Shropshire Day 3-Part 1

Day 3, and another cloudless sky. That doesnt mean that it was warm though. Since it was such a nice day, we decided to go for a riverside walk at a special national trust car park nowhere near any kind of settlement.
After travelling all the way over the river on the train yesterday we recognised the great big water treatment plant that stretched across the river like an ugly monster. Since the weather was so good I was secretly hoping that I might find a migrant hawker.
We saw very little until we made it upstream of the water treatment plant, and then there was plenty of wildlife, First was a blue tit, hunting on the plant itself, and then a raven flew overhead from upstream over us and into the woods to our right. As you walk upstream we were on the right side of the river headed that way, and there were woods to our direction where there were sounds of phesants and other birds.

-Raven
slightly furthur on and we found our first wildfowl. Granted, it was only canada geese, with a graylag in tow, but there were a couple of interesting variations and abbarents in the flock, which attracted my attention, although they are more likely domestic birds.

-Canada geese
we decided that when we reached the stile at the end of the current feild then we would turn back, due to a frustrating lack of river wildlife. Most of the interesting birds seemed to be passing us by, like this cormorant flying over head.

-Cormorant
Walking back proved to be far more fruitful than walking up. Even though we were walking the same stretch of river. The first thing we saw was a flock of long-tailed tits in the willow, quite close, offering great views

-Long tailed tit
Dont ask why the bottom half of the above photo is as it is, I diddnt take it like that and it certainly isnt like that in real life. As I was wrapping up with the long-tailed tits my brother called me to say that he had found a dragonfly. I hurried over to find a red male common darter resting on a dock leaf. It diddnt seem to care that we were watching it, it just perched there, so I got down and tried to get some photos.

-Common Darter
It was whilst I was watching the Dragonfly that a kingfisher flew upstream towards us and looped round to land in a willow, not 20m away, and on the same side of the river as me. Allowing me a great oppertunity to take photos of kingfisher, which is a really nice bird. However the bird only stuck around for a few seconds before continuing upstream.

-Kingfisher
I turned my attention back to the dragonfly, but it seemed to have woken up a bit more and started moving downstream it small steps. luckily I could easily keep up with it, allowing me to get some photos of this october dragonfly.

-Common Darter
I eventually left the darter in peace to try and catch up with my family, who had probably back at the car by now. On the way i spotted a few buzzards flying low in the sky. They were out because of the thermals so it was easy for them to rise up out of the forest. Either way it was a good thing because it allowed me to get great views of this stunning predators.

-Common Buzzard
For a few minuets the air was filled with birds, woodpigeons, crows and buzzards, but it all quietened down pretty quick, so i carried on walking back towards the car. I walked along the river edge hoping to maybe flush other kinds of dragonflies. I managed to find a couple of other darters, allcommon, although only one satyed still, that being an old specemin given the darkness of its exo-skeleton!

-Old Common Darter

So that finished the early morning walk, though there was still plenty of the day to go, and it got even better than that. This was just the beginning...

Shropshire Day 2

Another sunny day greeted us as we woke up for the first time in shropshire. Today was train day-that being the day we would go for a train ride on the severn valley railway. Last time we were inundated with harlequin ladybirds, so I was hopeing that there would be again, now that I fully knew how to take photos of bugs and things. The train journey goes from bridgenorth, where we were staying, to kidderminster.
The journey to kidderminster passed without anything really exciting happening. Although there is an interesting bit where the train goes past a safari park-so we saw elephants, buffalo, blackbuck and rhinos.
At the train station however there were some far more interestin owls to look at and admire. The people there had brought owls to station for some reason, to highlight publicity I imagine, but it allowed me a close view of these stunning birds. It might actually have been something to do with the halloween week, as though owls signify evil spirits and stuff!!
They had about Nine owls-2 barn owls, 2 eagle owls, a boobook owl, a tawny owl, plus a little owl and a burrowing owl, Though I think the burrowing owl was actually a little owl desert form-its legs were no where near long enough for burrowing. there was also a white-faced scops owl.

-Barn Owl

-Little Owl

-Stunning white faced scops owl

-Was quite pleased with these two, Little owl face
After that we decided to get the train to "country park holt" station where would have lunch. As it happens we had lunch on the train so we got off at the station and had a coffee. This station is request only and goes into a country park, which we have used before. That also means that there are not many people here.

On the country park sign I found my first and only harlequin ladybird of the day, and managed a few shots of some standard, though they're not great.

-Harlequin ladybird

Another feature of this country park is kingfishers, which it had at least 3 last time we were here. My family were going to walk along the river straight to the next station, about 1mile away. I, on the other hand, was going to go up to the visitor center and the hides at the top of the park.

However the only excitiment was really to be found on the bridge. As I watched a hornet fly past, but I couldnt see where it went, much to my dissapointment. Then I watched a kingfisher fly past, upstream where I couldn't follow it. Then a dragonfly of some kind flew under the bridge, but I lost that as well, so I saw lots of interesting things, just not for very long.

Up at the visitor center I had a look at the info board and saw a picture of a club-tailed dragonfly. It reminded me that this river would be teeming with this rare dragonfly in the spring, only in autumn there was only room for dragonflies that chose not to land.

From the hides I saw a sum total of nothing, the only thing of interest being the mallards on the pond outside.

Walking back I had an awful experience. I casually looked over the back of a bench, as you do generally, and flushed a darter dragonfly that had rested there, which then flew away. I was quite annoyed then and re-discovery missions failed to find him. I imagine that it was a common darter based on the time of year.

