Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
Tuesday 11th December 2012
A South Yorkshire Day's Birding
No special ticks or targets in mind but I knew there were some good birds at Wintersett/Anglers' CP that might be photographable.
I found a nice goldeneye and the drake smew in Botany Bay [NE corner] on Wintersett pretty well straightaway.
A bit distant but you also get a coot, and a heron. Spot the heron?
A chaffinch was high in the alder trees in the sunshine.
The light was excellent. A cormorant in breeding plumage came over.
From the hide I espied a lapwing with the new punky-plover hair style.
A grey heron flew in to stir things up a bit...
...but the goosander was unperturbed.
On the walk back I spotted a blckbird in a wild rose bush. Hip-hip hooray he chortled!
I also got a better view of the female long-tailed duck that has been around for a while. Whilst taking this an egyptian goose flew in but landed out of sight.
Next stop, Old Moor. I've never got the perfect yellowhammer photo. I still haven't!
Out on the Mere the wildfowl were largely on the ice which gave some nice teal shots.
The gadwall have obviously paired up ready for next spring.
Back near the car a robin and a reed bunting were in the hedge. The bullfinches were too wary to let me take their picture.
Final stop: Fairburn Ings. The light was fading so I just walked down to the swan feeder station by the entrance. Surprise, surprise! The boardwalk thing has been much extended so as to drive the swans mad! As you walk along the new extension all the birds set off to follow you. A black-headed gull posed on the railing...
...and this swan sailed straight at me!
Friday 7th December
Diversity!
Reports over the last few days of a great northern diver in the marina in Hartlepool led me to venture forth after a week of abstinence - mainly due to the weather. The drive up was sunny and problem free although I could see snow dusting the western edge of the North York Moors.
Once in Hartlepool I drove straight to the Premier Inn on the marina estate and parked [it's £1.00 for 3 hours]. I walked over to a group of birders.
'There it goes!' one cried. Can't believe it, I thought - it's flown the moment I arrive! I pointed the camera skyward. Autofocus was slow to lock onto this now distant bird. But here it is: disappearing great northern diver heading out to sea.
I smiled at the bloke next to me.
'Don't worry,' he said. 'There's two of them. The other's over there!' He pointed. That put a real smile on my face. Here's the other one.
I often assumed that these birds find refuge from bad weather or simply are exhausted when they spend time in a harbour location. Perhaps, however, there's another reason. Shelter with easy pickings. I was lucky to see this.
A couple of more conventional poses from this bird which didn't seem to mind our presence. We were very near to it.
I decided I had done very well and would head down to Saltholme. I stopped en route at Newburn Bridge to see if my ever-present med gull was ever present! As I walked down to the wall a lot of waders were still present although it was over two hours since high tide. I panned to follow this group of sanderling being led by two ringed plovers.
In my rush I had left my bins in the car. I tried to find the med gull using the camera as a sort of binocular. Is this my friend?
Because I couldn't see his dark tail I thought for a moment but, no, it's a BHG too.
Then I saw another bright bird in the sunshine on the rocks.
This is another BHG, as I can now see quite easily. At the time I was still unsure so when he took off I followed him carefully as he flew north along the shoreline.
I saw him turn and head back but somehow in the mix I must have confused two birds as this one flew back to his favorite rocks!!
Tiggy and I headed for Saltholme to get a sack of bird seed. Soon done I spent a few minutes looking at nothing whatsoever in the Phil Stead hide. Back at the car I saw that they were reporting great northern divers and a black throated diver now at the marina. After a few moments thought I decided to return and have a look. I would be thrilled to photograph both birds - neither were ticks.
I soon found the great northern. Picture of the day, I think.
Close by was a cormorant [I carelessly assumed] which, on closer inspection, turned into a very friendly frame filling shag.
Enter shag portfolio!
We are sailing...
I couldn't find any sign of the black-throated diver and no other birders were now present. I drove round to the preserved paddle steamer PS Wingfield Castle as I could see some mergansers distantly and wondered if the BTD was down there too.
