HAWFINCHES AT PARKEND

 I read a blog recently which suggested that the hawfinches at Parkend were really not worth visiting, as the area is so busy with dog walkers, cyclists etc that the birds are not coming down to the ground beneath the yews like they used to. 

As this is an area which I've visited in the past, and reports are still coming in of up to 5 hawfinches being seen regularly, I thought I would go and see for myself as I needed this species for my year list. 

Crown Lane borders the cricket ground at Parkend and has a row of yew trees partly encircling a grassy area in the centre. You can park along the lane from where you can see hawfinches and other birds such as chaffinches, nuthatch etc . However, as a local blog tells you, you need to stay in your car to be able to see them, as they are easily spooked.

 Expecting the spot to be popular, I arrived soon after 8 o'clock but found the lane empty. I wasn't sure of the best place to park these days,  so opted for a spot halfway down where there was a slightly larger gap between two yews that would give me some better light, I thought. 

Nothing happened for a while, and then someone brought 3 dogs out of their van and let them run around on the grassy area. I would need to be patient! He eventually left  then I realised that a small flock of birds was coming down to the ground further down and around the corner so I drove slowly down and re parked not wanting to get too close in case the birds were nervous. . Another car came along and parked on the opposite of the road, so I wondered if I should have done that too, to get some better  photos  but it was too late.  A couple of jays appeared and fed for a few minutes before flying off, then down came the finches once more. 

I soon noticed a hawfinch amongst the chaffinches, larger and chunkier to look at. It wasn't the only one, as I also saw a female. In fact there were at least 3  and maybe more.  Every so often a passer by would send them all flying back up to the trees, and I would have to wait another 10 minutes for the birds  to return to the ground.

The recently arrived car held three passengers who I could see had cameras but then the front passenger got out and the birds disappeared. I was close enough to speak and mentioned to  her that the birds would be unlikely to come whilst she was out of the car but she said she was on the wrong side and couldn't see.  This proved to be true  as the  birds started to feed much further away and eventually the visitors left! 

After their departure, the chaffinches and hawfinches returned to their original place, but then were once more disturbed by the owner of a van getting out and talking on his mobile phone. 

It seemed as this was a good time to leave, as a couple of men on bikes appeared, stopping to do some stretches against the fence close to where I had parked. 

Overall I felt as if I had had some good views, albeit not quite close enough and  too overcast for satisfactory photos. It  had been quieter than I had expected though, and  I will know next time where the best place to park is. 

Next I drove over to rspb Nagshead and walked up to one of the hides. However, it was  overcast and cold so I didn't stop long, there were no birds to be seen anyway, although a string of four fallow deer passed through the trees at the far end of the clearing. 

My last stopping place was to be Cannop Ponds in the hope of seeing some mandarin ducks. But here again I met with disappointment as the road leading up to it was closed for repairs. I thought I might be able to park a little way further on and take a footpath but the footpath was also being upgraded and you couldn't get through! However, I usually visit the area a couple of times in April and May to see the pied and spotted flycatchers and redstarts so will hopefully catch up with the mandarins then, with perhaps some warmer weather!

hawfinch

chaffinches came down to drink  at a puddle near to my car

A GLOSSY IBIS AND OTHER BIRDS

Yes, today I was back at Slimbridge WWT , as I had been reading about the arrival of a glossy ibis, an occasional visitor to the centre,  which had been showing well in the field on the right hand side just before the car park. My sighting of this species last year had amounted to a distant view of three birds at Ham Wall rspb in Somerset, although I have had close views in previous years  at Slimbridge

As I approached the centre, I noticed a couple of people standing at the gate to the field where the ibis had been previously seen, so instead of parking close to the visitor centre straightaway  I stopped near the exit and walked the few yards out to the roadside gate. There were a good number of greylags and a few crows on the grass  fairly close to the gate and at first I didn't spot the ibis, somehow I was expecting a taller bird, but someone next to me pointed it out about 50 feet away, preening in the morning sunshine.  I waited for it to stop preening after which it started walking fairly quickly towards the gate! It stopped only 20 feet away which gave me the opportunity to see it really well and take a few photos. A good start to the day!

