Responsible Birding Diary: Saturday 19.12.20

 

There is a massive private estate with a huge palace in the middle of it, just west of Peterborough.The Milton estate or Fitzwilliam estate is quite unlike most of the surrounding land, with rolling sheep fields, huge mature arboreta, a gold course and patches of woodland here and there. I was there to search for Hawfinches. No luck, but there were plenty of Goldcrests enjoying the warm microclimate ofd the iIvy-covered trees. No Firecrests or Hawfinches, but Nuthatch was calling, and there were lots of Sky larks in the nearby fields. My personal highlight was listening to a duet between a couple of Mistle Thrushes. I love the Storm Cock's sad song, particularly in the middle of winter: heartbreaking and delightful in equal measure.

In the afternoon, I waited for owls along the Deeping High Bank. i saw a single (very dark) Short-eared Owl and two Barn Owls. It goes without saying that I love owls!

Responsible Birding Diary: Tuesday 15.12.20

 

I may as well say ditto for yesterday's activities. Ie not many birds (or much other wildlife seen). Tomorrow, we get the car back from the menders!

Responsible Birding Diary: Monday 14.12.20

 

Again, a day in the office (ie the kitchen) feeling a little trapped by not having a car. Don't get me wrong, I am very willing to get out and about by bike, and did lots of this in the spring and summer, losing a ton of weight. But, once the daylight got so restricted in the morning, I became a lazy car birder, and put on all the weight again, plus a bonus half a stone!

The only thing I should mention here is that Feral Pigeons are becoming much more common in our neighbourhood. The add with the abundant House Sparrows and singing Starlings to give our close a bit of old skool urban charm.

Responsible Birding Diary: Saturday 12.12.20

 

The weather was particularly cold and rainy today, so once more, despite it being the weekend, I stayed home in the warm, and the best bird I saw was a Blackbird in the garden! The Grey Squirrels are still making our garden their winter home.

Responsible Birding Diary: Friday 11.12.20

 

Another quiet day, where the weather and work prevented me getting out and enjoying the great outdoors. A quick visit to the back garden revealed a dead baby rat on the lawn, but otherwise...

Responsible Birding Diary: Sunday 13.12.20

 

I can't stay in for ever. So, I bit the bullet and took a cycle down to good old Ferry meadows CP. I was after a Goldeneye and dreaming of finding a Dusky Warbler (there is one elsewhere in Cambs!). Instead, I just got annoyed by the excessive number of people in the park.

The best I could muster was a heard-only Chiffchaff (there are a lot around this winter) and a single Snipe on Goldie Meadows. I decided to leave the park and head east to the sewage works, dreaming of finding an Iceland Gull. Instead I went headlong into a prolonged hail and rain storm. A Barn Owl which roosts in a nest box (traditionally) was my highlight. I arrived home a tad damp!

Responsible Birding Diary: Thursday 10.12.20

 

In a nutshell, our car has had to go in to the menders with some serious steering problems. So, I I am a little stuck at home, except for cycling and walking. But the weather is not calling me outside at the moment. So, I am content to watch the Wren outside the kitchen window, picking through the tangle of an old buddleia (which still has some leaves).

Responsible Birding Diary: Wednesday 9.12.20

 

More of the same, today, though without the ice, which helped boost up the list to more like 65 species. Whooper Swans were back in the fields by the Welland viewable from the Deeping High Bank. I counted 53. On the Welland itself there were four Goosanders (three drakes, and one female).

Just outside Deeping Lakes LWT, the usual 'tame' Buzzard was hanging out its wings to dry...

Responsible Birding Diary: Tuesday 8.12.20

 

Today was my second day off (of three this week), so I naturally did a wee bit of birding in the morning. I spent most of my time in the Deepings area again, working the Deeping High Bank, Baston and Langtoft and Baston Fen areas, with emphasis on the latter. The flooded fields were frozen, so all the wildfowl and waders had hopped over to the nearby River Glen or the unfrozen ditches in the surrounding area (occasionally visiting, perhaps flushed from the river, like the more than 100 Teal below)

The best I could muster at BF was a single Green Sandpiper and a Cetti's Warbler which came and showed very well. Also a juvenile Marsh Harrier came over (below), looking for stragglers on the ice...

