Patching

31/08/13
I spent the majority of the session scouring the bushes at the north end of the patch. 5 Blackcap, 5 Whitethroat, a single Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Willow Warbler and 8+ Chiffchaff. Otherwhys, it was fairly standard in the species present, so i moved onto the area of grazing land, where i quickly found 15 Lapwing. However, from here i also had a vismig session, where i had a TREE PIPIT fly over calling, heading south at 8:50am. Large numbers of Swallow were also on the move, with over 500 counted before heading home. 40 'Alba' Wagtail also flew over, as did 3 Bullfinch.

The strangest sighting however was that of a Kingfisher, not content with feeding along the river, which decided it wanted to be a Spotted Flycatcher and sit on a Hawthorn in the middle of a paddock

MB

Patch Mandarin sucess

30/06/13

A late evening patch walk revealed a hoped for sighting for the last month as i finally caught up with a series of Mandarin Ducks. 2 single females which seem to have been not breeding this years were still enjoying each others company, but just a little further downriver i found another female Mandarin, but this one with the company of 7 juvenile Mandarins!

 

A few locals have been keeping me updated on their progress, as up to this point i had failed to find them, so it was great to finally catch up with her, she has been very elusive this year!

A Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail were also seen,

MB

Upton Warren- Waders

21/07/12
Upton Warren usually has some good birds about, not nessesarilly rare birds, but decent migrant birds, and that is exactly how this evening turned out, and we manadged to squeeze in a few hours to check on the 'new in' waders.

The Green Sandpiper's had now returned in decent numbers, with 8 counted dotted around the flashes. One of which was showing very well in the channel closest the hide, giving great views, as Green Sand's usualy do at this site!

With the very calm water, i decided to try some reflection shots on the Sandpipers.

 

And i took a little footage.

A single Common Sandpiper was also showing quite well, but as always with this species, was often very mobile around the flashes, so you had to be quick to anticipate where it would go. This species is less 'numerous' at Upton than Green Sand, and you dont usually get more than a few at once, which is a shame, because i love watching their 'bobbing' behaviour as they scuttle along the waters edge.

 

Unusually though, i was suprised when i heard the high pitched call of a Kingfisher, as i sped low over the water and landed on a perch below us! So unusual is this at Upton that it is the first i have ever seen actually on the flashes in about 4 years of visitng the place! Im guessing that the salinity of the pools are a cause for this absense, despite them being a regular sighting at the Moors Pool, the Sailing Pool, and along the Brook's and River. However, i took advantage of these amazing views:

 

Although being a fairly common bird at my 'local patches', Kingfisher is always a 'highlight species' when seen. You just have to look at it to see why. A stunning bird!

People are often suprised when i show them a Kingfisher as it sits in a riverside bush about how dull it looks in the shade, however, this one was in full sunlight! Check out those colours on this gorgeous male bird!

The Avocets were lingering around, and 6 birds were seen, again, dotted at various points in the flashes. A Little Ringed Plover was nice to see, after fleeing the site completly after the recent floods. A flock of 19 Curlew were showi

ng on the peninsular in front of the hide.

A pair of Little Owls were perched up on their usual farnhouse chimney.

 

A nice evening, one without rarities, but a nice selection of migrants, which if you ask me, are just as exiting!

MB

 

Patch- Hobby suprise

25/05/12
An after shopping visit to the patch was rewarded in a couple of ways, firstly i found a Kingfisher nest nestled up against a bank, which was a nice reward.
But by far the highlight, was when walked past the riverside fields, i clocked onto 3 small falcons swooping above me.
Only earlier in the day had i been complaining about the lack of Hobby i get on the patch, so now here i was, standing awestruck and 3 HOBBY hawked flies above my head, giving amazing views. Just me and 3 Hobby.
The sun was now setting, and i spent over 1 1/2 hours watching the birds constantly as they worked their way around the sky and above Ribblesford wood.
As they were constantly on view, i even grabbed the scope, and got a few record shots.

This shot contains 2/3 Hobby

And this Picture demonstrates the agility of these superb summer migrant falcons, just as it swopped upwards to catch an insect.

I eventually tore myself away from the birds around 9:30 PM, with the birds still hawking above my head.

