The Infamous Bridge

The bridge has happened! 

I, and no doubt many others have been waiting for what seems an age for the promised bridge spanning the Tame and joining Dosthill and Middleton sides of the RSPB reserve together to be put in place. The RSPB have kept us informed along the way, but at each anticipate date, something transpired to put the project back and postpone it to a later date. However, the wait is now over. The crane arrived on site and the bridge was lowered into place. It's not open to pedestrians just yet, but I understand it will be in the next week or so. 

I just had to pop down on Sunday morning and have a look. It was great to see it in place and I am looking forward to crossing it.

 

The Dosthill side of the reserve had already provided me with my first Oystercatcher of the year on the 18th of January. This frosty Sunday morning, there were 9 Oystercatcher, they did look good flying low over the water calling. 

Apart from a flyover Green Sandpiper, the bridge and the Oystercatcher were the highlights of the morning. 

It's becoming something of a habit.

It seems that without really planning it, my visits to RSPB Leighton Moss are becoming something of a routine, and a very enjoyable routine at that. As I've mentioned before, planning weeks ahead allows for bargain train travel, this return trip costing £22.00 from the Midlands to Silverdale.

For the first time this visit I didn't head straight for the visitors centre and Leighton Moss main reserve, but decided to find the main Hides overlooking some of Morecambe Bay. It wasn't much of a walk and on route I passed a field full of Greylags, I had a scan through them but found nothing unusual.

On reaching the first hide, the Allen hide, I set up my scope and started having a scan about. There were loads of Black-Tailed Godwit and plenty of my favourite duck the Pintail. The Godwit flock was impressive to watch, as were the three Red-Breasted Mergansers that appeared from behind one of the small islands. All year firsts for me and already making my effort to travel here worthwhile.

Pintail

Red-breasted merganser

I was surprised and couldn't help but smile on reaching the Eric Morecambe memorial hide. Brilliant!

I spent a good hour in this hide. There were plenty of waders to watch, the Mergansers moved to this end of the bay and a Perigrine put in regular apperances causing all the waders to simultaneously take flight, a real spectacle.

Some birders that had arrived at the hide informed me some White Fronted Geese had been seen in flight heading in this direction but had not been located yet. I made a mental note to myself to check that field full of Greylags on my walk back to the visitors centre. I did exactly that, and as luck would have it there they were, five White Fronted Geese.

White Fronted Geese

On arrival at the visitors centre I popped into the cafe and had two very nice cups of coffee. One to drink now, and one made in my thermal mug to drink later. I decide a nice piece of homemade shortbread would probably go well with this, I was right, it did!

I had a slow walk around the reserve visiting most of the hides. On the pathway I noticed a Marsh Tit and decided to try and Digiscope it. They never keep still, out of over 30 pictures, this one was the best.

Marsh Tit

As usual, all the bird pictures taken today were taken through the scope with a little Nikon P300 camera.

I decided to have a good scan about from the Grisedale hide and picked up a Spotted Redshank. I watched it working the water and catching and eating small fish. I have never seen a Spotted Redshank eating fish before. This one caught at least 5 small fish and struggled to swallow everyone of them.

Spotted Redshank

Struggling with another fish

 

I also saw two magnificent Red Deer Stags looking very impressive with their antlers adorned with reeds from the Reedbed they emerged from. They grazed for a minute or so then dissapeared back into the reedbeds.

What can I say? There was so much going on the day flew by, and I'm already thinking about planning my next visit.

 

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Target Achieved

Last year I set myself the target of getting some good views of the Badgers in a local Badger Sett I am aware of, and maybe trying to photograph them. The first part has been achieved many times over, with some outstanding views of the Badgers. It becomes addictive, and before you know it, you want to head out every night Badger watching. It’s a strange feeling, but a couple of times the adult Badgers and I, both aware of each others presence have stared directly in each others direction, eyes meeting. This contact, if that is the correct word, causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up and gives me an enormous feeling of wellbeing, its difficult to put into words. However, if you are a regular Badger watcher, I’m sure you know what I mean, and how being in the presence of the biggest member of the Weasel family quickly becomes a bit of an addiction.

This week I managed to get out on Tuesday evening for a couple of hours. I intended looking for Badgers. My luck was in, and I soon stumbled across a pair of Badgers digging and probably eating plant roots. Its been mild, so they may have located a few nutritious worms.

I quietly picked a likely looking spot I have baited up before, and put a helping of peanuts down, about 20 mins later, two Badgers were feeding avidly on them. This was designed as a strategy to fulfil the second part of my target, to photograph a Badger. I had just purchased an infrared camera and have been impatiently awaiting its arrival. It arrived on Wednesday, and I spent Wednesday evening experimenting with the camera and working through the user manual to see what it could do.

