davebenj
To old, Too tall, Too fat, Too bald.
Blacktoft Sands & Potteric Carr : Easter 2007
We had a couple of trips out over the weekend. First was a quick Friday evening trip just up the road to Welbeck for a Red Throated Diver (rare in Notts) and a couple of Mandarin drakes (something that I'd like to see on my 2007 year list).
We got good views of the RTD but no sign of Mandarins. For something that's bright orange they can be a bu99er to see sometimes! Admittedly not quite as hard to see as a Smew can be, but tricky nontheless. A bonus as a female Goosander - a bit late in the year for them this far inland isn't it?
There wasn't any sign of the Oystercatcher, either another Notts scarcity, that was present on the previous Wednesday, when I snuck out of the house for a quick RTD twitch on my own - I have a bit of a problem with not seeing divers you see.
We planned on spending Sunday at Potteric Carr (just off junction 3 of the M18) but with light traffic on the motorways, we carried on and went to Blacktoft Sands first. There are 5 hides but, in my experience, there are only ever two worth visiting at any one time. Unfortunately, which two is variable and you have to do the lot. Still, its not that far to walk round them.
Plenty to look at on Sunday though: Avocet (I never get tired of watching these), Black Tailed Godwit, Dunlin, about half a dozen Marsh Harriers, Shelduck, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Redshank, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Tree Sparrow, Ruddy Duck. We missed out on the Peregrine though. Bummer! Being able to get my telescope onto one of the Marsh Harriers for ten minutes or so, and to be able to get good focus and zoom in to 45x magnification, was pretty neat.
A quick sprint back down the (virtually empty) M180 and the (not so empty) M18 and we dropped into Potteric for a quick dash round to fill the last couple of hours of the day - they lock the car park gates at 5pm.
Reed Bunting, Great/Blue/Long Tailed/Coal/Willow Tits, Gadwall, Teal, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Great Spotted Woodpecker (male and female) and a summer plumage Black Necked Grebe.
No sign of the Bitterns on Piper Marsh though, its getting a bit late in the year for those[1] and the pair of Kingfishers that are threatening to nest on one of the islands there were notable by their absence.
Never mind, it was worth going for the GSWs, which were on the feeders about 10 feet away from the hide we were in, and the BNG, which was being ever so slightly coy and spending a lot of time underwater, but enought time on the surface and close to the hide to get decent views of it.
[1] In 20-odd years of birdwatching I'd only ever seen one Bittern before. That was in 1990-ish at Titchwell in Norfolk. A fleeting glimpse of a brown stripy "heron" type thing flying over a reed bed.
On 21st March this year, I got to see two at the same time on Piper Marsh at Potteric: Watching one stalking through the edge of a reed bed for 15 minutes or so, and another flying right-to-left across the front of the hide.
A bit like buses really: you wait ages for one to turn up, and then two come along together!
Life list currently 167
2007 year list currently 103
We had a couple of trips out over the weekend. First was a quick Friday evening trip just up the road to Welbeck for a Red Throated Diver (rare in Notts) and a couple of Mandarin drakes (something that I'd like to see on my 2007 year list).
We got good views of the RTD but no sign of Mandarins. For something that's bright orange they can be a bu99er to see sometimes! Admittedly not quite as hard to see as a Smew can be, but tricky nontheless. A bonus as a female Goosander - a bit late in the year for them this far inland isn't it?
There wasn't any sign of the Oystercatcher, either another Notts scarcity, that was present on the previous Wednesday, when I snuck out of the house for a quick RTD twitch on my own - I have a bit of a problem with not seeing divers you see.
We planned on spending Sunday at Potteric Carr (just off junction 3 of the M18) but with light traffic on the motorways, we carried on and went to Blacktoft Sands first. There are 5 hides but, in my experience, there are only ever two worth visiting at any one time. Unfortunately, which two is variable and you have to do the lot. Still, its not that far to walk round them.
Plenty to look at on Sunday though: Avocet (I never get tired of watching these), Black Tailed Godwit, Dunlin, about half a dozen Marsh Harriers, Shelduck, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Redshank, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Tree Sparrow, Ruddy Duck. We missed out on the Peregrine though. Bummer! Being able to get my telescope onto one of the Marsh Harriers for ten minutes or so, and to be able to get good focus and zoom in to 45x magnification, was pretty neat.
A quick sprint back down the (virtually empty) M180 and the (not so empty) M18 and we dropped into Potteric for a quick dash round to fill the last couple of hours of the day - they lock the car park gates at 5pm.
Reed Bunting, Great/Blue/Long Tailed/Coal/Willow Tits, Gadwall, Teal, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Great Spotted Woodpecker (male and female) and a summer plumage Black Necked Grebe.
No sign of the Bitterns on Piper Marsh though, its getting a bit late in the year for those[1] and the pair of Kingfishers that are threatening to nest on one of the islands there were notable by their absence.
Never mind, it was worth going for the GSWs, which were on the feeders about 10 feet away from the hide we were in, and the BNG, which was being ever so slightly coy and spending a lot of time underwater, but enought time on the surface and close to the hide to get decent views of it.
[1] In 20-odd years of birdwatching I'd only ever seen one Bittern before. That was in 1990-ish at Titchwell in Norfolk. A fleeting glimpse of a brown stripy "heron" type thing flying over a reed bed.
On 21st March this year, I got to see two at the same time on Piper Marsh at Potteric: Watching one stalking through the edge of a reed bed for 15 minutes or so, and another flying right-to-left across the front of the hide.
A bit like buses really: you wait ages for one to turn up, and then two come along together!
Life list currently 167
2007 year list currently 103
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