• Sunday, January 31, 2010 - Garden birdwatch, and a Garden Hide!
My best sighting of the weekend was a Woodcock fairly high over the car on the A3 at Waterlooville. Quite unusual for me to see one in broad daylight, though there have been plenty of reports this winter.
I had a couple of surprises during the RSPB Garden birdwatch today with the Fieldfare returning to polish off the remaining apples. A Jay in the garden was also the first for a few weeks. I set up a DIY hide in the back garden near some bird seed that I have been regularly placing in a sunny location. For the hide I used trellis, a couple of bags of fertiliser, an old camouflage sheet, and lay under the tripod clamping the camera to the bottom of the centre column. I was about 4 metres from the birds, and was down at their level. The best results are below, and it could turn out to be a good move if Bramblings join the Chaffinches as they have done in the last two winters.
• Thursday, January 28, 2010 - Stars of CCTV: Roe Deer
Finally caught the Roe Deer that cleans out our ground bird feeder each night on video! Fortunately, the newly installed security light didn't spook him, and the rest was easy! Just set the Internet camera to record pretty much all night, and look for the clip that wasn't in total darkness. If he comes at roughly the same time each night, I might set my alarm, and try improving on the video quality with the DSLR.
Learned quite a bit from the video footage.. He looks like a pretty smart stag, and squeezes into the garden via a small gap in the hedge. Last night, he arrived at 2:20am, and stayed for just under 30 minutes. Amazingly he never leaves any droppings.
Elsewhere a Raven over the house last weekend was pretty cool, and a Goldcrest near South Ruislip station on my journey home from work was equally surprising.. there are still some left after the cold snap!
• Sunday, January 17, 2010 - Standing in the shadows
Stuck indoors all week, which wasn't much fun. The Mistle Thrush continued his assault on the apples for the entire week, not letting any other Thrushes near the garden. However, we had a nice surprise this morning to find the Mistle Thursh had moved on and a Fieldfare was briefly devouring an apple.
The weather has been too dull to attempt any photographs lately, but this has worked out well, as I have discovered how potentially useful the video mode of my camera is, together with it's limitations. Some clips below...
The heavy snow didn't materialise overnight, and we had probably our busiest day for garden birds today, with the apples getting a lot of attention from all 5 of the regular thrush species. All of the following were taken with the kitchen window closed, but came out ok, considering the dull conditions.
Mistle Thrush:
Redwing: (taken in poor light ISO800, F6.7, 1/45 sec. Spot exposure aimed at the birds back)
Song Thrush:
Plus some video from the EOS 500d
• Saturday, January 9, 2010 - The sound of silence
Still pretty much housebound at the moment, with very little incentive to go out and scan the frozen countryside around the village. Got a better chance of seeing something unusual around the garden at the moment. Quite a strange day. The common birds were really well represented this morning, with 2 House Sparrows and a Starling joining the more regular visitors! 2 Nuthatches, a Female Bullfinch and a Song Thrush were other highlights, and a mature Cotoneaster bush down the street had Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Redwing and Fieldfare stripping the berries off it earlier today.
Then, mid afternoon, just as we started to prepare for more overnight snow, there was an eery silence.. not a bird to be seen, not even Crows or Woodpigeons in surrounding trees.. nothing. I went outside and heard just a distant Wren and a Blackbird briefly, plus a Redwing flying over heading West. It was as though all the local birds have felt the strengthening Easterly Wind, and made a run for it. Will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.
Quite an unusual winter so far.. All the Thrush species are much more numerous than previous winters, but as yet no Siskins, or Bramblings in the garden, and quite surprisingly no Blackcaps so far.
• Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - The tracks of my Deer!
North Baddesley looks to have escaped the worst of the severe weather today with just a couple of centimetres here. The bird feeders were not overrun with birds today, although Goldfinch numbers were up with well over 10 birds in the surrounding trees. Many local birders were seeing Larks moving overhead today, so it looks like I missed a good opportunity to add Skylark to the garden list.
The one highlight today was finally getting conclusive evidence that a Roe Deer is clearing up the bird food overnight.. He manages to avoid detection no matter what time he visits us, but can't hide his footprints.
"If you look closer it's easy to trace, the tracks of my Deer!.."
The bird footprint below the hoof is a mystery, I suspect it was a Blackbird but it looks too big. I haven't seen Pheasants in the gardens, but that was my first thought.
