Whiskered Tern, Eyebrook Reservoir Leicestershire/Rutland, 18.6.07.
Flying photos: DSLR; perched photos: digiscope.
Usual rules apply, click them and they will get bigger...
Monday, June 18, 2007
Whiskered Tern
Whiskered Tern, Eyebrook Reservoir Leicestershire/Rutland, 18.6.07.
Flying photos: DSLR; perched photos: digiscope.
Usual rules apply, click them and they will get bigger...
Wags
Digiscope
DSLR
These Grey Wagtails were trying to feed their young on what appeared to be Banded Demoiselles among other things, at Cotterstock, yesterday (17.6.07). Obey your natural urges, click them!
Lazing by the pond
Juvenile SOng Thrush (DSLR)
Greenfinch (digscope)
Blackbird (DSLR)
Blackbird (digiscope)
Lazing by our garden pond, recently-christened Lake Weedon by Bogbumper (17.6.07), I saw some birds. These included these. Click each for enlargements.
Glapthorn Cow Pastures
Strangalia long-horn (A95)
Black Hairstreak (DSLR)
Large Skipper (DSLR)
The Bowells and I joined the crowds squeezing around a single Black Hairstreak at Glapthorn Cow Pasture, Northamptonshire, yesterday (17.6.07). You've got to go there at least once a year. Them's the rules. This is what I came up with. Click 'em to enlarge 'em.
Siberian Khatru
Blue-tailed Damselflies on Water Soldier, our pond, Peterborough, 17.6.07 (DSLR). As usual, click 'em if you want bigger versions.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Happy returns
Female Broad-bodied Chaser (DSLR)
Four-spotted Chaser (DSLR)
Early reward for digging out ten tonnes of earth to make a 'bigger' pond in our Peterborough garden (and filling it with water) came on Saturday morning (9.6.07). The sunny weather brought four species of dragonfly to investigate:
Blue-tailed Damselfly,
Azure Damselfly,
Four-spotted Chaser and
Broad-bodied Chaser (at least two females laying eggs!)
I'd never seen the Azure and Four-spot in the garden before (and the Broad-bodied only last week when I was digging the hole), and the garden drag list has now expanded to 11 species.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Black Terns
Quick dip to pick...
...the next shot.
Leon found two Black Terns at Maxey pits this morning (as well as two Sanderlings). I had a go at photographing them (DSLR), but I'm still struggling with the autofocus, as it is too good (!) and always likes to pick up any background, rather than the bird!
Here ae my best efforts, before the two terns flew off at 9.15am.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Egberts
Part of a flock of 12 Little Egrets on the High Wash (North Bank), on 25.5.07 (digiscope)
Also there were:
Turnstone, 1,
Dunlin, 4,
Tundrae Ringed Plover, 5,
Reeve, 1,
Greenshank, 1,
Friday, May 25, 2007
Max waders
Sanderling, Maxey pits, 22.5.07
I've been visiting Maxey pits on Etton Road very regularly this spring. It is the closest thing I have to my own patch, though one I share with a few other regulars. I love waders, and it was obvious after last autumn's performance, continuing into mid-winter, that this spring was going to come up with some goodies.
After a slow start, during which breeding plovers arrived plus a few Green Sandpipers and Redshanks and Dunlin, plus a few thousand Golden Plovers and Lapwings, things started to show promise with the arrival of a pair of Avocets looked like thgey wanted to stay and breed. They didn't even last into a second day.
It was not long after, though that the massive Bar-tailed Godwit surge occurred, after which the floodgates have opened and as of mid-May, haven't quite stopped.
This spring the pits have had (counts as a minimum) the following 25 species of waders:
Turnstone, 5, (inc 3 together),
Avocet, 4 (2 pairs),
Oystercatcher, up to a few at a time,
Grey Plover, 1, (arrived same day as Knot, in winter plumage),
Little Ringed Plover,
Ringed Plover,
Ringed Plover of race tundrae, max flock of 20,
Golden Plover, max flock of 2,000 with the last single on 12.5.07,
Lapwing, several pairs with chicks,
Ruff, flock of 8 (1 male),
Knot, 1 (summer plumage),
Sanderling, 6 (inc 3 together),
Dunlin, max flock of 41,
Curlew Sandpiper, 1,
Common Sandpiper, max count of 3,
Green Sandpiper, max count of ?9,
Wood Sandpiper, 1,
Greenshank, up to 2 at a time,
Redshank, max count of ?8
Spotted Redshank, 1, (seen by Bob Titman et al).
Bar-tailed Godwit, 50+, (inc flocks of 22 and 26),
Black-tailed Godwit, 1,
Whimbrel, 1,
Curlew 1, (seen by Mark Hawkes et al),
Snipe, max count of ?7,
Jack Snipe, max count of 3.
