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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Ten targets for 2017 (1 Viewer)

Glad to be of assistance.

Like the Desert Wheatear, I really must go and see this Whale! I've missed Humpbacks in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Hawai'i and even Norfolk! At least I won't have to leave home at 0500!
 
March 27th

With an extra hour's daylight to play with in the afternoons I decided to have a crack at Burton Mere Wetland's Little Gull after school today. On the way down we checked the "Lizard Fence", and sure enough, the year's first Common Lizard, in the bag! Further down at the screen the Little Gull was performing well, dipping and swirling, up and down, Arch providing a running commentary of its whereabouts and actions, until it settled nice and close on the water to preen.

Next up was Inner Marsh Farm hide to see if any LRP's were available, but alas none was. On the way there though the boys picked up their first Chiffchaffs of the year. They've been doing their best to spot the one that's been singing behind the house the past few days but it has so far eluded them (and to be fair it has been a couple of trees back and quite low down) so these ones were most welcome.

The last of the day's year ticks were from Marsh Covert Hide, distant feeding Spotted Redshank & Ruff and a fly-over Sand Martin, the latter causing much excitement. Three more were seen on the way back to the car park, as was the lizard. A very nice afternoon jaunt, with good views of Pintail, Wigeon, Shoveler, Teal, Black-tailed Godwits, Little Egrets and Stock Doves amongst the non year tick highlights, and some Whirligig Beetles and our first Small Tortoiseshell providing some non-avian interest.
 

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We had a targeted outing with Daniel on Saturday morning (Andrew was otherwise occupied), taking advantage of glorious weather conditions. We drove round to the other side of our local wood which gives a good (though distant) vantage point. Within about 15 minutes I picked up a male goshawk which showed for about 5 minutes. Not long afterwards both male and female appeared and began displaying. When they disappeared we went home for lunch. I like it when a plan comes together!

Rob
 
Nice one Rob. I'm currently without a local Goshawk site, something I'll have to remedy at some point. Both my sightings over the last few years have been ad hoc lucky breaks rather than stake outs and the last place I saw any displaying has undergone extensive deforestation since so I doubt they're still there.
 
Barnacle Goose - a real one (we've seen a few that I've disallowed)
White-fronted Goose - Greenland or European will do for now
Ring-necked Duck - I've decided to let a couple of scarcer ones on this year...
Surf Scoter - ... this being the other one.
Woodcock - nocturnal birds are have a certain charisma
Hobby - probably second only to...
Turtle Dove - ... in the most-wanted stakes
Nightjar - see Woodcock
Grasshopper Warbler - heard in spring 2016, so unfinished business
Crossbill - well, smart aren't they.
If you're in Oxfordshire during the summer, Turtle Dove is easy at RSPB Otmoor (usually around where the path up from the car park meets the east-west bridleway). It's an excellent dragonfly site so also good for Hobby, and Grasshopper Warbler is possible around the Roman Road. Easier if you've got birders with young ears in your group, of course. I haven't found one anywhere for several years...
 
April 2nd

Cheers Swindon Addick. We're going to be spending a weekend in June camping near Otmoor, so it's already on my radar in the event Turtle Doves have eluded us by then. Had a look last year but by all accounts we were somewhat unlucky, what with everyone else on site having seen them earlier in the day. That was end of July, so getting a bit late in the season perhaps.

And so to today, with a return engagement with the Marbury Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers, this time in much nicer weather! Our meanderings through the woods yielded up numerous Nuthatches, Treecreepers and Great-spots scouring various calibres of tree limb, but thanks to a little prior knowledge (thanks Zoot) and some on site birders we were able to narrow our search area and eventually it was Sam, while the rest of us were distracted by a cloud of Sand Martins massing just above the tree tops, who was left to call "Woodpecker! Woodpecker! Woodpecker!" (sotto voce) when the female eventually came into view. Twenty some years ago I could have reeled off at least three good Lesser-spot sites within three or four miles of where I lived near Chester, even had it as a garden regular, but nowadays, without Marbury, I wouldn't know where to begin, beyond two isolated records along the Alyn near where I live now, and that's in the last eleven years. Shame. Blackcap was also new for the year.
 

