Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Taplow
A walk late afternoon brought swifts and common terns above the Jubilee River. This is looking back up the hill to Taplow Court.
Walking down the field from Mill Lane, I had seen a cuckoo on the fence and had to be content with a distant record shot before it flew off calling. I think this is my first cuckoo in Taplow village.
Also on the camera was this picture of a fish-head on the beach at Ardmair, taken on an early morning walk on our last day. 
It was fairly big (football-sized, maybe) and the teeth looked fearsome. It could be a monkfish, or angler fish, but I'm not really sure. 
Sunday, May 29, 2011
A stormy week in Scotland
Back to one of the three white bird-named houses, this time to "Corncrake". A willow warbler was singing when we arrived and a shag was the first bird seen on the water. Great skuas and gannets frequently came into the bay, and wheatears foraged in the gardens.
I snapped the oystercatchers through the window - they generally kept to the other end of the beach, near the campsite, where a spit of higher ground runs out into the sea. The campsite was also good for twite.
Greger photographed the scalloped pattern the waves made as the water was sucked back down the shore.
Our first trip was to Achnahaird Bay. A huge flock of waders was out on the sands but I couldn't make them out from the road. I got the scope out but the wind was terrific and I gave up, swearing. We went on round to the car park as usual and walked down to the beach, seeing red-throated divers on the way.
A pale-looking wader standing at the edge of the waves with its bill tucked in turned out to be a bar-tailed godwit. Possibly the same bird turned up on our beach a day or two later, in the company of oystercatchers.
The huge flock of waders seemed to be mostly ringed plovers and dunlins, but they were flighty and it was difficult to scan them in the strong winds. Two Eiders were close in to the shore.
Gale force winds and heavy showers on Monday ruled out a hill-walk, so we drove south along the coast. The tidal flats at Dundonell produced common sandpiper, a greenshank and a wheatear. In Gruinard Bay were three adult black-throated divers and one juvenile.
We were having spaghetti bolognese that evening, but on the way home Greger suggested buying a scampi and chips between us for a starter so that we wouldn't have to rush around cooking immediately and could enjoy a late dinner.
Good job we did, because we got no spaghetti that night. The power went off at about half past six and with the wind whistling through a narrow gap at the bottom of the windows the house soon became very cold. We went to bed and the power returned just after midnight; we were lucky really, because thanks to the storms, many people in Scotland had no power for 24 hours.
On Tuesday we drove north to Scourie. This is a lovely place for seeing all sorts of nice things. Here's Greger, for a start.
And here's a twite with attitude.
There was a nice little flock of dunlins on the sandy beach.
Greger took this photo looking inland to Ben Stack, a hill we climbed a few years ago.
A guillemot was keeping company with razorbills on the rough sea, but we looked in vain for puffins.
The smooth green area beyond the headland is the lovely Handa Island. You can get a boat out there and see most species of seabird that nest on the west coast. You can sometimes see them from Scourie, for nothing - but you have to be lucky, and today we weren't. No kittiwakes or Arctic skuas....
There was a group of schoolchildren on the beach with their teachers, so the dunlins were constantly on the move. 
A couple of ringed plover chicks were seen scurrying to the back of the beach and several Eider were too far out for photos. Likewise a black guillemot.
Wednesday - and we couldn't put it off any longer. We had unfinished business with a hill called Breabag. Walking it last year, we'd missed the top in thick cloud and also left out the bone caves because they required a bit of a detour on what was already a long walk, taking in the whole ridge of Breabag and descending into another glen before a tiring road-trek back to the car.
This year, we would get to the summit. We would also avoid the peat hags we'd wandered into last time and then we'd come back down the same way, with energy to spare for the caves. Yep, that's what we would do!
We started off cheerfully in dry weather, stopping to snap where water wells up from a hole (which is sometimes completely dry) and runs weirdly over the grass before settling into a rocky bed and joining the main stream.
Above the spring, the stream bed is almost dry (last year it was completely dry).
Wheatears and meadow pipits had been the dominant birds in the valley. Now, as we began a steep climb to a drier area and just before the rain began, a red grouse erupted croaking from the heather and glided away over the curve of the slope.
We plodded on, finding ourselves once more among the peat hags. Gaining rocky ground just below the ridge, we heard a ptarmigan; but try as we might we couldn't get onto it. The wind was strengthening and the rain came down even harder and turned to sleet.
On the ridge we identified the cairn where we'd eaten lunch on our previous visit; but, as before, everything else was hidden. I was all for giving up and heading down. But Greger is made of sterner stuff and declared he wasn't coming all this way to be beaten by the weather again. Eventually we found ourselves on ground where we could go no higher. It must be the top! A little lower on the summit plateau was this shelter.
We crouched in here getting a little relief from the wind and had our sandwiches and coffee. Our hands were freezing cold and also wet, so that it was difficult to get our gloves back on. We knew we had to get moving again. In a flat grassy area near the top I heard a lovely fluty call "too-lee"; but again, we could see nothing and alas! in this weather there was no lingering. Golden plover?
