Shropshire - 2nd Feb

A weekend visit to the beautiful county of Shropshire beckoned at the start of the month, and hopefully a visit to Gigrin Farm just over the border in Wales, that never came to fruition so I left Nat asleep and was off to find myself some of the local hotspots.

I had been reading on the Shropshire Ornithological Societies bird reports about a fairly showy Green-winged Teal at Polemere a small reserve about 20miles away on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, having dipped on the Blashford one the weekend before this seemed a logical place to start. I must admit on arrival I expected something a little bigger, on first appearances Polemere NR is nothing more than an flooded farm pond, with a hide plonked on the horse paddock over looking the water.

And to be honest thats exactly what it was, but what a haven for wildlife. Positioned right in the middle of some arable farmland, just a few trees and a couple of hedgerows surrounding it. I could instantly see a fair few Teal, Greylag Geese, Wigeon, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose & a lone domestic farm Goose all from the comfort of cushioned seats and a carpeted hide.

The sun was pitching in quite nicely on the water and certainly helped in searching for that special Teal. I guess in total around 250 Teal graced the farmland water a lot less than the 2000 or so the week before at Blashford. But after a good hour and a half of continual Drake Teal scanning, nothing more exciting than a common Teal Drake having a good stretch and wing flap presented itself.

Drake Teal

From Polemere I ventured north east towards Venus Pool, a reserve I have heard quite a lot about on various other blogs and websites. Run by the Shropshire Ornithological Society I was quite surprised by the amount of cars in the car park, as I headed the short way down the lovely clean gravel path to the first hide. 2 White-fronted Geese instantly presented themselves 60 yards or so from the hide in amongst the Greylags. My first new Year tick for the weekend. (and my last), unfortunately the amount of cars made sense now as the hide was bursting with Photographers, an unusual occurrence for me, usually there are a lot more twitchers.

So no room to squeeze in and get a photograph. The other hides where a lot quieter and I soon picked out a drake Pintail asleep on one of the islands. Plenty of Lapwing continuously flew off and circled before coming back in to land back on the spit they just left. They were soon joined by a large flock of Snipe, a good 65-70 strong mimicking the Lapwings behaviour.

The woodland bird feeding station was quite a site, with a ridiculously large number of common garden birds visiting the various feeding stations present. A shame the trees blocked out so much light to prevent some decent photography. Nice to see a good dozen or more Greenfinch making light work of the sunflower seeds.

After a bit of a do at home on Saturday night, Sunday morning required some fresh air, with Nat in tow this time we decided to have another crack at Polemere for the GW Teal. Fair to say not a lot was different than the day before other than the arrival of a pair of Goosander and 3 Snipe. Still no Green-winged Teal!

Having the topic of my photography brought up at Saturday nights party, I was told of a place we should visit for some easy access to Fallow Deer. And although I've said in the path I think this is cheating a little bit, I decided to go with the flow and do the same as everyone else. It's not like I am going to pretend they were wild animals!

Attingham Park is also on the outskirts of Shrewsbury and just 2 miles or so away from Venus Pool, home of a very large herd of Fallow Deer that are fed at weekends during the winter. Having arrived a good hour before the scheduled 'feeding' time, I said to Nat it would be good if we could get some shots before they all disappear off to be fed. How I rued those words. We followed the signs to the deer park seemingly walking miles and miles before eventually coming across the 300+ strong herd in the field not to far from the car park.

A good 3 mile looped walk if only we had gone the other way. With 10 mins or so to go until feeding time I quickly tried to pick out some single subjects, trying to capture one individual as a natural photo rather than the massive huddle that formed as a few visitors tried to get closer from all angles. It's fair to say I took exactly 7 photographs before a Pickup full up with sugar beat arrived and led all the deer away down the hill to near enough the car park and main house.

This seemed remarkably idiotic to me as a good 60 people stood waiting a top the hill, having walked through shitty muddy puddles and soggy waterlogged parkland to be told they would have to walk all the way back through it again straight away.

Then to make matters worse the deer were fed in a small gully, meaning only there heads could be seen as they enjoyed there daily food. It just made me think what a bunch of idiots the National Trust staff at Attingham Park are. It was a real shame the light was so dull as this location minus visitors and idiotic staff had a lot of potential for some nice shots.

Fallow Buck

Fallow Buck

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The Climb To Clee

The prospect of the afternoon off of work and the weekend spent with my girlfriend in Shropshire, cheered me up as I left Andover at half 12 and made the near on 3 hour journey north west towards Ludlow. The plan to drive through and spend a couple of hours on the Long Mynd, soon changed when I realised I was busting for the loo, not usually a game changer, but as I drove over the open expanse of Clee Hill 5 or 6 miles before Ludlow.