At the bottom of the park, near the river, I spotted a common buzzard flying quite low. It was going to fly right over me, but its circling pattern was rudely interrupted by a mobbing crow which caused it to divert away from me, never-the-less I got good views of it.

Walking along the river was also a dissapointment. There were no birds-but maybe because of some morons on the other side of the river letting their dog run a riot all over the riverside-people like that do my head in!

Shropshire Day 1

After a hard morning of travelling, we arrived in Shropshire for a few days. Since it was only lunchtime we decided that after lunch we would head off. Given its success last time we decided to head to the local arboretum, though I don't know what it was called. Last time it was brimming with Fungi, so was hopeful that there would still be loads. Also last time there was a dragonfly on the main pond, which given the time of year was almost certainly a migrant hawker, so I was eager to try and see if anything had stuck around.
However a 10min scout round and I realised that it was nothing like last time because it had been too dry. There was no fungi anywhere, but there were a few more birds than last time, which is always a good thing. At the final pond I spotted a jay and grey wagtail hunting along the water line.

-Jay

-Grey Wagtail
After walking around the main part of the arboretum I headed up a small alleyway that I had not been up before. Up there I flushed a few blackbirds and also found my first fungi-a fly agaric. Unfortunately it had a rather unfortunate notch taken out of it, right on the only angle that you could get a photo, given it was surrounded by brambles. I had a look for other fruit but with no joy.

-"Notched" fly agaric
After walking around I found my dad, who said that we should go for a walk down by the "nature" bit, though if I recall last time I didn't see anything down there. After walking down the first section of woods I spotted a buzzard circling high, probably looking for dead sheep.

-Buzzard
In the main woods we had a bit more joy. After a few minuets search we found a calling greater spotted woodpecker. It was difficult to see because it was perched at the top of a tall spruce, but I managed a couple of record shots.

-Greater spotted woodpecker

Just a bit further on and we spotted a dragonfly hunting in the woods, away from any suitable water. It was a hawker, but light was really low and the dragonfly really fast so any photos were out of the question and so i don't know what it was, though it was probably a migrant hawker.

We didn't see anything else during the walk, so we went back to the caravan.

Great Northern Diver at Ringstone

Birding doesn't get much better than this. Sunday afternoon, Dave and I went up to Ringstone reservoir to see possibly the best record in Calderdale of the year. Normally a Great northern diver is rare, but that would be a winter plumage bird, but this was a summer plumage! So not only is it a special record, its also a stunning bird. Sadly due to computer issues I only have one photo that has been cropped-But I assure you that more are on their way...

When we arrived at first it took us a few minuets to actually find the bird, but luckily it was found, on the far side of the reservoir. Thanks to dave again for letting me use his scope to get great views despite the distance.
We decided to go round to the hide as the bird seemed to be heading over that way, But when we got to the hide we found it along the shore half way between the hide and the road. It continued moving about, diving and fishing, and began to move closer, until it was really close, near to the wall, near the hide. Then it got really exciting, as the bird began calling. Its earie call echoed across the reservoir, a wonderful noise to hear, and the icing on the cake.
The bird then began to move across the reservoir towards the far side, there were a couple of birders over there. the diver was right in front of one, with his giant camera, and he diddnt even notice.
Because the bird was so far away, we began to look around and spotted a flock of lapwing and golden plover in an adjacent feild. I counted about 10 golden plover, but it was easier to count them when they were spooked a few minuets later.

When we left we pulled up at the side of the reservoir near the road to get one last view of the stunning bird. It was well worth it, as we got more stunning views in the evening light. Thanks to dave again for taking me.

Lancashire

headed into Lancashire today, for a football match. On the way spotted a buzzard, kestrel and a flock of 100ish lapwings. At the ground, spotted another ridiculously late butterfly-small tortoiseshell, and a black headed gull nearly got hit by the ball. Mainly posted this due to the late presence on the butterfly, although because it was small tortoiseshell, it was probably just woken up from hibernation because of the 15degree temperatures today.

Bradshaw park

Bradshaw park is currently looking like a bog, however, that diddnt deter the feildfares who turned out in number yesterday morning. There must have been about 50 that I flushed as I made my way across the playing feild. They were not approachable in the slightest, but its my first for this winter.

October Butterflies

Walking home spotted a small tortoiseshell in Bradshaw park. I was surprised because the weather hadn't been warm until then, and even then it wasn't too warm, although the sun was out. The sun may have cause it to come out of hibernation.
Or that's what I would have though if around the corner I hadn't spotted a red admiral, which I did. To be fair, the red admiral did look a bit dopey and I could easily get close to it. I don't think it will manage its migration if its leaving it this late.

October

had my first ever Calderdale october swallows this morning, 2 sat on wires near the Bradshaw tavern. Also a chiffchaff singing and a jay at north dean woods, as well as some stunning fly agaric. Also saw a speckled wood and small tortoiseshell. What kind of october is this?

...and butterflies too

we're two days off october and we still have butterflies. Fair enough having small tortoiseshells as these hibernate and the current warm spell could wake them into a breif flight, but red admirals have been around the school and garden, which I reckon should have already begun their migration. a pleasure to see, if not a bit odd!

still got swallows

saw a handfull of swallows getting blown around whilst they were hunting across the playing feild in Bradshaw park today. Its getting pretty late now, so this is a significant record-probably!