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A few days in the Lakes - mostly walking - but finished off with a day at Leighton Moss.
Highlights from the fells included the first wheatears and ravens of the year, plus Daniel's first goldcrest of the year outside the lodge. Ravens around the summit of Yewbarrow gave superb entertainment spinning through the air whilst talon grappling. Also a few peregrines seen and green woddpecker heard.
Leighton Moss bumped up the boys' yearlist dramatically with little and great white egrets, marsh harriers, drake garganey, avocets, chiffchaff, willow warbler, blackcap, and marsh tit, which was a lifer for them. Other highlights included thousands of black-tailed godwits and an otter.

Rob
 
April 8th

Leighton Moss really can be a first class venue; birds, mammals and damn fine bacon rolls, the complete package.

Decided on a post work dash to Venus for the Night Heron, joining a small and friendly band of birders and birder-photographers on site at around 19:20, with the bird in a really awkward position for viewing, particularly for anyone under about 6' 6", which all three of us are. We needed a plan. Stage one was to flip the angled scope upside down to give me some valuable extra height, and with the help of a taller birder already lined up I managed to draw a bead on our target. Then it was a question of very carefully twisting the scope back the right way up and, one after the other, lifting the boys onto my shoulders for tick views. Unfortunately that was all we got, as the bird did nothing more than retreat further into cover, in spite of our hanging on till half eight when the light was all but gone. So no pics, and BV definitely D, but bagged nonetheless. While we waited bats started to emerge, and I was kicking myself for leaving the detector in the car. All was not lost though, as on getting back to the car we managed to nail a couple of Noctules working the adjacent fields, so a mammal tick for the boys to go with their bird one. Needless to say, pizza was late tonight.
 
April 10th

First day of the Easter hols, and we have a family day out, not really birding oriented for the most part but I managed to sneak in a visit to Whixall Moss on the way home, where a patient check through the distant waders give us a couple of year ticks (two Green Sandpipers and a Little Ringed Plover) and a life tick - Wood Sandpiper. Other waders around were a couple of Oystercatchers,a Redshank, plenty of Lapwings a heard only Curlew and a smart sum plum Dunlin. It's a nice little spot, the canal floods at Whixall, we really should pop in more often.
 

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April 12th

Another nice post work outing, this time up to World's End on the basis that Ring Ouzels should be in by now. First off we do the decent by the roadside Black Grouse, and clock another dozen or so a little further on and further off.

At the Ouzel site I pick up my first before we're out the car but it's distant and restless and the boys miss it. While we attempt a relocate Arch picks up a Wheatear for the year, and I find a surprise male Black Redstart. After some searching, with several Blackbird generated false alarms, Arch picks one up and we all get on it. Throw in a couple of good Peregrine stoops, a scattering of Stonechats and some point blank views of Skylarks on the ground and all in all a pleasant end to the day.
 

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April 18th

A short Easter break to Cambridge was a bit of a slow start due to lurgy in the ranks, but we bravely had a hack around Woodwalton for Water Deer, then up to Peterborough for Red-rumped Swallow, followed by the year's second attempt at the fake news Ring-necked Duck at Little Paxton, all of which effort yielded up nothing but a handful of bread and butter year ticks. The day was not without highlights though, with a showy Brown Hare and cracking Marsh Harriers at Woodwalton.

The day was properly redeemed, however, once we'd arrived in Cambridge and took a stroll down to my Uncle's allotments, for in a rape field round the corner we found a couple of Grey Partridge, followed by two more in the next field. Such a shame these are no longer an easy widespread bird to see, but very nice for the boys to finally catch up with them.
 

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April 19th

A morning at the Fitzwilliam, followed by a trip back to the allotment where the boys helped with the rhubarb we found a Green Woodpecker nest hole, as well as the birds themselves.