Once inside the WWT grounds, l popped inside a building called the Peng Observatory  where you can watch the swans through large windows  seated on padded chairs and out of the cold!   There were still plenty of Bewicks on the ponds here, and a gentlemen started to inform me about a particular bird 'Winkie' who was just in front of the window. I learnt he was the oldest swan to return and was about 27 years old, though his mate had not come back so far this winter.  

I left the warmth of the building and made for the Rushy Hide, just in time to see the black swan fly off over the hedge, its white wing tips standing out from its black plumage. That particular swan appears to have been attracted to one of the mute swans, and I saw it again following it later on.   A bit later on in the morning, I  happened to have my camera ready as I heard some swan wingflaps and into view came the mute followed by the black swan, landing on the water in front of the hide. 

The water rail was showing well at the willow hide, appearing for several minutes at a time before retiring to the reeds. 

On the river Severn, the tide was receding and there were plenty of geese etc to be seen from the top of the Estuary hide. I also saw a little stint which was my  first this year.

The other 'target bird' for today's visit was white fronted geese, which I'd missed on both my visits earlier this month. I'd seen that they'd been reported at the opposite end of the reserve so walked in that direction, calling in at the Discovery hide on the way. However, the sun was shining  towards the windows, and I was unable to make out if any of the gulls were common gulls as I could only see sillouettes in the brightness. 

From the Van de Bovencamp hide, I could see some geese in the field, mostly greylags but also two  white fronted geese amongst them. There had been 88 reported earlier from the Zeiss hide but I was told they had flown off. However, they must have returned as when I checked the sightings list they were seen again on the water but I didn't have time to go back. 

As the Kingfisher hide was only a little further on, I also went in to see if anything unusual could be seen. The bird feeders generate quite a bit of interest as you can sit only a few metres from them and  watch  common  garden birds such as  blue, great  and coal tits come back and forth to the feeders. I went over to have a look, and as I did so,  a siskin flew on to the sunflower heart feeder - a bird I don't normally see here  and another first for the year. 

Total bird species for January - 96

flocks of birds above the Tack Piece

water rail from the Willow Hide

black swan amongst other  birds

mute and black swans watched by a Bewick

pochard

siskin

glossy ibis

Winkie the Bewick swan

 

BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH 2025

 Nothing unusual in today's Big Garden Birdwatch ( which I did a day late) but my results reflected my usual counts. It was sunny but quite windy, nevertheless the birds were very active on and around my feeders for the entire  hour I spent recording. I've had up to 3 blackcaps (2m 2f) regularly since Mid-November though usually singly and today it was the male's turn. No crows or magpies showed up, possibly due to a lack of scraps on offer. There was, however, still a choice of fatballs, seed mix and sunflower hearts. 

Results were as follows:

Blue tit 3

Great tit 2

Robin 1

Blackbird  1f

Wood pigeon 4

House sparrow 8

Dunnock 2

Blackcap 1m

Chaffinch 1f

Goldfinch 2

10 species 25 birds

DIPPER AT FROME BANKS

 Today I  drove straight from work to  visit a nature reserve in Stroud which is accessed from a road below the Waitrose carpark. This is the most reliable place  I know  locally where one can see a dipper and is  somewhere I visit each year around this time. 

After parking in the pay and display car park I made my way past Waitrose and down some steps to cross the road into the reserve. You then have to follow a path which takes you back to the main road, over a canal bridge then back down another path along the canal to reach the start of the reserve. From here a rather muddy path leads alongside the river Frome for about half a mile where it ends. If you look carefully there is a very good chance of seeing a dipper, and possibly a grey wagtail too. 

