Levels-birder

October 28th 2008

This will be my last entry until the second week of November – off on a fishing trip with my eldest son.

This morning, Kay and I went to Shapwick Heath NNR, but it was very quite – bird wise. We searched the sallows along the discovery trail boardwalk but couldn’t find any small passerines of note. On Meare Heath shallow pool the Lapwings were stirred up by a female Marsh Harrier that landed on the back island and stayed for a short while, while a distant adult peregrine patrolled the sky. This didn’t seem to worry the Great White Egret which flew towards us, landing in the shallows below the near bank. I grabbed these photos before it disappeared from sight behind the bankside vegetation.

 

 

 

 

October 26th 2009

My walk along the Huntspill Seawall, Bridgwater Bay, during high water this morning saw very little. I spent some time searching through a mobile flock of some 30 to 40 Meadow Pipits, but couldn’t find anything out-of-the-ordinary. I did manage to photograph this Meadow Pipit taking a bath in one of the rainwater pools, and this Skylark allowed me to approach unusually close; otherwise, just the usual ducks and waders and a single Raven.

 

 

 

 

 

October 24th 2009

 

Kay came out birding with me this afternoon, and we went to Greylake RSPB Reserve, and then had a slow, stop-and-look drive around Kings Sedge Moor. Best was at Greylake – a Jack Snipe that flew up with 2 Common Snipe before dropping back into cover. I also managed to take my best-to-date photos of a close hovering Kestrel, and this one waited while I got my camera out of its rucksack!

 

 

 

 

 

October 23rd 2009

 

Much better fare today with a fellow birder on Exmoor, where after 1½ hours of searching we saw 4 Ring Ouzels, 3 juveniles and an adult female, along Chetsford Water. As usual, they were a bit flighty and this was the best photo I could get of the female. We also saw a flock of about 150 Fieldfares, together with several Redwings, all feeding on hawthorn berries, as well as 2 Bramblings with a small flock of Chaffinches, and nearby a female Merlin and a Peregrine.

 

 

October 21st 2009

This morning’s hard slog (well, hard at my age!) out over the top of Brean Down, returning via the lower track, didn’t turn up much: a pair of Ravens, a male Sparrowhawk, and 4 each of Rock Pipit and Stonechat was the best of poor fare! The cover around Brean Down Farm was seemingly devoid of many birds, apart from a few Dunnocks (photo), and no sign of a Black Redstart in Brean Down Cove.

 

 

Luckily, my stop off at Meare Heath shallow pool on my way home was better: 3 Marsh Harriers giving good views – 2 different adult females and a juvenile, and at 14:10 hrs 3 adult Cattle Egrets flew in from the north and landed. After a short while they bathed and preened, then one bird started playing with a swan’s quill. They were fairly distant, so these photos (two digiscoped) are not very good.

 

 

Three Cattle Egrets, with a Little Egret - back left

 

 

 

October 20th 2009

I haven’t been out birding recently due to family commitments, but having mentioned in my last entry about better photos of the recent Brown Shrike on Staines Moor, I’m sure some of you will like to see these two, high definition video-stills taken through a telescope by Paul Bowyer and shown here with his kind permission. More of Paul’s photos on his website via this link http://www.birdlist.co.uk

 

 

 

 

October 13th 2009

 

What a morning! I was up early and soon on the 120 mile drive to Staines Moor – one of my old birding haunts when I lived in West Middlesex 19 years ago. Arriving at about 09:30 (having made a detour to get around a traffic-jam on the motorway) I joined a group of about 100 birders, all watching a first-winter Brown Shrike – a bird that I had flown to see on the Isles-of-Scilly last October, only to discover that it wasn’t one! This one was the ‘genuine article’ and identification-wise it ticked all the right boxes. My distant shot and much-enlarged image does it no justice, better photos can be seen on the internet at Surfbirds and Birdguides websites. While watching this Brown Shrike, which breeds in Southern Siberia, Northern Japan and much of Eastern China and winters in the Indian subcontinent, someone spotted a Great Grey Shrike perching on top of sparse bushes in the middle of the moor – an amazing coincidence, two species of shrike on the same moor!!

 

 

 

October 12th 2009

Yesterday afternoon, after the rain had passed through, I had a walk across King’s Sedge Moor and saw a Great Bustard associating with 2 Mute Swans. Later, others had much closer views and were able to confirm that its single remaining wing-tag was red with a black 28 number, indicating that it was a release in 2008 from the reintroduction programme currently taking place on Salisbury Plain.

 

Today, after completing my WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) on Walton and Loxton’s Marsh, I took advantage of the sunny weather with no wind to make yet another search for Bearded Tits on Ham Wall RSPB Reserve. I’d walked the reserve for almost an hour – seeing a juvenile Marsh Harrier – when suddenly, with ‘pinging calls’, 2 Beared Tits flew across my path. I followed them and was soon treated to views of this super male and a nearby female (presumably a pair) perched and feeding in the tops of the tall phragmites – absolutely brilliant!!

 

 

 

 

October 10th 2009

 

This morning, with 19 members of the Somerset Ornithological Soc., I went on a field meeting to Steart, part of Bridgwater Bay NNR. Highlights were a circling flock of 200+ Golden Plover and a feeding flock of 60 Black-tailed Godwits, also a female Peregrine and a juvenile Marsh Harrier.

 

 

October 6th 2009

 

This afternoon, the 4 Glossy Ibis were still at Catcott Lows, but again too distant for any proper photos. I then went to Cheddar Reservoir, where yesterday’s drake Ring-necked Duck was also too far for a photo. Luckily, this female Red-crested Pochard was closer, even if my lens was looking straight into what bright reflected-light there was on a somewhat cloudy day.

 

 

This female has a pinkish tip to her bill; a juvenile’s bill would be all dark-grey.

 

October 3rd 2009

A tale of 5 Ibises: The single juvenile Glossy Ibis was still at Meare Heath shallow pool this morning, along with the Great White Egret, adult Cattle Egret, 2 juvenile Pectoral Sandpipers, 4 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Ruff and a juvenile Ringed Plover. Surprisingly, following a text message on my mobile phone, I went to Catcott Lows in the afternoon and saw another party of 4 juvenile Glossy Ibises – quite amazing! Presumably, these are the same 4 that circled over Chew Valley Lake a week ago. A digiscope photo of the Meare Heath Ibis taken through my ‘scope, using Alan Ashman’s compact camera, and two, very distant, silhouette flight-shots of the 4 Ibises at Catcott Lows…