Photo challenge
How the Hampshire 150 team have got on with their photographic challenge during these strange times
The Bird Photographer of the Year team are continuing their challenge to photograph 150 species within the county of Hampshire over the course of 2020. At the time of writing, the COVID-19 lockdown has been in place for six weeks, restricting the Hants 150 team to photographing in their gardens and local patches, always keeping social distancing and exercise protocol in mind.
This has proved extremely frustrating, with the spring migrants arriving in good numbers everywhere, except our immediate vicinities. Unsurprisingly, it has severely affected our ability to add to the species’ list. The team is hoping that lockdown measures are eased shortly to allow a little more scope to travel and ensure that spring does not pass by without some key species being added.
Despite the restrictions, the team have added a few to the list. Rob managed to find a cooperative Barn Owl that hunted in the same meadow in the early evening for a week or so before moving on. Happily, this was on his regular walk with his dog, a few hundred yards from his house. Rob also managed to photograph Swallow from his back garden, numbers of which are arriving and are a regular feature in the sky over his house. Paul similarly managed to photograph House Martin from his garden.
Under normal circumstances, the team would have expected to have photographed species such as Cuckoo and Redstart by this time. Paul has come close to adding Cuckoo, a male regularly calling from his garden, but so far it has proved elusive. He’ll keep trying, we are sure! Similarly, Willow Warbler is another bird the team would have hoped to have ticked off the list by now. Andrew Cleave has heard them singing regularly during his daily walk, but so far has been unable to get one in front of his lens.
At the time of writing, the weather continues to be kind, with lots of high pressure and sunshine bathing the county of late. Some of the team have been using the early morning light to photograph their garden birds, and Rob managed some nice pictures of Robin, Blackbird, Starling, Rook and Stock Dove.
Paul has a hand-tame male Pheasant as a regular feature in his garden, providing him with a willing model.
The current total now stands at 117, leaving 33 species remaining to reach the target. The team will be making a renewed effort to add to their tally once the relaxation of restrictions allow this to happen, without compromising other people’s health.
Bird Watching magazine is donating £2,000 to Birds on the Brink for the Hampshire 150 Challenge and we would like to call on the support of the readers, too. Visit the BPOTY website and follow the link to the Hampshire 150 page and click the donation link (donations taken via PayPal).
You can see some more of the images taken by the team as the challenge progresses at birdpoty.co.uk