Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
Tuesday 23rd October - Thursday 25th October 2012
Three Days Birding in Wales
Tuesday 23rd - the Lleyn Peninsula & Foryd Bay
Up very early as is my wont, I was on my favorite patch of the Lleyn peninsula as it came light. It was misty murky and shutter speeds were struggling even at 640 ISO. I set off from the little grassy car park towards the cliffs. I could hear a raven 'clonking' as I call it somewhere nearby. I spotted him on a post and crept along behind the stone banking. They are very easily put up. Nice image in the available light.
Bardsey Island looked darkly mysterious in the dawning light.
I soon met a few more friends of mine probing for grubs. Two were on the path in front of me. [Only one in view in the photo]
I see he has two colour rings. I met another pair some way off.
They took off and came past me along the cliff top edge. You can see from the bill that recent digging has been happening.
Later on my walk a couple of ravens were mobbing a buzzard some way off. One of the ravens circled round me.
After that it was breakfast and taking my mother-in-law shopping. In the afternoon I went to Pwllheli and Criccieth but saw little of note so I crossed the heights of the peninsula and dropped down towards Foryd Bay south of Caernarfon.
What's this?
Quite confusing at first! All pictures are of the same co-operative bird.
A meadow pipit popped up on the stones next to me.
The road follows the almost landlocked bay for some time. I then took another narrow lane near the White Tower caravan park and stopped to watch the brent geese. Dark and pale-bellied forms present. The books say upto 100 birds gather in winter. Well you can re-write that one! How many do you think are in this photo? And there were other groups; lots of wigeon and pintail too.
Wednesday 24th - Back to Rhayader
Or more precisely my third visit to Gigrin Farm to see the red kite feeding station at 3pm [2pm in winter]. The journey was trying to say the least as an accident necessitated huge diversions each way. However the birds were as spectacular as ever although, as all week, the light was poor. Often my photos are just too blurred as I could not get the fast shutter speeds needed as the kites swoop in. Still, there are some good ones and here they come. Come in number 42!!
If the kites land, it is only very briefly.
Sadly, one bird crashed and probably suffered a broken wing, something I hadn't seen happen before.
Someone came from the farm and threw a large blanket over the bird. It didn't struggle and he was able to pick it up and carry it away in his arms to the aviary where it would be examined later.
The buzzards do land and stay on the ground, often being 'buzzed' by the kites! Buzzards come in quite a colour range as you can see!
Thursday 25th - Put up more Bunting!!
For me the best of all experience was up on the limestone pavement of the Great Orme near Llandudno. My wife and I called there on our way down to Wales for lunch but didn't explore as we were short of time. But it helped me get a feel for where might be best to go. On the Thursday morning I was up there before the dog walkers. It was cold, dull and misty. After a while I gave up and went looking for surf scoter at Llandulas [3 attempts during the week and all fruitless although I scanned hundreds of scoter.] One definite velvet scoter seen in flight.
The lapland buntings then came up on the pager so I decided to go back. That was lucky as I met a wonderful man who told me he had seen the pair and explained it would be almost impossible for me to find them. But he took me about half a mile until he said: 'Nice and slow from now on!' We walked in mini steps in long grass and gorse and heather mix. Suddenly I saw something scuttle in front of us. Lapland bunting at close range.
I was also told where to go to see a single snow bunting that had dropped in. I found him near the top cairn. I sat on the cairn side and watched the bird edge a little closer.
Funny stuff gorse ulex europaeus - in North Wales you can find it in flower all year round. Even on a bitter October morning.
In an adjacent field a magpie was sheep riding - perhaps looking for insects. He spotted me and looked rather sheepish!!
I decided to head back towards Llanengan, again driving via the Foryd Bay road. I stopped to check the wildfowl. A man was walking out on the mud to dig for bait. Suddenly he put up a flock of curlew. I realised they were coming straight at me. I grabbed the camera as they almost passed overhead.
There is a very dark muddy area at low tide near the hide and I photographed this egret and the very black pied wagtail from the car.