Only a cormorant nearby. I decided to drive round to Jackson's Landing in case the bird had swum round that side. Eureka moment!
My first view.
Some better views of a bird that was always much further away than the great northern and rarely stopped preening.
The light was failing. Eventually the bird flew further down the basin and I called it a [very good] day.
Postscript
Over the days of enforced birdlessness I looked back through some of this summer's photos and found a few nice shots I had missed. Here they are.
Common sandpiper, Scaling Dam.
Green sandpiper, Blacktoft Sands.
Arctic tern, Farne Islands.
Optical illusion! Unidentified species [of common tern], Saltholme.
Knot, Newburn Bridge.
Coda
UK 2012: 278 still... Is that going to be it for 2012 I wonder.
Tuesday 27th November - Thursday 29th November 2012
Winter thrushes at Blacktoft
Pottered down to Blacktoft on Tuesday 27/11 to see if the water pipits were about. 'On the ditch slubbings' unquote. Slubbings must be a local word or a land drainers' technical word. Funnily enough it is referred to in the Sussex Otters & Rivers Project (SORP) if you search under ditch slubbings. It means all the gunge you put on the bank of a ditch after you've dredged it with a big digger. Not a lot of people want to know that! Great for water pipits apparently.
I saw none.
As I arrived the car park was full of birds. Immediately I saw one mistle thrush, a number of redwing and lots of fieldfare. There wasn't a lot else but the fieldfare kept me entertained. As I crossed the big bank I spotted a very dark pheasant...
...and a rat hoovering up the seed under the bird table.
Tree sparrows and tits were also there. This blue tit looked good with his red hawthorn berry feast.
However the fieldfares were the stars, so here's a few of the best shots of them. First, from the car park.
Then from the long hedge.
The birds were very nervous and it was hard to get really close. Eventually one bird was a bit more determined to have his haws, as it were, and stayed while I ran off a few shots - these are all of the same bird.
The afternoons are short at the moment and by 3.30 the light was failing. I packed up. As I was turning onto the road back to Ousefleet I saw a large flock of geese land in a field on the left about 600m ahead. I got the camera onto the passenger seat, wound the window down and set off slowly in my mobile hide.
Pinkfeet!
A Pugney's Surprise
The news was that a drake adult long-tailed duck was on the main lake at Pugney's Country Park near Durkar, Wakefield. [If you want to satnav your way there, I put Durkar as my destination on TomTom. It works for me!] I looked long and hard and could only find gulls, coots and great-crested grebes plus a few other usual suspect wildfowl. No sign of a LTD. Then, as if from nowhere, a fairly large splodgy black and white duck flew to the far end of the lake. Where it had been until then I had no idea. I set off walking near the bank in appallingly muddy conditions.
Again no sign until I thought I saw it. I set off again only to find a black-headed gull. Had I seen it at all, I wondered. Then it popped up again.
I realised two things. One, it can swim a long way underwater, staying underwater for a considerable time. Two, it spends more time out of sight than in view.
Sort of skulking behind a bush I eventually got reasonably close. Good bird if it is rather splodgy-blotchy. But a nice male nonetheless. Here's a few views.
Can't stop! Goodbye!
Friday 16th November - Saturday 24th November 2012
Morality tales or fables
1: What have I told you?
On Friday a bittern was paged at North Duffield Carrs, right in front of the Geoffrey Smith hide, so off I went with the camera. The hide was pretty full. After a while Alan Whitehead, aka Duffbirder, arrived revisiting his old haunts. Perhaps he's missing NDC - it's a fair way from Holmpton. Anyway from 10.45 until 13.15 I waited and saw very little. The whooper swans were distant and it was cold. The fog rolled back in and visibility became poor.
So at 13.15 I left. I sometimes talk about being a persistent birder: the bird appeared again at 14.20. Should have stayed until the bittern end!
