Today's predicted rain finally arrived mid-afternoon, so as I had been neglecting my patch lately I spent a couple of hours at Gayhurst Quarry.
Nothing much had changed, the regulars - Drakey Wigeon (who seems content to stay on Fishing Pit even though others of his kind are now frequenting Motorway Pit), the 2 Polish Swans and Humbug - the surviving stripey headed young Great-crested Grebe, were all present.
Ducks were seen in the form of around 30 Teal, a dozen Gadwall, 20 Wigeon, a couple of Pochard, a single Tufted and the 300 or so young cannon fodder Mallards.
While I stood near the feeding point these Mallards were quite content to gather around my feet, along with a brave Wigeon that has cottoned on to the free food. It seems quite peverse how trusting these birds are, when in a few weeks people will be blasting them out of the sky - if they can get them to fly in the first place !
I'm not against hunting, but this isn't sport is it ? shooting tame birds.
Other birds of note were 2 Little Egrets, the first Common Gull of the winter, a Grey Wagtail, a Jay and a flock of around a hundred House Martins, along with a few Swallows.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Sunday, 26 September 2010
To the Hills
With a strong North-easterly blowing the day before Paul and I decided to get up to Steps Hill to see what was happening on the migration front. We met up with Steps regular Mike Wallen at 6:15 before it got light to be in position for sunrise.
On route I had seen a Fox near Newport and the pair of us spied a hunting Barn Owl on the side of the Leighton by-pass.
Viz-mig was very quiet with small numbers of Meadow Pipits and Hirundines going over, but 7 Redwings were our first of the autumn.
7 Buzzards were possibly migrants and 3 Red Kites and 2 Ravens were also seen.
Walking back to the car-park a Little Owl sat in one of the berry-laden Hawthorn bushes - this place should be heaving with Thrushes in the next couple of weeks, when hopefully we will return.
On route I had seen a Fox near Newport and the pair of us spied a hunting Barn Owl on the side of the Leighton by-pass.
Viz-mig was very quiet with small numbers of Meadow Pipits and Hirundines going over, but 7 Redwings were our first of the autumn.
7 Buzzards were possibly migrants and 3 Red Kites and 2 Ravens were also seen.
Walking back to the car-park a Little Owl sat in one of the berry-laden Hawthorn bushes - this place should be heaving with Thrushes in the next couple of weeks, when hopefully we will return.
Friday, 24 September 2010
Wendover Wryneck
I'm extremely busy with work at the moment, so when a very showy Wryneck turned up at Bacombe Hill near Wendover this week I had desperately been trying to find a window to get out and see it.
As I left the house this morning it started pouring down with rain,so that was enough for me to give up on work and decide to go for it.
Arriving at the site I met up with Dunstable birder Francis Buckle who had also been unable to get there before today.
Things didn't look good when we met 2 birders leaving the site, saying they had been there quite some time and there was no sign. Meanwhile the rain continued and the wind was blowing cold and strong.
Some 40 minutes passed and it was starting to look like the bird had moved on, until Francis shouted out he had seen it fly into a tree. We looked for a couple of minutes until it flew down onto the ground a little way away. It was surprising then how long it took us to actually find the bird even knowing where it had landed, but when we did what a fantastic bird it was. Views were had down to less than 10 yards and we watched it feeding out in the open for at least half an hour before another heavy shower arrived and we beat a retreat.
I have put my photos on this post, as its not often you manage to photograph a Wryneck ( you'll obviously have to click on them twice to get a decent view ), but Francis has sent me some of his much better photos and as soon as I sort them out I'll put them on here.
As I left the house this morning it started pouring down with rain,so that was enough for me to give up on work and decide to go for it.
Arriving at the site I met up with Dunstable birder Francis Buckle who had also been unable to get there before today.
Things didn't look good when we met 2 birders leaving the site, saying they had been there quite some time and there was no sign. Meanwhile the rain continued and the wind was blowing cold and strong.
