cambridgeshire day 2

Today was Welney day! Obviously I was thinking only about the potential bluethroat that was there. The weather was decent, overcast but not raining, which was key. It was however, quite windy. First things first though and the first thing we saw today was a fat pigeon just outside the caravan, feeding on the seed we threw out for the birds. -Woodpigeon We past Welney on the way to the caravan site but going to it now it seemed like quite a way double backing on ourselves. When we got there, we learnt that there had been a pair of red-necked phalaropes the night before and that the bluethroat had not been seen all week. Never-the-less I was optimistic, I often am, and set off in high spirits whilst my family had a cuppa. I only went to the first hide for a few minuets because I wanted to get on and try and see a bluethroat. However, in those first few minuets I spotted a whooper swan, which is a bit unusual for this time of year.

-Whooper swan

At the second hide I learnt from the other birders that the bluethroat had not been seen or heard this morning so I decided to stick around in that hide for a bit, after all, the guy said that there was a male gargany hiding in the reeds, which would also be a first for me. Before that though I heard one of my favourite noises, and a noise that at the time I had still yet to hear-a snipe drumming. It was great to finally hear this weird noise and then the gargany came out of the reeds giving us decent views through the bin's but way out of range for the camera, so no pictures at this visit. Also to add to the atmosphere, there was a sedge warbler going absolutely berserk just outside the hide. It just would not stop singing.

I decided to move on to the next hide to see if I could get any better pictures of the gargany from a different point. The next hide sticks out into the marsh so you are walking between two banks. Then I heard the snipe drumming again and looked up to find that it was directly above me, in the perfect position to take some photos of it, its a pitty that you can't record sounds through the photo but even so...

-Common snipe

When i eventually made it to the hide after about 15mins of snipe watching I was gutted to find out that you couldn't even see the gargany pool from it. There were a few other things around. For example, when I turned around I found that there was a pied wagtail inside the hide, with a mouthful of food. Its Ironic that our structures designed to hide ourselves from the birds are so good that the birds actually nest in them!!

-pied wagtail And on the underside of one of the Beams one of the other birders spotted a small magpie moth roosting for the day.

-Small magpie moth Looking over the other pond, there was a rather obliging reed bunting sitting and singing from and emergent reed. If I had a better lens The photo would be better because i could bring the bird closer, but sadly that is not the reality.

-reed bunting Outside the hide on the handrail there were some swallows. They were just sat there and they were quite close too. So I decided to take some photos, as you would probably have guessed.

-Swallows At the final hide, where I went next, I was delighted to see some avocets. This is where i saw my first avocets almost 8 years ago. There were not that many there today, but there were some adorable chicks, even at this young age using their beaks to filter the water for meals.

-Baby avocet Luckily there were some adults there too, and they made their presence felt when a coot strayed too close to a chick. Luckily that brought the adult closer to the hide and sort off in range of my camera.

-Avocet As I made my way back to the gargany hide for a better look I encountered the sedge warbler on the tree next to it. It was still going crazy and it still didn't stop even when I stood about 2m away from it.

-sedge warbler Back inside the gargany hide, the gargany had come round and into the pool in front of us, so I could get some record shots. its great that it was a male, otherwise I would have been unable to decipher between the handful of mallards that were loitering around the main pool. There was also a rather cute coot family being shuffled across the pond by the two adults. Sadly the coots had the wrong idea and attacked the gargany. I was afraid that it would fly away but luckily it landed again in the same pool. Please excuse the quality of the photos!

-Male Gargany so there we are then, the first new bird of the holiday. Whilst I was watching this bird I got a text from my mum saying that there was a yellow wagtail in the main hide. This would also be a new bird for me, so I set off for a look. When I got there my mum said that it had left but that it would probably come back. So I watched the shellducks and their chicks and the black tailed godwits while I waited. And my mum and dad were right. the bird came back within 10mins of me appearing. I know the photos are shocking but that gives you an idea of how far away the bird was to me. However through the binoculars then you got really good views and you could watch it doing all the things you generally associate with wagtails.

