Orgreave Lakes

I was finished at lectures by midday and with the hours getting longer I could spend the afternoon at Orgreave, doing some proper patching and continuing to test the new camera, now that it was actually sunny!!!

By the time I arrived the light was already dropping. I managed to rack up the usuals pretty swiftly but the wind was a major problem and most of the birds were sheltering on the far side of the island. On the island was a nice Oystercatcher, first for the patch this year, and a flock of around 8 Lapwing. There was a decent contingent of gulls on the banks too, but nothing out of the ordinary that I could pick out.

-Oystercatcher

-Common Teal 

I did manage a long overdue patch tick today though. My attention had been caught by the white rumps of two Bullfinches flying into the bushes and as I looked through the bushes I caught a glimpse of the long tail of the Pheasant that has been eluding me for so long. I have heard this bird calling for at least a year and never been able to spot it. A very long overdue patch tick.

The real highlight of the afternoon was a very obliging Redpoll feeding along the edge of the river. I was able to get very close without flushing it, and so was able to get some pretty decent record shots. Funny that there should only be one, but I thought little of it. When I returned I popped my best shots on twitter as a lesser and thought nothing more of it. Until Tim messaged me in the evening pointing out a few things about it to make it a 1st winter female Mealy based on the age of the bird and a number of plumage features. I just saw it as buff and brown so assumed it was a lesser. Discussion then ensued over twitter with the outcome suggest that it was a Lesser Redpoll. It was something of an education to say the least. I need to continue working on my id of this very complicated group...

-Lesser Redpoll

So that was a pretty sweet afternoon. A nice way to spend a few hours casually birding and learning.

Species List:

Orgreave Lakes: Carrion Crow, Magpie, Goosander, Starling, Black-headed Gull, Gadwall, Common Teal, Woodpigeon, Mallard, Blackbird, Tufted Duck, Wren, Cormorant, Coot, Linnet, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Wigeon, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Reed Bunting, Mute Swan, Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Moorhen, Mealy Redpoll, Long-tailed Tit, Dunnock, Bullfinch, Pheasant,

Garden Birds

Its springtime, which mean the only nice weather of the year and revision. However, we have a new garden regular, with a lovely male phesant. Today he was picking scraps from under the bird table and picking seed out of the bottom section of the bird feeder. It is in lovely condition, considering that it must be living in the gardens and fields around the area, where it seems to be the only one. It has been around for a few days, so hopefully its got a bit of road sense and will continue to survive...
  We also had a woodpigeon on the lawn with the phesant, though not as unusual as the phesant, its still not a regular in the garden. It must be a humbling experience for the woodpigeon no longer being the biggest bird in the garden.

Garden Phesant

Maybe not our most exciting garden visitor ever, but certainly the most extravegant. We only saw him a couple of times, over a week, but in that week he was a frequent visitor and it was quite exciting to see

Christmas

Merry Christmas! its been pretty quiet recently due to my exam revision commitments. However, on Christmas day I encountered a male pheasant in the field next to our house, showing that they are still around.
  And at church for the Christmas service there was a medium sized flock of long-tailed tits in the tree next to the door. So a handful of birds on a rainy Christmas day, just to give me something to post about!

And again at Soil Hill

its quite a site is soil hill, if you like mud and rubbish. Since it was a lovely morning with a lovely groundfrost I headed up the hill to see what birds were around. Following is a complete list of all the species I saw today:
-1 Blackbird, Male
-2 Phesants, cock and hen
-3 Meadow Pipits, flyovers
-4 Sheep
So as you can see, it was a pretty poor turnout from the birds this morning. I bumped into NK as I was leaving, hope you had more fum that me Nigel.

