British Wildlife Calendar 2017

Looking at the time of year I thought it was about now that I should bring back the blog. It's been brought back quite a few times and will probably be brought back again in the future as finding time to write is always so hard.

So anyways some new content. Well looking under the bed in the spare room this morning I realized I still had a handful of my 2017 Calendars in stock. When I say a handful I mean under 10 so here is a short write up featuring this years shots.

If anyone has started their Christmas shopping already and needs a small stocking filler, these are great little gifts. And a bargain at £7.00. Local Delivery/Collection is Free. Or I can post for a £1.00

More information or to order you can visit my websites 'Online Shop' here: British Wildlife 2017 Calendar

As always my Calendar features shots of totally wild British birds and mammals photographed throughout the past year. I always try my best to include an even mix or birds and mammals if I can relate them to the month in which the photo was taken. Here is this years selection.

January 2017 - Great spotted Woodpecker - Taken from my pop up hide around my garden feeders.

February 2017 - Brown Hare - Frosty winter mornings were perfect for catching up with the local Brown Hares.

March 2017 - Great crested Grebes - An early spring trip to the Somerset levels brought a morning with a Great crested Grebe pair on a small lake.

April 2017 - Yellowhammer - My local population were looking stunning as they came into breeding plumage.

May 2017 - Eurasian Otter - A close encounter of the Otter kind whilst holidaying on Mull.

June 2017 - Atlantic Puffin - Some Puffin therapy from a couple of hours spent on the Isle of Lunga.

July 2017 - Roe Deer - With Summer underway, the freshly harvested fields became battlefields for the annual Roe Deer rut.

August 2017 - Kingfisher - 4 Years living by a river and finally I manage a Kingfisher shot.

September 2017 - Red Kite - You never know what species will turn up in the garden when the camera is out, this Kite landing in a tree was a little bit of a shock.

October 2017 - Reeves' Muntjac - Alert as ever, my closest encounter to date with the Muntjac.

November 2017 - Wigeon - I have never had the pleasure of photographing these magnificent ducks up close until a chance visit to RSPB Greylake.

December 2017 - Short-eared Owl - No year would be complete without a shot of these awesome Owls, taken around midday on a grey December day.

As mentioned above for more information or to order you can visit my websites 'Online Shop' here: British Wildlife 2017 Calendar

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South Coast End Of March - 2013

With some time off over the Easter Weekend I got the chance to get back down to the South Coast to Pennington & Keyhaven Marshes hoping to catch up with a few species that I had missed throughout the winter on my year list.

The first big surprise was spotting a Little Egret feeding not to far from the main car park with a bigger white heron like bird next to it, a second look and a scramble for the camera confirmed it as a Spoonbill, a stunning bird not all to common in these parts, and one I have never had the luxury of seeing in closish proximity.

After managing to walk further down the path to get level with the bird some disruption caused it to take flight, circling the marsh and flying back straight over top or our heads. Definitely well worth the 40 mile drive alone.

Plenty of other Little Egrets could be seen all along the marsh, with feeding birds close to the sea wall every 200-300 yards or so.

A fair few Brent Geese remained close in off of the sea wall, and were occasionally joined by the odd group of incoming Wigeon. Oystercatchers drawing our attention with their loud alarm calls, regularly skimmed over top of the waves as we made our way down the seawall path towards Lymington.

On route from the English channel Pennington proved a good spot to see some spring migrants, with Chiffchaff's galore feeding at the waters edge alongside each and every pool around the reserve.
Another surprise whilst watching a Great Crested Grebe feeding off of the sea wall was the emergence of a lone Slavonian Grebe starting to loose its winter plumage.

The Red-breasted Mergansers still appeared paired up in the same spot as where I saw them on my last visit in January, although this time the male took flight from the small spit of land where the female sat. A stunning duck and really streamlined.

As always a small area of pebble and beach was left from the incoming tide and 20+ Turnstone waddled up and down the shoreline feeding.

A species I was keen to catch up with this visit was the Spotted Redshank, having somehow missed the wintering group earlier in January, this time however I was soon comfortable I hadn't miss identified the bird for the common Redshank. And even managed some relatively close photographs as 6 or 7 birds fed on the small shallow lagoon.

Throughout the winter I had been desperate to get close to some or our gorgeous wintering duck species. Usually feeding in large flocks on the flooded ground, getting close without disturbing the group had proved quite tricky and unsuccessful. However I found myself able to view a small group of Wigeon and a couple of pairs of Teal at fairly close proximity.

