Saturday, April 28, 2012
A wet and windy walk out west was mostly for exercise. Scanning a distant area I always scan for stone-curlews, I finally got lucky and spotted one. The bird walked slowly and deliberately up the slope, and I realised there was a second one there.
We hadn't seen stone-curlews for a couple of years, so they made our day. Five wheatears and a pair of mistle thrushes were elsewhere on the downs, and a whitethroat and a willow warbler were heard singing. One swift and one swallow flew over.
Friday, April 27, 2012
An early-morning visit to Dorney Common produced just eight wheatears.
And on a short walk at the wetlands I could see only two on the north bank. The ten of yesterday is my highest count for Dorney Common; though going back in Berks birds records, I see that in March 2006 I reported thirteen wheatears on Dorney Wetlands.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Dorney
I was on my own this evening for a drier but much windier walk than yesterday. Four common terns were hunting up and down the river, seemingly picking insects off the surface of the water rather than diving for fish. One common sandpiper and a little egret were seen, and a cuckoo, a redshank and a green sandpiper were heard (I still haven't managed to see a green sandpiper this year). I could make out only one wheatear on the north bank.
On the common however, I could see quite a few wheatears running about near the stream. A woman with two dogs chased them towards the road, some landing just by the road, others flying over it.
The wheatears eventually all flew back over the road, and I counted ten. Several of them were beautifully peachy. There was also a flock of linnets.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
High over Dorney Common this morning, two or three big gulls were mobbing something; and after the Kentish honey buzzard last July, I always pay attention when gulls are mobbing something!
In this case it was a short-eared owl. It spiralled up even higher, moving east until I lost it in the glare.
Meanwhile a cuckoo could be heard on the farm, but I didn't see it. Four common terns were at the weir but after some shrieking and posturing two flew upstream. Then one of the remaining terns was attacked by a black-headed gull. It's nothing but aggro at this time of year!
Friday, April 20, 2012
Greger and I took a walk from the wetlands car park this evening. Almost at once we saw our first tern of the year, hunting insects under rapidly darkening skies. The flight struck me as being rather floaty, without the swift power and nifty turning of the common tern; while the bird lacked the front-heavy look of a common. The tail streamers were hard to see, looking rather tatty but possibly a bit too long for common.
In profile, the forehead has a steep appearance, while the underparts are grey. The black cap has a "skullcap" look, and seems (at least from a distance) to reach the bill without any noticeable white gap.
I'll look for the tern again tomorrow; but I'm going to put it down as an Arctic. A few swallows, my first house martin of the year and a possible sand martin were flying upstream. Then the rain came down and we hurried back to the car.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Dorney
I saw the storm coming as I left the car park but I hoped it would miss the wetlands. This hairy caterpillar was in one of the hides, and I've since identified it as a Garden Tiger Moth's larva. Perhaps these are what the cuckoo was hunting.
I was in the process of snapping it when the wind picked up and the first spots of rain fell. The shower quickly changed to a downpour of hail-stones and there were two claps of thunder. Soaked, I gave up and went home.Monday, April 16, 2012
Dorney
Late afternoon I meant to walk down to the weir and out onto the common; but a cuckoo materialising on West Marsh kept me near the bridges. The bird was reported this morning.
Like the cuckoo on Wishmore, it kept diving into the undergrowth as though pouncing on something. Beetles, perhaps, as they are supposed to eat those as well as caterpillars. This one didn't "cuckoo" while I was there. Other things noticed: A snipe took off from East Marsh calling and plummeted into reeds on the south bank further downstream. A swallow flew over going north. And while I was on the boardwalk there was another sudden, strong, but seemingly localised gust of wind, sending bits of reed and straw spinning perversely westwards up the river although the wind gust itself seemed to move north-east towards the information boards. Another dust devil perhaps.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Spring heathlands
I walked down through the forest this morning without seeing anything of note, although I did hear a willow warbler and a chiffchaff singing. On the edge of Wishmoor I flushed a pair of tree pipits up from the ground; and a second male was in the middle of the heath, singing from the top of a pine.
