Pipits and Things

Monday 26th December 2016 to Sunday 15th January 2017
Richard's Pipit, Arlingham Warth
 The wintering Richard's Pipit at Arlingham showed well, eventually, on Saturday morning, catching insects in the winter sunshine. This is undoubtedly the bird that was at Rodley in October, directly on the opposite side of the river.
Richard's Pipit showing how long its legs are
The Richard's Pipit site, on the bank of the Severn horseshoe
The Severn Bore heads upstream towards Priding
Occasionally a bird turns up in circumstances so surprising that its origin becomes the subject of much debate, rather than being regarded simply as a vagrant. The Stow-on-the-Wold Blue Rock Thrush is one of these, with dubious credentials, but nonetheless attracts a lot of attention. This adult male is certainly an attractive bird, although they are better shown off in the Mediterranean sunshine. Whatever its origin, I had to see it, and, just for good measure made a return visit in the new year.
Blue Rock Thrush at Stow-on-the-Wold
Glorious sunshine on 29th December
Duller conditions on 7th January
After Stow on 29th December I went to Blagdon Lake, Somerset, for the Blyth's Pipit, a bird with somewhat greater provenance. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and after some wait the bird showed nicely for some time at Holt Bay before flying off towards the far side of the lake. Well worth the permit fee for this lifer.
Blyth's Pipit, Blagdon Lake
Holt Bay, Blagdon Lake
A couple of birds at WWT on 7th January, both on the Rushy - Pink-footed Goose and Little Stint:
This Cattle Egret was one of at least three this week at Saul:
 And finally, this Fieldfare was a nice sight in the garden late morning today:

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