Sunday, February 28, 2010
Jubilee River
It was an invigorating morning for a walk (i.e. wet and windy!) and I was just enjoying being out in the fresh air - with six shelduck set to be the highlight of the day. Then, in a channel through the reeds, a bird with a beautiful brindled back stalked away from me.
"What's that pheasant doing in the water?" I wondered in my usual muddle-headed way.
It was a bittern. What am I saying? IT WAS A BITTERN!!!
The bird walked behind the reeds and froze, and as I clicked off a couple of shots a water rail flew towards it and an unseen Cetti's warbler burst into song.
A very nice trio for what had seemed an unpromising day.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A grey day in the woods.....
.....was brightened up by two bramblings feeding with chaffinches. This male, in the beginnings of summer plumage, was particularly striking.
Fortunately for me, a dog walker flushed all birds high into the trees; it's not easy getting photos through the tangle of twigs, but it's better than when the birds are on the ground where they are well camouflaged in the litter of leaves and beechmast.
Half a dozen siskins were vocal and active, and a couple of wary crossbills alighted briefly on the top of a pine. A tawny owl hooted several times during the afternoon; and although a lesser spotted woodpecker wasn't seen, I did hear one drumming. This was a first for me - so despite the glumness of the day and the mud underfoot, it was altogether a useful outing.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The good times are coming!
Spring was in the air this morning, despite an overnight frost and low temperatures all day. We walked in forest and over heathland in bright sunshine.
We paused on the edge of a track to look at the view - and became aware of something moving on the slope just below. It was a woodlark. It had already seen us, so I clicked off a couple of shots.
The bird flew further down the slope - and at least three others followed it. We sat on a nearby tree-stump for a coffee-and-Danish-pastry break. A siskin was displaying somewhere, but there was no sign now of the woodlarks on the patch of ground where they'd gone down. As we packed up and walked off, we realised that they had made their way back up the slope and were again foraging close by. Some fluty contact/alarm calls were heard - roll on the singing season!Chaffinches were already in song everywhere, and in the pine-tops two siskins chased a larger bird which turned out to be a male crossbill. It had been a glorious day, but a shower of sleet on the way home reminded us that it is still winter.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
At 2 o'clock this morning I had to pick Greger up from Maidenhead station, his train from Glasgow to Euston having been delayed. As I drove along the A4 near Magnet leisure centre, I saw what I thought were rats in the road; but as I got closer I realised they were birds. They were running/flapping across the road into the shrubbery on the verge - I think, blackbirds. Spooky.
A quick walk down the lower grounds early evening brought a treecreeper in the adjoining strip of woodland.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Burnham Beeches
Greger's gone to Glasgow for a couple of days, so after ferrying him to the station I popped up to the woods for a quick walk. Greger had taken the P90 for site photos, so I charged up the old camcorder battery in case I saw anything good.
On this glum day, there was a huge mixed flock in Dorney Wood, consisting of blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits, nuthatch, treecreeper, great spotted woodpecker and last but not least, a lesser spotted woodpecker (fourth lesser-spot sighting of the year). A marsh tit was close by.
The lesser-spot was distant and I couldn't see if it was male or female. At this point I was distracted by a god-awful racket coming from Egypt Woods, which sounded like a green woodpecker being slowly strangled. When I looked back into Dorney, the birds had moved on.
As I returned to the car park, a flock of chaffinches containing a brambling led me into the Beeches and back into the tit flock. I relocated the lesser-spot and was trying to video it from a respectful distance when it flew straight towards me. It hopped along the branch above and then flew down, then away to the left when I lost it.
The footage was dark and really poor. In the end I paused it at the point where the woodpecker flew down, and took a photo of the computer screen.
A cold rain began to fall, and as I reluctantly set off for the car park two lesser redpolls were noted high in silver birches, a jay flew screeching through the trees and a tawny owl hooted. A delicious hour's birding!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Egypt Woods
A lesser spotted woodpecker on this dark and drizzly day gave me my third sighting this year. I watched it for a good quarter of an hour, but it stayed high up and I was unable to tell whether it was male or female. However I have a feeling it wasn't the female of January 1st because the white markings were slightly different.
Also seen: a single lesser redpoll and two bramblings with a flock of chaffinches.Saturday, February 13, 2010
Way out west
Despite the tail-end of colds, we managed a nine-mile walk in cold and bleak though dry conditions. Birds were sparse, two marsh tits being the best of the bunch.
On a lighter note, Greger was much taken with this fertilizer-spreader. We've never seen one quite like it. When it was full, the driver took it at some speed to the other end of the field, and as he turned to start the spreading, it looked for a split second none too stable.
A sort of agricultural Robin Reliant.Thursday, February 11, 2010
The grey wagtail - looking slightly the worse for wear - still visits our garden. And my sister reports both pied and grey wagtails in their garden near Dover - where they have several inches of snow.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Burnham Beeches
After a miserable week in with a cold I longed for fresh air and exercise and so paid a short visit to the Beeches. The firecrest was still there in the same area, although it took me some time to locate it.
Had I felt well I would have tramped across the woods hoping for a lesser-spot to complete a fine double; however, a pair of calling ravens seen briefly through the tree-tops was ample compensation.
The two elements of this particular double could hardly be more different: one a tiny sunburst seeming hardly bigger than a bumblebee, a flash of white-and-gold in the pagan gloom of the hollies; the other an ancient, pagan darkness of its own, hulking and unassailable as it shrugs off bothersome crows.