I said the best came last. Well here it is: a small selection of lapland bunting images, taken at about 12 feet! The grass does get in the way!
UK 272 One Welsh tick but a great few days.
Friday 19th - Saturday 20th October 2012
Herons, egrets, chats & a warbler - for want of a better title!
Friday pm at Blacktoft
Needed to get out and about and go somewhere but little was being reported within the kind of distances I was prepared to go. Decided on an afternoon run to Blacktoft in hope of late afternoon barn owls or harriers. Outcome: no owls and only distant marsh harriers. Had to settle for a bit of heron watching.
Fishing
Flying
Landing
Saturday: into the Yorkshire fog
No not the grass if you know what I mean. [Yorkshire fog is also the common name for the persistent weed holcus lanatus.] But I mean real Yorkshire fog on my way to Flamborough to see a Pallas's Warbler or Pallas's Leaf Warbler, named after the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas who discovered it on the Ingoda River in Siberia in 1811; the species name proregulus derives from its similar size to the Goldcrest Regulus regulus. No doubt Peter Pallas was also the discoverer of PG Tips!
Anyway, with the foghorn blowing and visibility poor I set off along the hedge on the east side of the gorse field below the car park and met up with a group of four birders and a warbler. So easy. I even went back to the car for a camera, ran off a few shots and watched it disappear! It never stopped moving. I left shortly after but it was seen throughout the day.Here it is!
Next stop was Skinningrove as I knew there were some smart looking stonechats around. Two pairs in fact were soon spotted on the rock armour near the car park. I spent some time sitting down and slowly edging closer until they tolerated me. The female was less easy to approach but still I do often get stonechat withdrawal symptoms so it was good to spend an hour or so with these fellows. They look pristine don't they?
I finished up at Saltholme in my favorite Phil Stead hide with a coffee and watched snipe and little egrets. A marsh harrier appeared distantly from time to time. No labels needed for the final batch.
The snipe has his head cocked to keep an eye on the sky!
Don't think I've ever been quite so close to a magpie. They are very wary birds even though we are never far from one!
Final shot. In the late sunlight a moorhen swam past the hide.
UK 2012: 271 equal with 2011; Yorkshire 132
Thursday 11th - Sunday 14th October 2012
All quiet on the feathered front!
Thursday 11th October
Well, at least where I am it is! Shetland and the Scilies are having a smashing time. I've not been far this week so I decided on Thursday afternoon to go down to Fairburn Ings [not my favourite reserve but perhaps I'm unjust]. Camera at the ready I hoped for kingfisher and willow tit. Over ambitious I'm afraid but anyway I got what follows. Captions unnecessary for the birds and this fellow.Vermin?
I haven't managed to see a tawny owl or a little owl this year but this chap looked very smart as did his friend, Mr. Frog. Photographed from a distance and then cropped they look good!
From Pickup Hide:
Not too keen on bird feeder pics but sometimes you can get good images near feeders or even, as in this case, crop the feeder out of view.
Policeman's helmet, Himalayan balsam, Bobby Tops, Copper Tops, Gnome's Hatstand, Kiss-me-on-the-mountain, Poor Man's Orchid, Ornamental Jewelweed or impatiens glandulifera is a super plant to find when out for a walk with the kids. The explosive seed capsules give a real shock as they burst between your fingers. And what a great collection of common names! Latin provides the universal standard. If you find a white form it should be treasured and the seed picked...although it is often considered an invasive menace - like the grey squirrel. So that's two invasive menaces so far today!
Teasel heads dipsacus fullonum were once used in industry in textile processing, providing a natural comb for cleaning, aligning and raising the nap on fabrics, particularly wool. It differs from the wild type in having stouter, somewhat recurved spines on the seed heads. The dried flower heads were attached to spindles, wheels, or cylinders, sometimes called teasel frames, to raise the nap on fabrics or to tease the fibres. Unusual image of a teasel head!
Hedge bindweed or calystegia sepium merits a better, more flattering name - it is a pretty flower and I have tried to do it justice below.