Cambridgeshire day 5

Sadly, today was our last day in Cambridge. My mum and dad had decided to go and have a look at Angelsy Abbey national trust property. I can't say I was particularly optimistic about the potential for wildlife at this site. After packing up, we headed that way. It had a very modern visitor center, which probably would'nt fit with the actual property itself. I was however, quite relieved to learn that at the far end of the grounds there was a designated nature area with a hide, overlooking a small pond. Naturally, that was where I headed first. I got slightly lost, that being because there were not that many man made structures to locate myself with, but I made it to the nature area eventually. On the way there I had hoped to see something spectacular, but I had only seen a handful of mistle thrushes. I was gutted to learn that the nature area was actually more like a wooden sculpture park, but I stuck with it and went to the bird hide anyway. When I got there I was relieved to see that there were a number of bird feeders. I waited a bit, but there were not that many birds to see. Then a woodpecker flew in, and landed on the birdfeeder. The curious thing was that the feeder it landed on was not a woodpecker designed feeder, it would not be able to get any food from it. Or so I thought! As it happened it stuck its head in the top and then pushed its whole body into the bird feeder, from the top, like a squirrel, and then grabbed the food, and somehow managed to get out again. It was funny to watch, its behavior I have never seen before! The woodpecker left after his snack, and i was left watching the usual assortment of garden birds. However in front of the hide there were a few damselflies, including azure, common blue, blue tailed and a danded demoiselle, which is a beautiful creature, no matter how many you see. More birds flew in, long tailed tits, which added a little bit of variety to the assortment of birds that were there. -Long tailed tit After watching the long tailed tits for a while I started to look over the pond to see what was about. I spotted a couple of dragonflies, but one really caught my eye, it was bright blue-so that meant either skimmer or chaser. I tried to pick it up with the camera, but it was too quick, however through my bin's I worked out that it must be either black-tailed skimmer or broad bodied chaser. I didn't manage a photo, but I spotted on the far side of the pond, behind the island there was a decking platform, so I decided to make my way to it to see if I could get closer to the dragonflies. I wasn't too sure how to get to the platform, but made it eventually. From there I saw that there were three dragonflies on the pond at the same time. There was one Hairy dragonfly, that did not stay still at all, all day. so I thought i clear that up now, but It was good to see this dragonfly, which has probably been one of the highlights of the holiday. Then there was the blue chaser/ skimmer and then either a female of the latter or a juvenile of the latter but never at the same time. Whilst I was waiting for the dragonflies to land, I heard a tremendous noise above me and looked up to see a hawk, circling above me. It was probably the noise that made me think that it was a goshawk, but looking in the book at home it proved to be a sparrowhawk.

-sparrowhawk I finally spotted that the blue dragonflies had landed, but it was some way off. The easy way to tell between the two main suspects was that a black-tailed skimmer has a black tail, which this dragonfly did not have, and so it was therefore a broad bodied chaser, which is the first I have seen since i began to develop and interest in dragonflies. I wanted a photo of it but it was someway off, and I didn't really want to leave the decking. Either way it flew off, round the far side of the island, so I waited and as i waited another dragonfly approached me. It was, I though, a female broad bodied chaser, but actually it was a four spotted chaser, and it began ovipositing right in front of me, with was really interesting. I tried to get a photo,m just for the record. but most of them came out really poorly.

-four spotted chaser, and ovipositing in the bottom photo I was still waiting for the chaser to re-emerge when i received a text to go back for lunch. I was a bit disappointed, but I hoped that it would still be there on my return.

walking back to the car, I spotted a pheasant in the grassland, which was the first none garden bird I had seen all day. Interestingly, it was also a black pheasant which i think means that it has some form of caucasian in it.

-caucasian pheasant During lunch I asked my mum and ad if they had seen anything. My mum said that there was a grey wagtail on the river and my dad said that he had seen a dragonfly on the pond in the gardens. he said that it was a southern hawker, so I had to tell him that southern hawkers don't have this early a flight period, and that it was far more likely to be a hairy dragonfly.

After lunch I headed up that way to see what I could find. The river was not what I expected, It was completely covered in lillypads and hardly any movement in the water, so not really prime grey wagtail habitat. However, I did track down the bird in question, hunting from the lillypads.

-Grey wagtail At the other pond, I though that there was not enough vegetation for dragonflies, and I didn't see any. There were however quite a few damselflies mainly azure and blue tailed.

-Azure damselfly

walking back to the bird hide and platform I began to spot things in the grass. notably were that the Grass seemed to be writhing with voles and mice, not that I saw any, but they were everywhere because you could hear them squeaking and the grass rustling.

On the subject of things you could see, there were quite few butterflies such as this large skipper. -large skipper

there were also quite a few of these things (below) in the grass that look like small red underwings. Some kind of moth, that seemed to be everywhere.

-moth I eventually made it through the distractions to the pond and bird hide. Once more I spotted the chaser and was very relieved that it had not flown away. It also seemed to be landing more, on the side of the decking. I suddenly decided to just go for it, so I climbed over the fence and squelched my way to where it had been landing. It took a while and a lot of patience but eventually the insect started to land of the plants in front of, some kind of flower that was ready to seed, rather than flower. They were quite tall too which helped.

so below you can see an assortment of the photos I took of the broad bodied chaser.

-Broad bodied chaser so there we have it. i finally managed to get the shots I wanted of this spectacular insect. also the dragonfly I described as being a juvenile chaser was actually a female chaser. It was curious to see the hairy dragonfly, the four spotted chaser and the broad bodied chaser all getting into one fight. Hardly surprising considering the amount of water (not much) and the number of dragonflies hunting it. still, it was great to see.

whilst i had been waiting for the chaser i had spotted a kingfisher land in a willow tree, but i had not seen anything else aside from the dragonfly. I decided to explore the rest of the pond, there was a path through the pond, presumably for the staff to fill up the bird feeders. I walked along it to see what there was and I was rewarded by great views of a comma butterfly.

-comma I then got a text telling me to start heading back, so I had to leave. overall it had been a good day and as i was leaving i spotted another damselfly, a large red resting on an overhanging stick.

-large red damselfly On the way back I had to walk through the tall grassland where I had seen so many butterfly's on the way here. On the way back i spotted quite a few common blue butterfly's, just to round the day off.

