Kestrel

Kestrel, Maxey pits, 14.4.06
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa TSN-823 + 32xWLER

Little Ringed Plovers

Male


Female
This pair of Little Ringed Plovers came and landed very close to Kevin Durose and I while we were sitting on the bank of a pit at Baston and Langtoft pits on 8.4.06. Irresistible!
Canon PowerShot A95, Kowa TSN-823 + 32xWLER

Images of Woodwalton Fen

A sleepy mallard duck on frost

A whinnying pair of Dabchicks

Footprint on boardwalk. Any ID help would be welcome.

Brown Hare

Drake Pintail

Kingfisher
Sometimes when you have a mission and you fail it can be very disappointing. On Sunday 9.4.06, my mission was to refind a Green-winged Teal at Woodwalton Fen. I only had an hour and a quarter before I had to leave. I failed in my mission, but I had a brilliant time there. The weather was frosty and clear and virtually the first bird I saw was a ringtail Hen Harrier I flushed from the frosty reeds just in front of me by the side of the path near the entrance. It flew off, but amazingly came up from the reeds again as I went round a bend - probably the best views I have ever had of a Hen Harrier.
I soon heard my first Grasshopper Warbler of the spring, adn snatches of my first Sedge Wobbler, too. At the Rothschild Mere hide the Marsh Harriers were very vocal as they went about there rather public nesting business. I managed a single viable shot of a really vocal pair of Little grebes as they toured the pond.
Outside the hide I photographed a Brown Hare, then went across to Gordon's Mere. Still not GWT, but a Kingfisher came and perched quite near the hide in the reeds and a pair of Pintail emerged.
On the way home I stopped for a lump in a field which looked like a Wheatear. It was one, a fdemale, and there were two males in the next furrow. All in all very pleasant action for a quick dash.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa TSN-823 + 32xWLER

Garden Blue Tits

This bird has a manky head so we call it Manky


This one has a normal head.
Blue Tits have been carrying moss and fluff to three of our garden's nestboxes. This year, for the first time, a pair seem very serious about the box outside our kitchen window. Here are some shots from 7.4.06. I'm not certain whether the manky headed one is amale or female, but I reckon with a bit of crown patch analysis it should be possible to tell. I'll give the nice-plumaged bird a look.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa TSN-823 + 32xWLER

Eldernell

Tree Sparrow

Rabbit

Marsh Harrier
I spent a large chunk of the day (7.4.06) fruitlessly searching for Ring Ouzels in the hill-country west of Peterbrough. Then I went to local Ringo hotspot Eldernell in the evening and found none there. I did find a nice singing Tree Sparrow in the hedge by the counter drain, next to Eldernell Pit. I found the chirping and sometimes sweetly squeaking notes very pleasont on the ear, and got really great views of a normall very shy bird. At the same spot I photographed the Rabbit, while the female Marsh Harrier was an experiment in digiscoping a flying bird at vast distance.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Dunnock

A few Dunnocks were singing around the ARC pit, Baston & Langtoft pits, on 6.4.06. I tried to photograph them wing-flicking, then I tried to get them singing, but in the end I got just one shot of a singing bird with its bill shut. Can I click it? Yes you can.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

False Ringo

On 6.4.06, I went to twitch a Ring Ouzel on the Milton estate, Peterbrough. It was found the evening before by the King of the golf course there, Bill Williamson, who assures me it was a cracking male! He needed to assure me, as of course I didn't see the bird. I had a very pleasant hour sitting on a stile waiting for it to turn up, though. A Nuthatch sang, a Great Spotted Woodepecker drummed, Green Woodpeckers yaffled, Chiffchaffs chiffed and chaffed and a lone Swallow drifted by to the accompaniment of mournful Stormcock song. The closest I got to an ouzel, however, was when a medium-small dark bird emerged from the base of a bush. It turned out there were two of them, and here is a photo of one (and yes I know it hasn't got a white gorget!).

Bill says they are always around...
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Deeping Lakes mini-gallery

Little Owl

Dooingggg! Greenfinch


Male Mealy Redpoll
Deeping Lakes LWT is a great place, with massive potential if managed well... Sometimes it appears to have no birds, but usually there is something lurking, lingering or appearing. On a sunny day (such as 5.4.06), it can be great for digiscoping, too. I took these shots within about 20 minutes of each other. The Little Owl is one of a pair in willows, suitably distant on the other side of a river from the viewer and the Mealy was one of two in Alders at the west end of the reserve, hanging out with a Lesser Redpoll, and really rather approachable. All are clickable for whoppers.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Wheatear

Despite there being a rush of Wheatears locally, during late March, this female at Baston and Langtoft pits, Lincs, on 5.4.06, was the first I connected with this year. It hung around for a while and has been seen entering rabbit burrows. Looking for grub? Looking for a nest site? Time will tell...
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Rainbow at Deeping Lakes LWT

Looking east from main track, 2.4.06.

Nene Washes images

Avocets on Pool 12

Brown Hare

Lapwing

Mute Swan
I took a wander down the central drove of the Nene Washes on 4.4.06, in dreadful weather. The highlights were three Brown hares chasing each other, a Curlew at the east end, two pairs of Avocets on Pool 12 and about 500 Black-tailed Godwits. All pics clickable.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Godwits on the washes

I've said it before but the RSPB's Nene Washes reserve is the best place around the Peterborough area. I paid a very brief visit to the entrance are on the evening of 3.4.06, where 150-odd Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits were feeding in the flood, allowing me to photograph them from the. Click for larger versions.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Meadow Pipit

I returned for another go at the Water Pipit on 2.4.06 at Baston & Langtoft pits. In the morning I had no problem locating it but the wind was strong, the weather awful and the bird flighty. I came back later in the day, and the birds had changed for the better. Trevor Williams was in situ, and he had bagged a couple of White Wagtails, Yellow Wagtail and Little Ringed Plover. We soon refound the Water Pipit, but it was very difficult to photograph in the wind. This peachy-breasted Meadow Pipit was more obliging. Click for biggies.
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Pipits

Water Pipit in spring plumage



Rock Pipit
Josh Jones found a couple of juicy pipits on his Baston and Langtoft (south Lincs) patch on April 1. He had a Water Pipit and a Rock Pipit close together, but the Rock flew off and away (so I found out later). The Water was easy to refind, though not easy to photograph, and I also eventually flushed a Rockit while trying to approach the Wipit. I'm not sure if the Rock was the same as Josh's, but perhaps the streaking pattern is a little different... (Click for biggies)
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER

Nuthatch portfolio

Posing

Calling to mate from nest

Adding some mud to nest hole

Delicately plastering mud

Detail of above

A quick look inside

Singing near nest
Nuthatches, Grimeshaw Wood, Bretton Peterborough. The next several blog entries will be a digiscoping festival of the 'what I did on my holidays' type, as I have had a week off with masses of time for relaxed birding and photography. Here is the first of my efforts - the best of my photographs from three hours of freezing conditions on 31.3.06. All clickable for bigger versions
Canon Powershot A95, Kowa 823 + 32xWLER