Saturday 13th October
Trying to make something happen! I decided to head north and then follow the pager. To an extent this worked quite well. On Hartlepool Headland I saw 2 fresh-looking warblers [probably willow] and a black redstart in the memorial gardens. Guillemots on the water. I walked the area until the pager announced a paddyfield warbler north of the Tyne tunnel at St. Mary's Island, Whitley Bay. I hummed and harred for a few minutes, asked TomTom how far it was and set off north. Traffic was light and I was soon in the car park. I headed over to the twitch - it was obvious where the scopes were lined up. Those same accursed bushes where I never saw the greenish warbler a month ago.
Well, I never saw the paddyfield [would have been a lifer] either! Saw some robins! But eventually did see the other reported bird, my second ever Blyth's Reed warbler. A good tick.
Sorry, folks. I didn't take a single picture all day.
Sunday 14th October
I had decided on Friday, in view of predicted wind directions which never materialised, to go north on Saturday and then to Spurn on Sunday squeezing a return visit to New Swillington Ings via the new entrance from Station Road, Mickletown if I could find it - all dependent on whether Barry was coming on one of the days. Unfortunately he couldn't make it so I'll save that trip for another time. The slavgreb will probably linger over half term!
So Spurn it was and I arrived by 7 o'clock!! All quiet and it remained so. Several coach parties of birders hoping for an autumn extravaganza must have been a little disappointed.
I wanted some images for the blog so I spent time photographing things I've often thought of taking but hadn't time to waste. Today, it seemed, time was available. For instance rather impressive longhorn cattle are now grazing the Triangle fields.
At the Canal Scrape three jays were flying around. I had never photographed a jay and I'm afraid my first efforts are nothing to write home about!
If ever there is a special prize for photos of departing birds or rear views I must have a good chance of some success! The jays flew off...
Spurn was just too quiet. There may have been a bearded tit heard along the canal or a couple of choice pipits 'over' but there was little to see once the tide had gone out and the waders had become pixels once again. I decided to leave with no obvious agenda. I stopped to photograph the remains of a level crossing west of Patrington. The line closed in 1965 and there is no sign of the trackbed looking east along what was once the Hull & Holderness Railway to Withernsea.
I saw some smart yellow daises still in full flower [smooth sow-thistle sonchus oleraceus].
Bathed in sunlight, St. Patrick's Church in Patrington looked splendid now it has no scaffolding around the steeple.
I've always though it looks impressive and it was no surprise to learn that the church, medieval and Grade 1 listed, is known as the Queen of Holderness.
Patrington is on the Greenwich Meridian. This means that everything east of there is not in the Far East [because we know where that is] and it's not in the Middle EAst [because there are no endless wars and terrorist squabbles wrecking Holderness!] so it must be in the Near East!
The two photos put it more clearly.
Patrington's Black Mill in the background.
The marble slab shows how the Meridian presents a natural boundary for the Holderness and Spurn peninsula. Yet it is all meaningless really - just a line imagined by man. It doesn't really exist at all!
So you thought this was a birding blog! Well it is, but I like to wander off topic now and then. It looked sunny over the Humber in North Lincolnshire and it was starting to rain as I approached Hull. [Why don't they call it Kingston? That sounds so much more up market than Hull!]
Wonderful Worlaby
Once over the Humber bridge I headed for Worlaby to see if the owls were back. None had been reported but I suspect the local birders don't bother and there had been a good number of 'shorties' along the east coast in the last few days. Unfortunately I realised the rain was following me relentlessly. As I arrived it showed its hand. A kestrel sat miserably in the trees. I listened to Classic FM and then to the album Old Ways by Neil Young.
Coal trains rattle by in the rain.
Eventually the rain cleared and the sky brightened a little. Soon I could see up to 3 short-eared owls. One was being mobbed by a crow.
Eventually one bird, a pale form, came closer.
I began to walk towards it as I had a feeling it was going to land on the fence. The other birder didn't seem to notice.
Hey! I'm over here!
I walked closer all the time. Wished I was in the car rolling slowly along. Too late for that.
