Shropshire - 23 - 24th Feb

Whilst in Shropshire for the weekend and prior to my trip across the border for Red Kites, I made an early morning jaunt up on to the Long Mynd in search of Red Grouse. The roads up were pretty icy and its always reassuring when the road signs read something along the lines of don't use in winter. But my new car powered its way up and around the single track bends on quite a steep accent no problem, and I reached the top in no time.

The temperature at the top was a good 4 or 5 degrees colder than in the bottom of the valley and a keen wind blew across the moorland, window down I drove at a crawling pace, ears pricked to pick up the call I was hoping for. Within about 50 yards of the gliding club entrance I soon heard the distinctive 'chut!chut!chut!chut!chut!chuttt....' call. A quick scan an I could see a Cock Red Grouse stood upright against some very similar coloured heather. A stealthy approach on foot didn't allow me any closer as the bird rocketed off from the heather with its fast-whirring wingbeats. 

Giving up on the foot approach I stuck to the car, seeing and hearing 13 or  14 cocks calling from fairly near the roadside. One did come close enough to the car for a shot through the window, but I left via the Church Stretton end feeling pretty unfulfilled  Plenty of Meadow Pipits and Skylark also on the top with the occasional Pheasant popping up out of the heather.

Red Grouse

After visiting Gigrin on the Saturday, Sunday morning we headed up towards Shrewsbury, to Venus Pool, the weather was bitterly cold and overcast so we never spent to long in the hides, the highlight being a pair of Great-crested Grebe displaying and sharing weed not to far from the hide. A pair of Shoveler slept on one of the islands along with c.40 Lapwing and c.60 Snipe, several pairs of Gadwall and Pochard on the water.

The woodland hide and feeding station was very busy as it was on my visit earlier in the month, plenty of Chaffinch, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Greenfinch and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpecker all visiting in the short period we sat watching.

All in all a fairly productive if not frustrating weekend with the weather.

Blue Tit

Great Tit

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Pennington Marsh - 13th Jan

From Bickerley Common we headed down to the coast, after finding Lower Pennington Lane we arrived in the middle of the reserve at Keyhaven & Pennington Marsh. Positioned nicely on the South Coast over looking the Solent and the Isle of White.

Driving up to the car park it was apparent that we would be in for a real wildfowl treat, with Teal, Shoveler, Pintail & Wigeon covering the flooded ground for as far as the eye could see. As we headed through the reserve towards the sea wall, the first excitement of the day arrived as several thousand Lapwing errupted from the marsh with a Peregrine hot on their coat tails. This proved to be a regular occurrence as the Lapwing flock rose high in the sky before returning to feed again, the Peregrine would appear about 5 minutes later as regular as clock work flushing them all again.

Brent Geese, Snipe, Grey Wagtail & Raven where all seen on the way down to the Sea wall and coastal path. Arriving on the coastal path it was clear to see the tide was in and this would reduce the numbers of waders out on the mud flats, luckily there was a small 25ft area left alone by the high tide, and it was smothered in Turnstone. Around 35-40 picked through the washed up seaweed, allowing me to get down low and quite close for a couple of shots.

Turnstone 

Part of the huge Lapwing flock

The next spot was quite pleasing, as it gave me an opportunity to photograph as species I hadn't previously, on the lagoon the reserve side of the Sea Wall, 2 pairs of Red-breasted Merganser fished, although distant the light was very nice and shows exactly how stunning these saw-bills are. Unfortunately they kept diving so often trying to catch a pair together proved impossible.

Red-breasted Merganser Drake

Red-breasted Merganser Drake

The remainder of the walk around the reserve didn't bring to many photographic opportunity's but did however bring some cracking birds. Fly bys from a lone Curlew and several Cormorant out at sea, 5 Redshank wading at the edge of the lagoon, 2 female Goldeneye on the sheltered sea lagoon at Oxey with 2 Great-crested Grebe. With no beach to land on Ringed Plover flew rapidly low over the waves to a spit of land further out. I counted 42 but they moved so fast it was hard to tell.

As we headed back into the reserve I am positive I saw a female Black Redstart, but I was looking into the sun and as I upped the camera to take a record shot, a couple appeared behind me and flushed the bird out of sight. An opportunity missed as I was 98% sure of my ID skills.

The walk back through the flooded marsh added Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Dunlin and feeding quite close to the path Bar-tailed Godwit.

Also totally oblivious to us was a Chiffchaff, hoping around on the ground 2 feet away, it looked healthy enough but surprised me as to its total lack of intuition for danger.

Chiffchaff

A cracking visit and some much needed new additions to the year list, and I would recommend a visit to anyone who is in the vicinity of the South Coast, stunning surroundings and some stunning birds.

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A Dorset Bird Saturday - Sep 12

After promising myself to be more frequent in my blogs again I find myself a month behind|! Apologies to all.

Other than the Short-Billed Dowitcher Dorset didn't overly have alot to offer in the exciting bird stakes. Radipole Lakes, House Sparrow population thrives on the discarded bread that the kids chuck off the bridge for the Ducks, however getting on the right side of the light to capture a picture of the extremely close Sparrows proved a little bit of a problem, the walkways in late september as well as being adorned by the buzzing of Dragonflies were aloud with the call of Cetti's Warblers, all the way along the reed beds they could be heard although I didn't see one of the illusive little Brown Jobs.

