After the Lord Mayor's show at Wheldrake Ings

After my exploits last week over in Lancashire a few hours on one of my local patches at Wheldrake Ings had more than a hint of 'after the lord mayor's show'. On its day Wheldrake can throw up some cracking birds - Hen Harrier, Goshawk, Short Eared Owl and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker have all been seen here at this time of the year in the recent past but last Friday morning nothing much stirred from Bank Island (with water levels so high still this is just about the only place one can view anything of the reserve) but this passing Grey Heron looked quite good through the lens.

 

 

Plenty of Winter thrushes about though and have to say I've been trying (and failing) to get some good shots of Fieldfares so this one in flight was a welcome capture - shame the wings are a bit fuzzy but I love the detail on the head and the way his feet are tucked right in!

 

Maybe I need to be a bit more patient but I'm finding both Fieldfares and Redwings very skittish and its tricky getting something through the lens that fills the frame - being in a hide always helps of course but with all the hides being partially submerged on the reserve this next one, nice in its own way of course, is very typical of my efforts so far!

Redwings are proving even more difficult ... they're not as numerous this year as their bigger cousins plus I'm sure they hide behind twigs in the trees whenever they get within my camera's range!

My challenge for the week ahead is clear!

 

Leighton Moss and Arnside flying road trip

You can't expect to just drop into one of the premier RSPB reserves in Northern England for a few hours and get lucky .... or can you? Well, although I'd dearly love to be able to build a bit of literary tension and say something like  'no of course not .... unless you're a couple of 'gun ho' birders hell bent on following the sun and the birds', but the reality is of course slightly less colourful, only slightly mind!

By lucky I guess some reportage of a 'twitchable rarity' or a gripper of a view of some local speciality would fit the bill but the truth of it is we (that's myself and Mark P) had a damn fine time without either of those eventualities and still had some magic birding moments .... and that I think bears testimony to the unique charm of birding.

In our window of opportunity we set a course for the Northwest because we knew that it was going to be drab again in Yorkshire but the sun was going to shine in Lancashire .... only one place to head for - Leighton Moss!

A 'murmuration' of Starlings (courtesy of Google Images)

We arrived late afternoon on the 28th Nov and headed straight for the reserve, the sun was already dipping but a walk down towards the public hide provided us with a totally unexpected Cettis Warbler, calling from the reeds, several Water Rails calling and one seen on the path and then a procession of Little Egrets flying overhead as they came into roost (up to 117 have been recorded here at the roost site). Later, as the light faded and we realised that the predictions of -4C were correct,  we bore witness to the regular gathering of thousands of Starlings as they swirled about in the sky before they all settled down into the reeds to roost .... totally awesome sight as they filled the sky above and totally impossible to estimate numbers but these 'murmurations' can top 100,000!

Not a bad start and certainly something to talk about over fish and chips and a pint at  'Ye Olde Fighting Cocks' our hostelry for the night.

 

Suitably refreshed and much heartened by a good old full English breakfast we headed for Arnside Knott, a local landmark affording excellent views of the Lancashire / Cumbrian coast on one side and some of the high peaks of the Lake District on the other ..... look closely on the first pic and you should be able to make out snow on top of Skiddaw and Helvellyn

 

As you can probably gather it was a beautiful day, freezing cold but the light was amazing. Good job I had my standby point & shoot camera with me because even though I thought I'd charged it up, somehow, inexplicably the battery pack on my SLR was flat! Real shame because within minutes of finding that out we had one of those magic birding moments. I'd climbed the hill before Mark, found out the battery pack was flat and then double cursed my luck as I came on to 5 Waxwings flying in from across the bay. Having not yet had a Waxwing in the wild moment (as a pose to the more usual suburban sightings) he was understandably a bit disappointed at missing that but moments later 2 Waxwings floated in from somewhere and landed in the top of a tree right in front of us ... to be joined within seconds by a whole group of them (we reckoned about 45). It was an awesome sight. I've seen plenty of these birds over the past few weeks but get such views in such a location and in perfect light made this my best Waxwing experience to date ...... just think how these pics might have turned out with the SLR and big lens!