All winter I have had a fairly good success rate on seeing Goldcrests and also seeing them close up. Today was no exception as we spotted a pair in a isolated bush right next to the footpath. A couple of minutes wait and they both showed them self for some photos.

With some great birds in the bag at Pennington, we headed back across the New Forest to Blashford Lakes a slight detour on the route home. Straight away picking up another new migrant species for the year as 5 Sand Martin hurried across the large expanse of Ibsley Water.

A brief pit stop in the woodland hide showed all the usual resident woodland species and also a couple of rosy looking Common Redpoll, a lone male Brambling and some very smart looking Siskin.

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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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First's For Me - 27th Jan

So I get a message late on the saturday afternoon from Joe at - This Isn't Portland Birding asking if I fancy going for some unusual Hampshire visitors the next day. Bewick's Swan, Tundra Bean Geese & Green winged Teal all possibles. With the sun out and shining by midday we arrived at the Avon floods at Harbridge, after geeing himself up Joe did manage to drive through the puddle that flooded the road, and we quickly found our way around to a roadside field covered in Mute Swans.

Ditching the car on the side of the road we were soon peering over the 5-bar gate into the corn field beyond. Turns out the dairy farmer was also present spreading the field in a fresh covering of cow shit. As if the smell of the country wasn't enough to contend with, a chainsaw started in the hedgerow on the opposite side of the field causing the majority of the Swans to take flight and disappear. I did manage to pick out 3 Bewick's in amongst the blur of white. I must admit the sound of 35 or so Swans wingbeats at close range is quite something.

The Bean Geese had been seen in the same field the night before, but no sign on this occasion so we spent quite a while scanning the distant floods, and trying to pick out the Greylag & Canada Geese to no avail. Plenty of Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing & Starling all making use of the extra waterways.

We braved the flooded road again and parked up on the Bridge to have a good look from a different angle. The Bewick's reappeared no more than 70 yards away and gave some nice views, my first outside of the Slimbridge grounds.

Giving up on the Geese we drove the mile or so down the road to Blashford Lakes, Joe had spent the majority of Saturday afternoon scanning for the Green-winged Teal so thought we would have another bash from the Ivy north screen. Finding a GWT in amongst c.2000 other Common Teal isn't an easy task, and after an hour or so we gave up. Plenty of Canada Geese, Gadwall, Moorhen, Coot and the odd Pochard also on the Ivy lake.

Walking back towards the car we picked up the two Black-necked Grebes on the Rockford lake, at a relatively viewable distance along with some more Pochard, a dozen or so Goldeneye and a lone Kingfisher. The pathway back to the car also brought a couple of Bullfinch the male look stunning a top the nearest tree.

From one side of the Forest to the other, I had been meaning to visit Mercer Way in Romsey for some time in the hope of seeing the wintering flock of Hawfinches. Numbers logged on GoBirding had peaked at 35, so hopefully the chance of seeing my first had pretty good odds. We turned up in the middle of this housing estate and headed over to a small park area of rough grass and a few trees beside the canal. I must admit I wasn't overly confident that the UK's most illusive finch would be here in abundance.

Spying a group of birders over the far side we headed over, they were watching a Brambling low down in the brambles by a nearby puddle. Joe's finely tuned ear soon picked up the call of some birds in a small clump behind us, so we left the small group to there brambling and soon picked up 4 or 5 Hawfinch in amongst the trees. Its not until you see this bird in the flesh do you realise how huge they are. Several came and went, flying in and out ever 2 or 3 minutes, occasionally dropping down to drink from a muddy puddle.

Unfortunately getting photographs isn't the easiest, although they were quite prone to sitting proudly on the branches of certain trees, there always seemed to be a lot of debris in front of the bird. So no clean photographs, and I apologise for the quality of this one but I had to post, my first ever Hawfinch!

Hawfinch

So not a bad day out all in all, 2 new 'Lifers' for me in the form of Black-necked Grebe & Hawfinch, and Joe even managed to catch up with the Green winged Teal a week or so after. Joe's GWT

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Sunny November Waterfowl

As well as the afore mentioned wildfowl in earlier posts, Slimbridge and its surrounding reserve where abundant in a few other Wildfowl species. 5 or 6 Shelduck joined the masses of Wigeon on the tack piece. Along with 40-50 Greylag Geese, all very vocal as Sparrowhawks and Buzzards regularly flew past.

Shelduck

Shelduck

Shelduck

Greylag

Greylag

In smaller numbers, several Grey Heron stood sentry duty on the edges of flooded outcrops, Dead still in the bright morning sun. Tufted Duck & Pochard drifted close to the hides allowing the occasional close up photograph, along with a rather tatty looking drake Shoveler.

