Farmoor Reservoir

My journey home from work takes me along the M40 so on route home on today I decided to pull off for a quick visit to Farmoor Reservoir to see the summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe.

I arrived to a nice sunny site and was able to walk around in a t-shirt, it was very quiet though, only one other car in the car park. The first birds I saw were 2 of these cute little ducklings:

Mallard Chick

One of the workers from the yacht club said there were 5 of them the day before, I suppose they stand out being yellow and are probably easy prey. I started to walk around the F2 reservoir as the Red-necked Grebe was reported to be in the SW corner - typical, the furthest possible point from the car park.... A female Mallard was swimming around with her ducklings, she had 12 in total! The ducklings were of a decent size so hopefully they will all survive.

Mallard & Chicks

There were quite a few Great Crested Grebes, I reckon there must have been 40 of them, they were looking resplendent in their bright summer colours, a number of pairs were starting their weed dance but they none did more than dabble.

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

I spent about half an hour in the SW corner and checked Great Crested Grebe after another but was unable to locate the Red-necked Grebe - typical...

I decided to head down to the Pinkhill hide to see if any waders were about, shouldn't have bothered though as some twat(s) have burnt it down, really pisses me off to see this, I went to two reserves last year where this had happened.

I then walked down to have a look at the fields were the Barn Owls can be seen hunting during the day although I never expected to see them at this time of year but one can hope. There were no Barn Owls though. I thought I'd head back to the car and check the F1 reservoir for the Red-necked Grebe on the way back. I bumped into another birder who had seen the Grebe - in the SW corner...! I couldn't believe it... He showed me it through his telescope, I could see it was close to the opposite site and couldn't resist tabbing back round to see if I could get some photos.

The tab back round was worth it as I got some amazing views, I must have taken about 200 photos of him. He was up and down the south side of the reservoir so kept me on my toes. Before I left the Grebe was up and down collect fish.

Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

I couldn't stay forever so finally upped and left and was lucky enough to see my first Swallow of the year when one flew over my head but then turned and headed back over farmland. A bit further round another 2 Swallows flew over and out over the water and another 3 about 200m further round.

Swallow

Last bird was a handsome Pied Wagtail.

Pied Wagtail

I do like visiting Farmoor, for an inland site it has some great birds stop over, a Firecrest had been reported earlier that day and an Avocet was reported as arriving later in the day.

Another Local Outing

Took the kids for a visit to Brandon Marsh today for them to have a walk around and with the hope of seeing the little gulls that had been reported.

There wasn't actually too much to see today, certainly no little gull however reports came in later in the day that some had been seen at Draycote, could be the same ones?

Managed to get a few photos but nothing major. There were a number of Shovelar present and a pair of lingering Widgeon, a pair of Oystercatcher and a single Redshank.

Highlight of the day was my first Sand Martin of the year.

Mute Swan

 

It was nice to hear the Chiffchaff singing around the reserve announcing the arrival of spring.

 

Chiffchaff

A juvenile gull was playing 'drop & catch' with a pebble which the kids found hilarious.

'Drop & Catch' Gull

 

Oystercatcher

Shovelar

As we were leaving I caught a flash of white in the screens leading to one of the hides, a bit of patience rewarded us with a Treecreeper scouring the screen for insects.

Treecreeper



Staying Local

Ok, so the plan wasn't to stay local, I've been waiting for the chance to get down and see the ridiculously long staying Great Spotted Cuckoo, I reckon a 3.5 hour drive is worth it? All week I've been checking BirdGuides for the latest news and all was well - until Thursday when it was reported dead! Typical... Later that day the report turned out to be erroneous, a greens keeper had found a dead magpie and reported it as the Cuckoo, there was still no sign of it though. Friday ended also with no reported sightings so I decided not to go as we had friends for the weekend, the misses wedding dress shopping again and me dragging the best man birding.

So I decided to keep it local, there were a number of decent reports considering I live in Warwickshire, that night when the girls had gone to bed, I planned the next day whilst the best man and I tried a variety of home-made ales, not a great mix.... So the plan was:

1. Up at 07:00 and a trip to Bredon Hill for migrants - esp Ring Ouzel.
2. Morton Bagot next for the Green-winged Teal.
3. Up to Bittell Reservoir for Great Grey Shrike and Sand Martin.
4. Pop into Earlswood - since we were practically passing.
5. A quick visit to Brandon Marsh for Little Gull.
6. Finish of at Draycote Reservoir for Great Northern Diver and Long-tailed Duck.

