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

Cookley & Caunsall (1 Viewer)

Pleased to have dropped on a pair of Stonechat feeding along the rough edge of the beet field near the Cookley Horse Paddocks early morning also a flock of 50+ mixed Finches seen in the area too ( hope to check them over with better optics later in the week.) if they stick.
 
Christmas Eve

Christmas came a day early today for me on the patch. A walk with the family up to Whittingham lock along the canal and back to Cookley. Highlight was the popular Yellow-Browed Warbler at Whittingham. A lifer for me and I clocked it within a minute of arriving. It was foraging quite high up, I got some great views. Very pleased to have seen it, even called a couple of times. Other great finds were a Peregrine flying over just before we reached Cookley. I have seen one up by Cookley Paddocks last year but not seen one around this year. Also, Kingfisher on the Stour. I haven't seen one on the canal or river here for 2 years, hopefully this is a wintering individual. Seen on the Stour near to where it opens up and meanders close to the canal. I saw it again on the return journey but this time by the Austcliffe bridge assuming it was the same bird! There were several flocks of finches and tits, a Stock Dove and Buzzard were also noted.

All in all a great day and good to see something different for a change.

Merry Christmas All

Dave
 
Only thing of note for me today was picking up a wintering Chiffchaff with the L.T.Tit/Goldcrest flock that frequents the area while getting another look at the Y.B.W. on a short visit late afternoon.
In relation to Daves post, have found Kingfisher myself very thin on the ground over the last couple of years probably one or two sightings each year at most. Previous to that was noted on at least 25% of my visits throughout the year.
 
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Nice flock of c30 Lapwings on the pastures plus another Stonechat seen on higher ground around the Whittington area today also picked up the wintering Chiffchaff again on the return journey along the Stour but no sighting of the Y.B.W.
 
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Last visit of the year today along the valley, only bird of note was a nice male Stonechat. My total for the year stands at 87 species ( should have put more time in around mig. time ) Hope to correct that next year. Two new birds seen for the life list was Whooper Swan (sadly I found dead a few days later) and the Yellow-browed Warbler. ( Total: 108 )
 
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Hi guys. I'm a young, local birder. My patch is the Iverley and Whittington area which possibly just extends into your guys territory (my self-set boundary is the River Stour). Just thought I'd put a post with some of my sightings from 2016 for your interest so you know what else has been in the Stour Valley and surrounding area.

22/02 - Ring-necked Parakeet - 2. Sandy Road, Norton
09/03 - Yellow-legged Gull - adult. Crown Lane, Churchill
25/03 - Curlew - Sugar Loaf Farm (Iverley) paddocks
01/04 - Common Crossbill - 8. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
18/04 - Ring Ouzel - 1. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
18/04 - Whimbrel - 4. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
18/04 - Golden Plover - 8. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
23/08 - BLACK REDSTART - juv. Sugar Loaf Farm paddocks
24/08 - Marsh Harrier - juv. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
06/11 - WHOOPER SWAN - bird(s) of the year for me. 8 flew high east over Sugar Loaf Farm (seen 2 days later at Upton Warren). These birds would have flown over your patch area
21/12 - YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER, Whittington Sewage Works
21/12 - 2 Kingfisher on the Stour by the Sewage Works
22/12 - WAXWING, flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
24/12 - male. Merlin at Turbine Cottage


Other notable birds seen on more than one occasion:
Grey Partridge - seen regularly at Turbine Cottage, Whittington
Hobby - 7 records - Bunkers Hill Wood (they have bred here in the past)
Red Kite - 3 records - Stour Valley
Peregrine - 7 records
Little Owl - these can be seen almost every day by the big oak tree at Turbine Cottage
Redstart - 10 records - Turbine Cottage/Handkerchief Barn/Sugar Loaf Farm/ Iverley Park Farm/Fairy Glenn
Whinchat - 4 records - Turbine Cottage (possibly bred in the area - 3 juvs with adults seen in June)/Sugar Loaf Farm
Yellow Wagtail - bred successfully at Handkerchief Barn, Whittington
Lesser Whitethroat - bred successfully at Iverley Park Farm
Corn Bunting - just a couple singing in spring in the Whittington area (drop in numbers from recent years), small numbers (5-10) winter in the Iverley area (a few years ago we had a peak winter count of 30!)
Reed Bunting - a couple winter near Handkerchief Barn

