Patchwork Challenge - Visit 4

This was my final visit for the month and I was accompanied by my wife and youngest daughter.

The company meant I wasn't able to lug around my big lens, and I didn't really have much opportunity to use my powershot. As a result the pictures aren't of a very high quality.

It started off as usual with Magpie, Carrion Crows and Rooks in the field next to the main car park. I scanned the car park too, but didn't really see anything, which was rather disappointing.

As I didn't have time to walk both lakes, we went up the causeway and decided to circle the south lake, so we only saw one side of the north lake. While we didn't see any Pochards, we did spot Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Black-Headed Gulls and plenty of coots.

Stopping halfway up the causeway allowed us to view the island on the south lake. Here we saw Gadwell, Mallard, Cormorant, Canada Geese, Teal and a lone Little Grebe.

A pair of Mallards, the drake is on the left.

As we reached the end of the causeway we saw the first Little Egret of the year, which continually flew from one side of the lake throughout the rest of our walk.

Checking out the fields, we spotted plenty of Mallards and Mute Swans, but nothing out of the ordinary. There were lots of gulls, but they were too far out to get a good id (my binoculars aren't the best), the Greylags and Canada Geese were nowhere to be seen either.

There was a lot more action in the wood that runs along the back of the south lake however and we saw a small flock of Long Tailed Tits. We also spotted a lone Goldcrest, as well as a lone female Bullfinch, the first I've seen on the patch since I've started visiting it over a year and a half ago. It just highlights what you start spotting when you continually visit the same locations.

A Long-Tailed Tit with the Powershot.

Following the lake we saw more of the usual birds, as well as a lone Pochard and a pair of Wigeon. It was otherwise pretty uneventful until we reached the main car park and I decided to look over one of the nearby fields where I saw a singing Chaffinch. Perched in the distance was a lone Kestrel. As I took out my powershot I heard a screech and it had been replaced by a Buzzard, which it then proceeded to mob. It just highlights that you'll never know what you see, so it's always worth stopping for one more look.

So at the end of the month I spotted a grand total of 43 new birds, which is a good 7 short of the target I'd set myself. It's only going to get harder in the coming months, so we'll see how it goes :)

Birds seen
Black-Headed Gull
Bullfinch
Buzzard
Canada Geese
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Cormorant
Coot
Gadwell
Goldcrest
Great Crested Grebe
Jackdaw
Kestrel
Little Egret
Little Grebe
Long-Tailed Tit
Magpie
Mallard
Mute Swan
Pochard
Teal
Tufted Duck
Wigeon

Patchwork Challenge - Visit 3

January the 16th has been the best day so far in terms of weather. It was incredibly cold, but was dry with absolutely fantastic light. Annoyingly, I neglected to take my tripod as I stupidly thought I could take perfectly fine pictures without it. I couldn't. Still it proved to be a good day, with a number of new birds added to the usual suspects.

The car park was full of activity, with Great Tits, Starlings, Long-Tailed Tits and Blue Tits all putting in an appearance. A Robin was singing from a low bush, marking my first on the patch and a solitary Redwing was hanging around too. All in all a promising start to my walk.

The south lake was fairly quite with the odd Great Crested Grebe and Tufted Ducks swimming about. There were no Cormorants and the Pochards were on the far side of the lake, away from the fisherman. I was hoping the bracing cold would have convinced a few Water Rails to show themselves but I was out of luck. It wasn't all bad though, as a commotion in the reeds brought a Wren to my attention and it was soon followed by a pair of Collard Doves, two new birds in the space of a couple of minutes.

I was paying more attention to the hedgerows this time around, picking up more foraging tits, a small flock of Greenfinches and the first on patch Chaffinch of the year, a male who was on his own. There were no raptors around today, and I still couldn't see any Moorhens, although Coots were incredibly plentiful.

Not the greatest shot, but not terrible for handheld.

Once I was around the south lake I scanned the Hampreston fields, hoping for some gull or geese action. Sadly it was relatively quiet with Black-Headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Mute Swans and a lone Greylag Geese. The fields were getting less waterlogged, but there was plenty of ice about, meaning some of the birds were finding it quite difficult, particularly the heavy swans.