Excellent, planning complete we then stayed up until 05:00 finishing the home-made ales and a number of retailed bottles - out the window goes the plan...

I still managed to get up at 08:30 and decided Bredon Hill was a no go as the dog walkers would be way ahead of me. I had breakfast with the girls whilst waiting for the best man to surface, which he duly did at 09:30. Shower and breakfast over and it was out the door on the road for around 10:30!

First stop was Morton Bagot, on arrival we met a few birders who were just leaving, they were kind enough to direct us to the pools as I'd never been here before, quite appalling really as it's only 11 miles from my front door. We were told there was a juvenile Peregrine present but were unable to locate it. We did however manage to locate the male Green-winged Teal on one of the pools with a number of Eurasian Teal, the pool was difficult to view from the other side of a field with some of the pool being out of sight in the dead ground.

On the larger pool we were fortunate to find 4 Green Sandpipers, a Little Ringed Plover and a Grey Heron, Gadwall pair and a few Lapwing.

With that success we headed back to the car stopping to laugh at the spring lambs hopping around. Next stop was the Hopwood plantation next to the Bittell Reservoirs.

We parked up in the layby as per the instructions on BirdGuides and proceeded to scan the plantations for the Great Grey Shrike. My best man works as an actor so finds just about everything fascinating in the guise of learning so I took the opportunity to teach him some scanning techniques as per training received in the army, i.e. don't focus on specific points, look for slight movement, differences in tone, shine, shadow of objects etc. He takes life experiences like this as tools for his work on the stage, didn't help us to locate the Shrike though. We spent about 15 minutes scanning and decided to head over to the reservoirs to see what else was about.

We parked in the layby on the corner of Lower Bittells and had a quick look at them. Apart from the Great Crested Grebe they were virtually devoid of any birdlife so we took a walk up to Upper Bittell. On the way up we found a female Bullfinch singing, I never realised they females sang too? Bullfinch's are my favourite bird which I don't get to see that often so it's always a treat, their song is very unique and quite funky too.

Bullfinch

Found my first singing Common Chiffchaff of the year today too although it was hard to pin down as it flitted about the vegetation. A number of Wren were in full song holding territory and a pair of Treecreeper flitting around together also in full song. On arrival at Upper Bittell we were greeted by around 40 Sand Martin which are my first for 2014, we didn't get chance to see if much else was about as the skies opened up as forcast so we made a dash back to the car.

Since it was pouring with rain I decided to skip Earlswood and head straight for Brandon Marsh, we were both hungry now and it wouldn't be fair to drag my best man around a lake in the rain, this is my idea of fun, not his. The plan was to get some lunch in the Brandon Marsh café and hope that the rain stopped to allow us to continue birding.

New Blog Title + First Trip

I didn't think it would be so difficult to come up with a new name for the blog, all the blogs I read seem to have fitting titles. I was going to go for 'Bidford Birding' and maybe I will in a few years when I get to live at home full time but it didn't seem appropriate as I never bird in Bidford - except the for the garden that is. So, since all my birding is squeezed in when I have a chance and is at location of opportunity it seems I bird rather ad-hoc, so there it is, ad-hoc birding...!

So my first post:

The misses had a friend visiting and they planned to go to a wedding fayre and then drinking for the rest of the day so I took the opportunity to go birding. I thought I'd try for my nemesis bird, the Long-eared Owl which had been reported on and off at Martin Mere. It was a long journey, 3.5 hours in the car. I arrived on site to find it was a Wildlife and Wetland Trust site which is popular with families, they have a captive bird section which butts up to the wildlife lakes.

I've only ever seen Whooper Swan a few times before, the last time was in January when I saw a group of about 20, the first time I only saw 1... Today there were over 300! An unbelievable sight, here is one of my favourite shots.

Whooper Swan

 

Also present were a good number of Pintail, some Widgeon, Teal, Shelduck, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Black-tailed Godwit, about 40 Avocet, 20 Pink-footed Goose and a number of Ruff, one of which was a male in full breeding plumage.

 

Black-tailed Godwit

Pintail

Shelduck

Widgeon

 



Star of the show though was a Ross's Goose, it spent ages asleep but finally got up for a walk about just as I was about to leave.

