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

Targets for 2018 (1 Viewer)

January 6th

Well, thanks to a heads up from Phil (very grateful for that indeed) a pre-planned trip to Stockport was parenthesised by some Parakeet seeking (Paraseeking?), first at Abney Hall Park which didn't deliver anything other than year tick Coot, but does boast probably one of the oddest cafes I've ever eaten at, very friendly and proper nice griddled bacon barms, but decidedly peculiar architecture, décor and layout.

Second bite at the cherry was at Platt Fields Park, and here we struck green gold, easily honing in on a fine male Ring-necked Parakeet, yarking away from the trees by the north end of the lake. We watched him for several minutes, pointing him out to a passing dog walker who was very excited to find such things existed on her doorstep, couldn't wait to tell her mother! So nice getting that sort of response. Eventually Mr Parakeet launched himself across to the trees on the far side of the lake, followed by his missus, who must have been sitting quietly further in the canopy, hadn't picked up on her at all, although we were kind of distracted by her hubby making an exhibition of himself. A real bonus.
 

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January 7th

A morning outing to Conwy RSPB (Fulmar year ticked from the A 55 as we passed the Colwyn Bay “Fulmar cliffs”) proved a fairly humdrum affair (no luck with Firecrest, Scaup or Water Pipit), best on offer being a fine drake Goldeneye and a pair of Red-breasted Mergs. Good to catch up with one of the local Surf Scoters from Llysfaen on the way home though, anyone up for a game of “Spot the Surfie” can check out the attached…!
 

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January 8th -12th

Our Center Parcs getaway kicked off with a pit stop at Leighton Moss. Couldn’t really do this excellent reserve justice in the short time available, so nothing remarkable seen, Water Rail probably the highlight, but a most superior sausage inna bun made for a fine breakfast.

At Whinfell itself were were treated to Crossbills feeding in the tops of pines from a nice warm outdoor pool, and a Brambling paying an all too brief visit to one of the sadly unfilled feeders (Whinfell could do with taking some lessons from Sherwood on how to set up and run decent feeders. It’s not rocket science).

Another way too brief stop at Leighton Moss on the way home, dusk this time, with Starlings gathering to roost providing a nice finale to our non-wildlife mini-brake.
 
A morning outing to Conwy RSPB (Fulmar year ticked from the A 55 as we passed the Colwyn Bay “Fulmar cliffs”) proved a fairly humdrum affair (no luck with Firecrest, Scaup or Water Pipit), best on offer being a fine drake Goldeneye and a pair of Red-breasted Mergs. Good to catch up with one of the local Surf Scoters from Llysfaen on the way home though, anyone up for a game of “Spot the Surfie” can check out the attached…!

Coming to this late but a nice reminder of just how obvious drake Surfers are!

John
 
February 4th: part I

Been quiet of late, days off ambushed by bad weather for the most part, but have managed to pick up a few odds and sods, best of which probably Little Stint at Burton Mere Wetlands, as well as the boys picking up Blackcap in the garden while I was at work.

Today, however, the weather was fine, we had a free pass, and so at a little after eight we pitched up in the car park at Holme Pierrepoint and began our search of the Slalom Course. We bumped into another birder, who mentioned the bird having been seen by a wooden bridge, so we headed over to the bridge and were instantly in luck, with the Spotted Sandpiper immediately on show beneath us as we crossed the span. We watched him as he pottered and bobbed up and down the fringes of the Slalom Course, as often feeding on the grass as the water’s edge, on at least one occasion extracting a fine specimen of a worm from the turf. A couple of canoeists provided a bit of slalom action which entertained the boys while I scanned the rowing lake for Long-tailed Duck, which I failed to locate. Still, main event under the belt, so after a bit we decamped, an hour or so down the road, to the reserve at Egleton on Rutland Water.

Here, on the way to the visitor centre we stopped for a few minutes at the feeding station. Usual suspects, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting etc, but I also managed to get the attached photo (fifth of this batch). Perhaps not the most sought after of UK animals, but any double mammal pic is something to be pleased with!
 

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February 4th: part II

First time I’ve been to non-Birdfair Rutland, and that was over twenty years ago (I still have my 1997 Cock-of-the-rock Birdfair mug on the bookshelf). On this visit I quickly discovered that the light from Grebe Hide on a sunny winter’s morning is atrocious; first pic attached gives you an idea of what it was like scanning through the Wigeon, imagine that times fifty. Best thing on offer was inside the hide, where the boys found several clusters of hibernating ladybirds. Not to worry, plenty other stuff to go look for while the sun shifts itself. Starting with a drop in on Sandpiper Hide, where the light was stunning and the birds good and close, nine fine Smew, including four immaculate White Nuns.
 

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February 4th: part III

Way out beyond the Smew, on the far side of the pit, was a tidy congregation of Barnacle Geese, along with a handful of Egyptian, both of which I’m assuming are perfectly acceptable in a rather grubby Cat C sort of way. A couple of hides later and we’d racked up an impressive number of common ducks (never seen so many Gadwall), and I decided it was worth seeing how the light was back in Grebe Hide, but quickly changed plan on checking news, with the American Wigeon now being reported on Lagoon V within the last half hour.

