STANTON PARK

I spent an hour or so at Stanton Pak  today, and managed to get some quite nice photos of some of the regular visitors to the bird table. Birds seen included coal tit,blue tit, great tit, robin, wren, blackbird, dunnock, chaffinch. On the lake were 11  goosanders, black headed gulls, mallards, mute swans, and moorhens. 

 

coal tit

nuthatch

robin

a group of goosanders, from the total of 11 seen

 a pair of goosanders

female goosander

great tit

long tailed tit

PENDULINE TITS

Just a quick post to say I took a trip to a reed bed near Gloucester where a pair of Penduline tits have taken residence. Unfortunatly my photos aren't very good but at least I did get a record!

                                                                 penduline tit

some of the many birdwatchers!

another shot of pendulune tit

FINCH CORNER

Some time ago my cousin Jon promised he would take me a spot known as 'finch corner' near Barbury Castle, so I was delighted to receive an email last evening suggesting we go there the next morning.
So on a frosty and sunny morning we arrived at the aforementioned spot and parked up, using the car as a 'hide'. Having spread some seed on the wooden fence posts we sat and waited. The hedge appeared come  alive with finches and we succeeded in observing 13 different species! They included tree sparrow, brambling, plenty of yellow hammers and green finches,  a few corn buntings, reed warbler, chaffinches, blue tits, great tit, robin, dunnock, goldfinch and blackbird.  A few photos from this morning are shown below.

                                                blue tit

                                                       male brambling

                                                   female chaffinch

                                                             corn bunting

yellow hammer

As we were about to leave, three roe deer crossed the fields below us and on the way back we had a lovely view of a kestrel in a tree, 

kestrel

roe deer

COATE WATER

Stopped on the way home today to take this photo of a red kite, one of  4 that I regularly see in a field in Southrop. This one was just about close enough for a photo. 

Red kite

As it was a sunny afternoon I spent a couple of hours at Coate water country park. Only a few people around today and the lake was being used by a rowing club, so pushing all the birds towards the nature reserve.

On and around the main lake I saw Canada geese, mute swans, mallards, coots, moorhens, pied wagtail, tufted duck, great crested grebe, magpie,goosanders, goldcrest, grey heron, black headed gull, lesser black backed gull, blackbird.

At Hide 1 there were also  the usual blue tits, great tits, robin, dunnock, chaffinch and wren and at Hide 2 gadwall, shoveler..

Some nice close ups of an obliging grey heron today

blue tit

male goosander

grey squirrel helping himself to nuts

a wren hiding in the reeds

STANTON PARK

I had an hour or so to spare so popped over for a short visit to my local country park. Having set up the bird table with some tempting peanuts and seeds, my patience was eventually rewarded with a visit from one of the park's resident jays.  Other birds seen included mallards, mute swan, long tailed tit, bluetit, great tit, nuthatch, grey wagtail, dunnock, chaffinch, robin, blackbird, coot, crow, heron.

jay

robin

nuthatch

another robin

mute swans

thatch

COATE WATER

Since New Year's Day I have seen a few further species: Red Kite, kestrel, buzzard,greenfinch.

Spent a couple of hours at Coate Water Park today. Species seen on the main lake and at the two hides included:

bluetit, great tit, robin, dunnock,  greater spotted woodpecker, jay, moorhen, coot, mallard, mute swan, snipe, stock dove, shoveler, teal, gadwall,  goosander, grey heron, tufted duck, canada goose, kingfisher, black headed gull, long tailed tit, mistle thrush, magpie.


As you can see I have decided to colour code in red, new species for the year.

black headed gull

a rather miserable stock dove

shoveler

dunnock

coot

canada geese

mallard (m)

long tailed tit

mallard (f)

RUTLAND WATER NATURE RESERVE

Had a good day out at Rutland Water on New Year's Day with a total count of over 50 species which included a couple of new ones for me.
Birds seen were blackbird, bluetit, great tit, chaffinch, collared dove, dunnock, goldfinch, magpie, robin, wren, wood pigeon, bullfinch, coal tit, marsh tit, long tailed tit, green woodpecker, pheasant, lapwing, golden plover, crow, rook, jackdaw, redwing, pied wagtail, coot, cormorant, curlew, gadwall, goldeneye,  Canada geese, greylag goose, Egyptian goose, goosander, great crested grebe, green sandpiper, snipe, redshank, little egret, great white egret, grey heron, mute swan, mallard, tufted duck, shoveler, shellduck, pintail, pochard, wigeon, teal, kingfisher, moorhen, black headed gull, herring gull, lesser blackbacked gull.

After a frosty start, it was mainly a cold, bright day  with occasional sunshine. I have put a  few of my favourite  photos  below.

mixed flock of lapwing and golden plovers

green sandpiper

little egret

great white egret

a pair of curlews

greylag geese

male bullfinch

female bullfinch

snipe