The evening was taken up with tracking down one of the trip's chief targets - Chinese Water Deer. Mike Dilger spent fifteen hours in a portable hide to bring them to The One Show, but it turns out you can just rock up at Woodwalton Fen at dusk with the kids and there are Deer pretty much all over the place (west bank is particularly productive). Some great views of Barn Owl too, always a firm favourite.
 

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April 21st; part I

After a day of playing in parks and visiting museums the team was fully recovered and ready for another day out. After an early start we headed on up to Weeting NWT, but with a slight detour to an unassuming patch of sandy, bushy heath where even before we'd parked up we could hear our quarry. A couple of Nightingales were filling the gloomy morning with their rich throaty notes, and before long we had one staked out. Expecting it to be deep in cover it took me a while to realise it was delivering its iconic warble from high up in a sycamore shrub in plain sight, offering up seriously prolonged walk-away views. An excellent start to the day.

So, next up, Weeting, famous for Stone Curlew, always a treat, saw them last year but didn't find Woodlark, which I'd seen here in the past, so that was today's target here. Unfortunately after an hour splitting our time between west and east hides there was neither sight nor sound of any Larks other than Sky, and while we enjoyed the traditionally kak distant Weeting views of Stone Curews and Sam managed to grip me and Arch with a brief Stoat we had other fish to fry and moved on. I don't know if Weeting is no longer the Woodlark site its NWT web page would suggest or if we'd just been unlucky two years running, but I think I may be taking my business elsewhere for this species in future. Not to worry, well worth popping in to reacquaint with old Goggle-eyes.

We breakfasted at a cafe in Lakenheath village and then headed to the RSPB reserve for the rest of the morning, arriving just as the visitor centre was being opened up by a fellow who genned us up on where to look for what. Plenty of Marsh Harrier activity over the reeds kicked things off, and Reed and Sedge Warblers were yelling their heads off left right and centre but I was having the devil of a job clapping eyes on any. Oh well, a pair of Garganey flying in and dropping onto the water in front of the first watch point did a fine job of keeping the interest alive.
 

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April 21st; part II

So, eventually I get my eye in and start picking out the Acros, Reed & Sedge make it onto the year list, followed by Bearded Tit, which surprised me; we'd had our expectations managed downwards at the visitor centre but I guess we must just have been lucky. As you watch from Joist Fen viewpoint there's a channel in the reeds a little off to the left, running away from you, and I was checking the fringes for Bitterns and instead got a Water Rail flying across and a couple of Beardies crossing low down. I called the boys over and after a short wait we got a couple more. From here we also managed distant flight views of Bittern to add to our mostly obscured Marbury siting earlier in the year, but we're still waiting for our killer views of this species.

Cuckoo and Cetti's Warbler were next on our wanted list, both audible right round the reserve (when not drowned out by the couple of F something-or-others from out of the airbase that occasionally tore by), but before that we managed to pick up a singing Whitethroat and were put onto a distant late Fieldfare by another birder. Eventually we located a Cuckoo, high in a poplar, but not before we enjoyed distant looks at the Glossy Ibis and a Great White Egret on the washlands. Cetti's remained stubbornly heard only.

So that was that for Easter Hols, a pleasant city break with family, with some excellent wildlife sightings to boot. Special thanks should go to Mark Hows for advising on some sites, even if we didn't manage to get round all of them. There's always next time.
 

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So, eventually I get my eye in and start picking out the Acros, Reed & Sedge make it onto the year list, followed by Bearded Tit, which surprised me; we'd had our expectations managed downwards at the visitor centre but I guess we must just have been lucky. As you watch from Joist Fen viewpoint there's a channel in the reeds a little off to the left, running away from you, and I was checking the fringes for Bitterns and instead got a Water Rail flying across and a couple of Beardies crossing low down. I called the boys over and after a short wait we got a couple more. From here we also managed distant flight views of Bittern to add to our mostly obscured Marbury siting earlier in the year, but we're still waiting for our killer views of this species.

