February Highlights

Saturday 6th - Sunday 28th February
Great Grey Shrike, Crabtree Hill
The first trip of the month was to the Cotswold Water Park with Mark, and a long walk (nearly 6 miles) covering several pits looking for Smew. It hasn't been a good winter for Smew and we drew a blank, but year-ticked Goosander, Goldeneye and Red-crested Pochard.
Little Gull, Tack Piece, WWT
The next morning I spent at WWT Slimbidge. After a quiet couple of hours I was just leaving via the shop and happened to see Martin and Neil. They told me there was a Little Gull on the Tack Piece, so I headed straight there in time to see it. A Bar-tailed Godwit, which I had thus far missed, was also on the Tack Piece with the Black-tailed Godwits, so that was a nice bonus. I've seen the Barwit a couple of times since on South Lake.
Bar-tailed Godwit, South Lake, WWT
Bar-tailed Godwit, South Lake, WWT
The last two Saturday mornings I have spent carried out Winter Random Square Surveys. Last Saturday was Hock Cliff, and this Saturday I was surveying Ruspidge in the Forest. The Ruspidge survey turned up lots of Siskins, 70+, and two nice Bramblings. On the way back from Ruspidge I fitted in the GREEN-WINGED TEAL at Ashleworth Ham. The Teal was asleep most of the time and partially obscured, but thankfully did wake up a couple of times revealing its vertical white stripes.
Siskin, Ruspidge
Brambling, Ruspidge
Green-winged Teal, Ashleworth Ham
It was a trip back to the Forest this morning with Andy and Mark, covering Woorgreens - Crabtree Hill - Drybrook Road Station. It was generally rather quiet, the main highlights being a Goshawk and on the lake six Goosanders.
Goosanders, Woorgreens Lake (5 of the 6)

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