculars upside down, I could still see the same problem (but with my other eye of course). Given the amount of peering through leaves in trees against brighter backgrounds at this time of year, using them is remarkable off putting so nearly 4 weeks ago they were sent off. The excitement of them finally arrived back, was spoilt by the immediate realisation that Swarovski had failed to fix the problem & within an hour they were on their way back to be looked at again. So I guess that's another 3 - 4 weeks of using my worn out Leicas. Tonight I had wished I had gone for the Leica Trinovids & saved myself £460 as well as having a pair of bins that actually can be used in the field. Anybody else experienced these problems?

So being stuck indoors, its time to update the blog on the recent Diver Fest around Studland in recent days. I started the South Haven, where the Great Northern Diver seen a few days ago was still patrolling close to the beach. I caught it just as it decided to have a decent stretch.
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver: Back onto the water again
After a walk out to Pilots Point, on the seaward side of South Haven, I birded along the Heather Walk in the hope of a late Yellow-browed Warbler in with the mixed flocks, but no luck. Next stop was Jerry's Point on the inside of the harbour. This allows excellent views of the outer part of Brands Bay & the Brownsea channel. Had hoped the Surf Scoter might have been close in, but it remained a long way out off the private Goathorn peninsula. However, there were a flock of 3 Great Northern Divers close into Jerry's Point. Clearly, the fishing is good here & apart from the occasional fisherman, this area isn't as disturbed as other parts of Studland.
Great Northern Divers
Great Northern Divers
Great Northern Divers
Great Northern Divers
Local photographer, Simon Kidner, was also at Jerry's Point & he kindly allowed me to try the Divers with his 500mm & 2x converter lens set up. However, the combination of Divers finally getting bored with our presence & moving into the bay along with my inexperience with getting the lighting right with this 1000mm lens meant the photos weren't as good as the ones above.