The lake continued to be quiet, although I did disturb a pair of Little Grebes that hurried off into the centre of the lake. Moving around the second lake there was a bit more action although less ducks than before.. Jackdaws, Rooks and Carrion Crows were in the adjacent fields and passerines were plentiful too. I spotted my first ChiffChaff of the year in one of the old oak trees, but I missed a small flock of Godwits that another pair of birders saw a few moments earlier.

As I was making the final stretch of the lake I saw a Grey Heron fly lazily across the pond, but still couldn't see any Egrets. I looked at the large flock of gulls resting on the lake, but they didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary.

Upon reaching the small island I found most of the Canada Geese a few mallard and a lone Teal and Wigeon. There were no Shoveler to be seen although a quick hunt did reveal a pair of Gadwell.

You don't realise how tiny Wigeon actually are.

As I was heading back to the car I was alerted to a Grey Wagtail that began foraging on the opposite side of the lake, meaning I couldn't really get any good shots. Nothing exciting jumped out this week, but it was still an enjoyable walk, even if I did regret not having my tripod. Still I'm now up to 40 total birds, which is pretty good going. Here's hoping I can reach 50 by the end of January.

Really high ISO, so not the greatest of shots.

Here's a list of the birds seen

Blackbird

Black-Headed Gull

Blue Tit

Canada Geese

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Chiffchaff

Collard Dove

Cormorant

Gadwell

Goldfinch

Great Crested Grebe

Great Tit

Greenfinch

GreylagGeese

Grey Heron

Grey Wagtail

Herring Gull

Jackdaw

Little Grebe

Long Tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Mute Swan

Pochard

Redwing

Rook

Starling

Tufted Duck

Wigeon

Woodpigeon

Wren

Patchwork Challenge - Visit 2 (09-01-2016)

I didn't have a lot of time today, but did manage to add a few new birds to my patch list for the Patchwork Challenge. I hurried around the North lake only as the weather was looking poor and I was concerned about getting my big lens wet. It wasn't too bad a day, although frustratingly I left my binoculars at home, meaning I couldn't identify a lot of birds.

It was pretty much business as usual on the lakes, with Tufted Ducks, Pochards, Mallards, Gadwell, Little Grebe, Crested Grebe and Coot all making an appearance. Interestingly, I've seen no Moorhens yet, which seems odd, but I'll keep looking for them. I did spot a few additional ducks this time around, finding a small group of Shoveler on the South Lake Island and Teal dabbling about in the Hampreston Fields.

Female Shoveler to the left and a male Gadwell to the right.

Speaking of Hampreston Fields there was still a lot of action there. The Mute Swans and Canada Geese were still present, but I was also able to add Greylag Geese to my list, which was nice. Unfortunately, I'd left my camera on -2 exposure so the following shot isn't the best.

This was very distant, but doesn't look too bad.

There was a large number of Canada geese present.

I continued to scan the fields and added quite a few Corvids to the list, including Carrion Crows, Jackdaws and about 6 magpies. There was a large flock of around 30 Rooks too, adding another new bird to the patch list. Starlings were also busy, looking for food with the Rooks, so that was another tick to the patch too.

In addition to scanning the waterlogged fields for rare geese (you never know right?) I was also looking for gulls, particularly Common Gulls which are quite common here. I did see plenty of Black-Headed Gulls and a few Herring Gulls but no Common Gulls. Apparently, one of the Herring Gulls was a Northern Scandinavian one, but as far as I know it's not worth extra points. Plenty of gulls have been sighted at the lakes, so I still have time to find some rare ones.

Herring Gulls, the one of the left is the Northern Scandinavian one.

One thing I am lucking out on is passerines. Things got off to a great start with a small group of Great Tits in the car park, but I was less lucky walking around the lakes. I heard plenty of birds, but I'd not trust my ID too identify them by sound alone. I saw plenty of Blackbirds, a few Blue Tits and quite a few Goldfinch, but there were no birds in large numbers. I saw a few more Long Tailed Tits, but the Redwings were nowhere to be seen this time around. Still, I did manage to find a small group of Greenfinch and a lone Pied Wagtail, which gave me two new birds.

The only other new bird this week were two buzzards, which I saw separately, both flying in the same direction. I didn't see any other raptors, although I vainly (and probably, foolishly) scanned the famer's field for barn owls and short-eared owls.

