Longparish Little Egret

On the way home from the new place late on Sunday afternoon, coming around the various bends in the Longparish road system, I caught a glimpse of this little beauty, a quick and stealthy stalk along the rivers edge got me within 60 yards. A little shame it was around 5.15pm but some good reflections none the less. A Little Egret for those that don't know.

New Surroundings

It's been in the pipeline for several months now, but with the go ahead, the family home is moving from the Wildlife haven of Apsley Estate - 4.2 miles down the road to the small hamlet of Forton, near Longparish. Now having lived in the same house in the middle nowhere surrounded by rolling fields and plenty of woodland, moving to a Hamlet with other inhabitants may not seem the most attractive of offers.

So my excitement was pretty noticeable, when Dad mentioned he was taking on the River Keepers role on the River Test and therefore discovering the River runs through the bottom of the new garden. "Generally regarded as the birthplace of modern fly fishing, and the best chalk stream fishing in the world..." with plenty of water meadows and small patches of woodland beyond. So with a résumé like that, one would imagine its wildlife would be pretty special too. 

With plenty of work to do before we can move 25 years of living down the road, Sunday was spent in the garden, ripping out the rough ground ready for the veg patch. And general tidying up of the over grown mess. I must however admit I was distracted most of the day by the new "Garden Wildlife" 5 Red Kites, performed acrobatics above the house near enough all day, with the sunlight catching them it was a pretty special sight! The below pictures were taken mid morning.

Red Kite

Red Kites

Red Kites

Heading home for a spot of lunch, I made sure to pick up the smaller 55mm Lens to see if I could get all 5 in shot. So by 3pm we headed back down armed with Camera and Bushwacker. 45 mins later Im back skiving with the camera as 4 Kites circled directly over top of the house for a good 15 mins, joined by a Buzzard, for most of the day they called too, which I've never experienced at such frequent intervals. Below are a couple of shots from yesterday afternoon.

4 at Once!

Red Kite

Once I'd finished my gardening duties I did get 10-15mins to sit down on the River Bank quietly around 4.30pm, surprising how many species made there way on to the new garden list in that short period. Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Mallard, Water Rail, Greylag Goose, Little Egret, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Chaffinch & Moorhen. 

Bring on many hours wasted away by the river!

Mute Swans

Mute Swan

A Gorgeous Sky

Having hidden myself out on Bransbury Common from 4.30-6pm Friday and Saturday afternoon in hope of seeing the Short-eared Owls, I did encounter various other wildlife except the desired species. Friday's overcast conditions didn't leave me feeling overly confident in any decent pictures, but Saturday was gorgeous, a bright afternoon turning the sky into a gorgeous mix of pastel oranges at sunset.

Still no Owls, but a pair of Sparrowhawk displaying, and I did spot Kestrel, Green Woodpecker, Little Egret, Greylag Geese, Mallard, Gadwall, Mute Swan, Teal, Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Brown Hare, Grey Heron, Kingfisher & Roe Deer all from my vantage point.

Greylag Geese - Sunset

A Quiet Week

Having been out a couple of times last week, to Anton & Rooksbury Mill LNR's spring seems to be in the air, all the ducks having paired off and the smaller birds already starting to build there nests,  Most of the winter inhabitants seem to have disappeared too, leaving the photographic opportunities to a minimum. So below is a few shots I took this week.

Kestrel - In the tree at the bottom of my Garden 

Kestrel - In the tree at the bottom of my Garden 

Wren - Anton Lakes LNR

Drake Gadwall - Rooksbury Mill LNR 

Gadwall - Rooksbury Mill LNR 

Cock House Sparrow - Next doors gutter

Sunny Sunday!

Waking up to some gorgeous sunshine on Sunday morning was a much better feeling, loading up the gear and heading down to Steeple Langford to the Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts reserve at Langford Lakes, a new location for me and only Half an hour drive from home.