I decided with the clock just passing 3pm and the early November sun already dropping down low towards the distant mountains once I had got up on to the Long Mynd time would be pretty limited. So an impulsive turnoff to Titterstone Clee summit settled all doubts, firstly to relieve the bladder, and secondly in the hope in picking up some upland specialists. Ring Ouzel being number one on the wish list.

As soon as I parked up above the old quarry and stepped out of the car, The change in temperature hit me, to say the wind is pretty keen would be a bit of a understatement. It was freezing! I'm not sure if its the change in temperature and altitude or the fact that I'm overweight and physically unfit, but the fairly steep ascent up towards the radar station nearly killed me. 

After reaching the summit, I found a nice sheltered spot on the eastern face hiding from the wind and regaining my breath, the view from here is pretty spectacular and I chastised myself for not carrying my smaller lens as the afternoon sun covered the surrounding miles in gorgeous soft orange light.

On the bird front I must admit I was pretty disappointed, no Ouzels or Raptors in sight, the only activity, the 50 or so Ravens that flew, cronked and exercised rather aerobatically quite low over my head, even with a few impressive barrel rolls that sprung out of knowhere.

Ravens

Ravens

As I descended down the slightly more rocky south face I still held hope for a Blackbird type thrush, but nothing, just the sight of two distant Merlin being chased by 5 or 6 Ravens. Once back at the car I did swap lenses over, but having missed the best of the light I left a little annoyed having watched the Sunset from a high vantage point and not being able to photograph it. As usual a massive fail on my part!

Sunset In Wales

With pretty horrid weather all day on Saturday I didn't have the opportunity to get out with the camera anywhere, and resulted to photographing the odd garden bird from the bedroom window on Sunday morning as the Sky's cleared. Dunnock & House Sparrows quite vocal in the hedge at the back of the garden.

Dunnock

Cock Sparrow

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Merlin Magic

Female Merlin

Its fair to say that encounters like the one I had on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd October, don't come around to often. Having sat indoors all morning, impatiently waiting for the fog to clear so we could pop out for a mooch. Destination the upload moorland of the Long Mynd, Midday passed and still no break in the fog, by this time my impatience had grown to rather frustrating levels, I hate sitting indoors at the best of times, especially when I've got time to be doing something I love.

As 1pm approached my frequent trip to look out of the window wielded some result, patches of blue sky appeared through the mirk, and the whole outlook looked generally brighter. The gear was packed and loaded into the car, and as we made the trip from Craven Arms up to Church Stretton by 2pm most the upper slopes appeared bathed in autumnal sunshine.

I said to Nat on the way, I'd be happy with one of 3 species today, Red Grouse, Ring Ouzel and most unlikely Merlin. Having seen Grouse up there earlier in the year, I favoured the odds on that result. And after half and hour of scanning the heather in various different spots, ears wide open for the call of a wild Red Grouse, we still remained Grouseless. As we crept down the road a little further, Nat spotted a falcon like blur cross the road in front of us. After a swift pull off the road, I picked it up again way out on the moorland perched in a low scrubby leaf less bush. After locking the big lens on it and a bit of checking on the phones Bird App I was pretty convinced it was a female Merlin. My first ever. And although a long way away I had a picture to prove it. (see below) After around 5 mins of having its back turned to us, she took flight, swooping low over top of the heather dropping down on some prey and disappearing off over the dip. So the most unexpected in the bag!

The first Sighting

So with Merlin in the bag I was feeling pretty good, a new tick for the year and a lifer in the process. We headed back in the other direction still on the look out for some Grouse. As the road descends off of the Mynd the moorland gives way to more agricultural ground, this usually signals the time to turn around and head back across the moor home.

Typically as the road is single track with passing places its a quite frequent occurrence to have to pull over for another vehicle. At this particular stop I happen to look to my right just before the coming car passed, and spotted a bird sat atop a bale of heather, slightly randomly atop of the Long Mynd several patches of heather have been cut and rolled into round bales. Praying the passing car didn't disturb the perched bird a mere 40 feet away, I readied the binoculars and the camera. Another Merlin, also another female, we had only travelled about a mile down the road so probably the same bird. Magic!

So down came the window and out popped the lens, I happily snapped away, all the while shaking like a sh**ting dog, I wasn't sure if it was the excitement of a fairly close encounter or just the fact I couldn't hold my camera steady with the car vibrating.