Finding the bealach lochan we dropped down past some fine waterfalls to a wide green shelf. Here the stream slowed and widened, looping in wide meanders across this unsuspected marshland. Directly below us was a reedy pool; and from somewhere there came the call of a greenshank. This is looking back up to the ridge.
Stopping for coffee and cake a bit further down, we looked back to see a brownish bird that somewhat resembled a swift against the sky and concluded it must be a merlin. Not definite enough for a tick, though.
Last year, this waterfall was no more than a trickle, and we walked up to it along the dry stream bed.
This year, there was plenty of water coming down, and small cliffs of rock made it impossible to hug one bank all the way, so we had to cross and recross the stream on sometimes slippery boulders. Great fun, though. 
Down near the car park there was quite a lot of noise from a pair of pied wagtails which must have had young nearby, and swallows, house martins and sand martins were swooping round a plantation. A juvenile dipper was on the far side of the stream. (Dippers were also seen here last year; a good place to remember if doing a whistle-stop birding tour of the Highlands.) 
We peeled off our sopping wet rucksacks and climbed gratefully into the car. Greger was heard saying that he would never go near that hill again. And we didn't visit the bone caves this time, either.
Driving north on our last day, we both spotted the golden eagle that flew across the road in front of us. This being the second or perhaps third sighting we've had in the Coigach area.
We were on our way to Knockan Crag, where you can learn about the geology of the area on a waymarked trail that winds up and across the hillside.
There are several pieces of rock art dotted about, with a raven making use of this one.
Knockan offers a good opportunity to gain some quite stupendous views without actually going up a whole hill. This is looking west across Lochan an Ais to Stac Pollaidh (Stac Polly).
The going is fairly steep but rock steps make it easier. As we turned to descend the zig-zagged path, I looked down to see a dark bird on these steps; it was a few seconds before I realised it was a ring ouzel. 
I don't like photographing birds carrying food in the breeding season. But as he was right on the path and as he was clearly determined to carry on until he had a full load, there didn't seem much point in not clicking off a few shots. Eventually he flew off strongly across the hillside.
A cuckoo was very vocal in a nearby plantation and a wheatear was on the flank of the hill where the ouzel had flown. A bright male kestrel was seen landing on the crags above.
We drove to Kylesku for lunch. A plaque tells you that the bridge was opened in 1984 by the queen - honestly, the work that woman gets through! But how did she lift those girders?
I'm used to seeing loads of common terns here, and the odd razorbill; and a willow warbler singing was no surprise given that willow warblers were singing everywhere we went. But a short, repeated song from an unseen singer in the scrub had me flummoxed. While I waited a reed bunting emerged; but I don't think it was the bunting singing.
As if to remind me that I should be looking for more exciting things, a smart drake Eider flew up the loch far below. But the bunting, like the godwit, gave me a Scottish tick.
I'm used to seeing loads of common terns here, and the odd razorbill; and a willow warbler singing was no surprise given that willow warblers were singing everywhere we went. But a short, repeated song from an unseen singer in the scrub had me flummoxed. While I waited a reed bunting emerged; but I don't think it was the bunting singing.
As if to remind me that I should be looking for more exciting things, a smart drake Eider flew up the loch far below. But the bunting, like the godwit, gave me a Scottish tick.
It was a good last day. It had been a very good week.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Taplow
This is the best picture I could get of a very active Hairy-footed (Spring) Flower Bee. The female is all black except for a fringe of yellowish hairs on the back legs. She has been visiting the "beauty bush" which unfortunately is not very beautiful in this case because I cut it back all wrong.
What is beautiful though, and totally unexpected, is this pale lemon rose. As we have newish neighbours who have made their garden quite charming, I went out in a fit of conscience this spring and tidied up along our mutual wall. And there behind what had been an out-of-control privet was this unsuspected rose bush, which must have been planted more than eighteen years ago. The fragrance, though subtle, is sublime. 
All of which has very little to do with birds or walking. Best bird lately is a bullfinch, calling and flying over the house and almost certainly breeding nearby. Wednesday, May 18, 2011
This picture of the hornet seen at home three days ago enabled me to asess its size. The window sill is 30mm deep; so I enlarged the photo until the sill measured that on the screen - and then measured the hornet.
It was about 32mm (one and a quarter inches) excluding antennae; and this is, if anything, under-estimating it. Apparently, the queens can get quite a bit bigger!
A quick walk late afternoon brought a distant lapwing chick at Abbey Park Farm.
A juvenile pied wagtail was also present.Sunday, May 15, 2011
A walk through Swinley Forest and across the heaths yesterday assured us that most of the area escaped the effects of the fires.