I climbed Greger's hill hoping to get a view of a cuckoo that was calling from somewhere on the other side; but I wasn't careful enough. As I puffed up to the top, I was just in time to see the cuckoo launch itself from a bare branch near our lunch spot.He landed below the hill and took a couple of dives into the heather before flying off across the heath.
On the heathland (Poors Allotment, or Barossa: there are information websites about these places but I wish people would use maps more, so that I can tell which is which!) four crossbills were waiting above a muddy puddle to drink. I could hear stupid noises and yells from the area I call the badlands, and a police car was seen making its way along the track. I decided to keep clear!
As I dropped back down onto Wishmoor a bird flitting about on the ground ahead turned out to be a super male redstart.
Near the Forest Pond on the way back, at least two bright siskins were calling and displaying. My walk was just over 11 kilometres (about 7 miles). The sunshine was welcome but it was defeated in the end by icy gusts from the north.
Several pairs of stonechats were present and I couldn't resist snapping a woodlark although the wind was swaying the branch it was on.
On the heathland (Poors Allotment, or Barossa: there are information websites about these places but I wish people would use maps more, so that I can tell which is which!) four crossbills were waiting above a muddy puddle to drink. I could hear stupid noises and yells from the area I call the badlands, and a police car was seen making its way along the track. I decided to keep clear!
As I dropped back down onto Wishmoor a bird flitting about on the ground ahead turned out to be a super male redstart.
Near the Forest Pond on the way back, at least two bright siskins were calling and displaying. My walk was just over 11 kilometres (about 7 miles). The sunshine was welcome but it was defeated in the end by icy gusts from the north.Saturday, April 14, 2012
Spring is shaping up!
Even Martin Cade of Portland Bird Observatory reckons it's a good one so far, and he's not a man given lightly to optimism.
We went west, and started the walk badly by taking a too-narrow footpath through a field of wet rape and getting soaked legs and feet. I did quite a lot of moaning, and we almost returned to the car. Thank goodness we didn't.
Wayland's Smithy, a Neolithic long barrow, was unusually quiet so I took a pic of it from the Ridgeway.
There's a scrubby paddock on this walk that I've always scanned for redstarts, but I'd never seen one - until today! Two males were foraging and calling.
Greger got his first good views of male redstarts and was suitably impressed. I could have stayed there for hours but we were both tired and our feet were still wet, so we began the last climb.
At the start of our walk, the horse had been standing stock-still on the other side of the hill. He had watched our progress with interest but otherwise remained motionless. And now he was here as we approached the hill from the opposite side.
He looked very imposing on the skyline, and until he moved his head he could have been something put there by Anthony Gormley. Angel of the West.
Perhaps he'd been a police horse in London, for instance, and couldn't quite get to grips with the peacefulness and the wide open spaces.
Friday, April 13, 2012
I was surprised to find four wheatears still on Dorney Common this afternoon, in the exact spot where I found them yesterday. However, they were not quite the same birds as these were all males.
Some absent-minded chattering made me look up to see my first swallow of the year flying swiftly north.Thursday, April 12, 2012
An evening walk brought a short sharp shower of sleety hail, a clap of thunder and a rainbow; and four lovely wheatears on Dorney Common. Birds in grass always seem difficult to focus on, and I didn't want to get too close; but I managed to get this splendid male.
Bonny birds, off to the moors and mountains of the north. Wish I could go with 'em!
An additional wheatear was on East Marsh on the wetlands; and a common sandpiper was having a nap there. On the plus side, my first sand martins (two) were seen in the distance; and on the minus side, two jays (almost certainly a pair) were on the south hill among the plantations.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
A common sandpiper was much closer to the main path at Dorney Wetlands this evening and I watched it for some time (from the back-breaking hides) as it foraged along the shoreline of the nearby island.