2:You don't know how lucky you are!!
Saturday pm I went to Blacktoft again looking for barn owls.
I was told to go to Singleton for the best chance of barn owls. 'Where's that?' I asked.
'Just follow Fred, he'll show you the way.'
OK, Fred. Lead on, mate!
The light was poor, then quite good but the birds remained obstinately distant. I did see merlin, two barn owls, about ten marsh harriers and a female stonechat, a Blacktoft lifer for me, if you know what I mean! Nothing of note was in camera range and I was battling the oncoming dark. A pair of little grebes swam by...
I should be satisfied with what I did see. After all I'm lucky to be able to get here as often as I do. The images aren't all bad - only the snipe photo has been brightened significantly - and for a reason. Here it is. Question is, how many snipe can you see?
The marsh harrier and shovelers are 'as shot'...
There were four males but one was so far behind I cropped him off!
Starlings were dropping like raindrops into the reeds.
By the time I reached Tiggy, the light had gone - the moon from Blacktoft Sands car park.
Answer: there are 6 snipe. 3 in the centre, one on each end and one on the left on the bank. Looks like an inanimate lump!
3: Two days at Saltholme
Day 1: Look everywhere. You never know what's there!
After a rotten week weather-wise Friday augured well for a day's birding so I headed up to Saltholme for the best of the weather and the light. On arrival at 9am a group of birders were lined up by the workshops just beyond the Phil Stead hide. Looking at a pair of waxwings on a hawthorn bush. Redwings were there too but here are the two waxies.
Back in the hide for a while, things were fairly quiet. A redshank dropped in.
The light was good and this gadwall looked really well in the early sunshine.
I decided to keep moving: there's so many birding spots in the area. North Gare road might have the caspian gull that has been recorded in the last few days. There were lots of curlews and geese.
With high tide checked the night before [subscribe free to EasyTide for 7-day predictions for most places] for 11.59, I knew that the wader roost at Newburn Bridge would be good any time after 10.30. So I parked up there in the re-opened little car park. [At last the building site has gone. I can't tell what on earth they did during all that time either!!] I don't think I have ever seen so many redshank. Here are just a few of them...
As the tide advanced the birds were pushed further up the beach. I spotted my good friend the resident mediterranean gull sunning himself. Note the different profile of the black-headed gull behind.
Teesside airport gets pretty busy at times so you can always do a bit of plane spotting too.
My friend is watching a flight going back to Malta or somewhere else in the Med!!
A turnstone was having a bathe in a rock pool...
...then a good shake...
...and a good flap of the wings.
Back into Tiggy and a few miles north to Hartlepool Headland. There were some female common scoter close inshore. Waiting to be photographed.
Walking along the promenade towards the fish dock I came across a female eider up against the pilot pier. She didn't mind me looking over the wall at her and stayed close.
She deserved two views, I think. Oystercatchers were on the shingle and a cormorant was swimming close to me off the pier.
As I walked back a pair of scoter were now close in.
The pager announced that the caspian gull was showing off the Zinc Works Road so off we went. A kind birder [Andrew Kinghorn - the Fog Blog] helped me get on the bird. Smart second winter, white head, long neck, some grey mottling on back - unfortunately it soon flew off along with the rest of the flock, back to the recycling hill.
Finally it was back to Saltholme to end the day. The light soon goes at this time of year. On the walk to see the long-eared owls I saw the new 'Mad Hatter's Tea Party' sculpture. It's very impressive. Here's the Mad Hatter.
I never found the owls - it was unbelievably muddy too. The shetland sheep must have watched in amusement.
Old 'Amber Eyes'. Afraid that's as close to Shetland as I'll get for a while.
I ended up in the Paddy's Pool hide. A merlin and a magpie were perched in a bush. The merlin soon put everything up. Bit of what I call a cuckoo shot but you can see enough I think.
A pair of red-breasted mergansers were also there.
