Moors Debut

Sunday 13th Jan saw my first visit to the Moors. With a combination of work, darkness before 4pm and floods, conditions until now have been against me.

I managed some ticks on our "Patch" year list (see Moors list page on this blog.) and had a great morning out. I also managed, at last, to investigate the "Oak Line."

This row of Oaks has long intrigued us, as we felt there may be another Badger Sett dug at the root base of one of the Oaks. As the fields that surround the Oaks have either held crops or been a muddy quagmire, conditions have not been right to walk across to them.

There is a decent sized Sett already on the Moors and Young badgers do occasionally dig outlying single holed or "blind" tunnels some distance from the main Sett.

Large Sett entrance.

Bedding dragged out to air and freshen up.

As this morning was cold and the previous night freezing, the usually muddy ground was frozen and firm. I arrived at be Oak Line to find there are indeed excavations. Not the work of Badgers though. Just busy rabbits.

I left the Moors and called in at Alvecote pools, where I not only enjoy the birding, but I am also bailiff. I enjoyed a chat and a cuppa with angling friends and the second kestrel of the morning put in an appearance. I, (Taz actually), also found some Otter tracks along the river bank complete with the classic tail drag mark between them. This area really provides some excellent habitat for a real diversity of wildlife.

Cooperative Kestrel

Taz as usual had a thoroughly great time.

A great end to a nice morning. Looking forward to next weekend to do it all again. Maybe in the snow?

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Two life ticks!

Saturday morning, picked up Pete and we headed straight to Hams Hall to try and see the Firecrest. We arrived at about 9am to find quite a few birders already searching.

Within fifteen minutes, the Firecrest was located by a group of birders that alerted the rest of us to the find. Pete and I were soon gazing upon our first Firecrest.

I considered trying for a picture, the bird was however far too mobile.

We enjoyed the Firecrest for around 10 minutes before losing sight of it.

 

Later that day I was out meeting up with a friend in Tamworth when news reached me of a Whooper Swan at Bodymoor Heath. I estimated I had at least forty minutes of light left so jumped in the car and went for it.

It took me twenty minutes to get to Bodymoor and locate the bird. it was grazing in a field along with six Mute Swans. I had rushed to get this tick so arrived with no Scope and no camera. I did however have my binoculars and my phone.

Here is a poor hand held record shot taken as always in poor light with my iPhone through the binoculars handheld.

It's been a good holiday break over Christmas and I have enjoyed my birding.

So, it's back to work on Monday. No doubt some real rarities will now pop up. Not at weekends though. Such is life.

Pete has already made a good start on the moors, his accounts can be seen on the Moors Page of this blog. I have yet to set foot on the Moors in 2013. Next weekend should find me wandering about there.

 

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Shrike, while the iron is hot!

Still running around trying to find all the rarer ticks in our locality while they are with us.

The Upper Longdon Shrike was next on my list, and I set out early for Cannock Chase to try and get it. This was an easy tick. This was the first time i had used the free "Outside" ordinance survey app for iPhone. Once I arrived at Upper Longdon, I entered coordinates provided by a previous report of the bird into the app, and it guided me exactly to the last spot the Shrike had been seen. I then found myself a good high viewpoint and waited for it to get light and hopefully, the Shrike to show. As light intensity slowly improved, two Ravens flew overhead. Bonus year tick.

Forty minutes later, a scan with the binoculars picked up what I was looking for. About 120 yards out, on the highest twigs of the tallest tree in the clearing was the Shrike. Light was still poor, but I went for a record shot through the scope with the iPhone.



Great Grey Shrike.

A bit grainy when enlarged, but not bad at all.

It soon moved to what I presume is a favoured viewing post, I managed to get a little closer and get a few shots with the camera. Light still poor.

Very pleased, as I didn't manage a Shrike tick last year.

From here, I set off in search of a reported Firecrest at Hams Hall.

Quite a few birders at Hams Hall on my arrival. Firecrest had been sighted twenty minutes before my arrival. It didn't show again while I was there. Inevitably, it was reported just before dark.

 

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Getting the local Stars.

After yesterday's visit to Slimbridge, I had to decide what to do today. It's the last week of my holiday, so I want to make the most of it before returning to work. After a quick look at the blogs, forums and birdguides, I thought it would be nice to get the local Long Tailed Duck and the Great Northern Divers. Yes, I have already seen them, but not in 2013!

I picked up Pete and we headed for Shustoke first. The Great Northern Divers were very obliging, with both of them showing well. They were distant, light was poor and it started to drizzle as we arrived. Two consecutive days of sunshine is asking a bit much I suppose.

Views through the scope were great, but couldn't use scope for pictures as both birds were diving too frequently, and I couldn't get the scope on them, focused, and then hand hold the phone to the eyepiece fast enough. The limitations of digiscoping, basically anything that won't keep still!

So, I resorted to the camera, which handheld is much faster to get on the subject. Full digital zoom in poor light, it was never going to be good. It wasn't good. A record shot I suppose. Distance was easily over 170 yards.



We then headed off to Dosthill. After negotiating the mud we arrived at the lakeside and within five minutes the Long Tailed Duck was located. It was taking a rest from feeding and was very obliging, spending a good few minutes on the surface preening.

Long Tailed Duck (female) Phonescoped at a distance of about 110 yards in poor light.

 

A very enjoyable morning. Good birds, good company and the 2013 year list is off to a very good start.

 

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The year list 2013

Great start to new year. New Year's Day found me pulling up at Slimbridge WWT just before it opened. I like Slimbridge, and it provided I nice start to my year list. Enjoyed some good views of Peregrines from the Holden Tower, as well as a large dog fox trying unsuccessfully to creep up on some of the geese flocks. Every hide provided something of interest. Obviously this estuary of the river Seven produced some nice waterfowl ticks to start the year.

 

I also stumbled across a few opportunities for decent pictures, both from my Camera, and digiscoping with the iPhone handheld.

This Pintail is one of my favourite pictures of the day (Canon SX40)

Again (Canon SX40) Long Tailed Tit.

As usual, I couldn't resist holding the phone up to the scope eyepiece to try and get a record snap of what I was looking at.

Distant Spotted Redshank. (iPhone) 70 yards. The guy sat next to me in the hide with all manner of DSLR equipment couldn't believe the images my Canon SX40 bridge camera was capturing at easily 70 yard with admittedly decent light, but subject not ideally placed. This Spotted Redshank was taken using digital zoom. The consequence of digital zoom is a significant reduction in picture quality. I didn't get chance to try the scope and iPhone on this one. Lost track of it when it spooked due to wheeling Lapwings.

Bewick's (iPhone)

There were in excess of 5000 Lapwing on site, maybe it was the three Peregrines on site, but something had them spooked. Every so often, they would take to the air simultaneously. The sight of this alone was amazing, but the combined sound of many thousand pairs of wings moving low and at speed was breathtaking.

I will definitely be visiting Slimbridge again, and soon. I have spoken to birders that don't like the commercial aspect of Slimbridge because of the crowds it draws. This is in part true. The place can get seriously busy. Me, I tend to avoid the park and head straight for the hides. The only main hide that you have to go through the park for is the Zeiss hide, I visit that dependent on crowds.

Again, the phone scoping surprised me with some decent record shots. Light was,good for photography today.

I am now looking forward to my local birding and patching. My main patch is still in a poor state due to flooding and difficult to get around. Conditions improving fast though.

 

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