Some 40 minutes passed and it was starting to look like the bird had moved on, until Francis shouted out he had seen it fly into a tree. We looked for a couple of minutes until it flew down onto the ground a little way away. It was surprising then how long it took us to actually find the bird even knowing where it had landed, but when we did what a fantastic bird it was. Views were had down to less than 10 yards and we watched it feeding out in the open for at least half an hour before another heavy shower arrived and we beat a retreat.
I have put my photos on this post, as its not often you manage to photograph a Wryneck ( you'll obviously have to click on them twice to get a decent view ), but Francis has sent me some of his much better photos and as soon as I sort them out I'll put them on here.
As I still had some time before starting work in the afternoon -it had cleared up by now - I called in at Willen.
The North Lake held a reasonable amount of ducks with Mallard, Tufted Gadwall, Shoveler, Wigeon and Teal present but nothing else of much note.
I then took a walk around to the South Lake where lots of Swallows and House Maartins were feeding over the water. It was while looking at these that I noticed 4 slightly larger birds higher up. ... Black Terns. I watched them while they flew around for a bit, but obviously decided they weren't going to stay and drifted off South-West.
Monday, 20 September 2010
Rat !
I've not had many opportunities to get any decent bird photos recently, so I thought I'd post these of this chap who was scampering around the garden I was working in today.
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Return to Norfolk
Our latest RSPB Group trip took us back to North Norfolk.
Starting off at Cley our first bird was a Marsh Harrier close to the visitor centre. It was then off down the East Bank, where a couple of hundred Black-tailed Godwits were feeding in the meadows, along with a few Ruff and probably 50 or so Egyptian Geese. Continuing down towards the sea we encountered Bearded Tits, Cetti's Warbler, Redshanks, an Avocet, various Ducks and 3 Pinkfeet.
We then spent the next half hour on the beach doing a bit of a seawatch where we saw 2 Gannets, 2 Arctic Skuas, and a Common Seal but not too much else.
There had been reports of up to 24 Lapland Buntings in the area recently, but we had to be content with just the one, that afforded very close views as it skulked in the rough vegetation on the shingle ridge - a very smart bird !
A Little Stint was the best bird seen from the North Hide amongst many Dunlin and good numbers of Teal.
Another quick seawatch from 'The Coastguards' produced another Arctic Skua and 3 Common Scoter on the water.
The Hooded Crow was still present in the Eye Field although I personally didn't see it.
The afternoon saw us at Thornham Harbour, where we took a walk up to Holme Observatory.
En-route we had seen several hundred newly arrived Pinkfooted Geese in the roadside fields - winter is definitely coming !.
The creeks around Thornham held good numbers of Waders with Redshanks, Knot, Turnstones, Bar-tailed Godwits, Grey Plovers and a single Spoonbill. Again there were large numbers of Black-tailed Godwits out on the Marshes.
Up at 'The Obs' we spent an hour or so staking out the area around the Dell Hide, but were unable to locate the Barred Warbler that had been seen just an hour or so earlier.
On the walk back 2 Yellow Wagtails, a Kingfisher and asmall flock of Linnets were seen. Also an odd looking Wagtail that was in every sense a Pied Wagtail, but seemed to have a Yellow tinge to its face - but definitely not a Citrine !
Starting off at Cley our first bird was a Marsh Harrier close to the visitor centre. It was then off down the East Bank, where a couple of hundred Black-tailed Godwits were feeding in the meadows, along with a few Ruff and probably 50 or so Egyptian Geese. Continuing down towards the sea we encountered Bearded Tits, Cetti's Warbler, Redshanks, an Avocet, various Ducks and 3 Pinkfeet.
We then spent the next half hour on the beach doing a bit of a seawatch where we saw 2 Gannets, 2 Arctic Skuas, and a Common Seal but not too much else.