Also a nice suprise was while watching the Hobbys, a drake Mandarin flew south, and i had the Mandarin, a Hobby and the Moon in the same field of view.

MB

Sheepwash

30/01/12
A visit after 6th form was very rewarding, not for rare species, but sheer numbers!
An outstanding flock of 66 POCHARD! was on the main pool, The highest specific count ive ever had here!
Also of note was a flock of 11 GOOSANDER, which as usual seemed to be over the other side of the pool wherever you went, a single Teal was heard calling and 3 Tufted duck were on the lake.
A male KINGFISHER shown superbly well on the river, although behind trees.
MB

Patch.

16/09/11
As i hadent been on the patch for a few weeks now, i was anxious to get back, no matter what time, i was dropped off not long before sunset and headed downriver.
There was very few birds about due to the time of day, however, a KINGFISHER was darting back and forth along the river and 4 MANDARIN were at Blackstone, including the drake which was now back to show its pluamge in all its orange glory!




I took this opporotunity however, to see how many TAWNEY OWL'S i could hear, on the journey from Blackstone to Lickhill, i counted 7 Different calling birds, which included 3 males, all but one of which were on the Ribblesford wood side of the river.
After darkness had fell, a flock of 15 LAPWING appeared against the slightly paler sky as they landed and roosted on the riverside fields!
MB

Patch Goodies

18/08/11
A walk from Lickhill to Lincomb lock was quite, and only a Lesser Whitethroat and a kingfisher were worthy of note, a few Reed Warblers were hainging on in the Reeds at the Gadwall lake.

However at Lincomb Lock i was suprised to see an amazing flock of 10 COMMON TERN, the largest flock i have even seen on the patch.

MB

A nice evening at the Warren

10/07/10
a very pleasent few hours at the warren tonight.

a flock of LITTLE EGRETS had taken over the moors, and we had to take a look,

there was 3 egrets around the pool, 1 on the braudmeadow pool, 1 in the SW marsh, and one at the north end of the pool perched in a dead tree, there was also 3 teal swimming among the islands
a kingfisher perched on a dead branch in front of the hide:



and a fox caused havoc on the islands :




On the south shore of the sailing pool 8 greylag geese were swimming.

we had been in the main hide for only a minuite or 2 when we were joined by john belsey, who was quite pleased with himslef after twitching the WTL at slimebridge. we had a quick look in the log and found out a few nice waders were down,
A new adult summer BLACK TAILED GODWIT had replaced the 1st sum bird and was showing well, there was a large number of 17 green sandpipers spread around the flash,
a bit of scanning and i picked up the flock of 5 REDSHANK, the bigest flock i have witnessed on upton soil, and with this flock of redshank was its green legged cousin, a GREENSHANK, looking very beautiful in summer clothes:

just a shame i didnt get a photo to match.






The black tailed godwit was chased by a lapwing.
2 of the LITTLE EGRETS from the moors dropped onto the 2nd flash to have a quick fedd before moveing onto the 3rd flash




highlights ;
8 Greylag geese
3 Teal ( 2 DRK)
3 LITTLE EGRET
9 !!! Grey Heron
1 Oystercatcher
6 LRP
64 Lapwing
17 Green Sandpiper
5 REDSHANK
1 GREENSHANK
1 BLACK TAILED GODWIT
24 Curlew
6 Common Tern
1 Skylark
1 Blackcap

a very nice night i think
MB

KINGFISHERS#2

6/12/09

after what i can only call one of the best birding mournings of the year,we headed home, we arrived and i went back to the kingfisher pond,today there was only one kingfisher(a male) but god did he show well,

yesterday i learned that the male was more confiding than the female,so i slowly walked towards the tree it was perched in, i got to a tree about 3 metres from the bird and stopped,in this time the bird didnt look away from the water once,showing that it does not bother it by my presance,but only when a person in a red coat get out a car did it fly off.

as the sun was much brighter today i went onto manual settings and but the ISO down and the shutter speed up. i was able to take photo's at 1/250th second which was the highest shutter speed i had got for ages with all this dull weather.so enough of me blabbering on here's some photo's:(note these images arnt cropped)

and here are some videos:

