January Birding

Friday 16th - Sunday 25th January 2015
Dipper, Painswick
Friday 16th I took the afternoon off work to bird, on a lovely sunny, and cold, day. I stopped first at the Horsbere Flood Storage Area just off the Barnwood by-pass/Elmbridge Court roundabout link road. This was my first visit here, which was prompted by the chance to see a Red-crested Pochard relatively close to the city. Besides the drake RCP there was a good range of other birds, including a Kingfisher, eight Wigeon and five Snipe. It's a fabulous habitat, and I shall be returning in the not too distant future. I have a fondness for Horsbere Brook, having grown up quite near it further upstream at Brockworth, and spent many hours trying to dam it!
Red-crested Pochard, Horsbere (what is that in its bill though?)
Horsbere Flood Storage Area - perhaps one day a more glamorous name: Horsbere Nature Reserve?
After Horsbere I headed for Hawling for owls. Three Short-eared Owls were showing well when I got there at 3pm, and a Barn Owl also showed before too long. Two Red Kites and the usual Kestrel added to the interest. A nice end to the day, and my toes had almost thawed out by the time I got home.
Red Kite, Hawling
One of three Short-eared Owls at Hawling
In the orange glow of the late afternoon sun
On Sunday 18th I went with Mark to the Cotswold Water Park to look for winter ducks. We also stopped at Driffield, spending too long unsuccessfully looking for Grey Partridge, but we did note 36 Golden Plover. There were no Smew on pit 44, but we did count 73 Red-crested Pochards here. Zero Smew on 65/43 too, but three Goldeneyes and 10 Goosanders present. Crossing the border, we moved on to the Wiltshire 28-30 pits, and eventually got a male Smew on 30.
Drake Smew, Cotswold Water Park (Wilts)
 An afternoon walk around Painswick with Linda and Tansy produced a Dipper along Painswick Stream - it's a good spot for them here (top photo).

I did my garden birdwatch for the RSPB on Saturday 23rd. Thirteen species in all during the hour including a male Blackcap - an almost constant presence at the moment, a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, also a frequent visitor, 12 Greenfinches and 21 Chaffinches. Later I also saw a female Blackcap and a Starling, which is not a frequent species in my garden.
Male Blackcap, Quedgeley
Great Spotted Woodpecker- this male seems to have replaced a female which was a regular going back a couple of months
Starling - mmm - peanut!
Blue Tit - they all love the peanut cake
On Sunday, 25th, it was a bit of a dull and cold morning, but I tried Sharpness anyway first thing, and eventually the male Black Redstart showed on the Ned West building roof. After about 20 seconds it dropped down out of sight on the flat roof and didn't re-appear after a further wait so I moved on.
Male Black Redstart, Sharpness Docks
The disused Ned West building, not pretty, but pretty good for Black Redstart over the years
After a bit more of a bird at SARA and the picnic site area, I headed for WWT. A Little Stint was on the Tack Piece and a Cetti's Warbler called and showed briefly by the Robbie Garnett hide. The other highlight was two Bank Voles showing well just near the tunnel entrance.
Little Stint, WWT Slimbridge
Bank Vole, WWT Slimbridge

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gran Canaria

Image
Saturday 1st - Saturday 8th October 2016 Hoopoe - Maspalomas A week in the hot sunshine of Gran Canaria at the start of October produced some good birds despite this island not getting much representation in the available range of published bird guides. This isn't surprising since it doesn't hold any populations of the endemic Canary pigeon species which can be found on Tenerife and La Gomera, and Blue Chaffich is much easier to find on Tenerife; next to impossible on Gran Canaria.  Based in Maspalomas at the southern tip of the island, my birding was incidental, or confined to the occasional short solo exploration on foot, in between simply being on holiday. A brackish lagoon, La Charca, stretches behind the beach at Maspalomas, cut off the sea by the beach, and with the dunes along one side. La Charca was always interesting to visit and turned up some good birds. The highlights included (no particular order): Canary Island Chiffchaff - common and vocal virtually ever...
Read more

Todd's Canada Goose

Image
Saturday 16th January 2010 The Canada Goose showing characteristics of the race Branta canadensis interior , commonly known as Todd's Canada Goose , was in the Rushy Pen at Slimbridge WWT this morning (photos in poor light above and below) , before flying off with other Canada's at 9:40am. This is a very interesting bird, showing several features which together set it apart from its feral counterparts. My observations of the differences are: it is slightly smaller with a more slender neck; shorter bill; narrower white cheek patch; the black on the chin is linked to the black of the neck; at the bottom of the neck at the back, the black joins the brown of the mantle, with no white in between; the pale fringing on the scapulars etc. is much less distinct; the tertials are more contrastingly paler, giving the effect of a pale wing panel; it has a pale eye-ring; and if these features don't help - it has a limp! Other sightings this morning included: Sharpness Docks A female/imm...
Read more

Storks, Spoonbills, Orchids and Oversley Wood

Image
Friday 15th June - Friday 6th July 2018 White Stork, Zwin Nature Park, Belgium I'll start off with some photos of White Storks taken on my recent holiday in Belgium and the Netherlands. Based in Bruges, we encountered Storks nesting near the city in the pretty small town of Damme, and at Zwin Nature Park in Belgium, and also over the border in the dutch town of Sluis. Sluis is a picturesque town, and the Storks we saw here were clearly very used to humans. White Stork, Sluis, Netherlands Zwin Nest with young, Zwin Stork nest in Damme This nest in Damme was on the historic St John's Hospital Museum, currently being renovated I didn't see a Spoonbill during the whole of 2017, and hadn't seen one in 2018 until arriving at Zwin Nature Park and seeing one in flight over the centre. This was probably one of two I saw together from the main hide. This is a fantastic reserve with great facilities. Situated in the north-east corner of Belgium, j...
Read more