In the Greylag flocks at BLGP, the Pink-footed Goose and a single Barnacle Goose were present. All in, I recorded ony about 45 birds this morning, but it was a pleasant if freezing experience!

Responsible Birding Diary: Monday 7.12.20

 

It was another cold and frosty start to the day, bringing more fog and few birds. It wasn't until the afternoon that I ventured out along the Deepign High Bank, the highlight of which was a very close Barn Owl posing on a nearby post (sadly, I didn't have my camera with me).

Responsible Birding Diary: Sunday 6.12.20

 

Today, was truly unbirdable fogginess on the Deeping High Bank. Fog, as I have said before can turn up good birds, but I could hardly see the river, let alone any good birds on it. Eventually, after I arrived at Deeping Lakes, the sun started to burn off some of the worst of the fog. The 'best' birds were a fly-over drake Pintail and at least 25 Snipe there.

Meanwhile, Josh Jones had reported 21 European White-fronted Geese back at the slaughtering grounds of BLGP (or on the nearby farmland). When I first checked the fields they were wreathed in fog, but eventually it cleared revealing these lovely geese, set quite far back in the field. They are the best-looking geese we ever get around here! If you happen upon a flock of 21, there were 6 juveniles (lacking the belly bands) and 15 adults.

Responsible Birding Diary: Saturday 5.12.20

In contrast to yesterday, it was a glorious day, today, with wall to wall sunshine. I recorded a few goodies along the Deeping High Bank north and east of Crowland. Over the river (Welland), there were 6 Egyptian Geese on the bank, and behind them the flooding in the fields looked like it could attract something good. It attracted 95 Whooper Swans.

As I was watching the swans, I spotted three large birds flying south-west in the distance, and raised my bins to confirm that they were three Cranes (a brown-headed younger bird and its parents). Eventually, they turned slightly and headed down in the direction of a windfarm you can see miles away, called Wryde Croft, which is just north of the Nene Washes (and a little east of Thorney). So they were heading to where the main population of Cranes hangs out, around here.

Later I took a trip out to Baston Fen and met a couple who had seen presumably the same Curlew I had seen a couple of days ago. I couldn't relocate it. I briefly popped in to check the wader pit at Baston and Langtoft Pits, though I knew the owners of the pits around there had organised a 'shooting party'. Sadly, half a dozen 'guns' were lined up in the divide between the T-junction pit and the pit to its west.

Two Redshanks (at a height of no more than 20 feet) flew over one of the guns, who pointed his shotgun at them and blasted a Redshank out of the sky, plummeting into the waters of the T-junction pit. It was sickening and disgusting to see. I have seen Pheasants, geese and ducks shot before, but nothing prepared me for the horror of witnessing the callous shooting of a Redshank. 'Guardians of the countryside' is what these people who get their kicks maiming and killing call themselves. I call them scum.

Responsible Birding Diary: Friday 4.12.20

 

It was a dreadful day for wildlife watching. It even snowed today, which then turned to horrible sleet. Needless to say, I stayed indoors all day, except for a brief excursion to the garden, to record the 'White Hell', so I could send a photo to dear Eddie (our son) in Greenwich, where it didn't snow!

Responsible Birding Diary: Thursday 3.12.20

 

I did a wee bit of twitching this lunchtime. The weather was absolutely foul but I needed to see if I could relocate the Curlew that Josh Jones found in the rain at Baston Fen, Lincolnshire, in the morning. After a bit of a march through the mud and rain, success! Curlew is bird number 189 for my Peterborough year list, and a bird that has been bugging me all year!

On this day last year, I ticked Tundra Bean Goose, with a couple of birds seen from the Deeping High Bank. And that was also my 189th tick of the year. So, I have caught up with 2019 for the time of year. Last year, I added Ring-necked Duck and Caspian Gull late on. Will I get into the 190s for the third year running? We must all wait and see...

Responsible Birding Diary: Wednesday 2.12.20

 

Today, I had what we birders call a 'UK find tick', ie a bird I can never claim to have 'found' for myself before in the country. It was a Glossy Ibis, and it was at Deeping Lakes LWT. As I drove in from the entrance at the east end, theGlossy Ibis was also coming in from the east (by flight not by car). I immediately recognised its flight style, even from behind, after seeing the Whittlesey/Ferry Meadows CP bird(s) very recently. But I wanted to be certain(seeing the head and bill would be useful!), so I stopped, wound my window down and binned it as it flew over the east pit. Sorry, not photos were taken!