If you've never been, try it on a cold, bright afternoon after 2.30pm. You may have to wait a while - or you may not! Park at the roadside beyond the trees anywhere down to the railway line. SE 993126
2012 Uk 270
26th September revision
How wrong can one be?
Wednesday 26th September I was in the car park at the Crown & Anchor at Kilnsea near Spurn. I photographed what I think was a spotted flycatcher on the wire that crosses the grassed area behind the pub. Hopefully [although I am becoming increasingly unsure of myself!] this is a spotted flycatcher:
This was taken according to the info recorded with the image at 11.44.14. The bird flew off and I photographed one of the robins also present. Just over two minutes later at 11.46.58 the bird returned and I photogrpahed it again:
I'm afraid I assumed that it was the same bird back on the wires! But it's changed into a pied flycatcher!! How clever of it...
Thanks and apologies to James Thomas in particular and also to Pete Mella for putting my lack of judgmernt back on the right track. Sorry folks! [Hope I've got it right this time...]
And therefore I saw three different flycatchers in the car park that day. Not bad, eh?
Chris
Thursday 4th - Sunday 7th October
So that's how it all started!!
Just to set you thinking.... See the children in the photo? Well the boy in the school cap is yours truly. Why on earth is he/was I wearing it? Photo taken in Chester in 1957 by my dad. I intend to set up a folder of his Lake District photographs in the near future: I've been cleaning up his slides with the Adobe Photo Elements 6 software. They are very spotty many of them but otherwise pretty good. Taken with an early Exakta SLR. Anyway here, as I said, is how I started birding 55 years ago aged 7! I think the slide has done well to still be this good after over half a century. The ducks look pretty Heinz 1957 varieties too!
Brother Tony in foreground [age 4 - now Professor and Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Reading]; cousin Jacqui in tartan skirt largely hidden from view.
Thursday 4th October
Back to the present. On Thursday, no cap on my head this time, I went to Firsby Reservoirs in search of a putative [good word!] pallid harrier. Saw 5+ buzzards, several kestrels, a flock of up to 30 lesser redpolls passing through the birch trees around the reservoir. No sign of any harriers. Lots of swallows, a few house martins.
On the walk back in warm October sunshine I came across a sunlit ivy plant in flower. There were a good number of late butterflies present. I went back to Tiggy and put the close-up lens on.
Speckled Wood
Comma
Red Admirals
This one is a bit overprocessed but I was seeing what sort of effect I could create...
Friday 5th October
The persistent birder returned to the metal gate overlooking the set-aside field to see the pallid harrier come in to roost. About thirty birders were present. Buzzards, swallows and kestrels seen. No pallid harrier seen.
Saturday 6th October
Easterly wind didn't materialise but I went off to Hartlepool in hope of something. Micawberesque belief that 'something will turn up!'At Newburn Bridge I called in to say hello to my friend Mr. Med Gull. He was at his post on the rocks.
The black sand there does produce some nice lighting effects.
I moved on, heading for Hartlepool Headland. I strolled along the promenade in the sunshine. A feral pigeon was watching me from a pipe sticking out of the harbour wall.
Did you know that when backlit in a really good light redshanks have translucent legs!?
Offshore the drake eiders were now looking splendid at the end of their eclipse period.
Nothing really exciting to be found, I drove to Saltholme to sit in the Phil Stead hide for a while. A kestrel appeared several times but always hovered with his back to the hide! Still it's nicely focussed!!
A little egret proved the most photogenic bird present. I tried to frame it in an old fence.
For some reason it just sat down in the water and sort of lay there. I hadn't seen this behviour before. I could always claim it's a spoonbill!!
There must have been at least thirty snipe on the pool.
This one flew across the pool and landed in the water having obviously decided it was safe to have a good wash.
Eventually it flew to the nearest bank.
Sunday 7th October
Got up 4.30am. Arrived Firsby reservoir SK401955 by 6.15am. Saw pallid harrier 7.15. Light still poor only just after sunrise. Iphone photo of the sunrise and the telegraph pole I leaned against while I waited. About 25 hardy birders present.
Third time lucky! Persistent birder rides yet again!!
2012: Yorkshire 131; UK 269