A brisk walk past the visitor centre, and on down to the 360 Hide, from where we were soon admiring a fine drake American Wigeon. This is a species we’ve missed before, so was greeted with much enthusiasm, and has been heavily rhapsodised since. Eventually the lure of ham baps back in the car drew us away, with a brief drop in at the feeding station rewarding us with an even briefer drop in by a Marsh Tit.

After a late lunch we headed off to scan the North Arm of the reservoir from various vantage points which was a good deal more time consuming than it was productive, but after having banked the day’s main targets decided we could bear the absence of Great Northern Diver and Black-necked Grebes from the day list and headed home. There’s plenty of year left, and it was a school night after all.
 

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Sounds like a cracking day out. Two American vagrants plus stunning views of Smew onSunny winter’s day would be hard to beat as as a top day of winter birding.

Winter Spotted Sandpipers don’t come much more obvious than that!

Cheers
Mike
 
Daniel and I finally got out yesterday afternoon. First we went across to Kilconquhar Loch, where, after a bit of effort, we successfully saw the drake red-crested pochard - a lifer for Daniel. Other highlights included two shoveler, pochard and goldeneye. We then drove across Fife to Rossie Bog having a couple of close falcon encounters on the way. First we saw a kestrel hovering about 10 feet from the car, followed by a peregrine perched in a tree beside the road. At Rossie the great white egret was rather elusive, but eventually showed - albeit rather briefly.
Not a bad afternoon.

Rob
 
Nice one. We're midway through a road trip at the moment, full story & pics in due course. No bird ticks so far, and none predicted for tomorrow, but an excellent time is definitely being had.
 
February 12th: part I

An early morning drive through the Marches delivered us to Speech House in the Forest of Dean as the sun came up, and we checked out the car parks recommended for Wild Boar. No sign on a short search, but we had been advised that we may have to try several times before locating them, so no need to worry. I decided at this point to do a quick round of sites, see what we could find. Parkend’s contribution was a dozen or so tree top Hawfinches, then it was back to Speech House via the Cannop Water Mandarins, which gave themselves up without protest (pity more Ducks can’t be like that, see later).

Back at Speech House it became apparent we’d had visitors. Right by the where we’d been parked was some freshly turned earth, really easy to spot given the light dusting of overnight snow on the ground. The more we looked, the more sign we found, plenty of tracks as well as one very impressive dugout. We spent several minutes exploring the tracks (couldn’t find any actual footprints, they were sticking to leafy mulch rather than mud, so we couldn’t determine direction of travel). Soon enough we were opposite another of the car parks the Boar were reported to be seen in, so we crossed the road.
 

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February 12th: part II

Over the road the Boar sign continued, but we’d barely started exploring it when Arch, sotto voce, excitedly exclaimed “Boar, boar, boar!” And there they were, off to one side of the car park, working their way along the fence presumably erected to keep them out of an arboretum, the famous four, Speech House’s habituated Wild Boar! One day we’ll venture into the forest to try and find some properly wild-living ones, but for now these will do very nicely. I knew they were fairly unfazed by people being around but hadn’t appreciated how much they just flat out ignore you; I do wonder just how intrusive we would have had to be to get some sort of reaction but was not moved to try and resolve the question. We spent half an hour or so with the Boar, while they snuffled away through the leaf litter, stopping from time to time in a sunny spot to catch some rays. Just fabulous, the principle reason for our venture south, under the belt and well worth it.
 

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February 12th: part III

After enjoying watching the Boar we decided to have a go at the New Fancy View Goshawks. A bit early in the year perhaps, but the weather was spot on, glorious sunshine and barely a whisper of a breeze at this point. Alas, it was not to be. Trying to shoe-horn a serious attempt at raptor watching into a packed itinerary day is always going to be a risk, and this time it didn’t pay, and after a little less than an hour I was getting keen to be moving on, so on we moved. In the end it turned out that we arrived at Plock Court for the Penduline Tit just as it became active after two hours of lying low, so while our Gos stake-out may have been unproductive it was far from costly. He sat up beautifully, the Penduline Tit, feeding in the bulrushes actively, hard to spot when not moving, but never still for long. As we left we picked up a nice Stonechat for the year and then half an hour later we arrived at Arlingham. This really was along shot, the Richard’s Pipit not having been reported for six days, and sure enough, we came away with nothing more than a couple of Mipits, a few Stonechat and some largish flocks of Fieldfare, but the weather was still nice, and it was good to be out and about, and we were still well on schedule for the day’s final set-piece.
 

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February 12th: part IV & February 13th

We had one short detour just before getting to Ham Wall RSPB, down to the flat marshy fields just south of Pedwell where we easily located the half dozen Bewick’s Swans that had recently been reported there. This is a species we’ve not caught up with since the boys saw there first back in 2015, so one we were keen to catch up with.

