Wet Whit Monday

A typical Bank Holiday today, with rain right from the start.
We made the usual trip up to Notts to see mother-in-law and luckily enough the weather eased enough in the afternoon for me to take my usual look around Attenborough Nature Reserve.

 Lots of birds had young, including Mute Swans, Greylags, Canadas, Mallards, Coots and Moorhens.
A pair of Shelduck were seen along with half a dozen Red-crested Pochard, a fair sized flock of Gadwall and the usual Egyptian Geese.

Egyptian Goose

 The wet weather had brought down lots of Swifts and these were hunting low over the water in amongst the locally breeding Sand Martins, Swallows and Common Terns, but surprisingly no House Martins.
 Out on the spit a couple of Little-ringed Plovers and four Dunlin were seen.

 Around the Centre the feeding station pulled in lots of birds including the young of Chaffinch, Greenfinch, a single Bullfinch and several Tree Sparrows.

Chaffinches and Tree Sparrow

male Chaffinch

 When there was a sunny interlude between the showers, it seemed every Warbler on site decided to make itself known and Blackcap,  Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Garden, Sedge, Reed, Cettis and a very showy Grasshopper Warbler could be heard.

Balearic Birding

Just back from our two week holiday in Porto Pollenca, Mallorca.
A very warm April had pushed Bird Migration  straight through this year, so not too many birds had lingered on the island.
None the less I had a very enjoyable fortnight and although my total of species seen was well down on previous years, some quality birds were encountered and I found seven new birds for my Mallorca list including four lifers.
 Star birds for me were Marbled Duck, Little Bittern, Roller, Griffon and Black Vultures, Spotless Starling, Melodious  and Wood Warbler, Golden Oriole, Bee-eaters and Thekla Lark.
 Of course there were the reliable goodies like Audoins Gull, Black-winged Stilts, Purple Gallinules, Red Knobbed Coots, Kentish Plovers Hoopoes, Blue Rock Thrush, Balearic Warbler, Woodchat Shrikes, Serins, Sardinian, Fan-tailed and Great Reed Warblers, Cirl Buntings, Booted Eagle and Eleanora's Falcons.
 Lots of birds that are difficult to see back home are a good deal more obliging over here, including Corn Buntings, Nightingales, Cettis Warblers, Yellow-legged Gulls, Cattle Egrets, Night  and Purple Herons.

female Sardinian Warbler

Audouins Gull

Little Egret

male Serin

                                                                                                                              

male Black-winged Stilt

Night Heron(click to enlarge)

Great White Egret (click to enlarge)

Insects were very plentiful. Several species of butterfly were encountered including, Swallowtail, Clouded Yellows, a species that looks very similar to the Wall Brown, Brimstones, Red Admirals, Large Heaths, Small Coppers, some Blues and good numbers of Painted Ladies (perhaps we are in for another invasion year). Humming Bird Hawkmoths were everywhere, so maybe we'll get a good showing of these too.

Clouded Yellow

This construction in the corner of our balcony had me intrigued all of our stay. I never saw anything go near it.

Mammals encountered were, Rabbits, a Hare, a Pine Marten that we narrowly avoided running over on our way back to the airport and this roadkill that too me looks remarkably like a Wildcat.

Ther are masses of Frogs on the island, easy to hear, but less so to see. Not sure of the I.D. of this one, but certainly smaller than and more pointy nosed than ours back home.

Lots of Lizards about too, including one that must have been at least 8 inches long.

The Turtle that Purrs

Having already seen a Rufous Turtle Dove this year it would have been a bit lapse of me not to see a European Turtle Dove. So as I was working in Wootton today I stopped at Stewartby Lake this morning.
 Sure enough before I had even parked the car I could see the bird I was looking for.

 I managed to park almost underneath it and take a few photos while it sat there quite contented uttering it's quite distinct 'purring' call.

May holiday Mayhem

This long Bank holiday weekend has coincided with one of the most bird-productive times as I can remember in North Bucks.
 In amongst my work, Bird surveys, family business, I have been able to get out, unfortunately not finding too much exciting of my own, but hanging on to other peoples coattails to see some exciting stuff.
 Before work on Friday morning I had five minutes to spare so looked in at Willen South and was lucky enough to coincide with the brief visit of at least 10 Arctic Terns. On some of them the tail streamers had to be seen to believed.
 Friday afternoon I popped into Willen  North to find 3 Dunlin on the Bund. Unfortunately Rob H had found them an hour previous.
 Saturday morning after work it was Linford where Si had a male Garganey drop in. I bagged this as well as  a Hobby and a Common Sandpiper.
 The afternoon saw me at Rookery Pit in Beds as described in the previous post, dipping the Purple Heron.
Sunday morning I checked Gayhurst Quarry without too much success, singles of Common and Green Sandpiper and 3 Oystercatchers being the highlights. It was while there that a text came through of a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits at Linford, so I duly moved on to there. These were located without too much trouble along with a couple of Green Sandpipers, 4 Oystercatchers, a Little-ringed Plover and my first Cuckoo of the year.
 A major disappointment however was hearing that while I was in the hide, Rob H had seen an Osprey fly right over the reserve and I had completely missed it.
 Next it was back up to Willen to see the smart Greenshank that had been located by.. you guessed it Rob H.
 Monday morning I carried out my Lathbury Tetrad Survey. A couple of Yellow Wagtails and a possible Little Gull flying over being the best bits.
 Another Text message had me rushing up to Manor Farm, where Si and Rob had this time come up with a Wood Sandpiper. This was a smart bird but along with a Little-ringed Plover and a Lapwing these were the only birds I had time to look at, as another text came through. This time 2 Whimbrels at Willen - Guess who?!! Rob again !
 These birds were well and truly seen along with the remaining Greenshank from yesterday, before I  nipped back home for breakfast, wondering what the next call would be. Amazingly nothing else turned up.
 What a weekend ! 

