FIRST BUTTERFLY OF 2022

 

Despite the bitter winds, this Red Admiral (1)  braved the weather and warmed itself up in the sunshine on a conifer in my daughter's garden at Burghfield Common, Berks, giving me my first butterfly sighting of the year. 

BLASHFORD LAKES

 I'd often thought I'd like to visit the wildlife trust reserve of Blashford Lakes, near Ringwood, as I knew it was a good place to see woodland birds such as siskin and redpoll at their feeding station. So, when my original day's plans were cancelled, I decided to take the opportunity to go.

Usually I like to leave fairly early when doing a longish trip but as I only decided at the last minute I didn't start out until 9.30. However, the roads down through Marlborough towards Salisbury were pretty clear, although it was frustrating to have to keep reducing to a 30 speed limit to drive through the Wiltshire villages. 

After speaking to a warden, I was recommended 4 hides which would be worth a visit, the remaining two looked over a large lake and would only provided distant views with a telescope.

So I started by visiting the woodland hide which was close by. I have  heard reports of this hide causing some frustration to photographers as there is only one window that opens; the rest of the hide has one way glass which means that you can watch the birds but they can't see you and limits photography. When I entered, this prime spot was already taken by a couple, with other visitors seated around the hide.  After about ten minutes, I asked if the people by the window would mind if I stood behind them to take a couple of photos, and they said they were about to leave so I could have their space! They had tried for several weeks to get this spot, they told me, and eventually had succeeded! The feeders were busy with birds, mainly siskins, but also a few redpolls, a nuthatch and goldfinches. On the ground were lots of chaffinches, a reed bunting, and I did spot one brambling in the trees.

The second hide overlooked a large area of water where there many ducks and gulls; a kingfisher flew past and a little egret landed in some reeds. 

The third hide was empty, so I decided to start my picnic lunch. A kingfisher landed fairly close, but again the most of the windows were not suitable for photography and I couldn't position my camera to focus on it through the open one. A bittern was reported here yesterday, with good views but apparently may have moved on, as the previous night had been clear.     However,  I had nice views of a little egret which was fishing in the channel in front of the hide, though I didn't see it catch anything substantial. 

To get to the Tern hide, it was necessary to walk back down to the road and cross over into the main car park ( I had parked in a smaller one near the visitor centre). The hide looked new, and smart and looked over Ibsley water, but the bird life was distant.  I was shown a  very distant slavonian grebe which I could just about identify by zooming in my camera. 

After an enjoyable and relaxing three hours at this reserve,  I decided to return home, this time my Sat Nav directed me via dual carriageways and motorways, which, although longer was a more straightforward route. 

redpoll

siskin

little egret

kingfisher - taken through glass!

great crested grebe

feeding station at the woodland hide

the woodland hide

brambling

nuthatch

PORT MEADOW

  I visited an area in the north of Oxford today, known as Port Meadow. This is a large flood plain with the River Thames flowing through the centre and attracts large numbers of wildfowl. I chose to park in the northern entrance today, and walk south which I had not done before.   With the area being so vast, I was unsure which path to follow, and ended up going a very long way round to reach the flooded areas.  Crossing  the rough grass, I could hear skylarks all around me and from time to time saw them as they flew fairly low across the meadow, (year tick).  I also spotted a distant golden plover which was quite camouflaged amongst the grassy tussocks. Horses were grazing in a large group in one area. 

As I walked southwards,  which was further than I had anticipated, I came across the entrance to 'Burgess fields' a nature reserve adjacent to the meadow. I  entered through the gate and followed the path through it until I reached the exit, by doing this I could avoid walking in some of the water-logged areas. There was not much in the way of notable bird life, although I had a nice view of a red kite which was sitting in a tree and also spotted a green woodpecker which flew across the path ahead of me before landing on the tree trunk of a distant tree. 

As I left the reserve, I re-entered the meadow and followed the path around the edge of the 'lake' caused by  the floods and then made the long trek back to the car park.  There were many ducks and gulls on the water; mostly wigeon, but also teal, mallards, shelduck and shovelers. I didn't spot any waders amongst them though. I had hoped to find a mediterranean gull  which had been reported but didn't succeed.

Having done rather more walking than I intended, I was pleased to get back to the car and thankful to have brought a picnic lunch which I ate before returning home.