Sod's law strikes again on the camera front but nothing can take away the memory of these beauties. We watched them for 30 minutes or so taking yew berries from a nearby bush and flying back up into this tree and then we moved reluctantly on.

In the same location we also had Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Fieldfare and Redwing










 On then to Leighton Moss again but ah the daylight hours are scant at this time of the year and by the time I'd recharged my camera at the visitor centre it was already 2.00pm and the shadows were lengthening! Again we had the briefest glimpses of Bearded Tit and Water Rail, and at least 2 Marsh Harriers but nothing to really focus on except some reasonably close ducks from one of the hides ..... nice to get a good shot of a male Shoveler (pic left) and both male and female Goldeneye ( below)

A little earlier and taking every opportunity to use my freshly energised camera I captured one of the many tamish Robins along the footpath that some locals feed meal worms to .... this one was particularly confiding. He looks hopeful doesn't he? Well we had no meal worms in our pockets but my word he looks well fed to me!




Before long we were into another spectacular evening display of Starlings coming into roost, better than the night before because they were 'whooshing' right over our heads and at dusk probably one of many Sparrowhawks in the vicinity swooped menacingly over the reeds looking for a stray one ... my guess is that the 'Spars' don't go hungry around here!

Species list for the trip (total 79)

• Common Pheasant
• Red Legged Partridge
• Red Grouse (en route)
• Greylag Goose
• Pink Footed Goose
• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Northern Shoveller
• Common Teal
• Goldeneye
• Gadwall
• Eurasian Wigeon
• Tufted Duck
• Red Breasted Merganser
• Shelduck
• Little Grebe
• Grey Heron
• Little Egret
• Cormorant
• Common Kestrel
• Red Kite (en route)
• Eurasian Sparrowhawk
• Eurasian Buzzard
• Marsh Harier
• Water Rail
• Common Moorhen
• Common Coot
• Eurasian Oystercatcher
• Northern Lapwing
• Common Redshank
• Dunlin
• Turnstone
• Eurasian Curlew
• Common Snipe
• Common Gull
• Herring Gull
• Black Headed Gull
• Great Black Backed Gull
• Lesser Black Backed Gull
• Feral Pigeon
• Wood Pigeon
• Eurasian Collared Dove
• Common Kingfisher
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Eurasian Jay
• Carrion Crow
• Rook
• Eurasian Jackdaw
• Common Magpie
• Bohemian Waxwing
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Willow Tit
• Long Tailed Tit
• Bearded Tit
• Eurasian Skylark
• Cetti's Warbler
• Eurasian Starling
• Eurasian Blackbird
• Fieldfare
• Redwing
• Song Thrush
• Mistle Thrush
• Eurasian Robin
• Meadow Pipit
• Pied Wagtail
• Goldcrest
• Winter Wren
• Eurasian Treecreeper
• Eurasian Nuthatch
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Dunnock
• House Sparrow
• Greenfinch
• Chaffinch
• Golfinch
• Linnet
• Common Redpoll
• Eurasian Bullfinch

Spring is only 124 days away!

Oh how I wish I was somewhere where the rain don't bucket down and the wind blows cold air in my face!

Instead of local patch pics like this at Moorlands (a YWT reserve just outside York)

.................... I'd rather be gazing at something like this - a newly arrived Barn Swallow (Poiteau Charente, France)

........ and later, when we get home

Ah but one must grit and bear the cold and the wet, the wind and the grey to fully appreciate the glory of Spring, and by my calculations the beginning of Spring in the UK is only 124 days away .... doesn't feel like a long time to me and although I'm enthusiastic of course about the photographic opportunities of a winter in Yorkshire, I'd far sooner be warm, walking without wellies and gloves, and snapping up summer migrants!


Remember butterflies? 124 days to go before we can see them again so here's a couple from last year to be going on with ...... a Brimstone and a glorious Swallowtail.

