A HARD DAY AT THE OFFICE

Sunday, January 20, 2013

I'm not doing a Poole Harbour year list but.....

Reading Peter Moore's blog the other day, I noticed that one of his New Years resolutions was to do more birding. Well, looking back at my blog for last year, I should also make a resolution: To do less!

But it is a hard thing to do.
The problem at the moment is every time I go out I keep bumping into really good birds for the harbour, things like Whooper, Pink-foot, Mandarin and Egyptian Goose which are all great yearlist birds. Not to mention stuff like Ruff and Golden Plover which in recent years have been few and far between.
Thing is, I cant do things half heartedly and when I list it all gets a bit serious, with most other obligations going out of the window.

So maybe not a good idea. Anyway some of that wildfowl could be a bit suspect...

Scanning from Holme Bridge looking east down the valley there is a duck pen next to the river with lots of Mallard in it, put there by the shooters. The problem is, what else have they chucked in there? For instance I noticed that the Egyptian Goose and its friend were hanging around the perimeter fence the other day along with 5 Muscovy Duck. And how far has that Mandarin moved?

With last years photo yearlist consistently necessitating the use of some very poor images I am now totally relaxed about using completely shite photos for the blog!

Pink-foot. Even though it is consorting with Greylags I think we should give it the benefit of the doubt

Male Merlin being hassled by Jackdaw. Later seen tucking into a Blue Tit.

Lots and lots of snow put pay to planned survey work up t'north. On the plus side 20 Golden Plover over the house during the very big southerly movement of birds was a garden tick

Wytch Causeway, it was as cold as it looks

Not sure why there was a strip of exposed grass but a couple of Golden Plover and a few hundred Fieldfare were making the most of it.

Barwits Shore Road

Confiding Dunlin

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Blackbird variety and 'variety'?

A cold snap in Dec 2010 brought an influx of Blackbirds into the garden. I was intrigued by the variety of plumages on show and began taking photos, eventually coming up with 18 identifiable individuals.
Some were fairly standard looking, but others were sporting all sorts of pale edgings and chevrons indicating birds from presumably a bit further afield. A little research into these birds occasionally brought up the word 'stockamsel'
This January with quite a few Blackbirds around, I have been having another look. Now that I dont have to charge around the country for photos I can spend more time doing other pointless and obscure things like this!
Stockamsel was apparently quite a popular term in the 60's but is not used at all nowadays. The name was first coined by the German Johann Andreas Naumann of thrush fame. He used the word for young males that resembled females. Not sure if there is an English name equivalent, but perhaps 'Ladyboy' would fit!

BWP has a picture of a 'stockamsel' and labels it a 'variety'. Unfortunately there is no mention of it in the text. Finding anything else out about stockamsels has proved quite difficult but it seems that the term has now been replaced by 'continental' Blackbird.

So far I have identified at least 15 Blackbirds coming to the garden, including a few with noticeable pale edgings.

Bird 1

Bird 2

Bird 3

Bird 4

Presumably a dark female or is it one of Naumann's Ladyboys!?

The next birds are rather more standard looking but can still be individually identified.

Bird 5

Almost adult, still got old primaries. Distinctive bill pattern.

Bird 6

Can be identified by white blob near base of upper mandible and some white blobs above eyering

Bird 7

A few more white blobs above eyering than bird 6, and what looks like dark bill markings (along with some mud)

Bird 8

No white blobs and all yellow bill

Bird 9

Moody first year female.

Bird 10

Adult male with dark area on upper mandible (If you are now scratching your chin and think there is some double counting going on here, I definitely saw at least 4 normal adult looking birds together so I can claim the numbers on that anyway!)

Bird 11

Another first year female, with a mixture of new and old greater coverts

Bird 12

Very thin and indistinct eyering. This bird only showed up yesterday. Taken in very low light levels but did show pale edged feathering.

Bird 13

A few window reflections here

There were also 2 other obvious first winter males occasionally visiting, bringing the total to 15 individuals. Only did this lot in two sessions so there are probably also a few more birds kicking about.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Not quite 300 but a British record?

With 6 species to photograph and 13 days till the end of the year hopes were still quite high for a 300 finish, particularly as there were still a few resident birds needed. The plan was to do a trip before Christmas and a trip after to finish the job off. The problem was where to go. With the Cornwall Pacific Diver and Subalpine Warbler being very hit and miss I decided to try and clear up the few remaining regulars still not photographed. After lots of head scratching and logistical analysis, the place I came up with was East Anglia, with the option of taking in Essex (Lap Bunt) or Donna Nook and Derbyshire (Lap Bunt and Willow Tit). The main problem was going to be light availability and the forecast of utterly shite weather.
For various reasons I didnt get out until 21st. The morning of which found me at Santon Downham looking for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker with also a chance of Willow Tit (apparently).

After a couple of hours searching without a sniff, a Lesser Spot suddenly decided to respond to my occasional bursts from the ipod. A real rush of adrenalin as I reached for the camera but instead of coming nearer it headed off deeper into the wood! 90 mins later and I was still trying to relocate it. It was now drizzling and the light was starting to fail, I checked the time and it was 13.30! I had to look again. 1.30 in the afternoon and the light was going. That was a real sinking feeling.

Woods at Santon Downham

RAF Lakenheath just a few miles down the road

Despite knowing there was a Lesser Spot in there somewhere, I just couldnt summon up the enthusiasm to carry on looking for it even though my options for year ticks were now very limited. I decided to head up to Fakenham, to Norfolks most reliable Willow Tit site!
I was in a bit of a hurry so the discovery of around 30 Waxwings in a tree beside the road in Brandon was only given the minimum of attention. This involved reversing back down the busy road and hanging out the camera to get a couple of record shots.

I arrived at Sculthorpe Moor with around 30 mins of daylight left. However on getting inside the wood that had soon disappeared so had to give it up for the day.
With wind and heavy rain forecast for the next few days I contemplated heading home but then thought of all the effort I had put into the year and decided to carry on. The decision was to drive up to Donna Nook to be there in the morning. After about an hours driving in heavy traffic and only getting a few miles past Kings Lynn I just couldnt carry on! I was tired, wet and thoroughly depressed! The last place I wanted to be was the windswept saltmarshes of Donna Nook! I turned the car around and headed straight to the Premier Inn at Kings Lynn.
The next morning was wet and windy as forecast, but summoning up the last of my will power I decided to give Sculthorpe Moor one more go for Willow Tit and then perhaps head down to Essex for Lap Bunt. Sadly it was all in vain and I had to finally admit defeat when a showery early morning turned into a really heavy downpour. And that was that! With the appalling weather it took me the rest of the day to get home.

Actually a pretty good place for photography with lots of birds feeding outside the numerous hides. Light levels just too low though today

During Christmas, thoughts started to drift toward a possible Scotland trip with some goodies in Aberdeenshire and a chance to get Caper back! But it was not to be. Too many things going on and some really shite weather put pay to that idea. I could have probably got a couple more ticks but was never going to get 6. So the photo list is 294, I havent heard of anybody photographing more species in a year so presumably a British record but not the hoped for 300.

There is always next year...

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

294. Cetti's Warbler

Another tart tick out of the way. A nice sunny morning down at Swineham for Cetti's didnt take long. They were quite active in the sunshine. However 'active' for Cetti's still means skulking, and there was plenty of vegetation to get in the way. All I can say is that the photos meet the criterion of showing an identifiable bird!