 

SCAUP AT FARMOOR

I don't usually reckon to visit Farmoor reservoir on a Saturday as it can get very busy with sailing school and local joggers and walkers. However, not wanting to go far today, I opted to  go there for a walk and to see if I could locate the long- staying female scaup as I'd not yet seen  it this year. 

Arriving at 11.30, the car park was surprisingly quieter than I had expected and there was little sailing activity on the reservoir. Possibly the cold brisk wind which was blowing across the water  was putting people off visiting.  I was glad of my 4 layers plus hat and gloves as the wind was blowing straight at me as I crossed the causeway but on reaching the other side, there was a lot more shelter from the wind and in the sunshine it was quite pleasant. Not having  found the scaup amongst the small groups of tufted ducks seen from the causeway, I turned to the right and headed round F1 where a larger group of coots and ducks were swimming just off the bank. I soon found the duck through my binoculars then headed round to get a closer view; I watched it for a while, some of the time the  coots seemed to want to chased it off,  and at other times if made short dives below the surface. 

PEEK A BOO WITH A DARTFORD WARBLER

 I saw my first ever dartford warbler at Thursley Common in Surrey last April, but have heard that it is possible to find them amongst the gorse bushes on Greenham Common, Newbury although so far I've not had any success.

Recently I spoke to a birder  who assured me that it was possible to find them at this time of year and to look along the central runway area ( it was previously an airfield). So with  milder and brighter weather than of late, I headed there after I finished work at lunch time today.

It was still slightly chilly and cloudy as I left my car in the control tower carpark, but after about an hour the sun came out and I began to feel quite warm in the winter sunshine. I headed west along the runway but there was little about really, apart from some groups of grazing cattle, which I tried to avoid!  The only birds I saw were magpies, a robin and some crows. After walking  for over an hour, taking a circular route, I  found myself back near the control tower without any notable sightings so  decided it might be worth walking a little way in the opposite direction just in case.

After about 15 minutes I spotted a small bird as it flew across a gap between some bushes and dived into the undergrowth a short distance away - I couldn't identify it but noticed it's long tail as it disappeared -  a dartford warbler? As if to clarify that for me, I heard its scratchy song coming from within the bush and then some movements at the top. I could just make out the pink and grey colour of the dartford warbler as it showed its head occasionally behind the gorse but failed to show itself completely. It seemed to move along the bush but then I heard nothing more, despite listening and waiting  and moving around the bush a little. I wondered if it had flown from the other side of the bush where I could not see it or was simply hunkered down?

Happy to have found a dartford warbler on Greenham Common I moved on a bit  to an area of shorter gorse bushes where I spotted a stonechat fly up to perch on top of a spike of gorse, just as another bird shot down into the undergrowth. Could it be another dartford warbler? I had heard that often the two species could be in the same vicinity, with stonechats sometimes acting as 'look out' for the 'dartford'. Finally I was rewarded with a second sighting, although it was at a distance this time and was only in view for a few seconds.  

Now that I know these birds can be found at Greenham Common, I will try and pay another visit one morning  later on, and hope that they  show themselves more readily.  I will be also on the look out for golden ringed dragonflies which, again, are said to be found at this location but I've not seen them as yet! 

A few blurry shots below just to prove I saw  the bird in question! Hopefully I'll get some more acceptable ones one day!

dartford warbler

stonechat

 

2022 year list to date (102)

 Having tipped over the 100 species mark last Friday at the Forest of Dean, I thought it would be a good opportunity to list the species seen so far this year, together with a few of my photos. (N.B. As it is my personal list, there may be species that are not generally recognisable as year ticks by some birders) 

1. Bewicks swan

Bewicks swan  (Slimbridge)

  2. mute swan

3. greylag goose

4. Canada goose

5. barnacle goose

6. dark bellied brent goose

7. Ross's goose

8. mallard

9. teal

10. gadwall

11. wigeon

12. shoveler

13. shelduck

14. tufted duck

15. pintail

16. glossy ibis

      pintail   (Slimbridge)                            glossy ibis     (Slimbridge)