As I walked along the riverbank, I soon saw a grey wagtail searching for insects amongst the vegetation and tree roots, it flitted back and forth across the river before flying downstream. The grey and lemon colours and long tail make this one of my favourite birds. 

 I saw a  man coming towards me and when I enquired if he had seen a dipper,  he informed me that there were a pair of dippers further along near  a site where some workmen were reconstructing a boardwalk. 

I soon came across signs of construction, although it appeared that the workmen were still on their lunch break as they were no where to be seen. I scanned the banks and almost straightaway spotted a dipper bobbing up and down on a branch/root  sticking out  from the bank opposite. The bird's dark body blended in with the  dark coloured mud of the riverbank but its white bib gave its presence away. l watched it as it occasionally dipped its beak into the water, or stood or swam on the surface and sometimes below the surface. After a short time it flew back in the direction I had come from. 

The good thing about this reserve is that much of the river can be seen from the path, although sometimes partially obscured by tall grasses or brambles or some small trees. This gives quite a bit of cover but at the same time good visibility when looking for the dipper. Therefore I soon re-found the bird, still on the opposite bank, perching alternately on small stones, pieces of branches etc. in between its foraging in the water 

The river is shaded by tall trees and vegetation both sides so it can feel quite dark, especially on an overcast day, and as it seemed as if it might rain, I decided to return to the car park after a successful visit. 

looking upstream, you can just see where the path runs beside the water on the left hand side 

JANUARY VISITS TO SLIMBRIDGE

A visit to Slimbridge WWT centre today with some friends  produced a respectable 46 species, including 4 swan species on the Rushy, nine duck species, and 4 geese species ( we missed the white-fronts). Our first stop was the hide overlooking the Rushy Pen where  we saw  and heard many Bewick swans.  A pair of  Whooper swans was also present, together with a mute and a black swan. When I  visited  earlier in the week  the  area known as the Tack Piece was frozen and more or less devoid of birds, so it was good to  see  birds  present in huge numbers  after the thaw, including lapwing,  golden plover, dunlin, redshank and curlew. We also saw a little egret  flying and a snipe  flew out from the reeds just in front of one of the hides.  There were plenty of ducks - my attention was drawn to a mallard which after preening, did  a somersault underwater, waving its orange webbed feet above the surface before  righting itself and giving a wing flap. It did this several times - I'm not sure if this is the usual pattern!  Sadly, there was no water rail under the feeders in the usual place, but on Monday I had seen two behind one of the pools on the South Finger walkway. 

From the top of the estuary tower, today, we saw Canada geese, greylags, barnacle geese and a single white Ross's goose. A party of  4 cranes ( 2 adults, 2 juveniles) also flew past and landed on the Tack piece. On our way back we noticed movement in the bushes low down beside the path and were a little surprised to see a song thrush, searching for food, seemingly not bothered by our presence as we stopped to watch. 

The spoonbill was asleep as usual on one of the islands on South lake, where we also encountered  a  great crested grebe, cormorants, ruff and avocets,  none of which  showed much activity in the cold grey weather. 

We decided not to go further as time was getting on, but  when I popped into the Kingfisher hide last  Monday  the bird feeders there, were attracting a number of smaller birds including robin, chaffinches, a coal tit, blue and great tits. A pair of gadwall and a little grebe were on the pool in front of the hide .

It had been a productive day and we had all added to our year lists. 

walking on ice

 glimpse of a water rail

pintail

pair of whooper swans amongst pochards, tufted ducks, black headed gulls, shelducks and  lapwings

Bewick swan

coal tit

mallard in a flap

song thrush

COATE WATER ON ANOTHER COLD DAY

Today it was -4 degrees when I left home to visit Coate Water, a country park just outside Swindon. The lake was pretty much frozen, with swans and ducks congregating at the edges and flocks of gulls standing on the ice in the centre. I noted a lesser black- blacked gull, Canada geese and tufted duck which were new for the year. I took a circuit of the lake, stopping to spend some time photographing birds at the feeding station in the woods. As  at Stanton Park, earlier in the week, a jay was soon attracted by the peanuts I placed on a log; it would seem it was more used to human presence as it came straight down rather than waiting up in the trees. Up in the top of the trees I heard and saw a couple of parakeets, now apparently resident at Coate Water. 