Ross's Goose

Ross's Goose

Ross's Goose

Ross's Goose

Whilst in the hide watching the Goose I was chatting to a local and asking about the LEO to which he seemed totally bemused, it transpires that about an hour further north is a site called Marton Mere situated in the middle of Blackpool, a bit of research on the internet confirmed this to be the site where LEO's like to roost.

As I was about to leave about 200 Pink-footed Geese arrived on the Mere.

Before leaving I couldn't resist getting a shot of the Eider in the captive pens as the males were all doing their Frankie Howard impressions for the female Eider - handsome buggers..

Eider (Captive)

A quick trip to Blackpool and a fruitless hour searching around provided nothing, I always knew it was a chance so late in the year but would have been worth it. So LEO remains my nemesis bird!

Twitching - The Final Post

Well I decided to go for the Black Grouse, the Surf Scoter and Long-tailed Tit as first considered. I was up at 06:00 with a little help from the missus, made a flask and set off for Worlds End. The journey up was painless enough, I suppose I missed the morning commuter traffic and managed to arrive for around 09:15. I travelled along the moor road from Minera towards Worlds End as far as the Offa's Dyke Path but failed to see anything even though I'd painstakingly scrutinised every lekking ground. On the 2 return trip I decided to stop and just scan the area with the binos instead of checking the lekking ground with the scope. Whilst scanning I caught a glimpse of a Buzzard flying low, his presence put up a Grouse which I followed to ground. It sat out in relative open and excitedly I got the scope out but it turned out to be a Red Grouse, still a good find as I needed one for the year list.

130. Red Grouse

The Buzzard continued surveying the area so I followed him, he put another Grouse up which I followed noting the main features, the most obvious of which was the white bars across the top of the wings. I was unsure if this was a red or black at this time but on consulting Collins realised it must have been a Black Grouse, this was sufficient for me though as Black Grouse is a lifer for me so I wouldn't count it unless I could positively identify it. Luckily whilst scanning again a male rose up and flew toward me, he landed on the edge of a clearing and although still about 1km away I could clearly identify him as a male Black Grouse. I attempted to get some phone-scoped photos but the wind was too strong to hold the telescope still, this is the best I could manage so won't be counting it for the Big Bird Race.

Black Grouse

 

Happy with my find I could have stayed longer to look for more but I wanted to get up to Pensarn to look for the Surf Scoter. I pulled up at the beach car park and was blown away by the number of off-shore windmills, there must have been over 100. Now I knew that finding the Surf Scoter would not be easy to find being out to sea but I lost all hope of success when I took my first look through the binos. There were loads of ducks, all Common Scoter, I estimated there to be about 2500, so real needle in a haystack time plus I didn't really know what I was looking form other than from the bill and white neck but had no idea what would be obvious from this distance.  After some painstaking searching and some guidance to some local birders, I managed to get on to 2 Surf Scoters. They were quite obvious once you'd seen them and then relatively easy to pick our. I took loads of phone-scoped photos but again there was a strong wind and the Scoters were about 1.2kms out so the shots were not good, I took loads of the area where the Surf Scoter were but they do not show up.

 

129. Common Scoter

129. Common Scoter

129. Common Scoter

 

I had a number of Oystercatcher and a few Ringed Plover.

 

 Ringed Plover

 

On the route home I checked Bird Guides and saw the news of a Ruddy Shelduck at Doxey Marsh in Staffordshire which I need for the year. I arrived at the Doxey but the skies had opened up and I couldn't be bothered with walking round and getting soaked so I made the decision to go for the Long-tailed Duck at Sutton Park as I could swing by on the way back without too much impact to the time. It took a while to get through Walsall but I got there in the end, as I pulled up to park I could see the Long-tailed Duck about 20m out! Great views through the binos but the light wasn't that great for photos as it was now about 16:30 and the sun was low and I was facing it. I still managed a couple of shots though.

 

131. Long-tailed Duck

131. Long-tailed Duck

131. Long-tailed Duck

 

So I guess that's it for the Big Bird Race 2013 as I won't get out between now and Friday as I'll be back at work. I managed to photograph 131 species that can be identified in the photo. I have had other but not so you can identify like the Black Grouse above. I think the aim of the race has partly paid off as I do understand the settings of the camera a little but I've not been out enough or had chance to play with the camera enough. I've not even looked at photo editing software but will eventually get round to it. It's been a good year as it's made me think more about what I'm seeing and has forced me back into note taking which I had given up on. I will have to rename the blog next week as I'm not going to start another, nothing worse than coming across a blog via Google only to find it finished over a year ago.

