A Black-headed Bombsite

With the cricket season here and the weather already proving a wash out, the first friendly was cancelled, so what to do with a unexpected free sunday? I know a trip down to the coast and Titchfield Haven NNR. The weather was still pretty indecisive and I must say any reserve that has enough hides to keep you sheltered from the frequent showers is good in my book.

The good thing about Titchfield is you park literally on the sea-front, the Solent merely feet away, plenty of action out on the waves but none of it anything other than Sailboats and Wind-surfers. On the opposite side of the road lies the Titchfield Haven reserve, a well managed and great location for watching wildlife, 6 Hides separated to 3 either side of the river that runs down into the Solent. The first thing that hit me though was the noise, thousands of Black-headed Gulls calling from the scrapes. A quick wander along the sea-front to the visitor centre and got my first glimpse of a pair of Linnets sat atop the surrounding gorse bush. Turnstones wandered up and down the footpath around the side of the small harbour totally unperturbed by the amount of human traffic. You often wonder when you turn up at these places, seeing the huge amount of cars and people if its going to be standing room only around the reserve, luckily nature didn't seem appealing to most, as once inside I probably only saw 10-15 people for the rest of the day.

The visitor centre side of the reserve has 3 hides overlooking the river and the water meadows. The usual Grey Heron, Cormorant, Mallard and Moorhen showed up on the river in the 1st Hide, the second two showing a bit more variety, a fairly biggish flock of Black-tailed Godwit grazed on the far side of the meadow, rising and falling regularly as they were often bombarded by Lesser Black backed Gulls.

Black-tailed Godwit

I did get quite excited about 15 minutes later when a stunning male Marsh Harrier (my first of the year) soared overhead spooking the Godwit flock and pretty much anything else within the vicinity. He landed briefly before being mobbed by 5 or 6 Carrion Crows, pretty rapidly disappearing back up the water meadows. Lapwing, Canada Goose, Teal and a Kestrel all showed well in the meadows as I sat dodging the rain drops in the hide.

A rather surprisingly nice lunch in the reserve cafe, and I was off out the other side of the river, All 3 hides over looking the scrapes and distant reed beds. It took a while to focus on any other birds as the Blur of Black-headed Gulls becomes more apparent. It would be hard to guess numbers but I'd say anywhere between 3000-4000 mostly paired off and nesting.

Just a narrow view of the Scrapes showing only a couple of Gull islands.

Once distinguished from the ever moving throng of Gulls, I spotted 9 feeding Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Avocet, Shellduck, Snipe, Shoveler, Gadwall, Oystercatcher, Herring Gull, Buzzard, Coot, Pheasant and a rather distant Fulvous Whistling Duck - a presumed escapee mingling with a couple of drake Mallard.

Black-tailed Godwits

Oystercatcher

Male Shoveler

So all in all a pretty a pretty good trip, with 35 Species logged, I'm sure there would be a few more if I could identify the bird song from the reed beds and trees. And an even bigger bonus I guess is I didn't get wet!

Goldies & Greylags

The hope of a Saturday morning lay in seems non existent these days, even when I want one Im still up at 7 am ish, a quick peep out of the window confirmed a frost and a clear sky, so off I trudged, along the footpath for a good wander around Middleton Estate and Longparish, I took off up Broadney path not a lot about except 3 rather cautious Roe Deer. A quick pit stop at the cover crop on the Middleway bend brought 5 or 6 Brown Hares chasing each other over the plough furrows. I did see 8 Fallow Deer emerge from the wood 2 or 3 fields over and make their way across the spring crop. A pretty uneventful trip down through the wood by Dick's cave and along Sugar lane into the village, not much seen but loads of birds singing, hidden between the branches in the bigger Oak and Beech trees.

A quick short cut through the village and Im hopping over the 5 bar gate and down onto the Halfwater, walking the river bank back to the house. Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Red Kite & Kestrel all seen, along with several Warblers signing away in the Riverside copses.

Back at home 2 1/2 Hours later, the sky now clouded over, I stand hidden waiting for the Goldfinches to land on the feeding station in the Garden, they've been frequent visitors since we put it up, and probably the reason the Sunflower seed feeder only stays full for a couple of days each time. In the 3 weeks or so we've been living there, I've found it really hard to photography them, they're a lot more flighty than any of the other garden visitors. So I was quite happy when they didn't spook and I managed to get a couple of nice shots.