That now brings my patch total to 33 birds, which is way short of what I'd like, but not too bad considering my lack of obvious species like Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow and several other birds I should have seen by now.

What follows will be a list of every different bird I saw that day, but we'll finish with a shot of a Cormorant :)

Black-Headed Gull

Blackbird

Buzzard

Carrion Crow

Canada Goose

Coot

Cormorant

Gadwell

Goldfinch

Great Crested Grebe

Greylag Goose

Green Finch

Great Tit

Jackdaw

Little Grebe

Long-Tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Pied Wagtail

Pochard

Rook

Shoveler

Starling

Teal

Tufted Duck

Wood Pigeon

Patchwork Challenge - Entry 1

So here it is, my first entry for this year's Patchwork Challenge.
The aim is to choose a spot no more than 3kms in size and spot as many different birds as you can in the course of a year. There's a point system too, although I doubt I'll use it as it seems a little complicated. I just thought this was a good opportunity to start over as it's hard finding new birds for the Great British Bird Hunt.

My first trip to Longham Lakes was interesting as all the back fields have flooded. As a result all the geese and swans were very active and a lot nearer than they usually are. I saw a few ducks, but not as many different species as I'd expect to see and Mallards were very thin on the ground. While I heard plenty of passerines, I didn't include them as my ids aren't too hot. I also saw a few gulls which I didn't recognise, and therefore didn't include.

It wasn't a bad start though and I saw a total of 24 different species
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Pochard
Tufted Duck
Cormorant
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Kestrel
Coot
Lapwing
Black-Headed Gull
Herring Gull
Woodpigeon
Magpie
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Blue Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Blackbird
Redwing
Mistle Thrush
Goldfinch

The Redwing was particularly interesting as I only saw my first a day previously, and here was another small flock of around 5 birds.

I'm including a few pictures but they're taken with my bridge camera. The weather was so poor I didn't want to risk my big lens.

Cormorants

A closer crop.

Great Crested Grebe which was very close to the bank.

And another shot of it.

The fields were heavily waterlogged.

A distant Long-Tailed Tit.

Male Little Grebe.

A hidden Redwing.

Great British Bird Hunt - 2 new birds

I kick off the New Year with two brand new birds I've not seen before.

Redwing
I was hoping to see Redwings when I went to Wales as they typically move around with flocks of Fieldfare, which I did see. Sadly, they eluded me and I thought my chance of seeing them ended there. Luckily, I got a call from my Aunty on January the 2nd saying she had a pair in her garden and would I like to see them. Normally I don't drop everything at the drop of a hat, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
The shots aren't the best as I was using a bridge camera, but I'm still happy with them. Rredwings are Scandinavian thrushes and a lot smaller than I was expecting. There were about 5 in total, but they were typically getting chase off by Blackbirds and proved to be quite timid. It's distinctive for a line above its eye and the red patches under its wings. Nearly 700,000 birds typically visit each year, but only a handful tend to breed.

The birds loved the ivy berries.

The white eye stripe is very distinctive.

Easily the best shot I took.

Blackcap

While we were looking for the Redwings I spotted a Blackcap but in my excitement couldn't get a good shot of it. We continued to look for another 20 minutes but the male didn't show. Just as I was leaving I followed what I thought was a Robin to the other side of the garden. I soon realised that it was a female and within seconds a male was with her too.

Blackcaps are migratory warblers, but more and more spend all year here. In the past I've heard them in hedgerows while out in the countryside (they have very melodious songs) but I've never spotted one long enough to get a photo. It's probably far too early for the birds to think about breeding, but they were certainly spending time together.

He's obscured by bushes but you can see the distinctive black cap.

Shot one of the female.

And a harsher crop. Would love to get one of these in my 600mm lens.

So that's all for this week. I'm not at 145 birds in total!

New Year, new rules

Hi everyone, just a quick update to say that I'm still carrying on with the blog, but am also making a few little changes.

I'm still carrying on with the Great British Bird Hunt and still looking for lifers to add to my list, but I'm also going to be doing The Patchwork Challenge, which you can find out about here.

Hopefully, it will get me all geed up for a new year, as it's quite disappointing to not see any new birds when out and about (although it's not the only reason I bird of course).

As a result I will now go ahead with two types of updates. One entitled Great British Bird Hunt, the other entitled Patchwork Challenge.

See you soon.