-yellow wagtail After about 10mins the bird disappeared and so I scanned around for a few minuets prior to its re-appearance. Whilst I waited I spotted a pair of somethings on the far bank. Binoculars showed the somethings to be little ringed plovers so I took a photo, which leaves a lot to be desired, and then watched them for a while.

-Little ringed plovers (find them if you can!) As we were leaving I spotted a teal having a wash.

-Male teal having a wash After that it was lunchtime, so that meant heading back to the car. By the time we re-entered the reserve the sky was seriously grey, and soon it began to drizzle. I headed off towards the final hide, but I was not really impressed with it, as it was really only overlooking an area of reed, or grass so there wasn't much happening really, except for the usual assortment of reed birds such as the reed warbler.

-reed warbler On the way back to the path it started to rain, rather then drizzle! I also spotted a wren cowering from the rain in the undergrowth

-Wren I made my way back to the gargany hide, as that was where I had seen most stuff over the course of the day. I made it there, just in time, as then it really started to rain. Inside I found my parents, and there was also a swallow nest inside the hide, so there you go-another bird using a hide for a nesting place.

As I watched the birds getting rained on, a group of about 5 sandpipers flew in, and through the binoculars appeared to be dunlins. I grabbed a photo, a record shot for the day, as some kind of proof, note also the black-headed gulls in the foreground, curiously the only gulls we saw all day!

-Dunlin (background) and black headed gull (foreground) As the rain continued to pour, you could see all the birds in the reeds with their feathers ruffled. Because there was so little movement due to the rain, it was easy to pick out unusuals from the view, for example in the field to the left of the pool there was a pink-footed goose associating with the greylag geese. Don't even try to tell which one it is from the photos, its another poor shot on my behalf!!

-Pink-footed goose with greylags My dad decided then that we were going. Even though it had not ceased to rain. Luckily it was not desperately far to the car, but even so, given the conditions any distance was too far. walking back my mum spotted this family of swans in the river, with three cygnets who were climbing on their mums (or dads) back!

-swan with cygnets as we wandered back to the car my dad spotted a curiously familiar shaped bird heading towards us. Even though I had never seen one, you can easily identify it when you see it-a cuckoo was flying towards us. It flew straight over us, giving us decent views, but it then did a loop-de-loop around the trees and flew back over us. Its great when you see a new bird, especially one of sure calibre as the cuckoo. Its a pity that it didn't land and give us a really proper view but even so...

-Cuckoo

we arrived back at the car and after a few town stops we headed back to the caravan! incidentally, it didn't stop raining at all. I went to sleep and it was still raining, so at the time I was wondering if the weather of the holiday might follow suit. But even so, its been a good holiday so far...

cambridgeshire day 1

We arrived the previous night, Our destination, Maidenhall on the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border. The Campsite was decent, hidden amidst predominantly coniferous woodland, the only catch was that there were no facilities, so we were going to have to use the ones in the caravan. For our first morning my we decided to go and look at Maidenhall, the local town. What makes Maidenhall famous-well nothing really!! There's a Big RAF place just outside the town but aside from that it resembles pretty much any other english town, only without any big name shops. There was only a Sainsburys that was a typical shop. Behind the Sainsburys was a river, quite big really and on it were the usual assortment of ducks (mallards) with some Canada geese and a couple of swans. There was a bridge across the river and on the other side there was more of a wildlife area. There was an area of marsh behind a line of trees and around the pond there were some Banded demoiselles.

-Banded demoiselle
There were only males in the pond area, but on the river there were a few more species of damselflies such as the Azure on the riverside vegetation.

-Azure Damselfly
Where we turned around there was a golf course and on it were a large number of blackbirds, but also there was a grey wagtail, which was quite nice to see.Walking back from the golf course My dad spotted a giant beetle crossing the path, I took some photos and after some identification we reckon that its a lesser stag beetle.