There had been reports of up to 24 Lapland Buntings in the area recently, but we had to be content with just the one, that afforded very close views as it skulked in the rough vegetation on the shingle ridge - a very smart bird !
A Little Stint was the best bird seen from the North Hide amongst many Dunlin and good numbers of Teal.
Another quick seawatch from 'The Coastguards' produced another Arctic Skua and 3 Common Scoter on the water.
The Hooded Crow was still present in the Eye Field although I personally didn't see it.
The afternoon saw us at Thornham Harbour, where we took a walk up to Holme Observatory.
En-route we had seen several hundred newly arrived Pinkfooted Geese in the roadside fields - winter is definitely coming !.
The creeks around Thornham held good numbers of Waders with Redshanks, Knot, Turnstones, Bar-tailed Godwits, Grey Plovers and a single Spoonbill. Again there were large numbers of Black-tailed Godwits out on the Marshes.
Up at 'The Obs' we spent an hour or so staking out the area around the Dell Hide, but were unable to locate the Barred Warbler that had been seen just an hour or so earlier.
On the walk back 2 Yellow Wagtails, a Kingfisher and asmall flock of Linnets were seen. Also an odd looking Wagtail that was in every sense a Pied Wagtail, but seemed to have a Yellow tinge to its face - but definitely not a Citrine !
Friday, 17 September 2010
Gayhurst and Quarryhall
A lunchtime wander was not too productive.
Again Fishing Pit was very quiet, I think mainly due to a guy fishing on the south shore ( It's called fishing pit, so why should I be surprised when there's someone fishing on it ?! ) Drakey Wigeon was still there looking very at home sitting on the old Grebe's nest.
Spinney Pit had Little Egret and Grebe, a couple of Shoveler and 5 Teal, the 5 young swans but unfortunately only one Great crested Grebe youngster.
Two more Little Egrets were on Reedy Pit.
I met up with Gen at Motorway Pit and we scanned through the masses of Mute Swans, Greylags, Canadas, Mallards and Lapwings to find a few Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler and the young Polish Swan.
Two Buzzards flew over and a couple of Kingfishers were heard but not seen.
We then walked up to Quarryhall where the ' highlights' were a Kestrel, a Red-legged Partridge and a Pheasant.
Again Fishing Pit was very quiet, I think mainly due to a guy fishing on the south shore ( It's called fishing pit, so why should I be surprised when there's someone fishing on it ?! ) Drakey Wigeon was still there looking very at home sitting on the old Grebe's nest.
Spinney Pit had Little Egret and Grebe, a couple of Shoveler and 5 Teal, the 5 young swans but unfortunately only one Great crested Grebe youngster.
Two more Little Egrets were on Reedy Pit.
I met up with Gen at Motorway Pit and we scanned through the masses of Mute Swans, Greylags, Canadas, Mallards and Lapwings to find a few Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler and the young Polish Swan.
Two Buzzards flew over and a couple of Kingfishers were heard but not seen.
We then walked up to Quarryhall where the ' highlights' were a Kestrel, a Red-legged Partridge and a Pheasant.
Sunday, 12 September 2010
Attenborough Afternoon
A walk around Nottinghamshire's Attenborough Nature Reserve this afternoon.
Wildfowl were the main attraction, with winter birds starting to arrive.
This Mute Swan was getting quite aggressive.
The origins of this Shelduck are quite dubious as it clearly loves to feed on the grain on offer near the visitor centre.
Seven Red-crested Pochards were on Church Pond including this rather attractive leucistic individual.
These two young House Sparrows were very confiding, as most of them are around the reserve.
Wildfowl were the main attraction, with winter birds starting to arrive.
This Mute Swan was getting quite aggressive.
The origins of this Shelduck are quite dubious as it clearly loves to feed on the grain on offer near the visitor centre.
Seven Red-crested Pochards were on Church Pond including this rather attractive leucistic individual.
These two young House Sparrows were very confiding, as most of them are around the reserve.
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