Plenty to see and all 4 hides were empty. 4 Great-crested Grebes the highlight also spotted on the water Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Coot, Cormorant, Canada Goose, Little Egret, Goosander and a rather large flotilla of Gulls, with plenty of Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull and a rather distant Mediterranean Gull. I'd imagine the roost to grow even more later on in the day.

The smaller feeding station proved quite busy, with Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch & Moorhen stopping by. Also seen around the reserve Blackbird, Dunnock & Wren.

All in all a pretty good reserve, quiet, easy to find, and loads of new work undergoing for a scrape and new hide. Considering its close proximity to home, I was impressed with the location and the wildlife.
A great place to see Grebes.

Tufted Duck - Drake

Tufted Duck - Duck

Great-crested Grebe

Great-crested Grebe 

Great-crested Grebe

Tufted Duck - Drake

Robin

Blue Tit

Chaffinch - Male

Long-tailed Tit 

Long-tailed Tit

Moorhen

Rain, Rain Go Away!!!

With a theatre trip in Southampton booked for saturday night, a trip down to the New Forest seemed like the perfect tonic to while the hours away! Being probably the only birder in hampshire not to see the Dark-eyed Junco we headed first to the Hawkhill Inclosure, after taking the wrong turning first up, lots of swearing and lack of phone signal ensued before I decided to try further down the road. A little Tip don't trust google maps postcodes!

Its fair to say my mood didn't really improve much all day after this! Not helped by the sudden downpour as well pulled into Hawkhill car park. 20 minutes later before it eased up, allowing me down the short path to where other birders waited patiently. 45 minutes later and nothing more than a few Chaffinch, wet and cold I gave up, hopes dashed by one guy saying he'd been there since dawn and the target bird hadn't been seen at all today! Sods law, was joking with Nat on the drive down that it had probably flown home!

A brief stop at Hatchet Pond showed good views of Black-headed Gulls, Common Gull, Mute Swan, Rook, Jackdaw, Moorhen, Teal, Mallard, Cormorant & Little Egret.

Black-headed Gull

With no let up in the dismal weather we drove on down to Lepe beach over looking the Solent and the Isle Of Wight. To say it was raining was an understatement, all hopes of looking out the car windows with the Binoculars were dashed, with gale force winds and the IOW disappearing behind the torrential rain for most of the afternoon, reduced us to a quick kip and about 20 minutes of birding in between monsoons. Shame really as the seashore was teeming with wading birds. Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Whimbrel, Turnstone, Ringed Plover and around 200 Brent Geese on the shoreline.

Brent Geese

Now I apologise for the quality of the photographs, but I think as it was tipping it down I don't think they are to bad. Im undicided as to which spiecies I've captured however, my initial thoughts while watching them scurry up and down the beach was Sanderling, and on checking the bird book in the car that was still my thinking. But having checked the pictures once home and doing a little bit of googling on the area I'm was then drawn towards Grey Plover. Any help in identifying said birds would be a great help and allow me to log a new species on my list for the year because to be perfectly honest I was flummoxed!

Many Thanks to Ploddingbirder & Bryan Rains for clarifying that it is Grey Plover and the Birds in flight Dunlin.

Grey Plover

Dunlin 

Grey Plover

I Hate Half-term

Half term, a wondrous week when you were a youngster. Not quite the same as old age hits, the Plus sides I guess are the roads being so much quieter on the way to and from work. The down side being, the local Nature reserve turns into your average play park. 3 lunchtime visits this week, twice to Rooksbury Mill and to Anton Lakes yesterday, If I am honest I don't think I've ever seen so many people out and about around a slightly wild place in Andover, Kids fishing, paddling, SCREAMING, learning to ride bikes. Dogs hurtling into the water after airborne branches, litter, life rings discarded in the water - and more importantly a severe lack of approachable wildlife.