Birds seen by others on the patch this year have included:
GREY PLOVER - adult. in field during thunderstorm County Lane, Iverley
Ring Ouzel - Whittington Common
Redstart - Crown Lane
SHORT-EARED OWL - seen in early December at Turbine Cottage
Snipe - flushed from field near Turbine Cottage in December
Cuckoo - 2 juvs on the fence at Handkerchief Barn in June


Unfortunately only had a few days in 2017 to bird the patch before back to university. Highlights: Yellow-browed Warbler, 6 Goosander flying along the Stour Valley, Red Kite in the Stour Valley, 5 Corn Buntings at Sugar Loaf Farm, Grey Wagtail and 4 Chiffchaff at the Sewage Works, 4 Stonechats at Handkerchief Barn (have been there all winter). No sign of the male Merlin but I'm sure its still around, it roosts in the hedge viewable from Turbine Cottage)

Will let you know if I see anything and hear of anything else

BW James
 
Thanks for the info James, always good to know that variety of birds is close by!

I haven't had much of a chance to bird either this year but have got out and about with not a lot of anything to write home about. A walk just after new year around Lea Castle woodland (lots of flocks of tits in there, good potential for an overwintering rarity) as well as some Yellowhammer and Skylark in the fields off Axborough Lane were notable.

Interestingly though, I have a camera trap set up in the garden trained on the bird feeders and managed to catch a pair of Blackcaps wintering here, feeding on the fat balls. A male and female visited at 12:00pm and 2:00pm on Saturday. I haven't seen them myself but great to know they are visiting. Other feeder visitors included: Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Rook, Starling, House Sparrow.

I'll check the results each week so will give a summary each weekend of who has been visiting.

Cheers :t:

Dave
 
Hi guys. I'm a young, local birder. My patch is the Iverley and Whittington area which possibly just extends into your guys territory (my self-set boundary is the River Stour). Just thought I'd put a post with some of my sightings from 2016 for your interest so you know what else has been in the Stour Valley and surrounding area.

22/02 - Ring-necked Parakeet - 2. Sandy Road, Norton
09/03 - Yellow-legged Gull - adult. Crown Lane, Churchill
25/03 - Curlew - Sugar Loaf Farm (Iverley) paddocks
01/04 - Common Crossbill - 8. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
18/04 - Ring Ouzel - 1. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
18/04 - Whimbrel - 4. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
18/04 - Golden Plover - 8. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
23/08 - BLACK REDSTART - juv. Sugar Loaf Farm paddocks
24/08 - Marsh Harrier - juv. flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
06/11 - WHOOPER SWAN - bird(s) of the year for me. 8 flew high east over Sugar Loaf Farm (seen 2 days later at Upton Warren). These birds would have flown over your patch area
21/12 - YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER, Whittington Sewage Works
21/12 - 2 Kingfisher on the Stour by the Sewage Works
22/12 - WAXWING, flew over Sugar Loaf Farm
24/12 - male. Merlin at Turbine Cottage


Other notable birds seen on more than one occasion:
Grey Partridge - seen regularly at Turbine Cottage, Whittington
Hobby - 7 records - Bunkers Hill Wood (they have bred here in the past)
Red Kite - 3 records - Stour Valley
Peregrine - 7 records
Little Owl - these can be seen almost every day by the big oak tree at Turbine Cottage
Redstart - 10 records - Turbine Cottage/Handkerchief Barn/Sugar Loaf Farm/ Iverley Park Farm/Fairy Glenn
Whinchat - 4 records - Turbine Cottage (possibly bred in the area - 3 juvs with adults seen in June)/Sugar Loaf Farm
Yellow Wagtail - bred successfully at Handkerchief Barn, Whittington
Lesser Whitethroat - bred successfully at Iverley Park Farm
Corn Bunting - just a couple singing in spring in the Whittington area (drop in numbers from recent years), small numbers (5-10) winter in the Iverley area (a few years ago we had a peak winter count of 30!)
Reed Bunting - a couple winter near Handkerchief Barn