• Sunday, January 3, 2010 - A walk in winter farmland.
Hoe Lane is closed to traffic at the moment due to black ice on a bend, so I decided to walk the lane from my house this morning. Stopped off at the Dog Walkers's field but this was pretty quiet with just a Buzzard, Stonechat and Green Woodpecker. Hoe Lane had a lot of birdlife, but nothing really out of the ordinary. The fields were crawling with Redwings, and a few other Thrushes, plus plenty of Crows, Woodpigeons and a single Stock Dove. It wasn't until the last field before the A3057 that I picked up Lapwings. A flock of at least 100. This field also had a couple of Skylarks.
Surprisingly, the Pheasant cover was all empty with the only finches around the farm buildings with a few Pied Wagtails. Recall this happening last Winter too, when I suspected the Finches head into the village in extreme cold weather. Did see the local "pale" Buzzard perched in a distant tree, one of the palest I have ever seen in the UK. Photo below..
Lapwings: Always one of the highlights of a winter walk in farmland. (Canon EOS500d, 100-400 IS, ISO 200, 1/1000sec, f8)
The Hoe Lane Pale Buzzard! Perched about 200m away, and taken with Canon EOS500d + 18-55mm attached to Nikon ED82. (manual exposure 1/500sec, f4.5, ISO800, using the live view screen to focus, and set exposure. Used the 2sec self-timer to reduce camera shake)
• Saturday, January 2, 2010 - Close escape for a Blue Tit
Haven't done a great deal this weekend, other than take some pics from the back garden. We currently have a decent sized group of garden birds that spend most of the day on the feeders, or in the surrounding trees. Unfortunately, the best birds including Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Coal Tit have stayed out of camera range so far.
However, there are plenty of photo opportunites for Blue Tit, Long Tailed tit, and Chaffinch. The first Blue Tit below looks to have had a very close escape from a predator with a large patch of feathers plucked from his underside. (EDIT: After further research, this bald patch may have been caused by a parasite)
Cold weather is coming in now from the North and East. Hope to check out the Hoe Lane fields and Pheasant cover tomorrow.
2009 was another superb Birding year which only really got going for me in July! However, the second half of the year was phenomenal! with Self-found Fea's Petrel and Red Throated Pipit, plus a Spanish Lynx on a weekend trip to Spain. This was also the year in which my UK "self-found" list broke the 250 barrier.
Highlights:
1. Fea's Petrel: A brief sighting during a boat survey in the English Channel that left me stunned for a number of days afterwards!
2. Red-Throated Pipit: Another total surprise, this time in Unst, on the Shetlands. A pretty smart bird with extensive orangy/red face and breast showing nicely in the scope, which made the sighting even more enjoyable.
3. Spanish Lynx: What an awesome, elusive, rare animal. Luck and patience played a huge part in this sighting at a well known watchpoint in the Sierra Morena.
4. Unst: Finally I found myself in the right place with half-decent weather conditions! Walked many miles, and came home with a good tally of Yellow-Browed Warblers, Rosefinch, Red-Throated Pipit and Lapland Bunting, plus a host of other common species and an Otter.
5. Madeira: Spent a relaxing week here on the family holiday, but did manage to see the island endemics, and a boat trip to the Desertas was memorable for Fea's Petrel, Bulwer's Petrel and Cory's Shearwaters.
6. Spanish Bats: Dusk in the Sierra Morena was a special place for Bats with Greater Horseshoe, Greater Mouse Eared, and Kuhl's Pipistrelle the highlights.
7. Leach's Petrel: Finally saw one of these 20 years after missing one fly past me at the Mersey Estuary. It took a massive wreck of unprecedented magnitude along the Hampshire and Dorset coast for me to connect though!
8. a Local breeding Nightjar, just audible from my garden was a real bonus for 2009. Subsequent evenings I was able to observe a pair of birds hunting for insects, but I've no idea if their breeding attempt was successful.
9. Garden Redpolls. My first Lesser Redpolls for the garden arrived in late winter. They were also joined by a Mealy Redpoll.
10. Butterflies: 2009 got me my first Marsh Fritillary, and will also be remembered for the huge influx of Painted Ladies.