MB

KINGFISHERS

5/12/09
just a quick post,on lickhill today,a ravern was heard,12 pheasant were on the vismig field,7 goldcrest,but the highlight was 3 kingfishers which shown very,very well on a small pond.i got very close to there favorite perch,here are a few videos of the kingfishers:

MB

can it get any better

24/08/09

upton warren

the answer is yes it can

for some unknown reason we pulled in at the sailing club first,but i wanted to check the flashes out later for the roost,so after having a quick scan of the sailing pool resulted in 1 common tern but nothing more else apart from mallard.

at the moors we walked to the lapwing hide and there was quite a bit showing. a jay flushed from the bush behind the hide and flew into the educastioon reseve.a few minuites later i glanced over out the left side of the hide and there was a jay on the fence.i quickly grabbed my scope+camera and the bird was flying,then yet another jay came from the bush behind the hide and landed in a tree,it then flew to the bushes along the river and then all 3 birds popped out but were a little distant for dodgyscoping.we noted a bit of k-fisher activity on the broudmeadow and then suddely one zoomed towards us and landed on the stick giving stunning views,then the sun came out and of cause the sun was reflecting of the water behind the k-fisher but i till tried and got an acceptable video:

a few common terns were still hanging on and the cormorants were up to 6.then over to the west hide hoping for a water rail or even better a bittern but my luck had turned and none shown.a common sand flew from one of the tern boxes onto the islands.highlights here were

3 shoveler

2 teal

1 common sand

4 common tern

2 kingfisher

3 jay

a birder then entered the west hide and i told him what was about.his reply was shocking 'well theres 6 black tern on the sailing pool'.on this news i quickly gathered my stuff said thanks and rushed to the car.i had to get rid of another bogey bird.they werent there earlier so had to be recdntly arrived.i grabbed my bins and my scope and jogged to the bench.from here saw there indeed were 6 black tern(2 adult summer-winter,rest juv,family flock maybe)the views were good but we saw they were comming in much closer on the south shore,so we headed over there,i couldent expect a lifer to act the way these birds did the views were so close but so quick,one bird repetidly flew a metre or 2 away from us as it dip fed.i noticed how differant its flight was compared with 'sea terns' after watching these for some time(lost count how much time)

we headed towards the steps when a perigrine flew over carrying a white dove in its tallons which was still alive,featers were flying everywhere it flew towards the masts and was lost to view not to be seen again.we dropped into the hen pool where a 'showy cettis warbler shown well,a few reed warbler and a female gadwall.

walking to the avocet hide produced nothing.on entering the hide i asked if anyone had seen the black terns,they all seemed rather shocked.none of them had seen them,they all decided to stay put but not long after the black terns joined us anyway givving good but not as great views

one of the adult black terns landed giving me an op to try and get some pics.ok i admit there crap but you can tell its a black tern.then they flew back to the sailing pool they returned to the flashes at 7:40 pm then flew south at 7:42 pm.it wasne tlong before we were joined by more birders looking for the black terns,at around 8pm one birder came in,sat down and said 'ive got the sabine's',there was a mad rush to get on the bird then when we were all on it it gave great views of it doing its best to avoid the BHG's.mone of my videos show the amazing beauty of larus sabini. unfortunatly it only flapped its wings once revaling its upperwing patter which birders simply die for.but i was lucky enough to be filming the bird as it done just that so enjoy this as much as i have:

the rest of the night is pritty self explanitory,we watched the sabine's gull untill dark but kept an eye out for anything else,i never get tired of this bird.i got loads more films but a lot are dark and doesent show the bird doing much so i will leave them out

highlights are:

1 gadwall

3 shoveler

30c teal

1 perigrine

1 LRP(juv)

1 dunlin(juv)

10c green sand

3 common sand

10c curlew(came in when it was dark)

2 snipe

1000c BHG's

1 SABINE'S GULL

8 common tern

6 BLACK TERN (lifer)

5 stock dove

2 cetti's warbler

4 reed warbler

1 willow warbler

again i will end the post like this what a day and what a start to a week(well 9 days) over my dads 21/08-30/08/09

some more good stuff coming up soon,and a post just fr you martyn one about slimbridge,the home of ultimate plastics(with a load of wild birds thrown in)

MB