Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
Tuesday 18th December 2012
Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a picture! What a photograph!
Half a Sixpence, Tommy Steele, 1965
Explanation will follow later. Just reminiscing, really. Odeon Cinema, Preston, Lancs, sometime in 1965. Age 15. Right: mist nets?
On Tuesday I decided to head back to Hartlepool for better photos of the black-throated diver if I was patient enough to wait for it to come close. Various reports suggested it sometimes came very close indeed. The other reason was possible mealy redpoll at Saltholme. And I like the drive. Steady 65mph. What a good boy I was.
So I headed first to the Premier Inn, Hartlepool marina. Good views of up to 14 male mergansers plus females. No sign of the diver at first but I spotted it after about twenty minutes in the main basin where the PSS Wingfield Castle is moored. It was somewhat distant from where I was. I took some shots of the mergansers.
I drove round to the south side of the basin but the diver had vanished. Some birders told me it had swum round to the other side of Jackson's Landing. I got back into Tiggy and drove round, the drive necessitating several roundabouts and about a three-quarter mile drive to go 200 metres! I parked by the deserted Jackson's Landing building with the diver visible alongside me! I jumped out, grabbed the camera. The diver had swum into a dead end where there were lots of boats, their colours reflecting in the water. I didn't realise just how good some of these shots would be.
When I got home and started to work on the photos I was amazed by the different colours in the water from different boats as the bird swam sedately past. At one point the bird just swam right past me! Looking at the images the thought just came to me: 'Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a picture! What a photograph!'
Some of my best, I think... Here they are, the wonderful black throated diver.
I suppose of all of them this is my favourite - the crash, bang, wallop pic!
More mergansers appeared too, coming just as close as the diver.
After that anything else would no doubt be an anticlimax but I decided to head south towards Saltholme. A brief call at Newburn Bridge [low tide] with no sign of my med gull friend. I spotted this bird on the beach however.
Godwit. Bar-tailed I wondered. Quite short in the upper leg looking through all the photos.
This photo convinced me it is bar-tailed.
On then to Saltholme via a quick drive up the North Gare access road. 'Road' is becoming a bit of a joke. The potholes are now ridiculous and some cars are really struggling. I used my mobile hide to snap these record shots of redshank, moorhen and lapwing.
At Saltholme on my way to the Wildlife Watchpoint area where the redpoll had been reported I saw movement in the reedbed. I expected something like a reed bunting to be the cause. I was delightfully wrong!
I spent some time watching goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch and reed bunting, hoping to find the mealy redpoll among them.
Female chaffinches are rarely photographed. Note the green colouring.
Someone said the redpoll had been seen that morning - three of them. Funnily enough I eventually saw three redpoll on the banking across from the hedge everyone had been watching. Three lesser redpoll in my opinion, so no tick. I managed a couple of reasonably focused shots through all the dead plant material on the bank. The birds stayed only briefly and vanished on the stiff, cold wind.
Shopping, wrapping paper, tree lights beckon. Hope Barry's free this weekend...
Saturday 15th December 2012
Tale of Three Reservoirs:-
Anglers', Wintersett & Cold Hiendley
Barry and I set off at 8am to go to the three reservoirs in search of a couple of ticks for Barry and some nice images for me. In particular I dipped on the American Wigeon last week so it would be nice to catch up with it. As we set off from the car park the noise of geese alerted us to the arrival of some canada geese. We continued towards the hide in search of other birders who might have located our target birds.
There's a lot you can do at Anglers' Country Park. For instance you can go for a sail in the winter sunshine...
...or you can go flying...
...and there's water skiiing...
...which is fine till you fall off!
There's also the annual Anglers' CP Biathlon, usually with several hundred competitors from North America: six laps of the reservoir in the air and six swimming laps...
Armed with some up-to-date info we eventually located the long-tailed duck. Here's just one shot for the record.
When you think about it, a sort of splodgy, mucky bird!
We had been joined by now by another birder from Notts called Carl. He stayed with us for most of our stay. I think he had a good day.
I tried to get some flight shots of some of the many goosanders on the reservoir. I was quite pleased with the results.
Although much more distant my attempts at photographing goldeneye and pochard in flight captured a few nice memories too.
This smart drake mallard was a much easier 'prey' for my lens.
As was this goldeneye as he rode the waves.
Geese photos are often lacking in interest so I was pleased when something [a dog, no doubt] put the canada geese up and they came towards me on a nice angle...
It was quite a walk to the north end of the reservoir but Barry had kept an eye on the large number of wigeon grazing on the grass. By now they too had been disturbed and were in the water. Spot one that's a bit different!
Not easy through the bins! Enlarged as if looking through a scope and it's much clearer in the good light we had that morning. [Same photo]
There follows a selection of my american wigeon photos. First of all, the self-inflating american wigeon!
It wasn't easy to keep track of the bird amongst the several hundred other wigeon.
But it was nice to get some good close-up views.
After a while the birds took off and I lost track of the american.
We headed back towards the car park. A bullfinch was near the visitor centre.
Trying to find scaup or smew on Wintersett reservoir was unproductive to say the least. Frustrating, as the smew was obviously still around and was reported on Sunday. Barry recommended I look closely at the right hand edge of a flock of Canada geese distant on the ploughed field further ahead.
This is a poor quality, much-enlarged photo but it does show, for the record, that there were four egyptian geese present too. Two to the left and two to the right of the look-out goose.
We set off for the far side of Wintersett. I thought I knew the way but I went further than I realised and took us to the far end of Cold Hiendley reservoir. By this time I was in some back pain with carrying scope and camera and felt completely knackered. [Is knackered an appropriate blog word?] Carl probably thought we were wasting his time. Here's Carl.
Eventually we devised our own route back through the undergrowth and reached the dam that separates Wintersett from Cold Hiendley. I had lost interest by then. A lone dinghy-man was sailing around and had obviously displaced all the birds. Carl and Barry walked on towards the bridge. I followed reluctantly. Barry realised there was a very large flock of tufted duck down below on Cold Hiendley, taking refuge presumably from dinghy-man.
I put my scope up. Eureka! I homed in on two drake scaup. QED! [Quod Erat Demonstrandum: Which Was Demonstrated. There's nothing quite like a bit of pretentious pedantry when you're feeling low!] Carl walked on ahead until we lost sight of him.
A kestrel hovered over the trees as the light began to fade.
It was another grand day's birding. Barry said 'It'll soon be summer!' You see for Barry summer means any time after December 21st as the days grow ever optimistically longer.
Yes, just can't wait for that good old sinusoidal curve to kick in!
Malcolm: What is he on about?
Sheila: Don't ask me! I'm not a doctor!
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!