Thursday evening and I find myself with a couple of spare hours at my disposal. I couldn’t resist. I headed out to the Badgers, set up the camera on a tripod and hoped they would show. I had again baited an area lightly with peanuts in an attempt to get them to hang around for a few pictures. Eventually, a Badger made an appearance. Just a solitary one tonight. Quite a big specimen, a Boar I think. It found the peanuts and got its picture taken. I hope to get plenty more and maybe some video in the near future. I will be keeping an eye on these over the course of the year.

I was very pleased with my first record shot Badger pictures.

 

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Local Otters

Tuesday evening after work and I decided to make the most of the bright moon and go for a wander. I walked along the river Anker and the freezing temperature and bright illumination made it a very enjoyable experience. The moon was that bright, I didn't turn my torch on once, and I was out for two and a half hours. I heard a few Tawny's calling, but didn't actually see one. It is quite amazing the detail that could be seen through the binoculars under the moonlight though.

 

The highlight of the evening, maybe of the year, was spotting local Otters. Actually, I saw one, but another could clearly be heard in the reed bed, hissing, mewing and cracking the marginal ice as it moved through. The other, put on a great show, fishing and diving all over the river, occasionally getting out and patrolling the margin. I was absolutely made up watching it. I tried a bit of moon light photography obviously no flash, no good I'm afraid!

On the way home, I decided to try and photograph a tree in the dark using the flash. I like the way it looks, a bit eerie.

Wednesday evening, and was again raring to get down to the river and try to locate the Otters. Got my gear together and arranged to pick up Pete. Started the car up only to find it had developed a fault. Sounds like the exhaust! Evenings plans cancelled. Will get car to dealership in the morning.

The car is back and all repaired. Saturday morning and Pete and I headed out to Whitemoor Haye. We hadn't been there for a while and fancied a change. There were some large flocks of starlings and plenty of Yellowhammers about, a few Redwing were also spotted.

As we viewed the large flock of Mutes grazing in one of the adjacent fields, I spotted a distant Black Swan. I attempted to take pictures with my SX40 hand held when suddenly a flock of Whooper Swans photo bombed the picture as they came in to land.

We counted 10, but there could of been more in amongst the Mutes. Later in the day, they were still there and now there were a few more of them.

At just before 4pm, they were again reported.

So all in all, a very worthwhile morning out. No sign of the Tree Sparrows I actually went looking for though. Although a little flock of them were reported later that morning.

The Whoopers were reported still in residence on Sunday morning. Jon and I went to Kingsbury looking for Redpoll or Siskin, both have been thin on the ground in the area this winter. No luck. The lakes all had a lid on them after a cold few days.

Sunday late afternoon ended in glorious winter sunshine. Mrs Moocher and I ventured out with Taz for a walk. The weak winter sunshine did little to raise the temperature.

We watched Cormorants coming into roost and enjoyed a hot coffee whilst watching a pair of Barn Owl. Another great weekend!

 

 

 

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Arctic Blast

It's Wednesday evening as I write these opening sentences. The weather forecast is predicting an arctic blast and snow. Let's see what materialises? 

Well, there was some snow, but nothing too bad. Saturday morning was overcast and the wind was bitterly cold. I ended up taking a trip to Kingsbury Water Park as yesterday a Red Crested Pochard was reported on Broomey Croft. As I drove along the entrance lane, a small Vixen appeared from the roadside scrub and stopped looking directly at me. She was in immaculate condition with a thick, glossy and well conditioned coat. The moment the thought of trying to reach across to the back seat for a camera crossed my mind, she vanished.

 I had a good look around Broomey Croft, but no sign of the Red Crested Pochard this morning. I took refuge from the wind in one of the bird hides to drink my coffee and warm up a little. All was quiet in front of the hide apart from a few Drake Teal displaying to the females. 

 

 As I took my boots out of their boot bag this morning, they looked a right state. In fact, they looked like I had let cement set on them. Absolutely caked in mud and dirt. I do like to look after my kit, so I decided they would get some TLC on my return home. A few people have asked me about my "Wellies" and to be honest, calling them Wellies does them a massive disservice. These aren't wellies, they are boots. Muckboots, and I would recommend them without hesitation. Comfortable to walk in, absolutely waterproof, warm and breathable. Anyway, they are clean now and ready for whatever I throw at them next. 

As I ended up writing about my boots, you can tell its been a quiet weekend.