Once we’d arrived at Ham Wall we concentrated our time around Tor Hide in the hopes of catching up with the elusive Ring-necked Duck there, to upgrade our super distant Cotswold views from last autumn. No luck on that score, but we did manage to find the equally elusive (and recently absent) Ferruginous Duck, as well as year tick Kingfisher. The last year tick of the day was Marsh Harrier across the road at Shapwick, where we gathered to await the Starlings. These eventually gathered in huge numbers, currently estimated at half a million, so not even full strength for this site but quite the spectacle for all that, and seemed to be enjoyed by the sizable crowd that had gathered to watch, and certainly by the three of us; the Andrewes boys do love a good murmuration.

The following day saw a marked deterioration in the weather. We’d overnighted in Glastonbury, planning a morning at Ham Wall before heading home, and saw no reason to change our plans just because of a bit of rain. We made it to Tor Hide without getting too wet and continued our search for Ring-necked Duck. Still no joy (wish it would take a leaf out of the Cannop Mandarins’ book), but Great White Egret was a year tick, and there were some nice views of Water Rails (whose squealings, along with the twittering of Dabchicks, provided a constant soundscape). Back to the car park for hot chocolates and coffee once the visitor centre was open, then off again. I had to head back just after setting off (I’d left something in the visitor centre) so sent the boys on to Tor Hide. On the way they managed to find a Redpoll feeding on the track; a nice self found year tick for them.

By the time I caught up with them the rain had stopped and we could continue looking for the Ring-neck. Still no sign, so in the end we reckoned our time would better be spent on a walk round the reserve. Had a lucky break on the track back from the hide to the main trail when another birder located a couple of Cetti’s Warblers low in some pathside reeds, and we were able to obtain brief views. Other than that our walk yielded up a few more Redpolls, masses of wildfowl and a distant Peregrine which the, boys year ticked through another birder’s scope (I was having issues with mine, the quick release catch had crumbled away, meaning I was having to balance the scope on its quick release plate on top of the tripod head, which didn’t make for a terribly stable set up). One last unsuccessful attempt at the Ring-neck and it was time to start heading home, with a couple of stops planned in.

First stop was at Barrow Gurney, recently host to a fine adult drake Long-tailed Duck. But in spite of this being a featureless stone banked reservoir I managed to fail to locate a Long-tailed Duck for the second time this year. Dang. Whether it had gone altogether or just relocated to one of the other local water bodies I don’t know, but I didn’t know the area well enough to mount a search. (There have been no reports on Birdguides since the day before we visited, so unlucky timing on that one it seems.)

So it was on to our third target duck of the day, at Ashleworth Ham just north of Gloucester, where a Green-winged Teal had been putting in occasional appearances, none better, by all accounts, than the one we missed earlier that day. It was a lengthy stake out, but at least we had some sort of idea where the bird had taken cover, and it was here that it was eventually relocated. Our scope issues meant it was quite a challenge getting both boys onto it, and the bird didn’t help by returning to cover rather soon after it emerged, so although it scraped under the wire as the boys’ only tick of the trip it didn’t feel 100% satisfactory. Time to examine one at leisure in the future would be desirable.

The 2 ½ hour drive home was made the wrong kind of interesting by car troubles (losing all power, including to the steering, at a busy motorway merge, three lanes from the hard shoulder, was a bit of a hairy moment), but we made it in the end. I had been fearful that car repairs may have compromised birding opportunities for the rest of the half term, but it seems now to be fixed (fingers crossed) and at least we’ve had a good couple of days out, even if rather too many Ducks decided not to play along.
 

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Turns out I don't need car troubles (which are back, by the way) to compromise birding opportunities. My awful decision making is more than up to the job! Managed to screw up attempts to see Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Willow Tit, Bar-tailed Godwit and Bittern over the last couple of days of half term. The White-fronted Geese up at Talacre was about the best we managed to connect with. Now back to work & school, with big gaps between outings, at least until we get a bit more light at the end of the day
 
February 25th

For the first time this year there's been enough light at the end of the day for a post work outing, helped by the fact that Owls were the target. Short-eared was the one we were expecting, down on the Dee marshes at Little Neston, but we got a nice close fly-by from a Barn instead. No complaints, Shorties will keep. Loads of Egrets too, heading off to roost, with at one Great White as well as thirty plus Littles.
 
March 3rd

Didn't fancy battling the elements to get anywhere today, but fortunately the conditions had encouraged a few Fieldfare to join the more common garden birds, so we did our birding from home today.
 

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March 4th

Finally caught up with Bar-tailed Godwit this morning, over the high tide at Thurstaston, where we also enjoyed good views of Knot & Ringed Plover. We followed this with a drop in on West Kirby, where Scaup & Red-breasted Mergs were showing very well, and Brent Geese a little more distantly. That was about as long as I could drag the boys away from the snow at home for, so now we're back!
 

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Not doing too badly, James.

For a moment, I thought you had found a mega-rare Fox Sparrow, then opened the image to see it was a Song Thrush!

Always a treat to get good views of RB Merg.

I really enjoy this thread, always waiting for your next mini-adventure.
 
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