RED NECKED PHALAROPE

I've been away for the past couple of days so on my arrival home, I checked the local birding blogs. A red-necked phalarope had been found at Farmoor Reservoir a couple of days ago and was there yesterday, so I checked this morning and it had been seen a 8 o'clock this morning.  I decided that this meant that there was a high chance of seeing it today. I've seen a  grey but not red necked phalarope at Farmoor so drove over there, arriving just before 10 am. The car park seemed to be packed full of cars and sailing paraphanlia, evidence of a big sailing event,  so I wondered if this would disturb the bird, but happily no boats had yet been put in the water. 

 A photographer on his way back, confirmed that yes, the phalarope was still very much there, at the far end of the causeway and I could see a number of photographers all congregating at a certain spot. The bird  is very small so I was nearly up to the photographers before I spotted it, a couple of feet away from the shore.  It seemed quite unperterbed by the amount of interest it had caused and I had the chance to take a number of photographs before returning home.

HERE and THERE

The HERE in the title refers to this week in my garden which has seen an increase in garden bird species;  coal tit has come to the feeders for the past couple of days ,having not been seen for months, then a greenfinch appeared today after a long absence. A not so welcome guest, perhaps, was the sparrow hawk which took a great tit from the feeders in front of my eyes! A goldcrest and chiffchaff have also been around, and a couple of juvenile blackbirds.  In the hedges there continues to be red admirals on the ivy and a couple of small tortoiseshells elsewhere in the garden.

List for this week is as follows: chiffchaff, dunnock, blackbird, magpie, great tit, blue tit, coal tit, robin, greenfinch, stock dove, wood pigeon, house sparrows, goldcrest, crow, sparrowhawk

 A few photos from the past couple of days:

juvenile blackbird

small tortoiseshell butterfly

just how many sparrow can fit in one birdbath?!

And look what happens when  I open the window to get better pictures of the birds around the feeders....

...no I didn't let him in!! ( he's not mine anyway!)

The THERE  relates to my morning visit to Farmoor Reservoir. A little stint was reported there yesterday but wasn't seen today but I did get nice views of a wheatear. Also seen were heron, coot, grelag geese, mute swans, mallards, tufted ducks, great crested grebe, blackheaded gull, yellow legged gull, cormarant, grey wagtail, pied wagtail. 

grey wagtail

pied wagtail on the steps

wheatear

grey heron

LOWER MOOR FARM AND BACK HOME

Spent the first part of today's sunny morning at Lower Moor Farm Reserve. At the first hide I put out some bird food on the feeding table, and saw blue tits, great tits, dunnock, robin, and a mallard. Underneath a rat was foraging for any spillages.  On the lake I saw moorhens, heron, canada geese, mute swans and more mallards. 

blue tit amongst the many blackberries that were ripening

a tranquil lake at Lower Moor Farm

As I left the reserve I noticed this kestrel perched on the wire on the other side of the road, but too distant for a really clear shot. 

As expected, the sunshine brought out the butterflies to feast on the ivy flowers in the hedge at home.

comma 

red admiral looking pristine amongst the ivy flowers

Most of the ivy flowers are towards the top of the hedge, hence this photo against the blue sky

two of the eight red admirals on the hedge today

speckled wood sunning itself

A FEW OF THE REGULARS AT STANTON PARK

I dropped in at Stanton Country park this afternoon and spent a short time observing the feeding stations. The usual species were seen although the most frequent visitors were, in fact, nuthatches and marsh tits ( two of each). 

Back home, I have been seeing hedgehogs in the garden for the past couple of days, although haven't managed to get a photo yet, and today a small tortoiseshell butterfly  visited the garden.  The ivy is coming into flower so hopefully I shall be able to log a few more butterflies in the next week or so. 

blue tit

nuthatch

marsh tit

small tortoiseshell

OTMOOR/FARMOOR

The final day of the school holidays and warm sunshine, so I headed out to Oxfordshire this morning.

My first stop was to RSPB Otmooor where on the advice of  Jon Mercer, I took a path through a field next the the rifle range to look for redstarts. A length of red brick wall, stands in the open just before groups of bushes, and makes a good place to view from.  In about an hour, I managed four sightings of a  redstart ( probably the same one) as well as other warblers so I was happy with that, although disappointed that I could not capture any  on camera due to the time it took me to locate the bird in the viewfinder once I had laid down the binoculars, as it had usually moved off by then!! 

the wall which provided a good viewing screen

I returned home via Farmoor reservoir where there is a group of shags which have stopped off there. Someone kindly pointed out an individual quite close to the sailing club, which I could photograph; then I walked the 2.4 miles circuit of F2, seeing little grebes, great crested grebes, numerous coots, pied wagtails, egyptian geese, canada geese, greylag geese, cormorant,more shags, little egret, mallards, tufted duck, black headed gulls.  The ruddy duck which has been seen regularly wasn't there, but may have moved to F! although I could not find it in my binoculars. 

a peaceful scene at Farmoor reservoir

egyptian duck

shag

COATE WATER

I've not visited Coate water bird hides for a while now, so I paid a visit over lunchtime today. 
The first hide was empty of people, so I enjoyed watching the birds on and around the feeders. These included nuthatch, great tits, long tailed tits, blue tits, robin, wren, tree creeper, chaffinch, dunnock, There was also a visiting rat.

long tailed tit

blue tit

great tit

nuthatch

wren

tree creeper

I then went on to see what was about at hide 2; in contrast this was full of people all anxious to take shots of kingfishers which had been seen recently. Although they had all been waiting hours, I think only one had been seen, and although I sat in the hide for a short time, nothing else of particular interest was about.

LANDROVER SAFARI

It turned out to be a beautiful summer's day for my second trip to Slimbridge this week. This time I was able to book a place onto the morning's Landrover trip into the reserve. 

I spent the first hour around the hides at Rushy Pen and along the Holden Walkway. The wood sandpiper wasn't around, but there were several green sandpipers,little ringed plover, a redshank, lapwing, grey and pied wagtail  as well as blacktailed godwit, and a few species of ducks and geese. 

green sandpiper

grey wagtail

lapwing

little ringed plover

redshank

At 11.30 we went out in the trailer behind the land rover. Although about 16 people can attend, there were only eight of us; a family of five, two ladies and myself. We had a driver as well as a guide on the trailer to keep us informed.  We drove through a couple of fields which are kept as grass on which wintering geese feed, and then up on to the sea wall ( a grassy bank).  Looking over the top we could see that it was high tide, thus our chances of seeing a variety of waders was reduced. However we picked out herons and little egret, shelduck, a group of over 100 curlew, several kestrels and a hobby and a roe deer with two calves. 

large group of curlew

high tide on the estuary

looking back from the trailer

We then drove through the reed beds and stopped, overlooking a lagoon, which   gave us sightings of little grebe, parent and young common tern, and cormorants. Throughout the trip our guides  had kindly lent binoculars to those without and set up a telescope for any one that wanted closer views when we stopped.  A bit further on we all got off and set about looking under some pieces of corrugated iron which were placed at intervals along the route. We found four grass snakes in total, which quickly slithered away before we had a chance to take any photos!  Apparently water shrews have been sometimes seen underneath them too but not today!

common tern and juv (below duck)

going to look for snakes!

We learnt about the origins of the Slimbridge WWT and also some ambitious plans for the next three years. 

Although not a great number of wildlife species seen today, it was nevertheless an enjoyable hour and a half, and costing only a fiver, is one I would  repeat.