Its un-officially winter in my garden when the Lesser Redpolls arrive, this week they came back....
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Mega Alert - Baikal Teal
and a Long Tailed Duck.
Nearly a week had passed and the debate had receded from whether or not it was indeed only the 5th ever record of Baikal Teal in the United Kingdom or had it jumped a fence from somebody's collection. The bird was immediately guilty until proven innocent, only in the UK do we give murderers a better start than the birds..... anyway the conclusion is genuine BAIKAL TEAL in Lancashire, only 90 minutes away. Gonna go? you bet.
Chris and myself arrived at Marshside, Southport mid morning to news that it had been seen but the flock of Wildfowl that it had been with had been flushed by a Peregrine Falcon early morning. It hadn't been relocated. We set off in the general direction of the last sighting and quickly picked up a Long Tailed Duck. A UK lifer for me #235. I had seen flocks of 100s in Norway but had managed to miss any UK sightings, this was an unexpected bonus.
Nearly a week had passed and the debate had receded from whether or not it was indeed only the 5th ever record of Baikal Teal in the United Kingdom or had it jumped a fence from somebody's collection. The bird was immediately guilty until proven innocent, only in the UK do we give murderers a better start than the birds..... anyway the conclusion is genuine BAIKAL TEAL in Lancashire, only 90 minutes away. Gonna go? you bet.
Chris and myself arrived at Marshside, Southport mid morning to news that it had been seen but the flock of Wildfowl that it had been with had been flushed by a Peregrine Falcon early morning. It hadn't been relocated. We set off in the general direction of the last sighting and quickly picked up a Long Tailed Duck. A UK lifer for me #235. I had seen flocks of 100s in Norway but had managed to miss any UK sightings, this was an unexpected bonus.
Long Tailed Duck
Arriving at the sea wall embankment overlooking a large marsh we were inundated with thousands of Wigeon, Teal, Lapwings, Pink Footed and Canada Geese and two bird watchers who were also looking for the Baikal Teal. As we approached the birders said that they thought they were onto the bird but it was proving difficult relocating it in the marsh ditches and ever moving flock of Wigeon. It took a while, but someone got onto it again, brilliant, but passing on the exact location to others was proving difficult, no obvious land marks were visible so it became something like this "left of the piece of dead grass pointing at 2 o`clock which is just right of the fattest Wigeon that is waddling towards us". "Which piece of dead grass pointing at 2 o`clock...... which fat Wigeon waddling towards us"
Anyway the flock was semi distant, (too far away for images, but now on reflection I really wish I had taken even the crappiest record shot I could have mustered) but we all got onto it. It rested with head half heartedly tucked in and an eye blinking constantly alert. Its head pattern and colouration stood out a mile, what a bird. We had 30 minutes uninterrupted views of it as more and more twitchers arrived eagerly asking where it was. We could now aid in others getting their scopes onto it..... one fella let me get him lined up and just as he acknowledged the sight with "got it Wow!" the flock had been spooked. The Baikal Teal raised its head, stretched its neck, it was on high alert and was about to take off......I was lucky enough to see the bird in full glory for a few seconds and as expected the flock took flight, we tracked it for a few seconds more in the mass of Wigeon and Teal but lost it as they all dropped even further back on the marsh.
We didn't relocated it during our next hours stay but we had seen it, it is a gem of a bird, and what a privilege. We left 20 twitchers desperately seeking further sightings of the Baikal Teal.
Life bird #1050, UK bird #236
Friday, 6 December 2013
Fridays Fence
Really cant remember where this was, only that it was on an early morning walk with winter mist making for a murky moorland shot.
Posted the morning after the great man died
RIP Nelson Mandela
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Friday, 29 November 2013
Parrot Crossbills.........