The day was dying. I walked back to the visitor centre to buy some fat balls for the garden feeders. A group of barnacle geese [over forty present apparently] were by the fence.
Saltholme day two: Something's bound to turn up!
Barry and I set off at about 8.45am [late for us] for Saltholme etc. We began with the etc bit by going to North Gare to see if the caspian gull was about. Unfortunately the sunshine had turned to fog that only got thicker as time went by. We saw a lot of gulls in the fog but that was all. We decided to call back later if the visibility improved. Next stop: Newburn Bridge for the waders.
A couple of red-throated divers were just off the beach, giving great views.
As the birds were pushed up the beach we saw redshank, dunlin, knot, ringed plover, oystercatcher, purple sandpiper. Sanderling were missing but after a while one dropped in.
The med gull was present too. It was cold and, looking back to North Gare, we were glad to be out of the fog. Hartlepool Headland looked clear too so we headed up there.
We saw good numbers of eider and scoter on the sea. The eider looked stunning.
I've always wanted to be good at drawing and painting. Using Adobe I can become a painter!! Here's my eider daub!!
I spotted a pipit on the tarmac. While looking through the pictures I found a picture [taken a few minutes later] of the pipit up on the stone behind the promenade. I noticed the ring on its right leg.
Here's the original picture which, when I paid attention, also showed the ring. It's a rock pipit.
Down on the shingle beach I spotted a gull that looked different. I don't know why but I seem to be able to pick med gulls easily these days! This one looked really smart and I edged nearer which worked fine until a family with a dog drove everything off!
Off went the med gull.
Off went the oystercatchers.
A flock of turnstones flew out to sea.
Looking into the encroaching mist, a group of cormorants were resting on semi-submerged rocks.
Time to go. We set off for Saltholme. En route Barry spotted a short-eared owl on a post near Greenabella marsh. From the roadside I fired off a few shots.
When we got to Saltholme we went to the Phil Stead hide. Goldfinch were feeding up for the night.
A walk down to Paddy's Pool hide in hope of barnacle geese confirmed that we were beaten by the weather. Only a foggy shoveler remained to finish the sequence.
Let's hope for better birding conditions soon.
Wednesday 7th November - Monday 12th November 2012
Yorkshire Miscellany
Harking back
Barry and I went to Blacktoft on 2.11.12 and Barry photographed an insect on the glass in one of the hides. Later he e-mailed me the photo and those super naturalists at ispot identified it as a cinnamon sedge (limnephilus marmoratus). Here it is.
© Barry Bishop 2012
ISO 1600
On Wednesday November 7th I went to Blacktoft again, hoping for barn owls in late afternoon. Unfortunately the weather forecast let me down and it became very grey - I had read that the Blacktoft barn owls show best on nice afternoons! - so dull I had to punch the ISO up to 1600: something I had never done before. There was little to photograph too. Snipe were buried in the grass with little visible other than the tops of their heads; the marsh harriers were distant and the male hen harrier, splendid though he was, was far away over the Trent near Alkborough. I took a few shots of a heron. Uncropped the graininess is not apparent and I was pleasantly surprised with the result. It captures the light that afternoon too. It did however teach me a lesson...
Not Tiggy but Tiggywinkle?!
In our garden my wife found a tiny hedgehog on Saturday 10th November. She was sure it was too small to survive the winter and wanted me to find out what to do! I tried to phone the RSPCA but, as usual, no-one answered. Trawling the internet I eventually found a good website: the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. They have members across the country who take in injured or immature hedgehogs. I spoke to Julie who was wonderful and, putting Miss Tiggywinkle in Tiggy we all went to see her near Easingwold. Soon we discovered that Miss Tiggywinkle was a boy! What's more, a boy with ticks and fleas. I iphoned some photos of Julie inspecting the little fellow and removing the two ticks.