17. lapwing

18. black tailed godwit

19. redshank

20. ruff

21. avocet

22. pied wagtail

23. house sparrow

24. blue tit

25. robin

26. great tit

27. starling

28. blackbird

29. wood pigeon

30. feral pigeon

31. pheasant

32. grey heron

33. herring gull

34. black headed gull

35. pochard

36. rook

37. jackdaw

38. magpie

39. cormorant

40. moorhen

41. coot

42. golden plover

43. crane

44. snipe

45. curlew

46. dunlin

47. goldfinch

48. kestrel

49. great northern diver

     great northern diver   (Farmoor)         great crested grebe   (Farmoor)

50. great crested grebe

51. little grebe

52. crow

53. brambling

54. buzzard

55. red kite

56. dunnock

57. chaffinch

58. greenfinch

59. grey wagtail

60. goosander

61. coal tit

62. marsh tit

63. nuthatch

64. tree creeper

65. red legged partridge

66. great white egret

67.yellow legged gull

68. reed  bunting

 reed bunting (Otmoor)

69. redwing

70. kingfisher

71. great spotted woodpecker

72. cettis warbler

73. wren

74. long tailed tit

75. chiffchaff

76. song thrush

77. jay

78. lesser black backed gull

79. bullfinch

80. marsh harrier

81. water rail

82. yellow hammer

83. peregrine

84. goldeneye

85. green woodpecker

86. Egyptian goose

 Egyptian goose (Slimbridge)

87. oyster catcher

88. common gull

89. snow goose

90. collared dove

91 white fronted goose

92. black swan

93. goldcrest

94. Pallas's warbler

95. pink footed goose

pink footed goose (CWP)

96. red crested pochard

97.stonechat

98. hawfinch

hawfinch (Parkend FOD)

 99. crossbill

100. siskin

101. mandarin

102. dipper

           dipper  (Parkend FOD)              mandarin  (Cannop Ponds FOD)

siskin (RSPB Nagshead FOD)

BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH 2022

 

It was a much windier day today for the RSPB's big garden birdwatch but I stocked up the feeders and put out some extra scraps and apples to attract the birds to my garden. The sun was bright through the clouds and made viewing slightly difficult as it was just behind the feeders and bushes so I knew I'd have to use my binoculars a lot for identification as it wouldn't always be possible to see their colours with the naked eye. 

I sat next down next to the breakfast room window, armed with binoculars and a camera and with the window slightly open so that I could take photos if I wanted with limited disturbance. 

Initially, the only bird I saw was a single crow which landed in the middle of the lawn and stayed there doing not much for a short while,  briefly joined by a second one  before both flying off.  However, after ten minutes,  a small flock of 4 goldfinches landed in the top of next door's tall walnut tree. They flew over to my willow and were joined by 2 others. A further 4 goldfinches landed in the willow but none of them came down to the feeders although I could hear their constant twittering from the treetops. 

I had a brief visit by a male chaffinch which flew down to one of the feeders and back up to the bush behind. Also a robin hovered next to the sunflowers and grabbed one and took it back into the bush which it then repeated. The robin then paid a very brief visit to the bird table. 

At this point, the goldfinches decided it was time to visit the feeders; for the next  ten minutes there was a flurry of activity as up to 4 goldfinches as a time pecked away at the sunflower hearts. They were joined by up to 4 greenfinches , with constant spats as they fought for the feeding perches. I've not had that many greenfinches on my feeders for a long time so that was great to see. (3 males 1 female). 

A brief scan of the rest of the garden revealed e a single house sparrow sheltering in the hedgerow and 2 wood pigeons, one on the ground, a second in a tree. 

A magpie dropped down on the grass then flew back up to the cherry tree. A second magpie landed in the willow. A blackbird was pecking around on one of the flower beds together with a dunnock. 2 chaffinches were also on the ground around the feeders. 

Half way through the birdwatch, the feeders and surrounding area was once again empty of birds and I then realised that I had note yet seen any of the tit family!  As if they heard me, two blue tits flew  into one of the bushes  , and subsequently followed each other to various shrubs and trees.  Right at the end of my count, a single long tailed tit stopped briefly in one of the trees before flying off and great tit  paid a quick visit to one of the feeders.

My final count was:

 blackbird (1 m)

blue tit 2

long tailed tit 1

great tit 1

wood pigeon 2

magpie 2

carrion crow 2

greenfinch 4 (3m 1f)

goldfinch 10

robin 1

dunnock 1

chaffinch 2m

house sparrow 1f

(30 birds of 13 species)

carrion crow

greenfinch and goldfinch