Large skeins of Canada Geese kept coming in to land on the water around the reserve and the sounds of honks in the sky would get me looking skyward to see another skein incoming above the surrounding chimney pots.

With the path to the hide closed due to flooding we made a slow walk back to the car, pausing to watch a Mute Swan swiftly hurtle up the water to intercept an interloper.

Cormorants 

House Sparrow 

Mute Swan on Patrol

After a grabbing a quick bite to eat and a paying for an extortionate car parking ticket we headed around RSPB Lodmoor, the Car Park already delivering a couple of birds, Black-Headed Gulls swooped low looking for discarded lunch, unsuccessfully returning to the nearby telegraph poles looking for the next target. More surprisingly a couple of Carrion Crows hobbled around on the ground, youngsters I presumed, but not a bird you see up close that often as there countryside cousins are rather crafty and cautious.

All the way around the Marshy ground and scrapes of the Lodmoor reserve, Grey Herons along with the odd Little Egret poised motionless waiting for fish, a couple fairly close to the pathways and seemingly not a bit bothered by the passer byes. The main scrapes seemed empty of many wading birds except quite a few Lapwing, either in summer plumage or juveniles they stalked slowly around in the shallow water, enabling quite a few nice reflections. 

The only other bird seemingly enjoying the shallow water was Teal, lots of odd pairs popped up all the way around the reserve. We did get a brief glimpse of a Marsh Harrier as it lifted up from the middle of the reed bed, doing a quick circuit and disrupting the majority of the gulls before returning back out of sight.

Black Headed Gull

Carrion Crow

Grey Heron

Lapwing

Drake Teal

By the time we had left Lodmoor and taken the scenic route around to RSPB Arne the light was starting to fade and the weather changing for the worse, not a lot showing close up, but Advocet, 
Bar-Tailed Godwit, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Teal & Mallard all showing out on the Middlebere Chanel.

I did manage a new tick on the species list for 2012, when we made it round to the hide overlooking the salt marsh and distant Poole Harbour beyond, a juvenile Spoonbill could be spotted stood amongst a group of 13 Little Egrets.

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Birthday Blog From Blashford

With the pickings at Langford Lakes pretty slim, we headed back through Salisbury and down towards Ringwood, and the Blashford Lakes Hampshire Wildlife Trust reserve. First port of call the Tern Hide next to the car park overlooking Ibsley Water. If Langford Lakes was scarce, Blashford Lakes proved the exact opposite as I racked up a whopping 8 (all but distant) year ticks! 7 All from the same hide as well, taking my year list to 122.

115 Hobby - 3 circled together in the distance.
116 Little Gull
117 Little ringed Plover - a pair appeared briefly on the top of one of the spits.
118 Common Sandpiper
119 Bar-tailed Godwit
120 Black Tern - 2 adult birds mixing well with the Common Terns
121 Common Tern


The only annoying factor being they were all to far away to photograph, viewing through the scope was a must, Ibsley water stretches out a fair distance, and the islands to which the birds were congregating typically happened to be at the furthest point from the hide.

However several other species where noted and game a whole lot closer, Swallows glided low over top of the waters surface, a Little Grebe floated on the edge of the shore, and even stepped out onto the gravel edge for 10 minutes or so. A sight to behold in itself, its not hard to see why, they're feet are huge and proportioned so far back on they're bodies it must be pretty tricky to walk. 3 Buzzards soared pretty low, along with a few Carrion Crows no doubt in search of the Little ringed Plover or Lapwing youngsters. 4 Whimbrel and a couple of Dunlin in summer plumage joined the Barwits out on one of the tern islands, as plenty of Black headed Gulls congregated with the Terns.

A Lapwing paraded cautiously near the hide which enabled me to get off a few shots, and was soon joined by a Grey Wagtail on the shoreline.

Peg Legged?

Cracking birds in the right light

Lapwing

Grey Wagtail

With the excitement of 7 new sightings in the bag, we headed over to the Woodland hide to see what was feeding, 6 Grey Squirrels, Pheasants, Goldfinchs, Collared Doves, Great Tits & Greenfinchs all visitors to the seed feeders.

Grey Squirrel

We then walked back across to the Goosander Hide overlooking Ibsley water, which is strategically positioned atop of the Sand Martin bank, the activity was pretty frenetic with about 50+ Sand Martins (122) coming and going every 20 seconds or so, some so quick that I had visions of them joining us in the hide. I think I probably fired off about 200 shots on my camera, of birds in flight and when they landeded on the soft moss at the waters edge. They never stay still long enough, so not one was in focus enough to use.

I then most confess to missing what would have been a truly great photographic opportunity, as we rounded a corner on the path out towards the furthest hide, a Fox trotted over top of a grass bank at eye level with a rabbit in its mouth. Seeing us instantly and was gone. To say I was distraught was a bit of an understatement. The remainder of the path had a lot of singing Blackcaps and the odd Reed Bunting flitting back and forth. The only different species viewed from the Hide a lone Shellduck.
The walk back to the car did give me a chance to grab a few shots of a bird that I don't see out in the open very often the Jay.

Jay

All in all a cracking couple of hours and made some good birthday birding. Not a bad way to spend your 26th.

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