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

If you are a social media user, Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for up to date sightings & photographs, any 'Comments or Criticisms' are welcomed.

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Roe Deer - 16th Feb

It was just over a month ago now, but I got a phone call from my dad early on a Tuesday morning as I headed to work that a Great Bustard had been seen quite a few times on a nearby estate. I had to get him to repeat it a GREAT BUSTARD!!!!! 

The bird apparently had been present for a couple of weeks and favouring a Stone Curlew plot in the middle of one of the ploughed fields. Being a Tuesday and with a full week of work, the weekend couldn't come soon enough. So armed with instructions and having promised the Gamekeeper and the Estates owners not to reveal its location to anyone I headed off in search of this giant bird.

Walking alongside some thick hedge rows plenty of Yellowhammer & Corn Bunting chirped away in front of me along with a few small groups of Goldfinch flushing up from the seed heads next to the hedge. I managed to get into a sheltered hidden position to view the area the Bustard had been said to have favoured. Not a thing, I was sure with the size of the bird I would be able to see it, but no, no sign anywhere!

A small covey of Red-legged Partridge flew into the belt to which I sat, and several Pheasants flew out as a female Sparrowhawk emerged from the fir trees but still no Bustard. So I sat and waited for a good hour or more, enjoying distant views of 5 Roe Deer mooching about on the ploughing. Then something caught my eye, a good 600-700 metres away a large bird rising high above the hedgerow.

My first thoughts were Short-eared Owl a bird that had roosted on this ground in previous winters, but no a look through the binoculars confirmed Great Bustard. It circled a couple of times in the distance dropping in height with every turn, eventually coming in to land on a game cover crop 3 fields over quite near the road.

Barely able to contain my excitement I legged it as quickly back to the car as I could not taking my eye of the spot I last saw it. 15 minutes later and I was searching the cover crop. Fruitlessly, whether the bird had wandered on down, or simply glided low over top of the road and to the fields the other side.

Gutted, I dejectedly wandered through a gap in the hedge and instantly come across 2 Roe Deer sat on the track 100 or so yards further down. Sticking tight to the hedge and getting as low as I could tripod and all I stalked as close as I could get to the young Doe & Buck, and was really pleased to get a lot of shots, some of which I think are my best yet of Roe.

So I left happy with my Roe Deer shots but not that I had some incredibly distant unrecognisable Bustard flight shots. But never fear, it was only Saturday and having guaranteed the bird was still in residence I headed back the next day, but I shall save that all for the next blog post.

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Danebury & Red Rice - 25th Jan

This will be a bit of a first for me, a no photo blog post! Some of you might say all the better. After being office bound all week due to the snow, the previous day I had seen on Going Birding for Hampshire that quite some big numbers of Farmland birds had been seen within 10 mins of work.

That pretty much sorted my friday lunchtime. I was soon out the office door and off towards Danebury Hillfort. The large flat fields on the Danebury road resulted in nothing more than the odd Buzzard and around 2000 Rook.

Spying a rough piece of set aside cover next to a fairly low hedge row on the smaller road back towards town I took a punt pulling up in the gateway. Not having the camera with me it was quite nice for a change to make use of the scope. With plenty of Snow still covering the surrounding fields this hedge row proceeded to erupt with flock upon flock of small birds as they fed on the cover crop next door before returning to perch back upon the hedge.

Yellowhammer were the easiest to ID, with the bright yellow breasts and heads glowing against the dark hedgerow. With the odd pause in movement, I started to make out Corn Bunting, Reed Bunting, Linnet & Dunnock amongst the throngs. And more interestingly a Buzzard perched on a fence post mid hedge right in amongst them all.

With the constant movement it was pretty tricky to get an accurate count but if I had to roughly estimate I'd say

c.250 Yellowhammer
c.370 Corn Bunting
c.200 Linnet
c.22 Reed Bunting
8 Dunnock

All in all quite pleasant just to do a little bit of Birdwatching without having to worry about photographing it all. However I was a little gutted I missed out on some relevantly close shots of some Yellowhammers.

If you are a social media user, Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for up to date sightings & photographs, any 'Comments & Criticisms' are welcomed.

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Woodlarks & Sunshine (Amended)

With the night off from moving, once home from work at 5pm  I headed out around the garden and the field beyond in some gorgeous late afternoon sunshine to see what was about. Loads of Blue Tits visiting the feeders at the moment, along with a couple of rather huge Great Tits. The House Sparrows seem pretty happy to be making so much noise as well at the moment, Only a few seen but dozens heard.

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

I was however pretty surprised to see a pair of Woodlark (First thought they were Skylarks but after a very helpful comment and some google-ing I can see in my identification ignorance that they were Woodlark) dusting by the side of the road on the rough area we use for car parking. They soon joined others in the freshly worked down field in-front of our cottages. I counted 6 Woodlarks in total from the comfort of my car, joined by 13 Yellowhammers the cock birds almost luminous in their plumage ready for the breeding season.

