Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
17th September 2019
Excellent craic/crake!
Blacktoft 17th September
Morning at home when suddenly I saw a message on the pager: Baillon's or little crake at Blacktoft. I have rarely got on my way so quickly! I knew both birds were potential lifers - it was just a matter of seeing it, knowing, as I did, that crakes can disappear in a reedbed for a very long time...
I needn't have worried. I saw the bird within a couple of minutes of arriving at a half-full Marshland hide. Within half an hour birders were queuing outside!
There were other birds too, so I'll start with them.
Ruff and shovelers
Ok. Time for the little 'un! I've mixed a couple of water rail shots with them as some people got very excited when one appeared. The crake was comparatively tiny. UK lifer 440 coming up!
227 UK 2019
10th September 2019ff
Spellbound!
1:September 10th: Magpie photoshoot
Back to Saltholme and to Phil Stead hide hoping for more merlin encounters. The bird showed well in the morning but my visit was in the afternoon. A magpie photoshoot entertained me in good light. None of the magpie photos have had their colour adjusted in any way: what colourful birds they are in good light!
If you're going to star in a photoshoot presumably you have a good wash first...
...and a soak...
...a preen...
...and ready for action!
Also seen: snipe and blackwits
A young moorhen practising diving...
A highland cow!
In the quiet times I practised too! Photographing dragonflies in flight! Darters in tandem - after mating the male guards the female to prevent other males from mating.
Double tandem!
Ok. My best bit of the afternoon was a juvenile water rail.
2: September 13th: Wizardry!
I decided to go back to Saltholme in the morning and hope for another merlin encounter. This bird has provided me with one of the photographic and general birding highlights of the year and my session on 13/9 was the climax. I wanted to get some flight shots and I realised the only way to do it was to get the camera as stable as possible and stare through the view-finder constantly - no breaks allowed. As the bird flies you need almost a reflex action to press the shutter and hope! Here goes: a lot of merlins. I hope you like them...
When the merlin disappeared out of view there were always the merlin's food source to mess with: trying to photograph the common darter dragonflies! I took a few more: here's some I liked.
I did a good walk round the reserve but saw little of note. A few godwits were near the Wildlife Watchpoint...
...and later I saw a kestrel sunning itself down the Zinc Works Road.
3:The anti-climax!
A long-billed dowitcher was reported at Fairburn on the south-east lagoon. I was unsure where this was so I went down Lin Dike and sat in the tin hut all alone feeling increasingly I was in the wrong place!
A spoonbill lingered in the dark mangroves [I know they're not mangroves but there's a section down the left side of Spoonbill Flash that reminds me of them. And the spoonbill shone through the darkness.
Eventually I learnt that I needed to go up the Coal Pits Trail where I would find the correct lagoon and a line of birders many of whom I knew. There was, however, no sign of any dowitcher! Bearded tits were flying around. I sort of managed a shot of one.
After an hour or so I went home. After lunch the dowitcher was reported on Spoonbill Flash after all so I went back with Sheila. A long way off but we haven't had what I call a 'cuckoo shot' for a good while. A 'cuckoo shot' is my term for a ridiculously distant attempt at a photograph which is then mega-cropped to produce a 'proof I saw it' photo. This was indeed a very long way away....
Quite anticlimactic, I think!
226 UK 2019
1st-4th September 2019
Two and a half good days!
Day 1: Fluke Hall, Pilling, Lancashire
A long drive and the longest walk I've done since I fell in the ditch! Must have been half a mile but the limp is now much less well pronounced. And the bird performed really well in a very strong wind. What bird? Well, that's the problem. Pied wheatear [really good tick] or black-eared wheatear [lifer!]
I'll have to wait for the expert DNA analysis. Here she is.
General views of the site and of the assembled crowd.
Day 2: report of ring-necked duck at Saltholme tempted me out again. Not much walking involved. But in heavy rain on the main lake the bird was a long way off but could be scoped from the Visitor Centre. I headed for Phil Stead hide. Very quiet apart from some blackwits. A lesser black-backed gull dropped in.
This godwit puzzled me. Very dark and in all the photos this white eye is apparent. Is the bird blind in one eye? I know birds have an eyelid that sometimes shows in photos but to show in every single photo seems too much of a coincidence.
I decided to go to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party again and see if I could get better shots of the juvenile black tern as it was still present. I was quite pleased with these.
Someone said a merlin had been seen a few times at Phil Stead so I headed back there. The merlin duly performed. Made my day!!
Day 3: just 45 minutes spent in a very crowded Phil Stead hide at Saltholme watching a curlew sandpiper with some blackwits.
225 UK 2019
29th August 2019
I'm still standing!
Well, just about. Been laid up with my bad leg. I blame the whinchat but my wife seems to have a different opinion. Very frustrating. I looked through some of my July photos to see if I'd overlooked anything worth saving. Here's three. Let's call this bit:
Disregarded or discarded!
A young pied wagtail at Bolton Abbey, a carrion crow and a white-winged black tern at Saltholme...
...which makes a nice link to my first venture out birding since 20th August. Back to Saltholme for curlew sandpiper [which had been frightened off by a harrier before I got there]. Not to worry. I went to the Alice's Tea Party area [I presume you all know where I mean - part way to the Wildlife Watchpoint] to photograph the juvenile black tern.
However the star attraction that replaced the curlew sand was a white-rumped sandpiper. Very pale individual. Also featured ruff, dunlin and blackwit. Here they all come.
Here's the white-rumped with one shot showing the slightly larger dunlin for comparison.
222 UK 2019
20th August 2019
Falling for a whinchat!
Tuesday August 20th. Forty-sixth wedding anniversary. And I was going birding at the insistence of Sheila. It's a day I normally go birding. I might not bother next year...
First stop Hornsea Mere hoping for nice shots of little gulls. There were plenty of little gulls present but, unfortunately, they were all well out on the water to the right and beyond Swan Island. Here's just one very distant photo showing some of them.
Greylag geese flew overhead.
As did some young shelducks.
Of couse I saw a painted lady butterfly!
I decided to drive down to Kilnsea Wetlands.
A common sandpiper was outside the hide. In the first shot the bird looks rather 'head heavy' to me. Second one is more normal - same bird.
Redshanks flew in.
A couple of dunlin came close.
Walking back a patch of purple clover held a good number of common blue butterflies.
I was going to say the male above looks a bit moth-eaten but perhaps that's a rather mixed-up metaphor for a butterfly! This one's smarter.
I even managed a flight shot - well a taking-off shot at least.
Best of all I spotted a female and managed to keep track of her until she settled. Females are quite inconspicuous and shy so I was pleased with these two shots.
Guess what else I saw! A painted lady. I don't tire of seeing them. There'll be plenty of butterfly-free months to come.
At Sammy's Point I met a birder who told me there were whinchats in the set-aside field on the road down to Canal Scrape. I headed there. I had nice views and decided to move to a gate where I could rest the camera and get a good shot. I was about to press the shutter when the ground gave way beneath me and I slid down into a ditch. As I fell one leg snagged and twisted my leg severely.
By the time I dragged myself to my feet holding onto the gate the bird had flown and I realised I could barely walk.
I managed to drive home but my left leg is now very painful; walking is impossible other than a few yards and I'm resting up for a while. Deep heat creams, elevated leg, inactivity. I won't be birding for a while.
But I got a tick. A nice male whinchat.
221 UK 2019