 

I saw 22 new species in the UK during the course of the Big Bird Race, of which I've managed to photograph 19 so not too bad, those missing are Black Grouse, Rough-legged Buzzard and Goshawk.

 

Well, adieu for now, see you again next week under a different title of which I will have to have a think.



 



Final Week

So today is the start of the final week of the Big Bird Race 2013, what to do for the last week to bolster numbers? I have a long weekend off work as we have relatives visiting and I've managed to convince the missus to let me out geeking for one of the days. I decided that I should really make the effort to go see the long staying Myrtle Warbler, so it was decided I fired up Bird Guides to check the exact location only to find that it hadn't been seen since the 17th! Worse still that it was thought to have been taken by a Sparrowhawk!! Gutted........!

So where to visit then? I should really work out what I need to photograph and establish how best to get the greatest numbers out of one day but I'm actually more tempted to spend the day looking for Black Grouse, a lifer for me. A friend of mine counts them form the BTO and saw a group of 15 last weekend at Worlds End, a site I've tried twice with no result.  As luck would have it the weather is also forecast to be 'not that great'.

On a brighter note, the Siskin count in the garden has risen from 4 to 7, with the 6 Chaffinch continuing to visit so it's quite busy around the feeders with the Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Blue Tits, Great Tits, House Sparrows, Robins, Dunnocks and Blackbirds all squabbling.

Best get on with some research and figure out where best to visit.

Testing Day

So I was allowed out geeking today whilst the misses spent the day talking wedding plans and hen night with friends.

I thought I'd have a great day being on the south coast and was spoilt for choice as to where to go. I settled on Farlington Marsh which should provide me with waders and sea ducks and hopefully Short-eared Owl. When I arrived though, the tide was so far out that the bay was dry and devoid of bird life, the marsh itself was buzzing with dog walkers so I decided to forget the idea and head to Titchfield Haven. Before I left I had a quick scan of the channel with the telescope and picked out Curlew, Oystercatcher and a nice pair of Red-breasted Mergansers.

I arrived a Titchfield, the area quite busy. I parked up and scanned the Solent first but nothing on the sea as it was so rough, the wind was very blustery and blew my tripod over whilst I was getting my telescope, this has bent the arm which controls the head :o(

There were a few Herring Gull and Cormorant out on a spit and some Oystercatchers very close in affording a great opportunity to get some shots.

Oystercatcher

 

I then locked up the car and turned to head over to Titchfield Haven only to find it was closed, today was not turning out to be my day.....

 

As time was running out I decided to head to Stanwick Lakes as it was on the way back to our friends. I arrived on site and low and behold it too was shut, it was still accessible by foot though so I just parked up on the feeder road.

 

The woods are extremely wet and boggy making it difficult to walk round, certain paths are closed off and others completely flooded. The woods were alive with Blue Tit and Great Tit but no Coal. I saw a couple of Goldfinch which I don't really recall seeing much in woodland. I got some great views of a pair of Lesser Redpoll feeding.

 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

 

I also saw plenty of Woodpigeon, a Goldcrest, 2 Redwing, a Song Thrush and a Treecreeper but this was it for the smaller birds. I continued round passed the Study Centre lake on the way back to the car. I had a quick scan, present were Mallard, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, a Little Grebe tucked up in the reeds and then my first Kingfisher of the year.



Mallard

Gadwall

 

128. Kingfisher

Quick Twitch

We were booked in to visit friends today down in Southampton, the misses said I could have tomorrow to go geeking while she chatted wedding stuff with our friends. I really wanted to take the chance to see the Red-flanked Bluetail in Marshfield as it's not far from my house, I couldn't really go Sunday though as it's the opposite direction to London, where we would be travelling back to. So I pushed my luck with the misses and suggested I check it out on the way to our friends, it should only add 30 mins to the journey.....

I followed the directions as posted on Bird Guides and pulled up to quite a number of cars as expected. I followed the directions to the exact location, taking the footpath along the valley, wellies would have been a good idea but I never thought that far ahead so I got my shoes extremely muddy.

