Andrew
wibble wibble
Here are my diary entries for today . . . .
Location : Wimbleball Lake, Somerset. SS977317
Instead of going to Ashclyst Forest we decided to go to Wimbleball Lake in the hope of some rare wildfowl. It was awkward to get to, the main reason being my oversight of a very obvious signpost. However, we started off at the main Tea room car park which proved to be a very desolate place bird wise. To be honest there were a few but not anything to get the pulses racing. To start off with there was the majority of today’s 29 Coots and 30 Mallards on the water near the boating club. I walked up through a small thinly wooded area and found 4 Blackbirds, a Chaffinch, a shy Dunnock, a singing Greenfinch and two of 4 Robins. I was surprised to see a Greenfinch singing in winter. I made my way to the northern edge of this little area and a menacing white faced passerine was flying straight towards me, I froze and it kept coming until I had a Pied Wagtail shoot six inches past my face. At the other end there was a very small group of trees and the floor was littered with beech mast so I waited and waited in the hope of some Bramblings without any reward. Nevertheless, I looked up into the skies and counted 3 Black Headed Gulls, some of 35 Carrion Crows, a Herring Gull and a solitary Lapwing. I was captivated by a flock of nine of today’s 23 Tufted Ducks flying high up. I watched them and took in all the markings and identified them to be proven right by the field guide. This enhanced my mood as I had successfully identified some birds in flight which I often find problematical. I made my way back to the car straight up the rear of the linear wood at the top and only added 3 Fieldfares which I loved the sight of in a thin tree. I will need to learn the different types of trees. Back in the car I refuelled with a warm cup of tea and some prawn and lettuce sandwiches followed by an apple before moving on to the car park at Bessom bridge. From here I crossed the road and over a stile to a backwater cut off by the road and found some better birds to brighten up the day kicking off with a flock of 9 Pochards, 17 Wigeons and some more Tufted Ducks. The ducks can’t have been used to human activity as the majority of them soon took off to the main lake leaving a few Tufted Ducks, I scanned these and thought I had a Scaup as one of the ‘Tufteds’ had no tuft at the back of the head, orangey eyes, shinier bill than the three adjacent Tufted Ducks but most of all the upper parts were a finely vermiculated grey as opposed to the surrounding ducks with their black backs. I only saw this bird for a minute and with no experience of Scaups I was not confident enough of it. Another thing that worried me here was this should be a sea faring coastal duck. It could have possibly been a hybrid, I frantically set up the camera and scope only for all the remaining birds to take off to the other side. In the end I decided not to count it. A saving grace was that I managed to take some pictures of one of 5 Stonechats on the edge of the field. There were two males and three females feeding in the fields regularly coming in to perch on the fence posts or wires. In the distance I could see lots of Gulls and 3 Magpies. I ventured back to the other side of the road and the ducks were nowhere to be seen but there were 93 Canada Geese mowing the grass on the east bank behind the hide. I concluded my session here with a short look up north of Bessom bridge only to find the Wigeon, Tufted Ducks and Pochard but no sign of my earlier bird. Other birds spotted up here were 6 Cormorants on a raft and a Buzzard quartering the area. The birds seen today did not really set my heart racing apart from the possible Scaup yet I enjoyed it thoroughly having got my boots on and walked well off the beaten track. I felt contented.
02-02-03
Location : Knightshayes Court, Devon. SS960157
On the return from Wimbleball, we came across a Song Thrush on the road at Morebath along with the second Buzzard of the day being mobbed by three Crows. At Bolham we made a snap decision to have a look at Knightshayes Court, this was a first visit here for me in a very long time. I was pleased with what I saw, a large estate with trees littered everywhere and a large wood behind the main house. We did not have much time left in the day so I had a short walk along the ‘Impey Walk’ and saw very few birds but there was a real treat in store for me on the way back. I hadn’t even walked fifty yards and two small brown deer about four foot high appeared out of the laurels and stalled before rushing up the hill keenly followed by a pesky black and white Spaniel. At the farthest end of my slippery stroll I had a very pale blotchy plumaged Buzzard on a telegraph pole in a field below the woods next to the river Lowman. I rued the decision to leave the scope in the car as I would have filled the eyepiece with it. A pair of Wood Pigeons flew over head leaving me cursing that they weren’t something better. On the return a trio of charming Long Tail Tits fluttered from tree to tree. I was on the home straight and noticed two tiny Siskin sized birds feeding on catkins. I studied these birds for a long time as it was obvious they were new ones to me. The overall plumage was a warm brown, with white underparts and under tail coverts. The facial features were mainly a buff brownish colour with dark eye lores, a small black bib was present under the bill. The bill was of a sharp orange finch like variation. The body was heavily streaked along the mantle, flanks, crown and the nape. There was a tinge of reddish brown on the chest below the bib but this may have been a trick of the light as I could not confirm this in other postures. The tail was forked and if my memory serves me right there were one or two white wing bars on black wings. All these features pointed to my very first 2 Lesser Redpolls! One thing I did not really manage to glimpse, that was the red patch on their foreheads as they were above me in an Alder or Birch tree feeding on catkins. They were both very confiding first winter females, I could stand right underneath them for long periods. There was even time for me to race back to the car and return with my scope and camera to snap some poor dark pictures. I was really ecstatic with these two latest additions to my list and this was a great note to end the day on.
The first pic shows how desolate the first spot was.
