A Couple More

Finally managed to take a few additional photos to count towards the Big Bird Race.

First up is a Jay, although a very distant one, taken from my flat in London across the garden on 15th November, I'll hopefully get a better one as it is a frequent visitor, problem is I'm only really home when it's dark at this time of year.

 52. Jay

 

At the weekend we had relatives down from up north, they wanted to see the big bright lights of London Town and to witness the gold paved streets, bless...  Anyway we had a full weekend, a quick hour of which was a dash around half of the Serpentine where I managed to grab a few more photos.

 

 53. Egyptian Goose

 

 54. Herring Gull

 

55. Common Gull

 

Today (27th November) I had to travel for work, on the way back and knowing the misses was going to be Xmas shopping till late I check tinterweb to see if I would be passing any nature reserves. I was astonished to find that RSPB Fairburn Ings was only 20 minutes from my location so I thought I'd pop in for a quick hour (wish I'd had a long hour, the quick ones whizz past). There wasn't a great deal to see as it was already getting dark but a rare treat for me was the mass of Tree Sparrows, I haven't seen Tree Sparrows for years, probably 15! Certainly not in the last three years that I've been keeping year lists anyway. Here is a sample of them, beautiful little things:

 

56. Tree Sparrow

 

 Tree Sparrow

 

 Tree Sparrow (Ringed)

 







Tree Sparrow

Sri Lanka - April 2013 - Part 2

This is the 2nd instalment of my photos from my Sri Lanka trip back in April this year, where does the time go, thought I'd only uploaded the first lot last week but it was three weeks ago!

I've just booked my place on Lee Evans 'Round Britain Tour' for January so already getting excited about that one, a birthday treat to myself since it's a big one.  If we achieve the target species I've been told about then I should score about 25 new birds for my life list, all those species which require travel to specific locations like Capercaille and Cirl Bunting. Hopefully managed to acquire some decent images for this blog as it will still be within the 12 month time limit set at the beginning of the race.

Anyway, some of the birds from my Sri Lanka trip, more to follow as I work through them all:

 Asian Openbill

 

 Barn Swallow

 

 Black-headed Ibis

 

 Brahminy Kite

 

 Brown-headed Barbet

 

 Cattle Egret

 

 Changeable Hawk Eagle

 

 Common Kingfisher

 

 Common Lora

 

 Common Myna

 

 Darter

 

 Great Thick-knee

 

 Green Bee-eater

 

 Green Imperial Pigeon

 

 Hoopoe

 

House Crow

Sri Lanka - April 2013 - Part 1

Finally getting around to sorting through my photos from my Sri Lanka holiday back in April, this was a back packing holiday for me and the missus, not a birding holiday although I did manage to see 84 species on my travels that I managed to identify. Saw quite a few for moments to brief to enable me to see satisfactorily.

Sri Lanka is a beautifully green and wild country with so much to see but you do need plenty of time to enable you to get around it at the Sri Lankan pace, we mainly used the train network which is an experience in itself but offered amazing view as the old steam locomotive wound it's way up into the hilly region through the tea plantations. They had no issue with me out on the deck leaning out to the side to get some scenic photos.

If you ever travel to Sri Lanka for the birding, I would strongly recommend arranging for a local bird guide prior to travel, I unfortunately did not and went out of the way to visit the Sinharaja rainforest as it is purported to be the amazing for birdlife which move about the forest in flocks of randomly mixed species. The guide I had was arranged by the hotel, and although knew a lot about the reptiles, spiders and trees, sadly had no knowledge of birds :( Also, I realised once we arrived at the forest, that we were on the wrong side from where my research had said we should be, we stayed to the southern edge and tracked the river to a natural pool for swimming. Lesson learned, local birding guide pre-arranged for my next trip away, especially as I don't go on birding holidays as my missus isn't remotely interested.. :)

Anyway, here are the first tranche of bird photos that I've sorted, they are generally poor quality, from a distance, in my defence though, I spent the time ensuring I captured the features of the bird with the naked eye to aid identification should it fly, then I took the photos. Oh yeah, and secondly, I'm rubbish at taking photos!

 Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike

 

 Great White Egret

 

Indian Pond Heron

 

 Large-billed Crow

 

 Little Cormorant

 

 Purple Heron

 



Black Eagle

 

 Jerdon's Leafbird

 

Layard's Parakeet

 

 Oriental Magpie Robin

 

 Purple-rumped Sunbird (f)
 









Purple-rumped Sunbird (m)

Malvern Hills

Just a brief one from a walk along the Malvern Ridge. My girlfriend and I were staying at the Malvern Spa Hotel for the weekend for our anniversary. I can highly recommend it, it's a great place, especially in the winter months when you can sit outside in the spa pool watching the stars.

Anyway, on the morning we took a walk along the ridge, didn't really see to much as you really do need to get up there early before the dog walkers flush everything. I saw plenty of Fungi but haven't gotten around to identifying them yet.

I at least managed to get a photo to add to the blog tally, a Wheatear which as per usual is not very good quality, if only consistency was the name of the game eh?

Wheatear

Dorset Bird Fair - October 2013

Had a nice trip down to Durlston Country Park for the Dorset Bird Fair back in October. The weather was amazing, nice sunny day which although nice for us was not too great for the migration we were there to witness as the skies were windless.

 

I arrived too late on day one as we were staying with friends so a nice meal and fair few drinks the night before to catch up. Anyway, I missed the emptying of the moth traps which I was gutted about as I've started to get interested in moths (and other insects) recently. There we're some great moths about though, there were about 10 Convolvulus Hawk Moths - I had NO idea that moths in the UK could get anywhere near that big, they were huge!!

 



Convolvulus Hawk Moth

 

There were some great lectures, field trips and demonstrations and will certainly be going again next year. It's unbelievable how much some people know about birds and nature, I learnt quite a bit about bird flight calls and patterns which I never thought I would learn myself, basically if I didn't get a good view then I'd write it off.

 

I didn't manage to get too many photos as I spent the time listening to the field trip leaders and attending the presentations but I got a few to add to the blog.

 

Chiffchaff

 Jackdaw

 

 Whinchat

 

 Meadow Pipit

 



Stonechat (Yes it's the same photo)

 

Saw my first Clouded Yellows too, not the greatest shot as they would not sit still for two seconds.

Clouded Yellow

 

Was nice to see some birds associated with the coast due to me living practically bang-on in the middle of the country. I saw Shag, Rock Pipit, Brent Geese, Gannet, Greater Black-backed Gulls, Stonechats and Whinchats. The more experienced guys had Yellow-browed Warbler and an overflying Richard's Pipit!

 

I look forward to attending again next year when I'll make sure I plan it better so I can be there for the opening of the moth traps and for the early morning bird ringing sessions.