-Lesser Stag Beetle

On the way back we spotted some female banded demoiselle, Although I thought that they were beautiful demoiselles because of the lack of bands. Never mind! I wont be making that mistake again.

-Banded demoiselle (Female)
when we were almost on the town side of the river I spotted another type of damselfly, a blue tailed, this one is a normal mature specimen.

-Blue tailed damselfly
Back at the campsite we had time to kill, as we were back before lunch. I decided that after lunch I would go into the wood opposite and look at the apparent nature reserves there. In the leaflet the nature reserves apparently had stone curlew, woodlark and white admiral! The whole point of us coming on this holiday was to see stone curlew so it would be great to see them without even going to weeting heath, and on the first day. During Lunch we were visited by some squirrels. Unfortunately they were grey.

-Grey Tree Rat
So After lunch I set off, I won't deny it, thinking of stone curlew, The wood was mostly coniferous but there was no wildlife-at all. I eventually reached the nature reserves which were actually only about 200m squared a piece, and ultimately lacking in any form of heathland wildlife. I spotted a jay in one of the reserves, which so far have been the birds of the holiday. We had one in the morning and it just sat in front of the caravan. At the far side of the first reserve there was a path leading out of the reserve and into the neighbouring fields. I was still filled with stone curlew thoughts and the fields made me think that maybe they may be in the field. I wandered around the edge of the Field and reached a small pond. I glanced around and spotted a few damselflies but also a Hornet. sadly it landed way out of view, so I didn't get any photos. I double backed on myself to try and get back to the path. As I almost reached the path, I spotted a deer coming out of the woods and enter the Field. I tried to follow its progress so i could get closer to it but it kept dipping out of sight. Then, The deer popped up next to me! It just came out of the crops and looked at me, about 1.5m away from me. In a moment of absent mindedness I grabbed for the camera and it scarped but I managed to get some shots of its back end as it ran away. They always tell you that the back is vital when I.d'ing deer and as it so happens that was the case this time. The fact that the deer has a significant tail tells me that it is a muntjack-which is a first for me. At the time didn't know what kind of deer it was because my mammal book was at home so i remained ignorant to the true identity of the deer for the whole holiday. But it was the first new species of the holiday!

-Muntjack Deer

After it scarped away I followed round the rim of the feild. However the farmer came down in his car and told me that I was trespassing... so I had to make my way back into the wood pretty sharpish. When I did I found a speckled wood butterfly, which is my first for the year.

-Speckled wood

So no stone curlews and no woodlarks but still enough to be happy with. After tea we went to the another river away from the campsite to sit and see what came. There was quite an influx of unusual wildlife. The river I hould say was one of the fens and there were barges moored up all along the dock we were sat on. Naturally the first birds we saw were mallards, but then a common tern flew down river and started fishing in front of us. Then a kingfisher flew by and rested just up stream. We also spotted a jay (Told you they were the birds of the holiday!) and on the way back there were some red-legged partridges in a feild. so overall, a great start to the holiday.

friday night

it was 8.00 and we had just finished watching a film. my mum and brother had left the room and my dad just happened to look out off the window and there, low and behold was a fox strutting around out lawn, eating scraps left out for the birds. It was a nice looking fox too, not a scratty urban fox but a proper country fox. It suddenly spotted us and bolted and we haven't seen it since.

Also of garden note is that our stock dove Friend has come back, adding a bit more bio-diversity to our garden. we also have about 3 baby starlings which are hanging around on the lawn. I am worried about them, in case our neighbour gets a cat, or if they have one, that it starts coming around! we have had problems with cats before but never-the-less its still great to see.

walking home

walking back home today from my english exam I spotted two bullfinches in bradshaw park. There was a stunning male and a female too I think but I diddnt get a good enough view of the female to be sure, as there were goldfinches there and there are regularly chaffinches there.