It looked for all the world like it was drifting down to the pit, or the grassy area nearby, but I couldn't relocate it there or indeed around the west pit. It is possible that it was flushed from the nearby bank of the River Welland, as some dog walkers were up near where it apparently came from. So, it may have returned there. However, I am told that there was a report of a Glossy Ibis flying over southern Peterborough about 25 minutes later (which is only about 10km away, so it may be the same bird).

Who knows how many Glossy Ibises are around at the moment? There are three together further sound in Cambs and the bird at the Dog in a Doublet (near Whittlesey) was reported as still present a couple of days ago.

Responsible Birding Diary: Tuesday 1.12.20

 

Yesterday evening, as it was getting dark, I heard from local birdfinder Josh Jones that he had found a couple of White-fronted Geese at Baston and Langtoft pits. There has been a decent influx of these birds (of the European or Russian, if you prefer, race albifrons) into the country in the last few days. ANd Josh had predicted that they would turn up only a couple of hours before he found them!

This morning, I tried to relocate them, as did Josh. Eventually I had to give up (after tking a rather pleasing photo of a Barn Owl). But as I was heading home, I got a message that Josh had relocated the White-fronts, so I turned around and had another look. While Josh went exploring , both White-fronted Geese reappeared in the air, and turned out to be an adult and a juvenile. Below is the adult as it came in to land with part of the mighty Greylag flock (plus that Barn Owl I mentioned).

White-fronted Goose is my 188th Peterborough area bird this year. That is joint fourth best total ever (beaten only in 2008: 189; 2019: 191; and 2018: 195). And there is still a month to go...

Responsible Diary: Monday 30.11.20

 

With a wee bit of mist in the air, I figured a trip out along the Deeping High Bank may produce some stray from the coast (Red-breasted Merganser and Slavonian Grebe are the chief targets). Alas, all I could muster was a couple of Stonechats.

But I did get the promise that good things were to come...

Responsible Birding Diary: Sunday 29.11.20

 

I took a trip down to the Nene Washes today. The Glossy Ibis, which was missing yesterday, was back in place on the Skating Lake by the Dog in a Doublet sluice. Also present were a couple of dead swans, which are almost certainly victims of the presumed Avian Influenza which has had an outbreak recently. I hope the Buzzards, crows and Marsh Harriers eating the corpses will not be affected.

I took a walk out from March Farmers, east, but the best I could muster were 5 singing Cetti's Warblers. Wow, this species has flourished like crazy recently! It used to be a major local rarity, but the mild winters have helped this resident warbler thrive in recent years.

Responsible Birding Diary: Saturday 28.11.20

 

Deeping Lakes LWT produced the goods for me today. At first, there was not much to report, except the regular Pink-footed Goose on the East Pit. And, as the number of visitors (not birdwatchers, just visitors) to the reserve seemed very high, I decided to skip looking for the Long-eared Owls, cut my losses and leave.

As it happens, as I was leaving my friend Matt Fitzgerald was arriving. So, we parked and chewed the fat a wee bit, moaning about this and that. I said to Fitz, "I just want to see a Merlin!". And that very second, a small raptor wen whizzing over the nearby River Welland. It was a Merlin! Perfectly on time. That is the last of the 'core' birds for my year list, which is now on 187 species (pretty respectable) for the PBC area.

Fitz and I decided to head for a site in the Maey area to see if there were any jack Snipes around, this winter. We encountered 2 Jackos plus 3 Snipes at the site. Jack Snipes are just wonderful little waders. It is amazing to think that there are apparently 100,000 of them wintering in the UK, as they are so elusive!

Responsible Birding Diary: Friday 27.11.20

This lunchtime I once more took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and again took a drive along the Deeping High Bank. All the 'good stuff' from yesterday had moved on: no Whoopers, no Ravens etc. At Deeping Lakes, there was a Pink-footed Goose and a calling Chiffchaff as the main highlights. But, as it happens, someone reported that three Long-eared Owls were showing in the area called The Gully, by The Lake.

So I wandered around there, and found that there were actually four Long-eared Owls giving excellent scope views. They are certainly closer in this roost site than when they are on the island on The Lake, which has become a regular wintering spot for them.Three of the four owls are shown below. I will leave it up to you to find them in the photo...