As I  returned towards the car park, I saw a goldcrest in one of the firs, and at the edge of the lake, a grey wagtail flew in and made its way methodically along ahead of me. 

A COLD DAY AT STANTON PARK WOODLAND

 With temperatures hovering just above 0 degrees and a light covering of snow, I decided to spend a couple of hours at Stanton park where a number of woodland species of birds can be often found. It was a sunny afternoon, and after carefully crossing the icy carpark, I headed for one of the seating areas where a bird table will often attracts small birds. I tipped out some peanuts and seeds on the top and placed a snow covered log nearby, hoping that the birds would use this as a perch.

The seats were still snow covered so I went behind them  and stood against a tree, hoping that would help disguise me, particularly as I  rather hoped a jay would come and feed on the peanuts. With the trees bare of leaves, it was fairly easy to notice if a jay was about and it wasn't long before I saw a shape the familiar pinks, blues and whites  fly into a tree some distance away, but from where I could see that it was eying up the bird table. I remained still, waiting for the jay to descend, which it did, slowly, at intervals  getting nearer and nearer, until it was close enough to fly to the ground and snatch a peanut which it flew off with. It then reappeared later and spent a few seconds at the bird table, before flying off at the approach of some people with a dog. 

Other species present included blue tits, robins, dunnocks, blackbird, and coal tits and  the usual few squirrels. 

I was also hoping to see a marsh tit and nuthatch but without seeing either here, I re-located to another feeding table which had a long log next to it, after placing more food there,  I stood back amongst the trees to wait. It was a good move as almost immediately  I was soon rewarded by both species which kept returning to the log to feed. 

I walked around the lake but it was frozen in the centre, and all I saw was a couple of mute swans with their cygnet, a flock of black headed gulls standing on the ice, and a group of mallard ducks at the edge. 

coal tit

jay

dunnock

coal tit

nuthatch

marsh tit

dunnock

 

NEW YEAR BIRDING IN NORFOLK

 I usually spend a few days with my sister at some point in the Christmas holidays so this year I travelled up to Cambridgeshire on New Year's Day. After a wet and windy New Year's day we agreed to spend the next two days visiting various  bird reserves in Norfolk as the forecast was for bright although frosty weather. 

So on the first day, I drove the 40 minute journey to the WWT Centre at Welney. We arrived before 10 o'clock when the centre was still fairly quiet and went upstairs to the viewing point in the cafe where  a range of feeders attract both house and tree sparrows, the latter being a species that I had missed in 2024 as we never got round to visiting Welney which is probably one of the best places to see them in that area.  We had also been told about some short eared owls, and we could also see one of these flying across some rough grass land in the distance. The telescope provided was very handy!  We also  saw a few cattle egrets fly onto the bank alongside the road..  it  was proving  a good start to the year!

Across the bridge we entered a warm hide to view the water where the Whooper swans often congregate along with numerous ducks and geese. However, there were only half a dozen in the distance and we were told by a warden that embarrassingly sometimes their swan feeds had not attracted any swans at all!  We had, however, already  seen good numbers in the fields surrounding the centre and at one of the other hides a pair of whoopers were providing better and closer views. 

We visited the hides which stretch along the a path and overlook the Ouse Washes, and noted various waders and wildfowl as well as a marsh harrier - our count just topped  30 species today.  