Also I wont be posting any major post's e.g. lakeland and arran plus bempton becuase of exam commitments, you will have to wait for a bit!

photo

Just a quick note to say that I have sold my first photo from the ogden shop.

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.

hardcastle craggs this morning

a very confusing morning overall, but ended with me walking around the craggs birdwatching. I diddnt really see much, except for 2 male mallards on the water, possibly the first time I have seen them here! Also around were rather a lot of wood ants, or rather Northern Hairy Wood ants and there were quite a few nests around too, which were absolutly swarming with them. When the walk ended I happened to glance upwards and happened upon my first swift of the year, on the first of may too!!

burnsal bridge

Another of our wednesday visits to Burnsal bridge, and as usual it was glorious sunshine that showered us. As soon as we arrived you could see only sand martins in the sky, no clouds at all. The sand martins were flying in about 3's or 4's and offering the best views I have had for quite a long time.

Down at the river there were some more ducklings looking lovely with their mother. there were quite a few familys on the river, which is still quite early.

Back at the sand martins they were still showing well and I managed to work out where the nests were, which was handy so I could follow them from where they started their fligh to where they ended it. Because it was so bright I had the shutter speed at about 1/1600 and there was no change in the photo quality at all. Although to be fair, they were still pretty awful.

a bit further up I spotted a lone female goosander fishing near to the riverbank that I was standing on. It diddnt seem very bothered about me being there but eventually, once it had caught a fish, it stopped dipping its head into the water and then spotted me and so began to drift away, so I left to try and avoid disturbing it any more.

A bit further up there was a lone swallow so I decided to get a few shots of swallows in cloudless sunshine just for a record, but because the shutter speed was so high they actually came out really clear.

at the start of the rapids I caught up with my mum and dad and they pointed out a baby dipper on one of the rocks. At first I couldnt see it, I spotted one being fed by and adult furthur up. My dad asked me what i was doing, the baby dipper he meant I had appaerntly walked past. I eventually spotted it and began to get as close as I could. I managed to get some decent shots, but i managed to spook it and the dipper began to move a bit more, instead of being completely sedate.

I left the babay eventually, so that it could get on with what it was doing. A bit further up my mum and dad spotted a bird on the other side of the river. My dad reckoned it was a merlin, so I was optimistic for a unusual bird. I took a photo and looked into it, the coulors looked like either a linnet or a kestrel, although it would be a very small kestrel. The bird gave us the slip for about 10mins but once it eventually emerged it was a linnet. During that time a goosander pair appeared and swam down river. I followed them because I knew a narrow stretch of the river which would bring them closer to me for a photo. when i got there, they were just about entering it and once I stopped they turned around and began swimming backwards. But only for a few minuets before they both took off and flew the narrow bit of the river.

As I continued up the river to catch up with my family There were a number of goosanders that flew past, along the river and in the air.

As I was walking up, I spotted two long-tailed tits flying into a hawthorn tree, where After watching for a bit I spotted a lovely little moss nest hidden in the "V" of a tree. There was an adult in the nest and it was building it as we watched, using moss.

furthur up, just past the linnet scenario there was another colony of sand martins where I could get some more photos.

I caught up with my mum and dad at the bridge and then set off back when I spotted a chaffinch picking smallinsects from the underside of leaves and I thought that that it was worth a photo so I did...

Back at the dipper site the baby dipper had begun to move a bit more and was on an island in the middle of the river at the start of the rapids, looking rather like an adult dipper.

I was just arriving back at the car when a male and female sparrow flew out of the bushes and began to wage war with each other on the path and throwing up a lot of dust. The male eventually left the fight, so I am assuming that the female was the winner.

after lunch My brother and I went for a walk in the river to try and find some crayfish and fish but only the fish could be found. there were no crayfish at all in the river, besides a dead one, so a bit of a dissapointment really in that sense but plenty of birds to make up for it.