Location : Wimbleball Lake, Somerset. SS977317
Instead of going to Ashclyst Forest we decided to go to Wimbleball Lake in the hope of some rare wildfowl. It was awkward to get to, the main reason being my oversight of a very obvious signpost. However, we started off at the main Tea room car park which proved to be a very desolate place bird wise. To be honest there were a few but not anything to get the pulses racing. To start off with there was the majority of today’s 29 Coots and 30 Mallards on the water near the boating club. I walked up through a small thinly wooded area and found 4 Blackbirds, a Chaffinch, a shy Dunnock, a singing Greenfinch and two of 4 Robins. I was surprised to see a Greenfinch singing in winter. I made my way to the northern edge of this little area and a menacing white faced passerine was flying straight towards me, I froze and it kept coming until I had a Pied Wagtail shoot six inches past my face. At the other end there was a very small group of trees and the floor was littered with beech mast so I waited and waited in the hope of some Bramblings without any reward. Nevertheless, I looked up into the skies and counted 3 Black Headed Gulls, some of 35 Carrion Crows, a Herring Gull and a solitary Lapwing. I was captivated by a flock of nine of today’s 23 Tufted Ducks flying high up. I watched them and took in all the markings and identified them to be proven right by the field guide. This enhanced my mood as I had successfully identified some birds in flight which I often find problematical. I made my way back to the car straight up the rear of the linear wood at the top and only added 3 Fieldfares which I loved the sight of in a thin tree. I will need to learn the different types of trees. Back in the car I refuelled with a warm cup of tea and some prawn and lettuce sandwiches followed by an apple before moving on to the car park at Bessom bridge. From here I crossed the road and over a stile to a backwater cut off by the road and found some better birds to brighten up the day kicking off with a flock of 9 Pochards, 17 Wigeons and some more Tufted Ducks. The ducks can’t have been used to human activity as the majority of them soon took off to the main lake leaving a few Tufted Ducks, I scanned these and thought I had a Scaup as one of the ‘Tufteds’ had no tuft at the back of the head, orangey eyes, shinier bill than the three adjacent Tufted Ducks but most of all the upper parts were a finely vermiculated grey as opposed to the surrounding ducks with their black backs. I only saw this bird for a minute and with no experience of Scaups I was not confident enough of it. Another thing that worried me here was this should be a sea faring coastal duck. It could have possibly been a hybrid, I frantically set up the camera and scope only for all the remaining birds to take off to the other side. In the end I decided not to count it. A saving grace was that I managed to take some pictures of one of 5 Stonechats on the edge of the field. There were two males and three females feeding in the fields regularly coming in to perch on the fence posts or wires. In the distance I could see lots of Gulls and 3 Magpies. I ventured back to the other side of the road and the ducks were nowhere to be seen but there were 93 Canada Geese mowing the grass on the east bank behind the hide. I concluded my session here with a short look up north of Bessom bridge only to find the Wigeon, Tufted Ducks and Pochard but no sign of my earlier bird. Other birds spotted up here were 6 Cormorants on a raft and a Buzzard quartering the area. The birds seen today did not really set my heart racing apart from the possible Scaup yet I enjoyed it thoroughly having got my boots on and walked well off the beaten track. I felt contented.
02-02-03
Location : Knightshayes Court, Devon. SS960157
On the return from Wimbleball, we came across a Song Thrush on the road at Morebath along with the second Buzzard of the day being mobbed by three Crows. At Bolham we made a snap decision to have a look at Knightshayes Court, this was a first visit here for me in a very long time. I was pleased with what I saw, a large estate with trees littered everywhere and a large wood behind the main house. We did not have much time left in the day so I had a short walk along the ‘Impey Walk’ and saw very few birds but there was a real treat in store for me on the way back. I hadn’t even walked fifty yards and two small brown deer about four foot high appeared out of the laurels and stalled before rushing up the hill keenly followed by a pesky black and white Spaniel. At the farthest end of my slippery stroll I had a very pale blotchy plumaged Buzzard on a telegraph pole in a field below the woods next to the river Lowman. I rued the decision to leave the scope in the car as I would have filled the eyepiece with it. A pair of Wood Pigeons flew over head leaving me cursing that they weren’t something better. On the return a trio of charming Long Tail Tits fluttered from tree to tree. I was on the home straight and noticed two tiny Siskin sized birds feeding on catkins. I studied these birds for a long time as it was obvious they were new ones to me. The overall plumage was a warm brown, with white underparts and under tail coverts. The facial features were mainly a buff brownish colour with dark eye lores, a small black bib was present under the bill. The bill was of a sharp orange finch like variation. The body was heavily streaked along the mantle, flanks, crown and the nape. There was a tinge of reddish brown on the chest below the bib but this may have been a trick of the light as I could not confirm this in other postures. The tail was forked and if my memory serves me right there were one or two white wing bars on black wings. All these features pointed to my very first 2 Lesser Redpolls! One thing I did not really manage to glimpse, that was the red patch on their foreheads as they were above me in an Alder or Birch tree feeding on catkins. They were both very confiding first winter females, I could stand right underneath them for long periods. There was even time for me to race back to the car and return with my scope and camera to snap some poor dark pictures. I was really ecstatic with these two latest additions to my list and this was a great note to end the day on.
The first pic shows how desolate the first spot was.
it was good to see they sent the menacing white faced passerines out to meet you...
