VERY QUIET AT FARMOOR

I thought I'd try to find the Scaup at Farmoor reservoir today as we'd failed to find it at Slimbridge on Saturday. It had been reported  yesterday on F1, the smaller of the two basins but although I  had a good look through my binoculars and walked along the causeway, I couldn't spot it. There wasn't much in the way of waterbirds apart from vast numbers of coots. There were a few tufted ducks but the Scaup wasn't amongst the ones I looked at. 

I  walked down to the two hides, and on the way spotted a single great crested grebe which was  very photogenic today, I rather hoped I'd find some little grebes or little egrets but there were none about. But the grebe was the first I've seen this year so that went down as a year tick anyway.  

The hides were both quiet apart from the feeders where I saw blue and great tits and some reed warblers with some mallards swimming around nearby. Although sunny there was quite a cold breeze and I must admit I didn't walk the circuits of either basins so maybe the Scaup was there... I guess  I'll find out when I read the blog.

BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH AT STONECOTE

 The bird feeding station was busy for today's   RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch; when I first looked out of the window there were already goldfinches and a greenfinch on the feeder with blue tits standing by. 

After topping  up the feeders I sat down at the breakfast room window and began my count at 8..45. am. I started by recording the 2 goldfinch on the feeder, together with a wood pigeon perched in the willow tree and a carrion crow on the path. A magpie flew into the cherry tree and a robin popped its head out of the undergrowth by the feeders. Then two blue tits proceeded to chase each through the willow, and a great tit sat waiting in  another bush. 

The feeders were continually busy with birds, as the small birds took turns to grab a meal. The blue  and great tits quickly snatched at a seed before taking it away, whilst green and gold finches rested on the perches pecking away at the food until disturbed by something bigger. 

The usual single robin was joined by a second on the bird table, whilst four blackbirds hopped about on the grass, occasionally stopping to peck at one of the apples laying there. I saw a squirrel run along the grass and up the willow but it left the bird feeders alone. A more unwelcome visitor was the rat which came out from time to time from behind the summer house.  

Beneath the bird table I saw  a dunnock feeding on the seed which had fallen onto the gravel, but then I realised it didn't quite have the appearance of a dunnock. A closer look through my binoculars enabled me to see that it was a female blackcap, a bird which I'd not seen in my garden for a couple of years! It stayed around for the rest of the hour, hopping in and out of the bushes behind, sometimes feeding from the table and sometimes on the ground and was still there a few hours later. Hopefully it might stay around. 

I also saw the usual quota of house sparrows together with two dunnocks which appeared regularly  beneath the feeders and a female chaffinch which perched briefly in the tree before flying off. 

My totals were therefore as follows:

crow 1

magpie 1

blue tit 3

great tit 1

blackbird 4

house sparrow 5

dunnock 2

goldfinch 3

greenfinch 2

wood pigeon 3

robin 2

chaffinch 1

blackcap 1

starling 1

(31birds of 14 species)

feeding station

wood pigeon

goldfinch

robins

greenfinch

dunnock

 a not so welcome visitor!

female blackcap

blackcap

BRR! IT WAS COLD AT SLIMBRIDGE TODAY!

 Well, I suppose one must expect cold weather in January but it did seem particularly cold today, even though there hadn't been a frost. Or perhaps I just didn't put enough layers on! It stayed overcast all day at Slimbridge until nearly 4 o'clock when the sun appeared low in the sky to cast a golden glow over everything. 

I visited the WWT centre along with some good friends today, who are also keen birdwatchers. They were staying in Slimbridge village so we met in the car park shortly after the centre opened. We started by warming up in the Peng observatory where we had a good view of the two ponds on the Rushy Pen. Most of the Bewicks had already departed after the morning feed but there were still good numbers of ducks. We spotted a couple of unusual coloured species amongst them which later we found out  to be hybrids.

Further along the walkway we saw  a variety of waders amongst the many ducks  and geese on the flooded field known as the 'Tack piece' , including snipe, redshank , golden plovers and dunlin and whilst there a flock of curlew flew in. 