Saturday evening came with a lapse in the afternoons rain, so Dad & I went off to have a walk around his other part of River the other side of the A303, there is a small Island (no more that 25ft long) in the middle of the River which probably had 5 or 6 nesting Greylag on it, a further 9 were out in the water meadows honking away.

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A Wild Goose Chase!

With a confirmed sighting of an Egyptian Goose down at Rooksbury early on Friday morning, a visit at lunchtime in the hope of a new patch tick proved pretty disappointing, I left work in beautiful sunshine, 20 mins later Im hidden underneath a tree sheltering from a torrential hail shower, coat left in the car. And as if to make matters worse, no bloody Goose for my list either!

Prior to the rain and hail I did manage to get quite a few decent-ish shots of a Treecreeper, a bird species Im not accustomed to seeing all that often and not at all until recently. It suprised me when I looked them up on the RSPB website. 214,000 territories seems to prove that they are fairly common. Im clearly just not looking hard enough!

Also here are a couple of pre rain Mute Swan photos.

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A Morning For Roe

Waking up on Friday morning I was pleasantly surprised to find sunshine peaking in through my curtains and not the rain we've been having all week. So I upped and dressed, grabbed my camera and was out the door before half 7. All week on the way to work I've been seeing loads of Brown Hares quite close to the roads on the spring sowing, typically with the sun shining and camera in hand, no Hares are to be seen. I did sit an wait for 45 mins or so an was rewarded with some great views and plenty of them too.

In the morning light I counted 13 Roe Deer all grazing together on the edge of Harewood Forest, I managed to get 10 in the shot through the telephoto lens.

I counted 10 in the frame!

3 young Roe Bucks sniffed and snorted a lot closer on the edge of the ploughed game cover crop, the April chill noticeable as there breath could be seen drifting on the breeze.

A bit chilly

 

The Bigger Buck

Just as I left one of the Bucks winded me and started to jump off across the field, I took a series of pictures and instead of posting them all I thought I would try and stitch them together, so the movement looked a bit more fluid. 

Roe Buck - Jump Sequence

Little Egret - In Flight

I had a wander around the River the other evening, and caught this Little Egret fly past against the evening sky. It was quite funny as speaking to Dad over dinner he was telling me that apparently the Little Egret is accountable for about 70% of the small fish population on the River Test, a fact he had heard at his Test & Avon workshop earlier in the day.

Meadow Pipits Aplenty

Another weekend spent at the Girlfriend's in Shropshire, and I set off hoping for some migrants on the upper moorlands in the south of the county. Saturday morning we headed off to the Long Mynd hopeful for a break in the showers, first bird spotted as we reached the top of the hill from Church Stretton, a Meadow Pipit, I managed to grab a few shots thinking maybe this new addition to my species list might not be see again. How wrong I could be! Its fair to say Im not sure which was more numerous along the length of the Long Mynd, Meadow Pipits or People, hundreds if not a thousand or more Walkers and Cyclists seemed tp appear over every brow and in every gully, about every 50 yards along the road. The Meadow Pipits also seemed to be just as numerous rising and chasing each other from the heather.

Particularly Happy With This Shot 

Meadow Pipit

Other bird life was pretty scarce, Im guessing because of the invasion of people, all I noted were Ravens, 3 Buzzards, 2 Kestrels, 2 Red Grouse, and numerous Chaffinches, some of which the cock birds were very inquisitive, forcing me to retreat a little so I could focus properly.

Cock Chaffinch 

Hillside Ponies

Waking up to clear skies on Sunday Morning we headed off to Titterstone Clee, with the hope of a Ring Ouzel and Wheatear. The Wheatear was a confirmed tick as we saw 25-30 pairs all around half way up to the summit, and a few around the quarry. Even mixing in with a couple of Linnet. Unfortunately they all remained very flighty, and I couldn't get close enough for a shot I was happy with. We did also get a brief glimpse of a Peregrine in the gale force winds before it shot off out of sight elsewhere.

So compared to my last weekend visit not the most successful of trips, but 4 new species added to my list for 2012 so It cannot all be bad.

Totally Otterless

As I mentioned in my last post, I went off early on Wednesday morning last week in the hope of seeing one of the Rooksbury Otters, when I arrived on the edge of the lake at about 7 am I joined Grant on one of the fishing Jetties, having seen & photographed the Otters on the previous 2 evenings Grant had the same idea as me in getting there early in the morning. I must admit I haven't visited any large bodies of water at that time of the morning before and as the sun started to appear above the trees mixed with the mist rising from the waters surface, it created a very atmospheric scene. Just had the wrong lens on the camera to capture it.