 

I know that wasn't a very topical post but with grey skies and only 6 hours of good daylight at the moment we all need a gentle reminder of what's around the corner (especially S.A.D sufferers .... so this post is for you guys!)

 

Off to Leighton Moss tomorrow with my birding mate, staying over there for a couple of days so hopefully we'll have some decent birds and I'll get lucky with the camera ..... might even get a Bittern to make up for the one I dipped out on last week!

 

 

'I hung my head' cover



I seem to have been thwarted by the weather over the past few days ....its either foggy, raining or both and when the sun eventually decided to shine this afternoon I find my route blocked in several directions by flood water! I can't remember a time when so much rain has fallen over the UK over such a sustained period of time.

 

With that most convenient 'should have' thought processes - hindsight, maybe I should have struck out on foot but I didn't get up till midday after being absorbed with the test match cricket from India from 4.00 this morning (yes I know, I'm bonkers!), so it had to be the car .... total wash out!

 

Not to worry, I plan to have 2 solid days birding next week with my pal Mark and with some strongish onshore winds brewing it could be good on the coast.

 

Meanwhile, I reminded myself that this is not just a birding blog and with no records to write up this afternoon I picked up my guitar and did a one take video of one of my favourite Johnny Cash songs 'I Hung My Head' ..... all a bit raw but with all the rigmarole involved with setting up sound, microphone etc in my front room I couldn't be bothered to record it again so here it is, hope you enjoy .... I don't think I've murdered it!

 

U tube Link here if the vid doesn't work - I hung my head vid

 

 

Nice Barn Owl makes up for Bittern no show!

My best mate rang me this morning at 07.15, thought he might have had a gripper but no he'd just got a random text I'd sent him the previous evening! I wasn't grumpy .... it got me up and so I should have been because my plan the previous evening was to get out to North Duffield, part of the Derwent Valley reserve and see if I could get the Bittern that has been seen there regularly for the past week or so.

 

Spent about 2 hours in the Geoffrey Smith hide along with several other early rising birders but alas no sign of said bird. As far as I can gather it was last seen on the 19th and we've had some 'weather' since then so maybe its wandered off to 'reed' pastures new. One of my blogging friends Andy Walker was a bit quicker off the mark ans has some good pics on his site of the bird here - A.W. Birder

 

Good selection of wildfowl there this morning with plenty of Shoveler, Mallard, Wigeon, Gadwall, Pintail, Teal and 'Tufties'. A distant female Marsh Harrier over reeds at Aughton was pleasing on the eye and we also had a couple of Sparrowhawks and there were about 180 Golden Plover amongst 400 or so Lapwings. Shame about the Bittern, I've only ever seen 2 in Yorkshire and none around my local patch.

 

The only other highlight was a daytime hunting Barn Owl along the river bank which at one point came close enough to photograph and probably gave me my best images to date of this bird in flight.





On Holiday & Birding in Sri Lanka

Some more, in fact quite a lot more, bird pics from Sri Lanka to bring a taste of the exotic to those of you currently shivering a bit to the north of the equator! Its maybe worth mentioning that this was a holiday for me and Gabz, not a birding trip. Apart from one visit to the Wilpattu reserve these are all shot within a few metres of our hotel, Ranwelli holiday village and like anywhere on the sub continent its clearly a hotspot for all kinds of birds, animals and flowers ..... there's also millions of people and they all seem to have at least 2 dogs so if you want to birdwatch do some research and my advice is to stick to the 20 or so national reserves! 

 

Anyway, back to the birds, and in no particular order .............

 

This is a female Asian Koel, incredibly shy birds and this was shot across the river and cropped to hell!

 

 

Equally shy and typically elusive during daylight hours I was lucky to look up and see this Black Crowned Night Heron standing stock rigid during a riverside walk.
















 Into the light and although not shot in the best of light this Blue Tailed Beeater strikes a typical post as it waits for passing bugs!

Another bug, this time in the 'Blogger' system, is currently preventing the resizing of anything more than 2 or 3 pics per post but until its sorted just click on them to enlarge.

