Levels-birder

December 31st 2008

Between Xmas and the New Year, before travelling to see our grandchildren, I took Kay to se this superb juvenile Snowy Owl on the high moorland near Zennor in Southwest Cornwall – a first for Kay. I was fortunate to spend a week with the breeding pair on Fetlar in the Shetlands, in June 1972, since when I’ve had just three other sightings including this magnificent looking individual, which is most probably the same bird that was present on the Isles of Scilly earlier this past autumn?

 

 

On a purely personal note: bird-wise this past year has been very good for me, as for the first time since moving into the County in the autumn of 1990 I managed to break the 200 barrier; seeing 204 species during the year in Somerset, or 205, if the two, presumed feral, Barnacle Geese at Wimbleball Lake in January is allowed?

 

December 25th 2008

                                     At a time of magic – this two-headed/four-winged swan was seen

                                        over Shapwick, on its way north to pull the Ice Queens chariot.

                                MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

 

December 24th 2008

I’ve not had much opportunity for taking any photos this past two weeks or so, what with a four day, 450 mile, round trip to visit close relatives and deliver Xmas presents, followed by a nasty sore-throat and head cold – the usual seasonal virus! I did make a visit to Minehead and Porlock Bay on the 10th, where Red-throated Diver, Razorbill and Common Guillemot were new birds for my Somerset year-list, and I soon added another, Mandarin Duck, finding a group of seven skulking under the overhanging foliage in the feeder pond at Hawkridge Reservoir on the same day.

 

 

 

 

This morning, found me once again in Lower Backway at Bruton (my second visit in three days), where, after a half-hour wait; I was finally successful in seeing 2 Hawfinches (library photo) that flew in and landed in the top of a tall, bare, riverside tree.

 

Later, in the afternoon, while getting in a few last-minute Xmas items, Kay and I stopped off and saw the usual Cattle Egrets (six today) at nearby Sharpham Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 8th 2008

Over the past couple-of-days I’ve done very little birding. I did pop-out to try and get some photos of the Cattle Egrets at Sharpham Park, only five minutes from my house. I’ve been seeing up to six birds here, but they are hardly within camera range so these are just record shots of some of them feeding around a small herd of Old English Longhorns in the late afternoon sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

The egrets may have been a bit distant, but this Cetti’s Warbler was completely unexpected, as it appeared, like a large wren, calling and flicking around a small clump of bulrushes only a few metres from where i had parked my car – what luck!

 

 

 

 

December 6th 2008

 

During this first week of the month, I’ve been out at dusk on several evenings trying to see a Tawny Owl (I’ve heard lots) to add to my year list, but no luck so far. The Cattle Egrets, feeding among Old English Longhorns at Sharpham Park, have been much easier to see, and I’ve been seeing up to 6 birds here in passing – it’s close to where I live. On the 4th, while looking for a reported, week-old, sighting of a Penduline Tit at Greylake RSPB Reserve, I finally caught up with my first Hen Harrier of this autumn/winter – a ringtail (a juvenile male on slim-size) that flew low across the marshy area scattering the feeding Common Snipe.

Today, I led a Somerset Ornithological Society Field Meeting to Catcott Lows and Heath; where, apart from the usual Wigeon and Pintail etc, the highlights were an adult female Marsh Harrier, a Bullfinch, and a smart male Brambling. Later, a visit to Shapwick Heath NNR was successful when not long after watching an Otter from Noah’s Hide, distant honking herald the arrival of a family party of 6 Whooper Swans and they flew in from the north to land on the lake – always great to see wild swans.

So far this month very little has come within camera range, only this rather dark Common Buzzard and this Grey Squirrel. I came upon the squirrel sitting, like a small ornament, slap-bang in the middle of a narrow country road. Having forced my car to a stop, it obligingly posed on a nearby farmhouse gate.