Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 15 and 16 23 October and 6 November 2016

23 October 2016
My trips are getting more and more infrequent, meaning I'm not getting the luck Martin has been getting.

Speaking of Martin, I finally met him for the first time since the challenge began. He's a lovely chap and it was nice to finally meet him and his son after reading his blog entries for the past 10 months. He mentioned a Snipe that had been spotted on the island, so I said my goodbyes and headed off with my friend Chris.

No luck on the island, so we continued with our walk, seeing the usual coots, grebes and tufted ducks. It wasn't until we reached the back of the second lake that my luck began to hold out. We saw plenty of Autumn ducks, including Shoveler, Teal and Wigeon, which were the first since January for me. As we continued around we flushed a small flock of Meadow Pipits, my first new birds for a while. We scoured the small island for the Kingfisher that Chris had seen several times, but has continued to elude me, and I lucked out again. We did spot a male Stonechat though, my first for the year here.

As we headed for the car pack we tried the island to see the Snipe, but again, nothing was there. As we were leaving it flew past us, easy to tell due to its flight. A few moments later a female Sparrowhawk flew fast and low through the car park.

06 November 2016

Headed out today as Martin had used his new scope and spotted two Egyptian Geese on the big island the previous day. Annoyingly, I didn't see them. In fact I didn't see much of anything except for about 150 coot, 50 herring gulls and lots of winter ducks. I was with my wife and daughter who were complaining of the wind and the cold, so I wasn't able to do a thorough scan like I wanted to.
Oh well, there's always next week.

A very distant Little Grebe.

Lazy Cormorants.

Mute Swan

I'm now at 66 species for the year, which is pretty terrible if I'm honest. I was hoping to hit a 100 birds, but year's end, but at this rate I'd be happy with 70 :P

I do wonder if I lose out by not having access to a scope like Martin, but he's a lot more regular than I am, which means he has more chance of seeing stuff :)

Week 38 04-01-2015 Birds Spotted: 2

We start off the New Year with a bang in the form of two new birds. They're really record shots due to the long distances and generally poor light, but I'm pleased I made the effort to get out to Blashford Lakes today.

Black-Necked Grebe
I've gone to both Longham and Blashford several times and have always missed this bird. Now I know why, it's extremely small, and not that much bigger than a Little Grebe. For some reason I always thought it was Great Crested Grebe size.
This one was kindly pointed out to me by a nearby gentlemen who was intently studying all the gulls on the lake. While I was able to get a decent viewing through my binoculars, the following shot is for record purposes only :)
Only 130 birds winter in the UK, making them relatively rare. They're a lot more noticeable in Summer, due to their bright plumage, but outside of breeding their quite dull, save for their bright red eyes. They feed on a variety of foods, from small fishes to crustaceans and will also take insects. This one was continually diving, making him quite a challenge to spot.

Not the greatest shot, but the white cheek patch is very recognisable.

Green Sandpiper

About 10 minutes before we were due to leave the Goosander hide, we heard a high pitch piping that I initially mistook for a Kingfisher. It was actually a Green Sandpiper, which was being chased by a Sparrowhawk. The raptor quickly gave up on the bird though, leaving it to perch down on a stand about 60 feet from us. The light was failing, so it's not the best of shots, but is more than recognisable.

It looks quite similar to the Wood Sandpiper, but it lacks the conspicuous strip that runs from the eye to the back of the neck. The Green Sandpiper rarely breeds in the UK, but up to 1,000 birds winter here each year. It's on the amber list and is typically seen in the UK between July and March.

Here's the Green Sandpiper, minding its own business.

And here's a harsher shot of it. Sadly the light was fading badly.

All in all it's been a good start to the year and I'm now at 129 photographed birds with 143 left to find.

I'll finish off with a selection of shots from both Blashford and Stanpit Marsh.

Wigeon on the lake at Ivy Hide south.

Roosting Cormorants.

The Goosanders continue to stay distant.

Female Blackbird taken through glass at the Woodland hide.

Blue Tit.

