FARMOOR AGAIN

Had a quick stopover here on my way home from Cambridge. On the causeway there were two dunlins and a common sandpiper, swallows and common terns flying overhead, the mallard was still caring for her growing brood of ducklings, also saw a wheatear and a couple of yellow wagtails. 

mallard and her young

dunlins

RUTLAND WATER OSPREYS

I was pleased to have the opportunity to visit   Manton Bay, where  ospreys have been nesting for  a number of years now. It forms part of the Rutland Water Nature Reserve so after purchasing our permits, we  walked the kilometre path to the hide where telescopes are trained on the nest and there is a screen in the hide giving a video link to the nest. 

On arrival, we could see the female osprey on the nest, where she is   incubating four eggs, an unusual number for ospreys who normally lay two or three. In fact we were told that up till now it  has not been known for four chicks to fledge successfully. So it will interesting to follow their progress. 

The male bird was perching in a tree  not far away, and whilst we were in the hide he flew off and then returned low over the water and then  up to the nest where he swapped over incubating duties with the female. 

The weather was rather grey and not as spring like as recently, but we still managed a decent tally of birds on the reserve.

These included:
osprey, little ringed plover, redshank, lapwing, mallard, tufted duck, gadwall, teal,pochard, mute swan, egyptian goose ( one with young) canada goose, greylag goose, little egret, heron, robin, blue tit, great tit, blackbird, thrush, pheasant, goldfinch, chaffinch, greenfinch, house sparrow, dunnock, wood pigeon, collared dove, common tern, swallow, sand martin, black headed gull, reed bunting, chiffchaff, rook, jackdaw, moorhen, coot, wren, snipe, great crested grebe.

egyptian goose and young

blackbird

female osprey on nest

common tern

FARMOOR AND OTMOOR

A sunny, spring morning but a cold northerly breeze was blowing as I walked around Farmoor Reservoir today. Almost felt I needed hat and gloves!  Again I didn't see the Bonaparte gull, in fact very few gulls around today. However, I did see four types of wagtails; pied, white, grey and yellow. I also disturbed a napping female goosander on the edge of the reservoir, which made a quick getaway once it realised I was there. 
Other highlights included common terns, common sandpiper, and a grey heron. The female mallard and her family were still around, swimming close to the causeway edge. 
At the hide I saw reed bunting, great tit, blue tit, chaffinch, coot, and heard my first cuckoo of the year. 

I 

a sleeping female goosander

which woke up...

...stood up...

...and quickly swam off.

grey heron on the causeway

mallard and her ducklings

With some time still to spare today, I then decided to drive a bit further on to RSPB Otmoor. From the bird feeders, grasshopper warblers could be heard but not seen today, I'd not heard them before but they had an unmistakable sound like  a fishing rod being reeled in! However, I did manage to see some very vocal sedge warblers and a reed warbler.  There were also some early lapwing chicks running about in the field, but sadly too distant for a photo,  they did look cute though!

After reading a notice about grass snakes sunbathing on the flattened reeds, I spotted one curled up.  Also seen was a brown hare in the field, hunkered down with just its ears showing. 

grass snake

can you spot the ears?

a vocal sedge warbler

TICKING ALONG IN OXFORDSHIRE

A nice reasonably sunny day out in Oxfordshire, adding a few more ticks to my year lists of butterflies and birds.  I  got to Farmoor's reservoir at about 1030, and I spent a couple of hours there.  Whilst walking along the footpath in the nature reserve, someone offered to show me a where a lesser whitethroat was singing, which was several hundred metres further along. However, hearing a few notes of the song, it did not carry on and  we could not locate it.   I decided not to go into the hide itself, as time was getting on,  but now wished I had asI see  a garganey was reported!!  Oh well...! After picnicking in the car, I drove round to Rushy Common, and watched from the hide for a while, a lot of the usual birds around, although nothing new.   Orange tip butterflies also  in abundance today, also brimstone, speckled wood, green veined white, comma, small tortoisehshell. 