Roll on the next big one...
Owling and Quailing
I wrote this for the Bird Watching blog, but what's wrong with it appearing here, too...
As your copy of the latest Bird Watching magazine flops through the letterbox, and you eagerly rip it open, you will notice that I have written a feature on birds at night. If your copy hasn't arrived yet, it will, and if you don't subscribe then you should by going here and follow the links. Or you could just buy it in the shops from May 30 (WH Smith is recommended).
In the feature, I discuss the activities of birds during the hours of darkness and add a few tips. Last night (May 22, 2007), I tried a bit of night-birding myself. I had a pass from my wife to stay out late and my aim was to find a Quail. I didn't want to see one (which is near impossible) but to hear one singing.
I left home in the evening and headed down to my favourite Peterborian wader hotspot, Maxey pits. A rather runty, new-in Sanderling was the best bird on offer, but the night was still, superb and warm with a lovely atmosphere building and the air becoming jammed with millions of tiny mayflies.
At about 9.15pm, I left the site and headed slightly north for the fields around Baston and Langtoft pits (south Lincolnshire) and the road to Baston Fen. There are plenty of fields with crops and grass across these flat former fenlands. So, my tactic was to drive along a bit, find a field with a crop, then stop with the windows open, turn the engine off then listen for a minute or two before moving on another 400m or so.
The first few stops produced nothing. But as I turned toward Baston Fen, a lump on a wire angled down from a telegraph pole beside the road was unmistakable. It was a Tawny Owl, less than 10m from me. With the engine off, I quietly raised my bins and gloried in the beauty of this magnificent bird. It was staring down at a ditch, but I rudely made a tiny sqeak and it instantly rotated its head to stare right at me.
After several minutes during which it seemed to be completely unbothered by my presence, the owl flew across to my side of the road and perched on the wires above my car.
I drove on and 700m further down parked again. Surely that was the sound of a distant Quail? I got out of the car and strained to hear into the distance. No further sound, apart from Red-legged Partridges, but there was another Tawny Owl, perched as the previous bird out on a telelgraph wire over the road.
Red-legged Partridge by Mike Weedon
Another 100m on I parked and listened again, and there it was, the unmistakable 'wet-my-lips' of a Quail. Superb: my target bird achieved with minimal effort, plus brilliant Tawny Owl views thrown in.
Quails (I prefer the 's' plural) are out there somewhere. But generally you have to be out and about at odd owling hours to hear them for yourself. Go for it.
As your copy of the latest Bird Watching magazine flops through the letterbox, and you eagerly rip it open, you will notice that I have written a feature on birds at night. If your copy hasn't arrived yet, it will, and if you don't subscribe then you should by going here and follow the links. Or you could just buy it in the shops from May 30 (WH Smith is recommended).
In the feature, I discuss the activities of birds during the hours of darkness and add a few tips. Last night (May 22, 2007), I tried a bit of night-birding myself. I had a pass from my wife to stay out late and my aim was to find a Quail. I didn't want to see one (which is near impossible) but to hear one singing.
I left home in the evening and headed down to my favourite Peterborian wader hotspot, Maxey pits. A rather runty, new-in Sanderling was the best bird on offer, but the night was still, superb and warm with a lovely atmosphere building and the air becoming jammed with millions of tiny mayflies.
At about 9.15pm, I left the site and headed slightly north for the fields around Baston and Langtoft pits (south Lincolnshire) and the road to Baston Fen. There are plenty of fields with crops and grass across these flat former fenlands. So, my tactic was to drive along a bit, find a field with a crop, then stop with the windows open, turn the engine off then listen for a minute or two before moving on another 400m or so.
The first few stops produced nothing. But as I turned toward Baston Fen, a lump on a wire angled down from a telegraph pole beside the road was unmistakable. It was a Tawny Owl, less than 10m from me. With the engine off, I quietly raised my bins and gloried in the beauty of this magnificent bird. It was staring down at a ditch, but I rudely made a tiny sqeak and it instantly rotated its head to stare right at me.
After several minutes during which it seemed to be completely unbothered by my presence, the owl flew across to my side of the road and perched on the wires above my car.
I drove on and 700m further down parked again. Surely that was the sound of a distant Quail? I got out of the car and strained to hear into the distance. No further sound, apart from Red-legged Partridges, but there was another Tawny Owl, perched as the previous bird out on a telelgraph wire over the road.
Red-legged Partridge by Mike Weedon
Another 100m on I parked and listened again, and there it was, the unmistakable 'wet-my-lips' of a Quail. Superb: my target bird achieved with minimal effort, plus brilliant Tawny Owl views thrown in.
Quails (I prefer the 's' plural) are out there somewhere. But generally you have to be out and about at odd owling hours to hear them for yourself. Go for it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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