a new camera

i have become fed up of canon their products which are not cheap are crap in the build quality.maybe its just me and bad luck but out of 7 products 4 let me down

350d= no problems

40d= shutter failed on 24768 clicks just after the warranty ran out

50d= no problems

100-400= zoom failed had to be sent back twice

400 l= no problems

50mm 1.8= just fell apart after 1 day

bg e2n grip= got stuck on the 50d had to be taken apart to get the dam thing off

so i was in the market for a new system, nikon looked good but very expensive, so i thought about sony but a lack of lenses,im not including sigma as they are cheaper and in my opinion from what ive used are crap.

then i saw the sony nex-5, interchangeable lenses and with a converter they can be used with all of the sony/minolta range! so off to town i went after what seemed like ages i walked out of the shop with it.

i got the twin lens kit which is the 16mm and the 18-55mm zoom, so far im very impressed with it.........very small,well built hopefully tomorrow i can put it through its paces

spain 1999

in response to nick dawtreys photo on his blog

firstly spain for birding is awesome just the numbers and species are fantastic.

nick d, ady z, andy c and myself spent a week birding southern spain, no better bunch of birders could be found anywhere,we were lean,mean and keen apart from ady who boasted he never had shit in the week!

we hired a ford fiesta which when we returned it was fucked! god knows how many miles we put on the clock but many of the roads were crap,the road alongside the guadalquivir river was so bad in places we had to get out just to get the car out of the potholes.

andy c is chef of some repute and many people in halifax have enjoyed his fine cooking,but in spain i seem to recall him just eating out of a tin of cassorelle and eating chorizo in the supermarket.

on the plane home he bought us all beer,infact he bought all the beer on the plane.

nick d had his first taste of chicken!! on the plane, though well remembered for his pissed up attempt at trying to stand a aerosol can up,which is still to this day the funniest thing i have ever seen though the electric fence indecent at whitby is a good second.

as for myself i spent the time driving to bird sites phoning my 17 year old girlfriend and buying beer from the many vending machines

without trawling through the notebook the best birds for me were

black wheatear

rock bunting

rock thrush

azure winged magpie

thekla lark

little bustard

myself and 'heavy birder'

note my bausch and lomb elites and nicks swift audubon

ady z, nick d and andy c

at the little bustard site

Egyptian Vulture

a late chiffchaff

a walk along the hebble from siddal to dean clough. though not possible to do it in parts as its either under the mills or inaccessible,after last weeks rain its now back to normal.

chiffchaff 1 feeding in bushes alongside the hebble by nestle

dipper 3

grey wagtail 5

moorhen 1 by north bridge

sparrowhawk 1 over sainsburys

jackdaws 7 giving great views opposite lidl

the moorhen was the most surprising bird today god only knows where it came from? very strange record for the town center.

the chiffchaff as feeding in the bushes by the weir just before the cantilevered walkway

chiffchaff

the hebble

i also visited Bankfield Museum in Boothtown well worth a visit if the weather is too bad for birding

birding amongst the dead

Stoney Royd Cemetery

chaffinch 11

g s woodpecker 1

treecreeper 1

jay 3

siddal to swalesmoor

very quiet bird wise today

common gull 43 coal pit lane

pied wagtail 2 beacon hill

fieldfare 109 shibden

dipper 1 dean clough

grey wagtail 1 dean clough

sparrowhawk 1 shibden

horse gin

crooked lane

catherine slack

Black Boy Farm

once home to Dr Crippen and John Christie!!!!!

whiskam dandy

The Blue Ball Inn

Blue Ball Inn

left image is from Arthur Comfort's book 'Sketches of Old Halifax' 1912


the Blue Ball Inn started life as the Golden Ball Inn around 1822 on Jemmy Lane in Bowling Dyke under North Bridge.until it closed in 1915 it had 6 landlords and 1 landlady.

no doubt the regulars watched dippers and grey wagtails whilst having a pint or 2

around town this morning

woodcock 1 flushed in beacon hill woods at the rear of matalan

sparrowhawk 1f

great spotted woodpecker 2 stony royd cem

redwing 17 stony royd cem

common gull 13 horley green