Wishes for 2010:
Well, the Shetlands are already booked for mid-September! and the family are dropping big hints for a return to Madeira. I'll spend the winter months, as always, searching for Owls. A Long-Eared would be great, and a Hampshire Short-eared would also be a good find. This year, I also hope to see the Glanville Fritillaries at Hurst, although their food plant is becoming scarce, and I may have missed my chance here. My Western Palearctic "self found" list is on 446, so it would be nice to nudge this closer to 450. This would give me the UK250, Euro350, Western Palearctic450 hat trick!
• Monday, December 28, 2009 - BTO Atlas & Great Tit pic.
Have been dreading entering my local bird sightings onto the BTO Bird Atlas, but decided to bite the bullet this week. The really good news is that you can now upload batches of sightings onto their system via spreadsheet. Took me a couple of goes to get the data right, but within a couple of hours I had posted over 1100 records for WIltshire and Hampshire!
Sneaked out into the garden earlier today to take some shots of this Great Tit, which seemed to be fairly static in our back garden. Must have taken about 20 photos, and this was by far the best...
1/180th Sec, f8.0, ISO 200, 400mm (Canon EOS500d, and Canon 100-400mm IS )
• Sunday, December 27, 2009 - Cold Weather influx of Plovers
The recent cold weather brought an improvement in local bird numbers. Hoe Lane had around 175 Lapwings, plus 5 Golden Plovers, and 21 Skylarks, but the Lapwings and Golden Plover seem to have moved on.
Spent dusk at Baddesley Common this evening. The Common, and surrounding fields look really promising for raptors and Owls this winter, with extensive areas of long dead grass, but no joy. Only Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard, plus at least 3 calling Tawny Owls after dusk. 1 Woodcock low overhead was good, and there is an impressive flock of roosting birds, probably Meadow Pipits, which numbered at least 50.
Won an ebay auction a couple of weeks ago for a wireless internet camera.. Want to find out what eats the bird food off the ground feeder overnight! Probably a Roe Deer, but there are also Foxes in the area. Unfortunately, the security light has broke, so I'll have to replace that before I can set the camera up. Tried last winter with a webcam, but it never visited when the camera was pointing out the window.
• Sunday, December 6, 2009 - Baddesley Common and Hoe Lane
Quite a frustrating weekend, Sunday anyway, as I went out mid afternoon just in time to get a good soaking. This despite it being beautiful sunshine all day prior to me going out.
Baddesley Common was pretty quiet with just a Lesser Redpoll of note, and plenty of Redwings in the area. Checked out the main bog, and the very wild looking fields at the Northern end of the Common at dusk and beyond, but nothing. Pity, as the fields look ideal for a hunting Owl or Raptor. Just a couple of Buzzards today.
The Pheasant cover along Hoe Lane looks great for this winter. The maize has been cut down with just a square remaining near the road. The Finches are using the remaining maize as cover, and feeding pretty close to the road. Only Chaffinches, and Greenfinches this weekend, but Reed Bunting and Brambling have turned up here in past winters. Winter Thrushes building up along Hoe Lane with about 30-40 Fieldfares, plus a smaller number of Redwings. Also a Buzzard with a hint of white rump, which I think got some discussion last winter.. Just a Common though!
Camera got a bit of use, but still feel like I am just experimenting waiting for something good to photo!.. Liked this shot of a Woodpigeon mainly due to the fairly long distance it was from me, and the fact I got his head clear of the twigs.
F8, ISO200, 1/250Sec, 340mm handheld, IS on, for the record!
• Sunday, November 29, 2009 - A long awaited Leach's Petrel
I was due to meet friends in the Chilterns today to watch Red Kites, but a mixture of the bad weather, and a nasty case of the trots (Hope you are feeling better now Tim!) postponed the trip.
I fancied going out this afternoon after the worst of the weather passed by thinking about the hide at Ibsley being a good choice, but I couldn't help notice the abundance of Leach's Petrels along the Hampshire Coast. I once stood at Seaforth Docks next to a guy who was calling out a Leach's Petrel.. I didn't see it, and have never seen one since. That was about 20 years ago!
By the time I was clear to go out this afternoon, about the only stretch of Hampshire coastline not to have recorded a Leach's was Lepe and Calshot, so I headed over to the beach huts at Calshot. It was so tempting to twitch the Milford Birds, but I managed to resist. Once it gets to 20 years, another year doesn't make much difference!