....... and a Velvet Scoter
A four hour journey to Norfolk to try and bag a new species. Chris, Phil and myself set off at stupid o`clock and arrived at Holt Country Park just in time to meet some sort of daylight. Along with around a dozen other twitchers we waited in anticipation of the quarry. Up to 11 Birds had been reported during the last week so we were hopeful if not a little anxious as an hour passed without sight or sound. Apart from the usual woodland birds a lovely Goldcrest kept us company for a short while, we were a long way from giving up hope however it was a brilliant sight to see the silhouettes of a dozen birds fly over our heads and land in some tall conifers sixty yards or so away. Sure enough we were onto our Parrot Crossbills. We enjoyed some fantastic scoped views for half an hour as they fed in a number of trees. They stayed fairly distant and with the gloomy skies and poor light they were well out of good image range..... it didn't really matter, some record shots were taken and as they flew off to feed elsewhere a happy bunch of birders left with them.
Our plan was to enjoy the rest of the day along a part of the coast so we headed to Salthouse for a little sea watching. In the twenty minutes that we managed to endure the cold sea breeze we were able to see 2 Red Throated Divers a single Great Northern Diver around a dozen Common Scoter and another Scarce Visitor to the UK shores with a Velvet Scoter. This bird showed its diagnostic features very well and was easy to pick out against the common Scoters. Unfortunately it was too distant for any sort of record shots but it turned out to be a lovely bonus on this trip as it was another UK (#234) and World life bird (#1049) for me..... Happy Days.
We finished off the afternoon with a visit to Choseley Barns and the lovely Titchwell RSPB. I will save that report for another post.
A four hour journey to Norfolk to try and bag a new species. Chris, Phil and myself set off at stupid o`clock and arrived at Holt Country Park just in time to meet some sort of daylight. Along with around a dozen other twitchers we waited in anticipation of the quarry. Up to 11 Birds had been reported during the last week so we were hopeful if not a little anxious as an hour passed without sight or sound. Apart from the usual woodland birds a lovely Goldcrest kept us company for a short while, we were a long way from giving up hope however it was a brilliant sight to see the silhouettes of a dozen birds fly over our heads and land in some tall conifers sixty yards or so away. Sure enough we were onto our Parrot Crossbills. We enjoyed some fantastic scoped views for half an hour as they fed in a number of trees. They stayed fairly distant and with the gloomy skies and poor light they were well out of good image range..... it didn't really matter, some record shots were taken and as they flew off to feed elsewhere a happy bunch of birders left with them.
The Parrot Crossbill is a Scarce visitor to the UK mainland.
This was my first sighting so it became my UK life bird # 233 and world Life bird # 1048
Record image of a female and male feeding on the cones
male
female
A better image of the male - taken by Phil (Cheers for this one mate)
Our plan was to enjoy the rest of the day along a part of the coast so we headed to Salthouse for a little sea watching. In the twenty minutes that we managed to endure the cold sea breeze we were able to see 2 Red Throated Divers a single Great Northern Diver around a dozen Common Scoter and another Scarce Visitor to the UK shores with a Velvet Scoter. This bird showed its diagnostic features very well and was easy to pick out against the common Scoters. Unfortunately it was too distant for any sort of record shots but it turned out to be a lovely bonus on this trip as it was another UK (#234) and World life bird (#1049) for me..... Happy Days.
We finished off the afternoon with a visit to Choseley Barns and the lovely Titchwell RSPB. I will save that report for another post.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Greenfinch - (Carduelis chloris)
The Greenfinch are all year round visitors to my garden feeders, however during winter the numbers rise dramatically with 30-40 visiting daily. Currently around a dozen are feeding mainly on sunflower seeds.
The Greenfinch is 15 cm long with a wing span of 24.5 to 27.5 cm. It is similar in size to a Housesparrow but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail. The vividness of the green can vary between individual birds The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back while the juveniles are often heavily streaked on the breast. The bill is always thick and conical.
The Greenfinch is 15 cm long with a wing span of 24.5 to 27.5 cm. It is similar in size to a Housesparrow but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail. The vividness of the green can vary between individual birds The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back while the juveniles are often heavily streaked on the breast. The bill is always thick and conical.
Adult male
female
juvenile
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