Make Chaffinch.

Female Chaffinch.

Redshank and Black-Tailed Godwit at Stanpit.

Curlew going for a walk.

Green Woodpecker, taking a break from eating ants.

Little Egret flyby.

Rock Pipit.

Redshank and Starling.

Stonechat.

Week 7 01-06-2014 Birds Spotted 3

Hooray, after a miserable week last week, I've now got three more birds to add to the collection.

Before we take a look at them, let's talk about the British weather and why it's a bit rubbish for bird watching. As you may have noticed, we don't have the greatest of weather in the UK, with everything tending to be tinged with a naff shade of grey.

It becomes a big issue for bird photography as you're trying to collect as much light as possible. If it's not there your pictures can often look very drab and miserable. I'll be looking at ways to combat this going forward, so expect updated pictures of birds in my main Flickr Album as I get them.

While you can't always guarantee what birds you're going to see, you can up your chances by visiting places you know certain species are going to be. One such location is Poole Park in Poole, Dorset. It's a great location as it has both seawater and freshwater and attracts a fair number of different species. Unfortunately, many of the birds there I have already seen, but I did manage to pick up a few new additions.

So anyway, let's take a look at the birds that flew past my lens this week.

Common Tern
I spotted this little fellow on my entry into the park. He was a creature of habit, slowly circling one of the smaller estuaries while looking for tasty fish to eat. The best shot I managed to get of him was the first one I took, and it's annoying that it's so overcast as you can't really appreciate what a beautiful looking bird it is. It's very similar in size and colouration to the Artic Tern, but has a black tip to its bill instead of being completely red. It's a summer resident, arriving around April and heading off home in August/September, but does breed in the UK. In fact there are around 12,000 breeding pairs every year. It's a truly beautiful bird in flight and while it's not as acrobatic as a hummingbird it's arguably as graceful and as nimble as a Swallow. We watched him for a good ten minutes and he managed to catch quite a few fish in that time.

Note the long ways and Swallow-like tail.

Curse our miserable UK weather.

Greylag Geese

Poole Park is swarming with Greylag Geese, the little beggars are everywhere and currently breeding, so you can't walk anywhere without upsetting a nearby parent. Many of the goslings are at different stages of development and they make for quite a site as you walk around the park. In total I spotted around 100 babies in total, although it's possible there were more.

Most common domesticated geese are related to this goose and it's largely domesticated itself in most parts of the UK. Wild breeding birds are typically found north and in Scotland where they gather in surprisingly large numbers. Greylag Geese are our largest native goose and will hiss if you get too close to them. They were very protective of their young, chasing after my daughter when she got a little too close for comfort.

They may be completely grey, but Greylags do have some nice markings to them.

It's impossible to tell who's with who here.

So use are they to man, you can get nice and close.

As you can see these young are slightly older than the others.

Stone Chat

The final bird I saw this week was a Stone Chat, which I spotted while taking a walk over at Arne Nature Reserve. It gets its name because its song sounds like two rocks smacking together, and not because it can talk to stones and other inanimate objects. Jokes aside, it's a very pretty bird, although you can't tell this from the poor lighting I shot this male in. It has an orange breast similar to a Robin and is quite similar in size. It's also related to the popular Robin and is usually confused with the similar looking Winchat. I was lucky enough to come across an entire family of these delightful looking birds, who were only too happy to hide behind gorse bushes, ensuring I picked up plenty of scratches in my quest to photograph them.

This is a male Stone Chat, the lighting isn't great, but you can see his orange belly here.

Not the greatest of shots thanks to my lens, but this is a female.

And here's a juvenile that I was able to get quite close to before it flew off.

So that's it for another week. While it's been pointed out to me that Peregrine Falcons are nesting near my work, I've so far not seen them. I'll be popping off during my lunchtimes this week, so with any luck I'll be able to add at least one new bird to the list next week. That brings my current total to 54 birds spotted with another 218 left to find. If anyone would like to recommend good places to go spotting I can be found on the RSPB forum under the name Darran J.