At 25 I guess I shouldn't be a miserable old b*s*a*d but its hard when dotted around both sites are numerous Info Boards relating to the fact its a wildlife reserve! And people go out of there way to ignore it. Now Im all for encouraging youngsters & those less fortunate than me to live in the open air, to be involved and see what's on offer but for people to show a complete disregard for there surroundings and let their animals run riot and their children to scream a shout like hooligans really gets my back up! Not that the last 2 paragraphs gave you that impression! So photographing anything of interest this week was increasingly difficult, in-fact even spotting birds became a problem with constant disruptions.

So as mentioned yesterday lunch time I headed too Anton Lakes, just about managing to find a parking space. Seeing nothing over the first 300 yards of my walk, the briar patches and alder trees usual full with something to look at. First sighting Tufted Duck on the lake, plenty of Black-headed Gull and a isolated Herring Gull sat on the lookout rock, a new entry for my 2012 species list. Plenty of Canada Geese mingled around with the Coots and Mallard. A Grey Heron stood motionless back in the shade of the overhanging channel at the top of the lake, I guess due to the noise and disturbance this was the quietest most sheltered area.

Tufted Duck - Drake

Canada Goose

Grey Heron

The bottom end of the lake was empty, all the usual Tufted Ducks seemingly joining the rest at the far end  under the cover. A few Robin bombed about with a small flock of Chaffinch, through the wooded path on the opposite side of the lake. I did get momentarily excited to see a male Bullfinch sat in the tree before he was scared off by an incoming Great Tit.

Robin

As I headed back towards the car, the Pond at the far end of the reserve, it proved a lot quieter and a lot more fruitful as again I caught up with the Bullfinches, joined in the Ash trees by a smallish group of Goldfinch. To many branches in-between to get a decent photo however. A quick scan of the water from the opposing bank. A male Teal and male Shoveler appearing out of nowhere, the latter a new sighting for me in an around home.

When I did reach the pond, it got a little bit more interesting, Loads of Long-tailed Tit flitting about in the hazel branches, a Treecreeper worked its was along the tree in the middle of the water. After a quick flash at the waters edge I spotted a Water Rail, and after a good scan of the overhanging branches on the far side of the water I spotted the Kingfisher.  I guess overall not to bad an hour but, could have been so much better and definitely quieter!

Long-Tailed Tit

Water Rail - Big Fans Of Traditional Pasties!

Kingfisher

Positively Balmy

A positively balmy 9 degrees greeted me as I left the office this lunchtime and headed down to Rooksbury Mill, hoping for a better glimpse of last weeks spotted Goosander. No such luck on that front.

However I was greeted first up by a pair of Bullfinch in the trees surrounding the car park, you cant beat that as your first bird of the day! Trying and failing to get a photograph not quite as pleasing.

Brooks Lake is still teeming with Gadwall & Tufted Duck, Coots, Moorhens the odd Mallard and Mute Swans. Plenty of Chaffinches, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Blackbirds lining the foliage around the paths. A pair of Little Egret perched high in the Ash trees on the edge of the board walk to the larger Mill Lake, still under some ice probably a quarter left remaining from last weeks big freeze. The large amounts of Black-headed Gulls joined by Coots and Tufted Duck, and 30 or so Canada Geese, who on seeing me fled to the water, in amongst which I suddenly saw this beautiful adult Great-crested Grebe, already in summer plumage, who stayed quite close for a good couple of minutes before swimming out to the middle of the water.

Great-crested Grebe

Great-crested Grebe

There were plenty of Long Tailed Tits flitting about in the neighboring alder trees, but none really fancied having there picture taken today. Which leads me to another bird which needs a bit of clarification, Im imagining as to the weather, location and time of year, and the markings that its a Chiffchaff but if anyone is under the impression it might be a Willow Warbler please let me know.

Back to the car on time today, in hope of seeing the Bullfinches again, which I did on several occasions but disturbed by the influx of walkers ( I can assume because of half term) I couldn't get a picture. Greenfinch & Goldfinch also present in and around the car park.

Coot

Drake Gadwall