Julie confirmed that he was too small to survive the winter without help. She would feed him up and keep him warm and we hope he will wake up next spring. If he does Julie will let us know and we will collect him and return him to the garden! Here's hoping!
go to:- http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk
Lesser yellowlegs: 2nd attempt
Just hoping for a good year tick. I've seen quite a few. My first was probably about 8 years ago in Thornham harbour, Norfolk when it was chased down a gully by over-excited photographers. The more they approached the bird, the further it went. I was quite new to obsessive birding then and was amazed because we were just exploring the harbour when lots of cars suddenly started arriving full of birders. Obviously I hadn't even heard of pagers then.
Anyway, I drove to Aldcliffe Marsh, just south-west of Lancaster. Congratulations to TomTom who took me, correctly, all the way to the quagmire car park! Lancashire roads were very often littered with enormous puddles. Mud was the only descriptor for the place. But, the yellowlegs was showing quite well. 278 UK 2012.
The quality of the photos was disappointing. Because the bird was some way off, I had to crop considerably. However, remember the heron? Well, I forgot to put the ISO back to 400, my normal setting unless the light is wonderful, so these were taken at ISO 1600 and when cropped the pictures soon fall apart. Still there'll be another yellowlegs one day...
'Perch, weed and grebe'
- a visit to Far Ings LWT Tuesday 13th November 2012
I went in hope of photographing a drake smew. No-one had seen it but I went to the hide where it had been reported. Two birders were there watching goldeneye. 'What's that down by the hotel?' I asked. They'd obviously been chatting too much. Drake smew. I took a long walk round to the hotel. Ground staff at Reed's Hotel were very helpful and basically said it was ok to wander. The bird had disappeared however down the other end in the reeds. Typical smew.
A flock of greylag came over. Greylag wallpaper for a computer screen?
A magpie cackled but let me get unusually close.
I returned to the same hide after a long circuit of the reserve. I saw little other than a young girl from the hotel having a quiet smoke behind a bush!
A great crested grebe swam into the small pool in front of the hide. It caught a perch! All photos are of the same bird.
The plan that day was to see a white drake smew, then go to Alkborough for the long-billed dowitcher and then finish the day at Blacktoft - yet again in hope of barn owls.
I didn't see the dowitcher and my camera battery died at Alkborough so I didn't bother going to Blacktoft. The day was fading anyway. I did have an interesting time at Alkborough however.
On the scrapes on the left as you approach the first hide I saw some waders with yellowlegs. Ruff!
There were lots of waders, hundreds of lapwing and golden plover. From the hide I photographed a lonesome dunlin...
..and a very co-operative shelduck.
Some curlew flew past several times. I noticed that I often heard a curlew call just before they took off. So, I was ready next time as these birds came towards me.
Another birder with a big camera said: 'You were quick! They'd gone before I was ready!' You can't do what I manage hand-held if you are tied to a tripod - that's the one big advantage of the 400mm lens over the real big boys.
The battery having died, I decided to head for home. As I left Alkborough in the wrong direction [something always baffles me about the place! Although I did find it ok this time, Barry!!] I saw an information board in the middle of a piece of fenced off ground. I stopped, reversed a little and drove into a brand new car park, big enough for about 30 cars with a path down to the eastern section of the reserve - a part I had never been to. Perhaps that's where the dowitcher lives!! I used the phone to capture these images which made the visit a useful 'recce' for the future.
Monthly notes on what's been seen...
...and a nice reserve map. There are 3 hides on the map too. I think a whole day visit might pay dividends!
St. George's Field, York
The pager claimed 200+ waxwings in the car park at 1pm so after lunch and after digging up a large clump of tree poppy romneya coulteri [Great plant by the way. Hard to establish, hates being moved and then after a decade goes mad!] I went to the recycling depot via the aforementioned car park.
Romneya coulteri in the garden September 2011
The waxwings - about 50 - were high up in the trees or flying around so no great shots but here's a couple of views plus a nice grey wagtail that was on the lockside of the Foss at Castle Mills.
What's the pink thing?