The wader was probing the gravelly banks and evidently finding things to eat, although I could never see what those things were.
There were loads of tiny midge-like flies doing their manic mid-air dances; and I saw one Alderfly. Two years ago, on April 25th, there was a large hatching of Alderflies at Dorney Wetlands which might be what attracted loads of common terns, an Arctic tern and a little gull.Tuesday, April 10, 2012
April showers to the east of Dorney Wetlands this morning.
There were at least two redshanks and a snipe present. Two common sandpipers were a nice sight on East Marsh, and as I watched one make its way along the shoreline I realised that my first wheatear of the year was on the same island.
These bright white "clocks" at the water's edge caught my eye. Greger recognised the plant as Tusillago - one of the first wildflowers to emerge in the longed-for northern spring along with Hepatica and Wood Anemone.
The common name in England is Coltsfoot.Sunday, April 08, 2012
Saturday: Following the Bank Vole in Taplow, I went to the location in the woods where I snapped what I thought was a mouse a month ago. I now think it was also a Bank Vole, and that's certainly what I saw there this time. The coat is chestnut, and the tail is shorter than a mouse's but longer than a Field Vole's.
Now and then, especially when the woods are quiet, you come across a tree that startles you, like something from a nightmare or maybe from a film like Alien.
Let's be honest, I really went up the woods to look for lesser spotted woodpeckers. All I found was nuthatches. Loads of them, their infinite variety of calls ringing out everywhere.Friday, April 06, 2012
The Dorney corner Cetti's warbler sunned, preened and sang in the tree again this morning.
A walk round the village in the afternoon was nice and peaceful, with a little owl in the same tree as last week. I went hunting along the hedgerow for a small mammal I'd glimpsed a few days ago; I had a better view of it this time but still couldn't get a clear shot.
From the reddish-brown coat I'd say it was a Bank Vole.
Monday, April 02, 2012
I was approaching the vehicle enclosure when a couple of birds flew out of this tree (goldfinches I think). Then (as I thought) a whole flock went up; but they weren't birds, they were dead leaves being stripped off the branches. They all rose in a sort of tower above the tree, crackling because they were so dry. I was too slow to get that, and only snapped the tree afterwards.
The whirling leaves were flung sideways and as I turned to watch them, I realised that beneath them there was a spiral of dust rising from the ground and whipping away down the track eastwards. The photo doesn't convey how impressive this sudden wind was; I've often seen little dust whirlwinds of course, but this was clearly much bigger as it also engulfed the tree (apparently known as a dust devil).
Slowly the leaves dispersed and settled, and it all subsided halfway along the enclosure.
And that's the most interesting thing I saw at Dorney today.
Sunday, April 01, 2012
A firecrest was heard singing from the house this morning, and on an afternoon walk round the village, a call alerted me to the presence of a pair of little owls out in the paddock.
I walked round to the churchyard at Hitcham to water a plant I'd put there in the week, and noticed that new signs have gone up on the fence opposite, where there is a pull-in for four or five cars under the trees: NO PARKING. But that fence is the boundary of that particular house's grounds; or, you may be sure, the fence would be moved out to the edge of the road.
A bit further along, the verge has had logs untidily placed so that (presumably) no-one can pull off the road. Again, I doubt this verge belongs to the house, or why is their fence on the other side of the ditch?
The people who park in the first pull-in are those like me, tending a grave; and this far along the road, once or twice a week, it'll be church-goers. And the house that owns the log-hogged verge? The Old Rectory. Of course, it's a private residence now. Perhaps they should change the name to The New Grabbery.
A walk at Combe on Friday failed to produce any migrants. This stoat showed a clean pair of heels in the woods, disappearing along the track in a series of leaps and bounds.
Three marsh tits were vocal and busy on the flank of Walbury Hill.
Back near the car park there was a large flock of meadow pipits.