It was good to see stonechat breeding success in a couple of locations. This is one of two fledglings, of which I took a hasty photo and retreated; and later we saw a single one being fed and watched by anxious parents. We also saw a pair of stonechats fly across the track on the way back, from the forest to the fence and then into the danger area.
A cuckoo was vocal but unseen, and two pairs of woodlarks and several tree pipits were both seen and heard. The call of a Dartford warbler stopped me in my tracks; I failed to spot the bird, although Greger saw it clearly.At home today, a queen hornet was prospecting for a nest site around the office window. I went outside and clicked off a couple of shots. I should have got better ones but I was a bit wary. The hornets we get in the ivy in autumn are dying workers and have never been aggressive; but a queen in the springtime and about to breed is very likely a different story!
Greger, in his ongoing quest to get mountain-fit for Scotland, set off on the Hedsor 7. He enjoyed the walk, coming back through Cliveden and going up and down the hills for extra training. Unfortunately, the day was spoilt by a dog (sounded like a bull terrier) that ran barking at him in the field near Cookham bridge and ripped his shirt.
When the owner finally hove into view she claimed the dog got away when she tried to untangle the lead. Greger didn't disbelieve her but he was really angry - and it takes a lot to make him angry. He demanded compensation. She took his phone number so we shall see what happens.MUCH LATER: Nothing happened. Surprise.....
Friday, May 13, 2011
Jubilee River
Yesterday, seeing the report of a roseate tern on the river near Eton, I decided to allow myself a twitch. Then I changed my mind and remarked to Greger that I would just have a quick walk on the wetlands. So I drove to Lake End Road and walked to Manor Farm Weir.
But somehow I found myself walking on.... past the weir, and the black bridge, along a rather boring section of the river, under the Windsor bypass and the railway line - and there was the roseate as reported, on the yellow buoys in the company of common terns and black-headed gulls.
I don't usually like to twitch lifers (much more exciting to find your own!) but I've spent quite a few frustrating hours at Titchfield Haven trying to see roseates; and with today's walk (8km the round trip) I felt I'd at least earned the tick. It was a nice bird to watch in flight, its black bill and subtle pink flush separating it from the commons even before you'd seen the long tail streamers (or streamer - apparently it's lost one).
As I headed back, a hobby passed me going upstream and several house sparrows collecting food were a cheering sight along the hedgerow. Later: A nice twitch - except for sadness on seeing someone I used to get on with - and now we no longer speak. It's a pity, as I had no quarrel with him.
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Catching sight of a white rump from the kitchen, I thought we had a wheatear in the garden! But it was this male bullfinch, carrying food. The photo was taken hastily through the window, and unfortunately couldn't be cropped to leave out our poor old shed which badly needs a new roof. And a new door come to that. And new walls.
We've been out to Combe today, and hopes were high on arrival as two or three wheatears flew away from the car park. But we couldn't relocate them and it proved fairly quiet birdwise. I was nearly defeated by the strong wind and we were both unusually tired afterwards.
Best birds were a raven, a bullfinch, and a garden warbler which sang and showed itself briefly at the top of Sheepless Hill.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Taplow
It was a nice evening for a walk round the village; but the smoke rising from distant Swinley Forest was a sober reminder of the fires still burning there.
Two whistling Mandarin drakes were on the river along with several busy, quarrelsome mallards. There seemed to have been a hatching of flies, and four common terns, two hobbies and a kestrel were taking advantage of this. Something small moving along the waterline of an island turned out to be a common sandpiper. Not my first here, but the first for a very long time.
As I turned away an approaching walker materialised into Greger, taking his daily constitutional in the opposite direction to me. We parted again and by the time I got round to the pub he had got the drinks in and was waiting in the garden (it was just about warm enough to sit outside).
As I turned away an approaching walker materialised into Greger, taking his daily constitutional in the opposite direction to me. We parted again and by the time I got round to the pub he had got the drinks in and was waiting in the garden (it was just about warm enough to sit outside). A pair of mistle thrushes flying over churring and then landing on the village green finished the (birding) evening off nicely.
Lovely Swinley Forest is on fire. It's on the BBC website as just one of the locations across the UK that have been burning this weekend; apparently there are road closures round Bracknell and Crowthorne.
We went for a walk from the Lookout on Saturday. I noticed then that there was a new burnt area on the Berkshire heathland; but at least this wheatear was finding it good for foraging.
On the Surrey heath it was the same story; this was the abrupt end of our pleasant walk through the heather.
We saw one Dartford warbler, and this is one of the male stonechats present.
Tree pipits were heard singing in several locations and one was visible at the top of a tree; but none of them were displaying, probably because of the very strong winds. A woodlark was seen on the ground. It gave us a long look over its shoulder and then carried on feeding. Along the danger area fence, a lizard ran across the track. At the far side of Caesar's camp we intended to have a rest and a coffee on a seat we've used in the past, only to be confronted with this....
Oh well, at least we laughed - though somewhat hysterically as we were by this time extremely tired. 