Spotted from the Car Window

Chancing my luck I told Nat to drive on very slowly up the road so I could get level with her, still she sat perched seemingly totally oblivious to the car. More shots taken and a lot more shaking, pushed me to make a decision, we parked in the next pull in a good 50 yards up the road, and I got out set my tripod up and slowly walked back down the road to see if I could get a little closer and a whole lot steadier.

It turns out I did get a hell of a lot closer, walking down the road till I was level with the bale 25-30 feet away. The falcon didn't appear at all bothered by my presence or the stiff movements I was making trying to get some different angles without spooking her. After about 15 magical minutes of watching and photographing she just launched off and was gone. A truly awesome encounter one I am sure will never happen again.

As I walked back down the road

The scene from the road

My favourite Merlin shot

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Teme Dipper

Waking up to a wet morning on sunday wasn't the best start to the day, but by 11am the skies seem to have lighten a bit and the rain subsided. A short drive into Ludlow for a walk along the River Teme, plenty of Mallard & Mute Swans seen on the Weirs, a pair of Bullfinch by the path side, branches preventing me from a decent picture. But the star bird, the one I was hoping to see, the Dipper!

We first saw it from the bridge by the Charlton Arms Hotel, as to which I managed some distant pictures, before making full use of the pubs riverside garden and car park to get closer. As he/she left and revisited its rocky perch several times. Also spotted a Kingfisher flying low over top of the river when walking back to the car.

Probably the best weekends birding I've ever had, with 2 new species and 4 newbies for the 2012 Year list. Which is up to 98 now.

Distant Dipper

Distant Dipper

Dipper

Dipper

Dipper

Clun Kites

Heading back to Craven Arms on the back of a mornings walk with the Crossbills & Great Grey Shrike about half way along the road from Clun I had to do a pretty quick pull over again, this time in a gateway to the side of the main road. Hazards on I jumped out of the car armed with the camera, able to lean on the 5 bar gate and shoot the 5 Red Kites that had been soaring over the road a minute or too previously. The light was absolutely perfect and I don't think I've ever seen Kites fly so low in a place where they haven't been fed for the purpose. They all seemed to be after a bit of white plastic as you can see below. We had awesome views and at one stage thought one particular Kite was heading through the window of the Car.

Red Kite

Red Kite

Red Kite

Red Kite - Rubbish Collector

Long Mynd Grouse

I finished work at lunchtime on friday so headed off to Shropshire to spend the weekend with my Girlfriend, after beating the friday afternoon traffic and once refreshed we headed out for a drive in the gorgeous late afternoon sunshine. Having not explored the area to much in the last year, I had a rough idea of which direction we wanted to head in, so headed up the rather adventurous single track road, signposted unsuitable in Autumn & Winter, Over the Long Mynd which stands between the Stiperstones to the West and the Stretton Hills to the East.

With the car scraping the tarmac on a few occasions and the gear-stick not leaving first, it was pretty reminiscent of a Scottish mountain pass, the view wasn't to bad either as we rose to around 1500ft. A quick pit stop at the top of the hill to watch a Glider take off from the Midland Gliding Club who are based on the top, before a leisurely drive along the Spine of the hills, windows wound down in anticipation of something interesting. Im sure during certain times of the year the heath-land is brimming with Moorland wildlife but as the clock ticked round to 5.15pm it didn't seem to be present. (Usually the effect I have on places) When finally, with the late afternoon sunshine bathing the Heather in an orange glow, movement caught my eye. A Cock Pheasant miles from any trees or hedgerows, popped out on to the road swiftly followed by Buzzard swooping low over the brow to our left, soon vanishing from sight.

Nearing the end of the range I was beginning to get a little annoyed, 5 or 6 miles we had driven along the top of a quiet, peaceful natural wonderment and nothing moved for miles around, and then approaching the last bend before the decent into Church Stretton a bright red comb appeared out of the heather a mere 30 yards from the road. Ditching the car in the nearest pull in, I stalked back up the road and managed to get a load of shots of a pair of Red Grouse - another newbie for the 2012 list. But by this time the light was fading pretty fast so had to get a little closer and lower to shoot with the sky as the backdrop. The birds didn't seem bothered by my presence mooching about on the ground till a 5 Raven fly-by flushed them to the bank and thicker cover on the opposite side of the road.

Red Grouse Male

Red Grouse Male 

Red Grouse Male

Red Grouse Female

Red Grouse Male

Red Grouse Male

Red Grouse Female