Woodlark

Woodlark

Yellowhammer

One For Sorrow Two For Joy.....26 For?????

Now I know the old song as well as most, but anybody got any ideas what 26 Magpies are for, I thought the 17 sat in the one Ash tree was a high amount but the other 9 Magpies that were sat further down the hedgerow concluded that number.

Only a trudge around the estate today, resulting in Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Robin, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Corn Bunting, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard, Red-legged Partridge, Pheasant & Carrion Crow.

Also this rather brave Yellowhammer, the first one I've been able to photograph.

Yellowhammer

Yellowhammer

Up The Garden

A quick wander this afternoon with the camera around the Garden brought Blue Tit, Great Tit, House Sparrow, Coal Tit, Wood Pigeon, Goldfinch, Song Thrush, Fieldfare, Blackbird & Yellowhammer.

A couple of pics to mark the occasion.

Coal Tit

Goldfinch

And A Partridge In The Hedgerow

Well my apologies first of all for the lack of posts this week, haven’t had the chance to get out at all, the weathers been pretty rubbish and more annoyingly I’ve been suffering from a serious bout of Man Flu! And we all know what that means!!!

Feeling near enough alive again, and having a surprisingly quiet day planned I used the excuse of walking the dogs, to trek around the estate. And I must say a very festive result, 25 species of bird for Christmas, and no im not just making that number up.

Below listed are the Bird Species spotted today around the estate and on the garden feeders:

1.Blue Tit 2.Great Tit 3.Blackbird 4.House Sparrow 5.Dunnock 6.Grey Heron 7.Green Sandpiper 8.Wood Pigeon 9.Carrion Crow 10.Treecreeper 11.Goldcrest 12.Long Tailed Tit 13.Buzzard 14.Yellowhammer 15.Chaffinch 16.Red Legged Partridge 17.Coal Tit 18.Great Spotted Woodpecker 19.Sparrowhawk 20.Little Egret 21.Mallard 22.Common Teal 23.Pheasant 24.Tawny Owl 25.Robin

Also spotted – Roe Deer, Brown Hare, Rabbit & Stoat

Hopefully I will be able to get out and about again before the New Year, may even get a chance to pop up to Slimbridge during next week. So I shall take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, may you all drink and eat too much and give and receive plenty.

Female Great-spotted Woodpecker

Christmas Lights

Female House Sparrow

Exmoor & Back Again

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a little trip down to Exmoor planned, unfortunately not specifically for Wildlife Watching, and wasn't able to take the camera out and about. The location the Orchard Wyndham Estate about 6 or 7 miles from Minehead on the Eastern outskirts of the Exmoor National Park.

Orchard Wyndham Estate

The first encounter of the day a small murmuration of Starlings coming off of roost as it got light over the Illchester to Taunton road, I've never been lucky enough to encounter such a sight, and although it was only a small number (a couple of thousand) it certainly wet the appetite too see the birds heading to roost in all their glory.

After arriving during a rather sudden Downpour, which came rolling in from the Bristol Channel in a mere matter of minutes, the hopes of a dry day wasn't looking good. However it soon cleared, leaving clear blue skies and beautiful golden light. The wind mind, was pretty much gale force so standing still in one place without being blown 15-20 yards proved to be a little tricky.

Although I was soon pleasantly supprised an a little amazed with the species seen and the numbers in which they were present. Flocks of Bullfinches & Goldfinches were present in the Ash Trees on the edge of the Estate, with the Bullfinch numbers way into double figures, the males striking pink underside highlighted by the bright morning sun as they flew from tree to tree.

Now my next sighting questioned my birding knowledge a little bit, there I was in the middle of the rolling Somerset countryside, no real major watercourses around other than a smallish stream, and the customary ditch alongside every hedgerow. 5 or 6 Reed Bunting perched in the nearest hedge row, A somewhat unusual sight I think to myself, but all was to be revealed, or its the reason Im giving. The other side of the hill alongside the B3190 stood several hundred acres of cover around 7ft in height, which on closer inspection appeared to be Reed used for Thatch. Would be logical right?

Other species I noted around this area, Hundreds of Pheasants, 4 Woodcock, Rook, 6 Buzzard, Carrion Crow, 5 or 6 Wheatear, Blue Tit, Magpie, Great Tit & Blackbird.

The afternoon brought a walk across some set aside Wheat stubble fields, the abundance of bird life rising from the ground was pretty incredible to be honest. Huge numbers of Skylark, Yellowhammer & Corn Bunting. All species I'd feel lucky to see at home.

The wind drew the weather in pretty fast, and it was pitch black by the time I made my way back along the A303, so no late afternoon Starling spotting. But a most enjoyable day, unfortunately I sit writing this post at my desk this afternoon, gazing out of the window at the dreariest grey wet day for a long time. But its nice to reminisce even though it was only yesterday.