ANOTHER AFTERNOON AT COATE

It's always nice to spend an afternoon at Coate Water, a fifteen minute drive from my house, then another fifteen minutes stroll down to the hides. There is usually something of interest either on the main lake or viewed from one of the two hides, and often another birdwatcher/photgrapher to share information, advice or help with identification. Today was no exception.

After spotting a heron and a little egret  from the bridge, I went down to the first hide which  was empty, so I put out some bird food and waited to see what appeared. Well, actually, not much! While  I was eating my lunch, a squirrel appeared and proceeded to demolish most of the food, a dunnock popped in and pecked around around the tree roots, also a great tit and blue tit came and went. 

With not much happening there, I wandered on down to Hide 2, where I was welcomed by a couple of familiar birdwatchers. A selection of ducks were about, and we saw a kingfisher fly past three times, and a sizeable flock of long tailed tits, then a green sandpiper flew in and landed on a log, but was soon seen off by some gulls. There was also a sudden explosive call from a cetti's warbler right by the hide, but of course it didn't come into view.  

Birds  seen included, blue tit, long tailed tit, great tit, dunnock, shoveler, gadwall, tufted duck, mallard,  wigeon, teal, little egret, grey heron, swan, herring gull, black headed gull, cormorant, green sandpiper, kingfisher. 

grey heron

green sandpiper

wigeon

grey squirrel

shoveler preening

'SPOTTED' AT SLIMBRIDGE

A bright, warm day for a visit to Slimbridge with Tim and Sarah. Having checked the recent sightings on the website, we decided to visit most of the hides whilst admiring the captive species as we went, along with following the 'lego' animal trail! 

A few highlights were little grebes and lapwings at Rushy Pen, cranes viewed from the Holden Tower, shellduck and little egret from the summer walkway, ( plus a visit to a somewhat  unusual hide ( see photo), ) black tailed godwits, redshanks, snipe, curlew sandpiper, ruffs, teal from the South Lake hides, and finally, the highlight of the day,  great views of the normally secretive  juvenile spotted crake from the path by the Van de Bovenkamp Hide. 

Birds seen today included:

moorhen, coot, mallard, teal, shellduck, shoveler, little egret, lapwing, little grebe, herring gull, blackheaded gull, redshank, ruff, blacktailed godwit, snipe, crane, great tit, blue tit, spotted crake, greylag goose, herring gull, black headed gull, cormorant

cranes

black tailed godwit

view over estuary

the hide!! great for a lunch stop!

little egret

a couple of shots of the spotted crake

and for lego enthusiasts...nene goose...

...and otter

DINTON PASTURES

After the sweltering heat of the past week, it was a bit of a shock to have to wear fleece and gilet today! Felt and looked quite like autumn, which of course it is I suppose. Due to the floods in the Reading area, the road to the country park had a 'closed' sign but I was told by a motorist  coming in the opposite direction that the floods had gone, so I could safely ignore it!  I parked in the reserve car park, and walked to a couple of hides. 

The Bittern hide was very quiet, but at the teal hide, I could watch the antics of a pair of great crested grebes and their young, which were scrambling on and off their backs and cheeping constantly.  A kingfisher perched a couple of times on a branch put out for that purpose, and gave some good views, though still fairly distant for my camera lens, with poor light  too. Later a grey heron flew in and landed fairly close in front of the hide. 

Other birds around included, a red kite flying above, swans, tufted and mallard ducks and coot.  I was told that the water levels had risen considerably, thereby discouraging waders such as sandpipers that had been seen during the previous day or so. 

great crested grebe with youngster on its back...

well, two actually!

heron and mallard

kingfisher - zoomed in

A BEAUTIFUL AFTERNOON AT FARMOOR

On a beautiful September afternoon, with temperature in the high twenties, I spent nearly 3 hours at Farmoor Reservoir, enjoying the sunshine and gentle breeze across the water. During the afternoon I circled both parts of the reservoir, looking out for familiar and unfamiliar species of birds.  Coots were too numerous to count, also  a very large number of greylag geese, with a couple of canada geese amongst them, Ducks included tufted and mallard, and I saw all three species of wagtails and four species of grebe. Waders included ringed plover, oyster catcher, common sandpiper and dunlin. 

List of species seen:

black headed gull, herring gull, cormorant, grey heron, little egret, greylag goose, canada goose, pied wagtail, grey wagtail, yellow wagtail, little grebe, great crested grebe, black necked grebe, red necked grebe, tufted duck, mallard, mute swan, ringed plover, common sandpiper, dunlin, swallow, oyster catcher.

a beautiful afternoon at Farmoor Reservoir

canada goose

dunlin

greylag goose

cormorant

ringed plover

grey heron

yellow wagtail

red necked grebe

sailing at Farmoor

COATE -GREY WAGTAIL

A dry afternoon so I spent a couple of hours at Coate water. Nothing much happening at Hide 1 so I ventured along to Hide 2. Unlike my last visit there were only two others there, but again not much action, until right at the end of my visit, the arrival of a grey wagtail gave some photo opportunities. 

Birds seen from Hide 2 included little egret, mallard, mute swan, canada goose, wren, grey wagtail, gadwall, tufted duck, shoveler, kingfisher ( flew past three times), black headed gull.  A number of speckled wood butterflies and a few whites also noticed. 

A few of my photos of the grey wagtail are included below. 

STANTON PARK

There was certainly an autumn feel out there today, the first time I've worn a jacket for quite a while. With rain forecast for the afternoon, I  took a stroll round Stanton Park during the morning; birds seen included heron, grey wagtail x 2, mallard, canada goose, coot, moorhen, mute swan.

mallards beneath horse chestnut tree

grey wagtail

the one remaining cygnet

canada goose

mute swan

PEWSEY DOWNS NNR

Back to work for an inset morning , but we finished early so I decided to re-visit Pewsey Downs. 

I was pleased that  there were no  cows on the hill this time, so I trekked up to the top then down the other side, looking for butterflies as I went. Only a few meadow browns, a few whites, a couple of small heaths, 3 common blues, but plenty of small tortoiseshells. I could stand still and turn around and see at least 10 from a single spot on one occasion. 

Ever optimistic I decided to carry on a different path toward the white horse  as I had   read reports of clouded yellows several days ago. None were to be seen, but I then noticed a herd of cows at the top of the white horse who stopped and  looked at me and  then slowly began moving in my direction albeit at quite a distance. I retraced  my steps and was soon out of sight round the hill, and heading for the path down to the road, when suddenly I heard a noise behind and saw a running herd of young cows coming over the hill to my left;

thankfully they were following a path which crossed  the one I was on at a point I had already passed, rather than directly towards me, but  I did keep looking over my shoulder in case one might suddenly change direction!  I'm not sure I will be too keen to go there again! 

the white horse at Alton Barnes ( note cows in top right corner!)

one of many small tortoiseshells

common blue

cows heading off, having passed behind me!