Grey Heron

Tufted Duck

Drake Pochard

Drake Pochard

Drake Shoveler

From the Holden Tower various species could be seen on the flooded shores of the River Severn, 70 strong flocks of Dunlin fed on the flooded grassland along with Canada Geese intermixed with a lone European White-fronted Goose. A small flock of Barnacle Geese also fed along the shoreline. A much closer Barny fed inside the Slimbridge grounds, enable a photo of these chunky geese.

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose

After a quick spot of lunch, we headed around to the Zeiss hide, stopping only briefly as there were dozens of screaming kids running through the hide! Much to my annoyance, a good hour or more was spent in the Van Der Bovenkamp hide, as supposedly a Bittern was in the tiny block of reed in front of it. Its fair to say no Bittern was spotted by me, much to my annoyance. Occasionally the huge mass of Golden Plover would take flight before settling back down to feed.

Golden Plover

To finish the trip off, we thought we would go for the pair! Having managed some stunning views of the Short-billed Dowitcher down at Lodmoor in September, I thought I would get a spot on the long staying Long-billed Dowitcher that had been at Slimbridge for a good few months.

The bird was present out on the South Lake along with 50 or so Black-tailed Godwits, but with the sun dipping rapidly the whole scene was just a lot of shadowy birds so no pictures unfortunately, but good to get the set in the bag, and round off a pretty good day!

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First Schoolboy Error Of The Year

A free Sunday, no plans at all! To Blashford Lakes near Ringwood once I could get Kath up an rearing to go (Don't think she was rearing all day to be honest.) 10am Departure planned, so its a bit rubbish when you have to go and wake your sister up at 10.05am on a Sunday morning so you can go birding. So 10am Departure turns into 11am. 

Now having treated myself as a necessity to a Manfrotto 679B Monopod with a Tilting Head, mainly because of the weight of my new Lens we left the car and the car park to head toward the Lapwing and Goosander Hide's overlooking Ibsley Water, having had a quick peep through the Tern Hide and being greeted by a dead Mute Swan, wings outstretched and pointing towards the Pearly Gates, we hoped for better sightings.

Around 1200metres later whilst setting the camera up on a couple of Long Tailed Tits flitting around in the Wintery sun, I realise that I don't actually have a Memory Card in the camera! And so happens the first Schoolboy Error of the year. a 25 minute round trip later, I join Kath in the Lapwing hide with both spare memory cards I carry in my camera bag. The hides other inhabitants looking a little surprised at my sweat cover brow, after my Half Run, Half Walk to catch up. So now I can talk about birds, Ibsley water was absolutely teaming with Waterfowl, thousands of Coots, Wigeon, Mallard, Mute Swans, Tufted Duck, Canadian Geese, Greylag Geese, Goosanders, Great-Black Backed Gull, Shoveler, Shellduck, Gadwall, Black Headed Gull, Cormorant, Grey Heron & first Rarity a female Scaup.

Tufted Duck

After a brief port of call in the Goosander hide, we headed across the road to the smaller, and more woodland surround lakes & the rather impressive Woodland Hide. Now I know I like to moan about photographers, but this really took the biscuit. I'll set the scene. An octagonal Hide with only the 2 end windows open-able, the rest of the glass blacked out due to the close proximity of the Feeders 2-3 metres in front. Now in a free moving, care for other nature lovers kind of way you kind of expect the turn around for a seat on the open windows to be fast moving, take your picture and move on let someone else have a go kind of thing. Instead no we are just gonna sit here all day annoying other people. I overheard that the 3 "Photographers" hogging the window, had been perched there since 8.35am, I looked at my watch, 2.45pm. To make matters worse, they were all deep in conversation, with Nuthatch, Siskin, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Greenfinch, Treecreeper & Lesser Redpoll all flocking in around the feeders and not one being photographed because of a more interesting conversation about the length of time the British Butterfly Association website had been up and running. Therefore I apologise for the not quite crystal clear sharpness I could have had if permitted a seat for 5minutes rather than having to shoot through blackened windows.

Siskin

Treecreeper

Lesser Redpoll

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

Great Tit

All in all other than my ever dwindling disrespect for other members of the general public, a fairly good trip was had. We did manage another first and Im sure a rarety, a bit far for a decent picture but definately possitvely identified a Ferruginous Duck out on the Ivy Lake in amongst some Pochard. Which takes my county list up too 63 so far for 2012.