Cuckoo and Cetti's Warbler were next on our wanted list, both audible right round the reserve (when not drowned out by the couple of F something-or-others from out of the airbase that occasionally tore by), but before that we managed to pick up a singing Whitethroat and were put onto a distant late Fieldfare by another birder. Eventually we located a Cuckoo, high in a poplar, but not before we enjoyed distant looks at the Glossy Ibis and a Great White Egret on the washlands. Cetti's remained stubbornly heard only.

So that was that for Easter Hols, a pleasant city break with family, with some excellent wildlife sightings to boot. Special thanks should go to Mark Hows for advising on some sites, even if we didn't manage to get round all of them. There's always next time.

Argh! Jammy git - F15 (right side of pic) and F35 out of RAF Lakenheath! (I've seen any amount of F15s but F35s are still rare enough over here to float the old boat.)

John
 
Didn't get many shots (it was quite fast), but here's a couple more for you...
 

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April 29th: part I

Really fancied upgrading our views of Night Heron, what with the photos being posted of the Shrewsbury bird, so with a morning to spare we headed out early doors, arriving a little before 08:00, only to find the gates to the Dingle, a nicely planted hollow in the middle of a grassy park, all locked up. Not a problem it turned out, with the bird showing extremely well through one of the gates further round. In fact it is entirely possible that having its chosen habitat cleared of people every afternoon (from 17:15 according to the signs) has encouraged it to hang around, although having said that it was far from a wary bird. There was some sort of “fun run” (honestly, just because the words rhyme doesn’t mean they belong together) taking place, starting quite close to the Dingle, complete with loud-hailers, cheers, rounds of applause, all of which elicited barely a response from the Heron which seemed happy to just sit out in the open and snooze. One wonders how birds decide on the best place to chill, I mean, if this is the Venus Pools bird, well, then it couldn’t get deeper into cover, right bugger to see, and yet here it was brazen as all get out. It could easily have walked a couple of yards in and been completely hidden from sight (in fact it did just that at one point, completely vanished, and then just stalked back into view less than a minute later). Eventually someone came by and unlocked the Dingle, but to be honest the views had been so good from the gate that it didn’t make a massive difference, and the bird seemed happy to stick to its favoured spot in spite of an increased number of both observers and passers by.
 

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April 29th: part II

A few years ago, on an unassuming stretch of the A5 between Shrewsbury and Oswestry, we were stuck in traffic. Roadworks, with traffic lights, left us stationary on a sunny day, windows open, and while we sat and waited a familiar little jangle snuck its way into my consciousness; there was a Corn Bunting singing somewhere. I craned round to look behind us, and sure enough there he was, singing from a tree top, and then the lights changed, and we were moving. The boys were in he car at the time, but this predated their interest in birding, and I’ve been meaning to check back and look for the Buntings again sometime, but whenever passing that way it just wasn’t convenient. Today, on the way home from Shrewsbury on a sunny spring morning the timing couldn’t have been better, so when we reached the spot we turned off down a country road (stereo off and windows open to listen out), pulled over onto a convenient verge, and began our search. Plenty of voices ringing out, Chaffinch, Wren, Skylark, Whitethroat. But no Corn Bunts. A couple of likely looking suspects pitched into the top of a distant oak though, but then bailed before I could deploy scope. Too bad. Couple of nice Wheatear in an adjacent sheep field, and then more action over in the oak, half a dozen birds alighted and this time stuck. Up scope and… bingo. All that remained, as more birds arrived, and we started to hear the occasional burst of song, was to reposition for better views. In the end I reckon there must have been at least a dozen Corn Buntings in the tree’s crown (and I could well believe twice that), scoffing on oak flowers by the look of it. Hugely gratified that the stop paid off, in a way that far exceeded my hopes of perhaps finding perhaps one or two birds singing from wires or tree tops.

An afternoon playing in a park near home was improved by our first Swifts of the year, bringing the year list to 162 and the day’s birding to a close.
 

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