The first hour was pretty quiet, leaving me thinking "what have I done?!", but things eventually picked up with a fairly distant Leach's Petrel struggling out of Southampton Water at 3:30pm. Also 2 Great Skuas were in the area, one on the water plucking something dark, but I couldn't be sure what it was. The Leach's was in scope for a few minutes making ridiculously slow progress towards the Solent, then it disappeared from view. I suspect it got close to the Great Skua, and panicked: either back into Southampton Water, or headed off East.
A couple of Med Gulls were about the only other birds of note.
Got back home to see that a Leach's was seen at Iblsey, at roughly the same time I saw mine.. guess I was destined to see one today! The sighting is also incredibly significant for me, as it is my 250th self-found bird in the UK, and also my 500th Species seen in the Western Palearctic!
Finally managed to get out on a reasonably sunny morning, and took a few photos!
The dog walkers' field at North Baddesley was pretty quiet with just a couple of distant Stonechats, and a Roe Deer, plus a couple of small flocks of Redwings over.
Rest of Hoe Lane was also fairly empty, but a Kestrel perched up on a dead tree enabled me to get some shots from the car window. (Got some shots in the garden too in more overcast conditions, of Robin and Squirrel!).
Waited patiently for the bad weather to end, then headed to Blashford in brilliant sunshine hoping the storm had brought in something good, and also to try out a new lens for my camera. Failed on both counts, as the Reserve didn't hold any surprises, and the weather over Blashford was still pretty murky for most of the afternoon.
Ibsley water had a huge Gull roost, with one or two Yellow Legged Gulls, plus a Male and Female Goldeneye.
Photos were extremely difficult, but I did manage the three below which took an unusual amount of editing to get any colour out of the pics!
• Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - Increase in garden birds, and a local Tawny Owl.
Been crocked for over a week with a cold, so haven't done very much at all lately. Have noticed the garden and surrounding area is now brimming with a much larger numbers of birds:
The recent storms brought a couple of Redwings down into the bushes behind the house, but they seem to have moved on. Jays have numbered at least 6, and Woodpigeons must be well over 50. Plenty of Blackbirds are clearing the berries, and the regular wintering Grey Wagtail has returned to the nearby brook. There is also a family party of Long Tailed Tits passing through the garden on most days.
A Tawny Owl was hooting in the distance a few nights ago. I made the fatal error of imitating the call for a laugh, and now he sits in the closest trees to the house wailing for hours every night! Sonogram of the long wavering hoot, and a wav file below. 1.4 seconds is good going for any bird!:
Spent late afternoon around Baddesley Common and Emer Bog. To be honest, given the weather and time of year, it was very difficult to choose anywhere to go for a couple of hours. Whilst there, I stumbled on a whole new strip of woodland that I'd never really checked out before, but the paths seem well established, and a couple of dog walkers were using it. The problem I have with Baddesley Common is that it is huge, you could spend pretty much all day in there, and still not cover all the habitat. Did stumble across a small Tit flock, but nothing of interest amongst the Long Tailed and Blue Tits. Pick of the Finches were two Lesser Redpolls. There were also around 20 Redwings overhead, and a Siskin.
Dusk at Emer Bog was fairly quiet but a Fox put 5 Snipe up which would otherwise have gone undetected, and a Water Rail was calling.
The Common itself is looking better than I have seen it previously. Plenty of Meadow Pipits, and long "Fallow" grassland.
Record shots below of Fox and Redpoll! The fox was taken at 1/4 second on ISO 6400.. miracles do happen!
Checked out the dog walkers field first light. A couple of families of Stonechats in the bushes with 6 Meadow Pipits was about all I could find, plus a singing Mistle Thrush.
Overhead was slightly more exciting with good numbers of Redwing initially. I was well over 200 in about 30 minutes, all in groups of 30-40, and all heading West. the passage appeared to stop quite abruptly around 9am. Also overhead were a few Pied Wagtails, not sure if these roost locally and were heading into the village for the day, or were part of a longer range movement. They were heading North, along with at least 3 Skylarks. The rest of Hoe Lane was pretty quiet, except for a few flocks of Woodpigeon.
I expected to come home to find reports of big movements of Redwings over the County, given my modest success. However, nothing seems to have been posted, so either everyone has given up counting them or North Baddesley was punching above it's weight!