Rookery

I finally managed to get out to visit nearby Rookery Pit in Bedfordshire this afternoon. The Purple Heron had been making very brief appearances over the last few days and I knew it would be a long shot, but hey if you don't buy a ticket, you can't win the raffle.
 I had never visited this site properly and it really is impressive, unfortunately being rapidly drained so the site can be developed.
 It was a very warm, sunny afternoon and most of Beds birding elite were on site, so a very pleasant afternoon was to be enjoyed.
 On arriving a Hobby was seen hawking over the pit and a drake Red-crested Pochard was in with some Mallards.
 It was however Waders that were the birds of the day. At present we are in the middle of an amazing inland Bar-tailed Godwit migration and there were five of these present. Also 3 Greenshanks, 2 Ruff, 2 Turnstones, a Whimbrel, several Redshanks, a Green sandpiper, some Little ringed Plovers and Ringed Plovers. Why is there nowhere as good as this in Buckinghamshire !?
 The Purple Heron unfortunately failed to make an appearance, but I did manage a new life-tick in the shape of a Dinghy Skipper Butterfly. I'll more than likely be back.

The aaah factor

In the depths of winter, having to walk the dog when it's still dark, minus five, belting down with snow and you then have to clean her feet before she is allowed back into the house can be a bit of a chore. But this time of year and the weather how it has been lately more than makes up for all that.
 Living where we do out in the sticks I get to see all sorts. In the past week or so our wander in the area around the village has produced a splendid male Ring Ousel, a Wheatear, Yellow Wagtails, Grey Partridges, a Mistle Thrush sitting on a clutch of 3, Long-tailed Tits building a nest and a small Leveret in it's Form alongside a track.
 Today I happened to notice a movement in the undergrowth on the other side of a stream. A closer look revealed it to be the tiniest of Fox cubs. Further movement caught my eye and there were not one but actually four, not more than four or five yards in front of me. I ushered Millie away and left them to go about their business.
 This evening I had promised myself a visit to nearby Rookery Pits to try and see a Purple Heron that had dropped in, but as this had gone a bit quiet with no reports since lunchtime I decided to go back and have a look for the cubs.
 I found them with no problem, the Earth seems to be in the middle of an enormous Rabbit Warren and they disappeared down several of the holes as they played around the various tree trunks and vegetation. Most of the time they were out of sight, but I did manage a couple of pics in the fading light.

 You can see how young these animals are as their eyes are still blue. I guess they've only just left the safety of the nest chamber.
 Hopefully I can get back to get some more photos as they get older and a bit more adventurous.

Easter Twitch

 Paul and I finally got ourselves sorted on Sunday morning to visit Welney and twitch the White-spotted Bluethroat that had returned to the site for the second successive year.
 It was another early start and we arrived at the reserve for about 7:30, flushing a Barn Owl from one of the posts near the car-park.
 The Bluethroat has re-established territory down at the far end of the reserve and  the walk down provided us with an accompaniment of songs from Whitethroat, Reed and Sedge Warblers.
 Once we reached Lyle Hide we decided to have a look out across the marshes to see what was about..
Avocets were nesting, Shelduck loafed around as well as good numbers of Gadwall, some Mallard, Shoveler and Teal. There were lots of Mute Swans on the meadows and surprisingly 30 or 40 Whoopers still around Two Marsh Harriers were seen and a Pied Wagtail was building a nest in the hide itself.
 Suddenly something was going on outside and we were summoned out, the Bluethroat was about. We had studied the song of this bird  on a tape before arriving and were slightly underwhelmed, but in reality the song was wonderful, not as rich as a Nightingale but a real showpiece. At first he only sang from the bottom of a tree out of sight, but then jumped onto a fence with his back to us. Eventually we were treated to a full frontal of his brilliant blue chest with it's central white spot, while he performed for a minute or so, before flying off down the stream. We did get another decent view, before he disappeared again, apparently for the rest of the day.
 On site we bumped into Robin, who like us was paying his first visit to this magnificent bird. His photos can be seen at http://robinsbirds.blogspot.com/
 Back at the observatory  we watched House Martins visiting their nests under the eaves and about a dozen Ruff and a couple of Little-ringed Plover were out on the scrapes. Still 20 or so Wigeon were lingering.
 Before leaving we had  breakfast in the cafe, while we looked out over Lady Fen. Here Avocets, Lapwings and Redshanks paddled in the shallow water, a Yellow Wagtail flew over and Tree Sparrows fed on the feeders.
 Another great twitch and a 'life bird' for both of us.