Responsible Birding Diary: Thursday 26.11.20

 

This lunchtime I took advantage of the beautiful sunshine to take a drive along the Deeping High Bank (the road next to the River Welland on a stretch between Deeping St James and Spalding, south Lincs). The highlight was a pair of Ravens which were feeding on and near the road itself. This the second time I have seen a Raven in the same area (near the turn off to Deeping St Nicholas) in recent weeks. And both birds were apparently keen to move back to the vicinity of the road once I moved off.

Ravens are still pretty scarce around Peterborough, but are becoming common enough that I am thinking of demoting them from 'elite' status for next year's year list. In a nutshell, in order to keep track of progress on my list, I divide all birds into 'core' or elite'. The core of some 135 species are the birds that any moderate local birder should expect to see each and every year in the Peterborough area. Anything else is 'elite'. This year, for instance, I have seen just over 50 elites (with Merlin being the only bird missing from the 'core'; a bird which may be 'promoted' next year).

Also of note along the DHB were two decent flocks of more than 100 Whooper Swans, separated by a few miles, and seven Goosanders (one drake, the rest female types).

At nearby Deeping Lakes LWT on the east pit were a Pink-footed Goose, 2 Green Sandpipers, 2 Cetti's Warblers and a Chiffchaff.

Raven by Deeping High Bank, Lincs

Responsible Birding Diary: Wednesday 25.11.20

 

Before work, I popped over to Baston Fen NR in south Lincolnshire to see what was about, now it has been partially flooded. My main aims were Water Pipits and raptors. I saw none of the former and only the odd Kestrel and Buzzard of the latter. The highlights instead were a couple of Stonechats (female below) and six Redshanks.

Responsible Birding Diary: Tuesday 24.11.20

 

I went back at lunchtime to check out the Dog in a Doublet action (on the skating pool). Today there were:

Glossy Ibis, 1, (see photo below)

Spotted Redshank, 1,

Redshank, 4,

Ruff, 33, (spot the one below)

Black-tailed Godwit, 75, (see photo below)

Whooper Swan, 58, (see photo below)

Wigeon, 152,

Buzzard, 3, eating a dead swan, and

Mash Harrier, 1, juv

Responsible Birding Diary: Monday 23.11.20

 

The Dog in a Doublet is the name of a pub on the north bank of the River Nene, north of Whittlesey, some 15 minutes drive from home. There is a sluice in the river here (known as the Dog in a Doublet sluice), which marks the westernmost extent of the tidal section of the Nene. Some good birds had been reported in the flooded field just south of the sluice, known as the skating pond (people still skate there when it is properly frozen!). Anyhow, some good birds had been reported there yesterday, so I took a lunchtime trip to see for myself.

It was superb and very easy viewing (despite being a tad cold) from a pull in on the B1040 just south of the DinD. On the edges of the flooded field and on the flood itself were the following excellent birds:

Glossy Ibis, 1,

Spotted Redshank, 1,

Ruff, 20,

Black-tailed Godwit, 133,

Whooper Swan, 78

It was almost surreal seeing such riches in one easy to view (with a scope) spot, just a quarter of an hour from home.

Responsible Birding Diary: Sunday 22.11.20

 

This morning I was up in the Baston and Langtoft pits complex seeking out a White-fronted Goose which had been reported as the sun set yesterday. There are lots of Greylags(several hundred) in the area but they are feeding in all sorts of different fields, many farmland inaccessible to the public. A large chunk of the supergaggle came to bathe at the T-junction pit in the morning, and I was able to see a Barnacle Goose and two Pink-footed Geese among them, but no Whitefront. There were probably a couple of thousand Golden Plovers mixing with the Lapwings in the nearby fields.

I bumped into a couple of locals i the form of Josh Jones and well known farmer and landowner Nicholas Watts. As we chatted, Josh spotted a raptor coming towards us and it turned out to be an adult female Hen Harrier, which was a delight.

There was no more scarce goose action, so I gave up and went to relocate the Ailsworth Hooded Crow again, with some success.

In the afternoon I was back again and watching the goose flock in a nearby field. There were now two Barnacle Geese in with the GGs. Better though were the two Short-eared Owls hunting in the distance. A couple of Barn Owls were also hunting nearer to where I was standing.