There were plenty of terns passing south the whole time we were there, not all of them positively id'd as many were immature / going into winter plumage and decidedly tricky! These are definitely Great Crested Terns (pic right) but what about the 2nd one? Saw many similar to this and still not sure but I'm thinking Roseate Terns

A short walk out of the hotel and I found a small haven of semi jungle area by the river, I was soon disturbed by barking dogs from the nearest habitation of course but not before I'd spied a couple of woodpeckers across the river. They turned out to be Greater Flamebacks .... shame I couldn't get closer and at some 200 metres away this is just about maximum range for my lens. Still a reasonable ID shot though!











Indian Mynah birds were by far and away the commonest small bird ..... quirky, comical and of course great mimics. Sadly many of these end up in gilded cages for this ability, but I guess there's enough of them so hardly endangered as a species. Quite a good article here on them - Mynah birds









Have to say I'm not a great fan of crows, intelligent they may be but they do predate nests on a huge scale all over the world. Having said that the House Crows in Sri Lanka were quite fun to watch ..... they scavenge on anything edible of course but they also pick up anything shiny, presumably for nest decoration, and one of these blighters flew away with a packet of my tobacco! Would have made for a classic picture but I was so shocked .... I ran after the offending corvidt until he dropped it (contents spilled of course!)




The other common species of crow over there were Thick Billed or Jungle Crows which seemed to dwell mainly on the beach.

 

 
There was a pair of Brahminy Kites that flew over the hotel every day, usually mid afternoon, and seemed to be feeding on the sea. I saw them stooping and carrying off big fish on at least 2 occasions whilst we were on the beach .... both times my camera was back in the hotel room of course!

I expected to see more waders on the beach than I did but apart from a few groups of migrating Whimbrel and the occasional Common Sandpiper all I had were Red Wattled Lapwings but like many of the common birds in Sri Lanka this was of course a new bird for me and very photographable, especially in flight. (pics right & below)



Here's a couple of pictures of a Common Sandpiper, (above and left) one of the most globally widespread of waders in typical pose and location (above) but less typical in the 2nd pic .... almost looks like its about to nest on the beach!






Away from the hotel was a different story. I've already posted on our trip out to the Wilpattu reserve (Wilpattu Safari) and commented on the limited photographic opportunities for birds but here's a couple of distant shots I've had to significantly crop to make a picture, at some cost to image quality alas.


The first shows a group of Pheasant Tailed Jacanas involved in some kind of squabble and the second features from left to right, Black Headed Ibis, a familiar Black Winged Stilt and a Lesser Adjutant Stork. When I scanned more pics I was able to identify other waders such as Greenshank and Marsh Sandpiper but no way could I make them into pictures.

















There were lots of storks and allied water birds at Wilpattu and wish I'd had time to get to grips with them but maybe another time if I get the chance. The jeep did pass close enough for me to get this reasonable picture of  a Woolly Necked Stork as the Germans in the back seat gazed at a herd of deer.





Back at the hotel and this pic is just so typical of a bird I tried so hard to capture, a White Breasted Waterhen .... they were always walking away from me!








And finally, I've babbled on for far too long so I may end up looking like one of these ........ Yellow Beaked Babblers!



At last a bright sunny day in York.

At last a bright and sunny day here in Yorkshire. I got myself out of course but alas my time was limited due to getting up late after some impromptu music (plus alcohol) last night with my sister and Mark and to boot my chosen destination, Strensall Common, was also the destination of many others plus their dogs ..... hardly saw a thing. A few Goldcrests,  Long Tailed Tits, Redwings, a couple of nice Bullfinches and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Nothing came near enough to photograph apart from this rather obliging and Common Pheasant .... no it's not stuffed, he's just posing!!

Judging by the local weather forecast I may have a few hours tomorrow morning before the rain sets in for any birding or photography, in the meantime I still have some goodies from Sri Lanka to post including good Brahminy Kite shots and with nothing I want to watch on TV until later I may post again this evening.