Birds seen by others on the patch this year have included:
GREY PLOVER - adult. in field during thunderstorm County Lane, Iverley
Ring Ouzel - Whittington Common
Redstart - Crown Lane
SHORT-EARED OWL - seen in early December at Turbine Cottage
Snipe - flushed from field near Turbine Cottage in December
Cuckoo - 2 juvs on the fence at Handkerchief Barn in June


Unfortunately only had a few days in 2017 to bird the patch before back to university. Highlights: Yellow-browed Warbler, 6 Goosander flying along the Stour Valley, Red Kite in the Stour Valley, 5 Corn Buntings at Sugar Loaf Farm, Grey Wagtail and 4 Chiffchaff at the Sewage Works, 4 Stonechats at Handkerchief Barn (have been there all winter). No sign of the male Merlin but I'm sure its still around, it roosts in the hedge viewable from Turbine Cottage)

Will let you know if I see anything and hear of anything else

BW James

Just goes to show James more time spent on the open and higher ground above the valley seems to "produce the goods" hope to put more time than usual into this area in the coming year.
 
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A walk around the paddocks at the top end of Cookley yielded a Wheatear (M) and a gorgeous Whinchat (M). I haven't seen any yet this spring so good to catch up with some locally.

Also seen were Buzzard, Skylark, Sparrowhawk, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Grey Wagtail and several more common species.

Thanks

Dave
 
Winchat's a nice species to catch up with on the paddocks Dave been a couple of years or more since last noted for me along the valley, must cover this area more from early autumn. Will be out and about looking for odonata over the next month or two while birds are breeding ( will post anything of interest on the thread. )
 
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On a very unpromising overcast ride along the canal this afternoon managed to pick up a couple of species of Damselfly- Banded Demoiselle and a "rufescens" form of Blue-tailed (my first seen in the area.)
 

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Not posted over the last couple of months or so, have been making more of a concentrated effort with getting to grips with the local breeding bird population was also hoping to add one or two new invert. species to the valley list (total wash out on that one this summer.) First bit of migration movement noted this morning was 40+ Mistle Thrushes feeding on the lower valley fields also a good number of hirundines passing over between the showers. ( Hope to report more over the coming weeks. )
Photo. below of breeding Mistle Thrush taken earlier this year :
 

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One or two things of note today, nice to see a bit of warbler activity - at least 4 Blackcap and one or two Chiffchaff counted working there way along the hedgerow early morning, trees still have plenty of leaf cover so could have been more birds tucked in feeding. Nice to see a new species for the " escapee list" - Reeve's Pheasant. On the invert. front a good number of Red Admiral,Speckled Wood, Comma Large and Small Whites seen in smaller numbers also Brown and Migrant Hawkers, Common Darter and a couple of late Blue-tailed Damselfly in the warmer spots.
 
Between sat. and sun. covered most of my area along the valley, extremely quiet on the birding ( almost dead ! ) only thing of note for me was catching up with a family party of Linnets - a pair I must have overlooked if they were local breeders, and also noted was a large group of Swallows/House Martins (no luck with Sand Martin) seen feeding over the sewage beds then moving on through the valley. Still good numbers of Red Admiral feeding on the Ivy along with the same species as seen last week. Nice to have come across on or two Southern Hawkers with the usual Migrant Hawker, Common Darter and still Blue-tailed Damselfly. On the mammals - pleased to have finally had a decent sighting of Muntjack Deer at dusk earlier in the week ( heard many times before but not seen.) Hope to report more on the birding front soon.
 

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