The estuary hide gave us good views of a variety of geese species: greylag, barnacle, Canada goose, Ross Goose and Snow goose together with a hybrid bar-headed goose but we had to wait till we visited the Kingfisher hide at the opposite end of the reserve to find the white-fronts to add to my year list.  Sadly the brent goose didn't make an appearance until much later in the day. However, we did manage to see a peregrine through a telescope that a warden had set up.  A look in at the willow hide provided views of  some busy bird feeders but not the hoped-for water rail today.  

From the Discovery hide we found several species of gulls including a common gull, and saw some black tailed godwits feeding at the rear of the lake. From the Kingfisher hide we also saw a kestrel and a marsh harrier and a small bank vole peeped out from under the tree roots where some feeders were hanging. 

At end of our visit we waited for the tea time feed on the Rushy Pen when many geese and ducks fly in to gather in readiness for their free meal. It was at this time that the sun came out from behind the clouds and brightened everything up. For a while it was quite a frenzy of activity as the birds frantically attempted to get their share of the food which was thrown to them.  We were surprised when we spotted a mandarin duck amongst the pintails and mallards! 

After an  enjoyable day we counted up  59 species, of which I added 7 to my year list. 

Bewick cygnet

Bewick family with 4 cygnets

swan and cygnet

Canada geese

cranes by the Severn estuary

greylag

grey heron

mandarin

pintails

shelducks

teal (m)

wigeon flock

snipe

A sudden influx of greylags as the sun came out over the Rushy Pen

greylags flying in for tea!

feeding frenzy

blue tit

bank vole beneath feeder

FROZEN MORNING AT UPTON WARREN

 This was a new reserve for me, which I discovered yesterday when I was looking for somewhere I could spend my Saturday morning which was predicted to be sunny once the early fog had disappeared. Although in Worcestershire, I discovered from Google maps that it could be reached in only 1 hour 5 minutes from my house; taking my usual route to the M5 then taking the northbound carriageway rather than the south ( which I use when visiting Slimbridge). The reserve is then only a mile from the M5 Junction I needed to exit the motorway.   I  found I would need to purchase a day permit for £3 as it is only open to local Wildlife Trust Members so I did this on line and printed off the email receipt in case it was required. 

 I left home at 7.45 and being a Saturday all the roads were relatively clear and I arrived just over an hour later. It had been foggy a lot of the way and the car thermometer was registering 0 degrees. The smallish car park had about five other vehicles in it so after parking I kitted myself out in wellies and warm hat and gloves and made for one of the hides which was accessed by some wooden steps. One other person was already there. From the hide, you looked down over the lake in front of us which was iced over for the main part and visibility wasn't good. I could see and hear some black headed gulls over the other side of a little headland, whilst a group of teal splashed around not far in front of us. After a while a water rail ventured out from the reeds but not for long. At one point a curlew appeared in the mist before something scared it off with  many of the gulls. A little wren also hopped about down below the hide.

As this was the furthest hide on the path, I retraced my steps and stopped off at a new hide down a board walk. This one overlooked a frozen pond where nothing stirred, but to the right some metres away was a feeding station which I could see was attracting the expected tits and finches but it was the fog made it difficult to make out exactly what.

It was still pretty chilly as I returned past the carpark and took a path to a further couple of hides.  The first of these was at ground level and for weeks (unknown to me) had been a good place to spot a female bearded tit that was overwintering here. I waited with others but with the cold foggy conditions it didn't appear. I had to content myself with photographing some of the birds near the feeders in the frost. 

Just nearby was a high level hide which I popped into. More feeders could be seen here which were visited continually by tits, reed buntings,  greenfinches etc and a greater spotted woodpecker popped by too. Occasionally the mist seemed to lift a bit, and the lake ahead of us came into view but sadly the promised sunshine never happened.

After four hours it was time to return home, but I'd certainly like to revisit in sunnier conditions.