We didn't see any Otters, but below is a link to Grant's webpage and the few Otter pics, you can also see is regularly updated work on Facebook - GrantAutonPhotography
http://www.gautonphotography.com/Nature-1/Fauna/Otter/22420448_mf68QG#!i=1792410987&k=LmLLd34


So totally Otterless, we had to make do with watching a very statuesque Grey Heron on the opposing side of the lake, which as the time ticked away became bathed in more and more sunshine, the ripples on the water reflecting nicely too.

Grey Heron

I was just saying to Grant that I didn't think the Heron was the usual Rooksbury suspect, when within about 5 minutes the resident Heron swooped in low squawking straight for the interloper. Causing the intruder to take flight being chased all of the way. Proving my theory right.

The Intruder

There are always plenty of Coots on the lake, and if you sit and watch them long enough they are pretty good value, especially when walking on water, possibly the most ungraceful exponents of this behavior. Im still fascinated by the size of their feet, I guess they're quite a hinderance when it comes to being graceful.

Walking on Water

A New Discovery & 2 Pairs Of Showoffs!

My apologies for a serious lack of updates this week, Work has been pretty manic, and I've had to work late on a few occasions. Which has cut down a serious amount of Wildlife time, how ever I did manage and a couple of hours before and after work on Tuesday down at Rooksbury, on the look out for the 2 Otters that were seen on Monday & Tuesday, no luck, I just got wet.

I did manage to grab 45 minutes around home on Wednesday night, as the sun reappeared through the constant on and off showers. A nice gaggle of Greylag feeding on the shorter grass by the river bank, they seem to quite like this part of the river, as I've seen them there several times. A lone Moorhen also shot across the shorter grass in-front of me, It still amazes me how huge their feet are! They do get up quite a speed! One of the male Blackcaps from the weekend was singing in the branches, just managed to a fire off a couple of shots before he disappeared.

Gaggle Of Greylag

Roadrunner

Blackcap

Now we've been getting a pair of birds visiting the feeders quite regularly since they've been put up, and I wasn't sure about the Identification, not in the sense that I had no Idea just that they were very similar, I have now managed to get a fairly close up, but grainy shot that I can share with you. Its taken a while to distinguish the difference, and the leading factors for my identification is the shape and color of the bill and the call. So I give you the Marsh Tit. Now you can see how viewing from a distance gave me an discernible problem, the difference between Marsh & Willow Tit. But I managed to sit within 10 feet of the feeder, and after viewing and listening Im fairly confident now. So I give you my first ever Marsh Tit.

Garden Marsh Tit

Also whilst waiting for the above mentioned bird, I was distracted by a shadow moving rapidly across the lawn. I look up to discover not one caster of said shadow but two, in the form of Red Kites, the evening sunlight catching the coloring on the birds undersides brilliantly.

Show offs!

To round off a pretty rubbish day yesterday I got home at about 7 pm for Dad to happily rub it in, that I had missed a pair of Green Woodpeckers feeding for about 35 minutes in the sunshine no more than 15 feet from the Kitchen window on the lawn. Gutted with a capital G! And to make matters worse he had a pretty good video to prove it!

Water-Meadow Roe Bucks

Now the Roe Deer is pretty abundant in this part of the county, and for all the regularity in which I'm lucky enough to see one or several, I don't think I've ever really successfully managed to photography them as of yet. Well that happened to change at the weekend, whilst out scouting about for Owls down at Bransbury in the week, I did manage to get a few very grainy shots of this Roe Buck currently shedding his velvet. He was mooching around unperturbed by me for quite a while with 3 other deer, 2 Doe's and another young Buck that was also in velvet.

Not my finest work I will admit, but the light was fading pretty rapidly and having watched them for about an hour I thought when in a fairly open area I should try out a few shots.

My luck however changed on Friday, whilst called out with Dad to a suspected Poaching emergency, he  has been having problems with trespassing Polish & Lithuanians fishing from the side of the A303. Turned out to be a false alarm, just some lads walking back through the village from the local Course fishing lakes.

However I did spot this beautiful Buck resting in the shade of the trees at the edge to one of the water-meadows, no more than 30yards from the road. Dad seems to think he is quite a veteran, and the size of his antlers helps back that up along with a bit of a slightly grizzled muzzle. Finally some decent Deer shots to be happy about.

Water Meadow Roe Buck