Highlights from today were yellow wagtail, red crested pochard, common tern,   black cap, willow warbler, chiffchaff, swallow, reed bunting and common sandpiper (Farmoor) red crested pochard, oyster catcher, greylag and canada geese, lapwing, sand martin, teal, gadwall, lesser black backed gull. (Rushy) 

red crested pochards

yellow wagtail

speckled wood

green veined white

common tern and blackheaded gulls

female orange tip

GREENHAM COMMON

I went  to Greenham Common in pursuit of dartford warblers and woodlarks today, but sadly they evaded me! However it was a lovely morning's walk amongst the gorse, with good views of linnets, stonechats and meadow pipits. 

linnet

female stonechat

male stonechat

meadow pipit

entrance to the common

a lake in the middle of the reserve

MOULDON HILL

Finished school early today as final day of term, so had time to visit Moulden Hill country park near Swindon. The lake was extremely quiet, although I did catch a glimpse of some ducklings in the reeds.  A few butterflies about, namely holly blue, several orange tips, brimstone, peacock and small tortoiseshell. 

 a very peaceful lake at Moulden Hill

 mallard with ducklings

small tortoiseshell

orange tip showing patterned underwing

SNAKESHEAD FRITILLARIES

Making the most of the fine weather, I made the short trip over to Cricklade to see the snakeshead fritillaries covering North Meadow reserve at this time of year.  It's popular with visitors, including a party of primary school children which arrived at the same time as I did. 

As well as the lovely display of flowers, birds noted were heron, reed bunting and a skylark; butterflies seen included brimstone, small tortoiseshell and peacock. 

I then paid a quick visit to Blakehill reserve where there were plenty of skylarks singing,  several high above me, and I even managed to spot a few amongst the grass.

snakes head fritillaries

marsh marigolds

small tortoiseshell

AFTERNOON AT FARMOOR.. & A DUCKLING DRAMA!

Another fine day and having seen that there had been a variety of birds at Farmoor reservoir lately, I decided to drive over there. 

As usual I walked across the causeway,  and spoke to a couple of people, but it was very quiet, the little ringed plover, black necked grebe etc were not about. I then decided to wander down to the nature reserve; from the hide were a couple of coots, reed bunting, great tits, dunnock and a tortoiseshell butterfly. Along the footpath I spotted several more butterflies, and spotted a male bullfinch amongst some blossom by the river. I also had great views of a blackcap singing. 

Back to the reservoir, and this time I noted a swallow, a couple of meadow pipits, pied wagtails and possibly a white wagtail as it definitely had a grey back. 

As I approached the end of the causeway I spotted my first ducklings of the year. A female mallard was swimming around with her brood next to a couple of boats. As I watched I became aware of some loud 'peeping' which was definitely too close to be from the brood out in the water. I couldn't see anything straight away, then looked down and could just make out a tiny duckling caught underneath some black netting on the other side of the wall. So I clambered down over the wall and managed to lift up the edge and let it out. It frantically ran for the water and swam quickly to its relieved mother who then swam away into the middle of the reservoir. I  wonder how it got there and how long it had been there!

orange tip

peacock

speckled wood

reed bunting

blackcap

black cap in full voice

bullfinch

robin

meadow pipit

white wagtail?

definitely greyer than this pied wagtail

the mallard family

the lost one, making a quick dash for its family

 the duckling was underneath this netting!

Birds seen or heard today:

bluetit, great tit, robin, dunnock, reed bunting, blackbird, chiffchaff, pheasant, blackcap, swallow, pied wagtail, white wagtail, meadow pipit, mallard, tufted duck, great crested grebe, cormorant, black headed gull, swan, greylag goose, starling, crow, bullfinch, goldfinch.

Butterflies:

brimstone, peacock, holly blue, speckled wood, small tortoiseshell, orange tip