Sunday morning was very cold in the wind. The cold snap may have been responsible for the biggest mixed flock of Redwing and Fieldfare I have seen locally this winter. Easily c400 birds feeding in the Sheep fields. Also some great views of a Green Woodpecker. It was the opposite side of a fence post to the wind direction using it as a wind shield. I tried to get in position to take a photo, but the Woodpecker had other ideas.

I also hadn’t realised just how high our local rivers and pools are. Well above normal levels. The footpath along the side of one of the lakes was submerged in a few places.

The last point of note was the number of Coots on one of the smaller pools. I spent about 15 Minutes watching them dispute reed bed territories and Males vying for dominance. They really were going for it. Due to it being dull and windy, I didn’t take the digiscoping set up today, I took my Canon SX40 HS along with me. These were taken hand held at full optical zoom at a distance of about 90 yards. 

 

 

 

Glad it's the Weekend.

I am hoping to revisit and capture to camera the pair of Barn Owls I reported last week. It won't be an easy task using a digiscoping set up. I feel my best chance is to attempt to capture the birds on video and rip stills from the footage. 

I'm also trying out a new blogging APP on the iPad, so I hope this turns out ok?

After a hectic week at work, and a few late evenings, I decided that Friday, I would leave early and use the remaining light to try and see the Barn Owls. I was out of work for 3.30pm and observing the Owl field by 4.00pm. The pair showed by 4.10pm, but one quickly disappeared. I believe it is hunting a little further afield. One Barn Owl however decided to keep the hunting local and stayed in the meadow. It was distant, never coming closer than 100 yards. The light was fading, it was a dull day anyway and now it was starting to rain. Not great conditions for digiscoping. I attached the camera to the scope, and attempted to record a hunting Barn Owl.

Considering the poor light and distances involved, I'm quite pleased with these. The stills were taken from a HD video using the Nikon P300 through the scope. 

Saturday morning and a walk along the river Tame. Low temperatures, but a nice bright morning. 

Although the conditions for walking were great, it was very quiet bird wise. I did see a Yellow Legged Gull on one of the lakes, and a couple of Common Gulls amongst the Black Headed Gulls. There were plenty of Robins showing this morning though, all vocally advertising their presence.

Sunday morning and another quiet walk around the patch. A Little Egret was working the edge of the lake, it flew off when it saw Jon and I approaching. We sighted it again later as it flew overhead, returning no doubt to where we had disturbed it from. The highlight of the morning was spotting what we thought was a Whooper Swan grazing in a field with a herd of Mutes. It was only as we got closer we realised it was a Anker Valley regular. A Whooper/Mute hybrid that has made this area it's home for many years now. Oh well, one day!

Sunday late afternoon and another visit to see the Barn Owls. At 4.45pm, there was still no sign. Just before 5.00pm one put in a very brief appearance, and just a quickly disappeared. No views of them hunting today. 

So, my weekend ended where it started, Owl watching. No doubt I will visit them again soon. 

Not much to report

I've not really had much time to do a lot of birding since the New Year, and as a result, there hasn't been much to write about. Birding is restricted to weekend mornings only at the moment, and the last two weekends have involved high winds and poor weather. This weekend was the first with bright conditions, though the temperatures were cold.

The highlights on the patch this morning were a flock of Canada geese about 80 strong with a couple of Greylag amongst them grazing in the water meadows next to the River Anker. Then, a little later as we reached the fields of longer grass, a flock of around c50 Linnet were circling the field. They landed and disappered into the grass.

Kestrels were also on the move this morning with three being spotted. So, it was just common stuff about this morning, but it's still nice to see them.

As I wandered around this morning, I used the phone to take a few pictures of the areas I was walking through.

We have a couple of feeders in one of the Birch copses. They are seeing plenty of use. It's nice to see Coal Tit using the feeders. The light wasn't good enough for fast shutter speeds this morning. I tried to capture a Long Tailed Tit from a visiting flock on camera.

Some of the grazing geese.

A very distant Buzzard. I'm still experimenting with the Nikon P300 through the scope.

A bit of this mornings scenery.

 

Pete checking birds in flight.

I

It is about this time of year that a Mandarin Duck starts putting in an appearance on the local canals. I hope to cross paths with it again. A couple of years ago, it had an American Wood Duck drake with it. It's always nice to see them. These were taken in previous encounters with these stunning looking ducks.

 

Footnote - The last hour of daylight on Sunday was spent watching a pair of Barn Owl hunt and quarter a meadow. An amazing sight, and a great way to end a weekend.

 

 

 

 

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