ovenden moor-friday

a bleak afternoon up there about 1.00.
there were 2 curlews
and 3 grouse flushed (although one was sat on a fence post)
numerouse skylarks singing but only 2 seen
4 mipits

train journey

went on the east lancashire railway today 4 times
whilst on the train back for the final time i saw a reeves pheasant walking placidly in a feild
i was most excited becuase now i only have the lady amhersts pheasant to see.
also whilst driving home near jerusulem farm a jay flew out of the woods carrying an acorn. it flew alongside the car in the same way fulmars fly alongside boats. it did this for about 10 seconds before overtakeing us and flying infront of us causeing my dad to slow down quite a bit. it was incredible.

fairburn yesterday

fish lots of them-thousands.
some boys were picking them up and battering them with sticks so it wasnt a wonderful sight as it could have been


heron much closer then the photo depicts

male bullfinch, female there as well

black swan

also gadwall, wigeon, shoveler, tree sparrow, willow warbler, cormorant and teal

garden

had 2 linnets there this morning

last day of london holiday

went to some mysterious national trust place today with no camera
found plenty of long tailed tits plus a nest
a femle blackcap and nest and the male singging nearby (i did see him)
2 chiffchaff
a treecreeper really close
2 nuthatch
3 pied wagtails it didnt move for so long whilst i was walking up to it i thought it must be plastic. in the end it moved when i was about 30cm away
loads of red kites
2 feildfares
also 2 giant pittas in the small "avairy" there. this was great becuase it was the first time but also annoying becuase i had won the game of scrablle the night before with pitta on a double tripple word score but i only put it with 1 T.

bombilius major bee fly/bee mimic
comma 2
orange tit 1
small white 6
peackock 3
brinstone1
large white 2

day 3 of london holiday 7 april

marsh frogs-very big

snipe-sat right infront of the hide

redhsank

tufted duck

sand martins

egyptian geese

dabchick

great crested grebe

ring necked parakeet

willow warbler

got half way through the day without event. howver i underestimated what my evil camera could do. even though i spent £20 on a memory card, half way through the day for no reason whatsever the lense broke. £150 worth of equipment refused to work.

what i saw today at the london wetland ceter was

4 dabchick

3 great crested grebe

5 cormorant

6 grey heron (in a line)

5 mute swan

9 greylag goose

15 canada goose

2 egyptian geese

50 mallard

4 gadwall

10 shoveler

1 wigeon

13 pochards

54 tufted ducks

1 kestrel

100 moorhen

100 coot

13 lapwings

7 redshank

1 snipe

23 herring

1 greater black backed gull

6,000,000,000,000,00,00 woodpigeons

7 ring necked parakeets

100 sand martins

1 willow warblers

2 chiffchaff ( although probably the same bird)

1 water vole was looking for one in the area where they are supposed to be, when suddenly the warden shouted vole. we all turned round an i just saw its bum and the v shaped mark it left. techincally it was a vole but i could have been better.

day 2 of london holiday 6 march

went to windsor on our way to legoland today and bought myself a £20 1g memory card. naturally took no photos today although i did see i sparrowhawk.

there was also a duck in "miniland" it was in the region supposed to represent the netherlands thus there was lots of water, bridges and roads. the duck kept swimming through the small canals, crashing into lego boats, carging around the lego streets like godzilla and going under the brigdes as though they were not there. it was the best thing i saw the whole holiday.

day 1 of london holiday 5 april

went to kew gardens today. i had found out earlier that morning that i had left my memmory card to my computer at home. this is not a good start
today i saw:
1 gery heron
4 greylag geese
6 canada geese
2 egyptian geese with 3 chicks
11 ducklings (mallard)
2 gadwall (may be feral)
10 tufted duck
4 buzzard
1 golden pheasant thrilled to bits when i saw this, it called as i was walking by and then i saw it in a rhodedendren bush. it was a bright male and he struted out as though he owned the place. now if i had that camera............
7 helmated guineafowl (definatly feral)
100 moorhens
100 coot
1 greater black backed gull (on thames)
6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 woodpigeons
100 ring necked parakeet first new bird of the holidays. at the start i only saw them flying over but as the day progressed they started eating fruit in trees and managed to get really close to 1. they also started to fly round in larger flocks
7 green woodpecker really close
2 greater spotted woodpecker it had just chased of a green and then walked round that same tree and it was less than 1m above my head and was hammering away as though i was not there.
3 swallows (specks)
1 wren- having a wash
5 mistle thrushes
10 robins
11 blackbirds
1 blackcap
1 chiffchaff
1 goldcrest was flitting around under a tree and as i watched it, it came closer until i could touch it. all the time it was acting as though it was in the trees and it was the best thing i saw today
3 long tailed tit sat in a bush collecting nesting material less than 1m away. it was so beautiful, they wernt put off at all.
3 nuthatch really close
4 jays really tame

also found some great crested newts which were really beutilful in the water
it was a good start minus the obviuse. i already had my new bird (s).

swallow

the first swallow of spring and infact 2009 flew over my garden this morning
hope for a good year