-common blue butterfly I made it back to the car park without further distraction. however, in the car park I was able to watch a blackbird throwing itself at cars. I had never seen this behavior before, although i had heard about it. so it was interesting, but also slightly worrying as the bird seemed to be getting very into its attacks and it looked like it might get injured.

-Blackbird

so there we go. Our Cambridgeshire holiday was over, without oriole or bluethroat but with plenty of other stuff. Highlights? certainly the Stone curlew and the hobbys, and the dragonflies. the whole holiday could be called a highlight I suppose, except for the missing out on the obvious!

pheasant

my brother spotted a phesant in the back feild this afternoon. He is rather lucky to be alive as our local farmer has a habit for shooting things that she doesnt like (rabbits, etc). Never mind, its a great local record.

Norfolk holiday-day 1, a day at cley

Hooray!! My first full day in Norfolk. It has taken some amount of persuasion to get this holiday. My dad has complained that it was too far and as a result we have not been for some time. But at last my hard work has paid off. Even more significantly I managed to persuade my dad to let us go at may bank holiday, the time of the swallowtails. But also the busiest time in tourist terms. hopefully the swallowtails will show up some time during our 5 day stay.
Not today though. My dad and brother and mum all decided that they wanted to take a trip to a tank museum and so they dumped me at cley on the way. It felt good to step out onto this birding paradise once again. I have to say that my mind was full of temmincks stint! maybe, just maybe they would show up today and be my first tick off the holiday.
I made my way to the first hides (the group off three) and settled in the 1st. birds were, sadly a little sparse. A large flock of black tailed godwits were perched on the other side of the pool but luckily there were a pair of cute little redshank chicks in front of the hide. unfortunately I had not realised that I had left my ISO on really high from the night before so most of the photos were rubbish.

After that, I transferred my self to the middle hide where I found my first avocets of the holiday. sadly, there were less than I had hoped for so I didn't really get the shots I had hoped for. There were however still a few around and so I made the most of what was there.

luckily there was plenty more than avocets. Redshanks and shellducks plus ringed plovers and marsh harriers plus swifts and hirundines flying really low. By low I mean you could see every anatomical detail off the swifts not just that they were less than 1000ft. unfortunately My camera didn't reflexes couldn't keep up with the pace of the birds so I only managed to grab a few quick shots.

I then moved onto the far hide where a small poll of water was. a cute family of mallards was moving pools, towards the big pool. luckily there was plenty more which was staying at this pool although of anything unusual I have to say there was a lack. I manged to spot this male shoveler but that was all.

I moved back to the middle hide where I started chatting to some off the other birdwatchers, in particular a man wearing blue, from Rutland water. That's one of the main things I love about Norfolk, everybody is so friendly and really interesting to talk to. out side the hide a lapwing had just arrived and was entertaining us with its futile fight against the wind. I have not so far mentioned the weather but it seems only relevant now. Mild with overcast cloud with breaks of sunshine and thunderstorms-quite big thunderstorms. It was these frequent heavy rain-showers and storms that made the hide feel all the more homely.

Then I spotted these out of the front hide. At first I wondered what Type of chick this was, but it was soon followed by 3 more of its kind and its mum where it turned out to be.....

......a pheasant. even so the baby's were undeniably cute. And, because they were so close, I managed to get some really close, good shots of them which I am really proud off.

Eventually though they were spooked and ran off back to where they came. Even so, they were still lovely to see and watch.

Then I got a real shock! Not from any bird life, oh no, but Chris King, a local guy, suddenly walked into the hide. shock, gasp, horror!! actually its not really a horror because it was actually a really nice surprise. Its great to catch up with the local guys like Chris, even if it is about 200 miles away from home!!

Then the godwits got moving, towards us and I manged to identify them by their tail patterns as black tails. About 30 birds were flying around about us until they landed in nearly the same place from whence they had set out.

this photo below gives an idea of the number of black tails about. Its been cropped so because the distance meant that there was a lot of negative space. also notice 5 avocets in the background.

a small handful of the godwits landed on the island closest to the hide and so offered some great photo opportunities. sadly I did not make the most of these opportunities and so am only left with a few poor quality shots.

however it was no longer scrapes that Had got my attention. for all day small inadimate brown birds had been flying over the reeds. I manged to notice that a small number of them were orange and had long tails. Could I finally settle that old score and put a tick by the cheeping hiders! I am talking off course about the bearded tit, a bird that loves to hide in the reeds and cheep just to wind you up. however the first bird that gave its self a good look at was a handsome reed warbler which was great to get a record shot off

Then a bearded tit came out, not to be outdone by the reed warbler. The first real view all day, as most Had just been fleeting glimpses of Orange long tailed things in the reeds. My first new bird of the holiday and I can also put a photo to it.

leaving time eventually came and as I left I couldn't help but notice this handsome male reed bunting singing in a small tree near the path. I took some quick snaps an left cley marshes a very satisfied boy.