When I arrived the birders were all stood around waiting for the bird to show back up, they informed me that it hadn't been showing all that well. I had a couple of low fly-over Raven which were cronking away, always great to see these massive corvids doing so well. One of the birders was pointing to the closest bush, I scanned it and there it was, Red-flanked Bluetail, tucked away in the ivy.

After some half decent views, made possible due to the sun being behind us, I decided to set off as we were due at our friends. I started to leave and the bird flushed, it was quickly relocated having moved to another bush, however this time it was right out at the front putting on a great show. It was posturing towards all the birders watching, flicking it's tail, quite funny. It enabled me to get a few decent shots which I'm quite happy with for a change.

127. Red-flanked Bluetail

127. Red-flanked Bluetail

127. Red-flanked Bluetail

127. Red-flanked Bluetail

127. Red-flanked Bluetail

127. Red-flanked Bluetail

Round Britian Tour - Day 9

Up early for our last day of the trip, target bird was Black Grouse so we drove the Minera to Worlds End road with the hope of catching a glimpse, problem was, it was absolutely pouring down so visibility was poor, not that it mattered as the birds would have been well and truly hunkered down. We drove up and down the moor road a few times but there was never really any hope in the driving rain. We moved on down to Llangollen as the river is a reliable spot for Dipper and even though it was still raining we got some great close up views.

We then drove on over to Burton Marsh on the Dee estuary to look for the American Buff-bellied Pipit, initially I thought it was going to be impossible as there were a great number of Meadow Pipit and they were very mobile, it also didn't help that I had no idea what I was looking for! We eventually found him and were treated to some good views.

116. American Buff-bellied Pipit

116. American Buff-bellied Pipit

116. American Buff-bellied Pipit

116. American Buff-bellied Pipit

 

We headed over to Pennington Flash as it is very well known for its Willow Tit, on arrival we headed to the Bunting Hide and got to see a few Willow Tit, Nuthatch and Bullfinch.

 

117. Bullfinch

117. Bullfinch

117. Bullfinch

118. Willow Tit

 

This was the first location we'd visited all week where I was able to get a coffee so there was no way I passing up the opportunity, I grabbed myself some chips too, v.happy....

 

News came in of a Lesser Scaup over in Shropshire at Tittesworth Reservoir. What was great was that when we arrived we were treated to really great close up views of a stonking male Lesser Scaup about 5 metres of the causeway. We also had equally great views of a pair of Greater Scaup just 10 metres to the other side of the causeway.



119. Lesser Scaup

119. Lesser Scaup

 

In the fading light we visited an undisclosed location to look for a Ruddy Duck, I recall seeing these relatively easily as a child but the bird we were looking for is potentially the last one in the country so chances were very slim. We arrived with the light almost completely gone and scanned the flocks of ducks to the front which consisted of Mallard, Gadwall, Pochard, Wigeon and a couple of Goosander. I walked further round to scan the hidden areas, I found a small flock at the very far side of the lake which contained a few Mallard and Coot but also the fabled Ruddy Duck.

 

120. Ruddy Duck

120. Ruddy Duck

 

Not the greatest photos, but it was extremely distant, these are phone-scoped which shows just how distant, don't really blame him for hiding away seeing how his relatives have faired.

 

I only saw a total of 48 species today of which 1 was a lifer. The trip notched up 182 with me finishing on 169 which I am extremely pleased with having racked up 17 lifers in total.

 

1. Magpie

2. Blackbird

3. Carrion Crow

4. Jackdaw

5. Black-headed Gull

6. Dipper

7. Mallard

8. Stonechat

9. Meadow Pipit

10. American Buff-bellied Pipit

11. Chaffinch

12. Dunnock

13. Woodpigeon

14. Robin

15. Greenfinch

16. Bullfinch

17. Blue Tit

18. Great Tit

19. Willow Tit

20. Nuthatch

21. Teal

22. Moorhen

23. Tufted Duck

24. Pochard

25. Canada Goose

26. Lesser Black-backed Gull

27. Fieldfare

28. Rook

29. Mute Swan

30. Cormorant

31. Linnet

32. Kestrel

33. Lapwing

34. Common Gull

35. Song Thrush

36. Reed Bunting

37. Long-tailed Tit

38. Pheasant

39. Buzzard

40. Starling

41. Lesser Scaup

42. Greater Scaup

43. Goosander

44. Coot

45. Ruddy Duck

46. Little Grebe

47. Goldfinch

48. Coal Tit