Before returning to the carpark, we decided to follow a path from the  visitor centre a little way along where we had been told that sometimes short eared owls roost in the hedges. We hadn't gone far before seeing a gentleman pointing his camera at an area of rough vegetation and he kindly pointed out a shape half hidden amongst some twigs - a roosting short eared owl. I just about managed a few photos though there were a few ill-positioned sticks ( from the photographers point of view!)  which made the picture slightly unclear in places.  We didn't stay long so as to avoid disturbance of the owl but were pleased to have had some good views. This was also a species which I hadn't seen until right at the end of last year so it was nice to have ticked it off so early in 2025. 

Returning home we stopped at Ouse Fen rspb reserve and took a walk around the reed beds. We did not locate any bearded tits (reedlings) but saw a few stonechats, a roe deer and some mute swans. Near the entrance to the reserve,  a handful of keen birders were searching for a lesser scaup amongst distant ducks on another pit but we didn't stay to look as we did not have a scope and certainly would not have been able to find it using just binoculars. 

a mix of house and tree sparrows

tree sparrow

tree sparrow

cattle egrets

whooper swan

view across reed beds at Welney WWT

short eared owl

mute swan at Ouse Fen

stonechat

view across reed bed at Ouse Fen

The following day also dawned clear and frosty but with a longer distance to travel we left an hour earlier and arrived at our destination - rspb Titchwell marsh at around 9.45 am. Again, there were less people than we expected at this time of year, but it did get busier as the day progressed. 

After showing membership cards and being welcomed at the centre we decided to visit the hides along the fen trail to start with. We asked  a warden who was returning   what we might expect to see and he took us back to a spot further along the path to show us - yes - another owl! This time it was a tawny owl, so hidden amongst ivy leaves that  you could only make out its brown feathers through binoculars when standing at a certain spot on the path!  

We didn't see anything else of note in that area so returned to the main path  which leads from the visitor centre in a direct line to the beach. However, there was plenty to see from the path, starting with a flock of noisy brent geese which flew into one of the lakes. It is species I am unlikely to see again this year unless visiting the east or south east coast. Sadly no bearded tits in the reed beds during our visit but one of the gullies by the path gave wonderful close views of a curlew, in fact similar to my last visit last  March. The freshmarsh hide was looking direct into the sun  so to it was hard to discern many of the bird species apart from greylags and gulls, but when walking along the path beside the saltmarsh, there a were a variety of waders present. These included redshanks, a greenshank, ringed plovers and  grey plovers. We also saw our first kingfisher of the year.  On our return along the same path I was looking at the curlew again and suddenly out of one of the channels. a slim black and white bird with long red legs suddenly made an appearance - the black winged stilt ( escapee) which  has been around the centre for a while but hadn't yet been reported that day. Raising my camera, it took off as I pressed the shutter, so we could not admire it for long but pleased to have had such a close view for just  few seconds! 

The tide was already receding quickly as we made out way through the dunes down the beach.  We could see oyster catchers, and black tailed godwits as well as a few sanderling running along the edge of the water but sadly were a bit late for close photos. A single turnstone flew past and landed just past the entrance to the beach but then flew off again. Further along  we could see crowds of birds, mainly gulls and godwits and a few smaller birds amongst them which could have been dunlins but too far to identify confidently.  Out at sea there were apparently some velvet scoter but with the rough waves it was very hard to make out any black 'blobs' which could have been the scoters, although there were quite a few birder with telescopes trying to describe their position to each other. Whilst watching, a single little egret flew past, trailing its yellow feet behind.

There are numerous places in Norfolk worth  a visit but with daylight being short and a journey home ahead  we decided to finish our day and go home. hopefully to return another time. All in all we felt it had been a productive couple of days with some good birds seen in perfect winter weather.

brent geese preening

shelduck

brent geese

 

grey plover

curlew

black winged stilt taking off!

  

..almost off camera

another black winged stilt at Slimbridge in 2023

curlew

                                                                            oyster catchers

 a mellee of gulls and godwits on the at the edge of the sea

a lone little egret