Vis-mig!

6/04/13
Patch birding and vis-mig. What could be better?

A nice early morning thrash of the newly found riverside fields and Paddocks area got me some decent birds.
2 Mandarin Duck were still showing on the river, but the main focus was on the Passerines on and over the fields. It was quickly obvious that Meadow Pipit's were moving en-mass following a short period of fog, and they were now streaming over constantly, with 100+ going over in the 2 hours i was out. Additionally, 13 birds were grounded, and i had great views of then for a good few minutes  before they joined a flock of 10c overflying birds, and carried on their migration northwards!

I took a video of the exact moment the last bird of the flock took flight.

9 Skylark were also showing in the 3 paddocks surrounding me, and i had great views of both singing, and of the birds chasing each other.

2 Lapwing still holding territory nearby also.

As well as Pipits, Wagtails were also moving, with 50c 'Alba' Wagtail Sp going over in the time i was out, however non decided to land. The previous days Winter Thrush flock had dropped in size greatly, with only 10 Fieldfare remaining. The biggest surprise however was the obvious Starling movement, of which around 200 flew over, including a single 100 strong flock, all heading purposefully north!

Later that evening i returned to the patch, but it wasn't rewarded greatly. 2 drake Goosanders were on the river, and showing well.

MB

Catch Up time!

Im getting there folks, only a month behind now, and most of the next load are quite short posts, so i should be able to catch up fairly shortly for a good start to the new year!
Patch
20/10/12
Fairly quiet vismig wise, winter thrushes were just starting to move, with 8 Redwing and 9 Fieldfare, 12 Skylark and 8 Meadow Pipit. In complete contrast however was the extremly large numbers of Goldcrests in the Lickhill conifer wood, with around 30 birds been seen within a short period. This included a single flock of 15 birds!!
A pair of Raven were showing in the fog at the riverside fields

 27/10/12
Again, fairly quiet, 24 Meadow Pipit over, 7 Pied Wagtail, 5 Skylark, 5 Redwing and 3 Linnet.

Later in the day, while at the gardening job, my dad alerted me to 'odd' wader like calls he was hearing from the field opposite the house. A quick scan and i'd picked up 2 GOLDEN PLOVER! They continued to show untill they took flight, and flew off towards Wythall.

 

 

 

After this, we checked the lakes, which held a single drake Goosander, a Little Grebe and a Kingfisher.

 

3/11/12

A rather annoying morning on the patch, when i picked up a bird i am certain was a FIRECREST! I heard the bird calling for a very long time before finally seeing a crest sp emerge from the ivy covered tree the sound was originating from. In the incredibly brief view i wasnt able to note any feature other than the bird was a crest sp, as the bird was facing away from me. I couldnt even see anything on the head pattern. Annoyingly, after about an hour with only this one miniscule sighting, and the bird having now either gone silent or moved on i had to leave, and the bird wasnt seen again, despite searching by a local birder on consecutive days! One that 'got away' i guess.

MB 

Patch Birding- Highlights

17/09/12
Early morning watches of the patch has been revealing large numbers of Hirudines moving, and today was no exeption, with about 500 Swallow and H Martin moving south along the river in just over an hours 'vis-migging.
Migrant wise. the only birds were a Garden Warbler (Getting late) and 2 Blackcap, as well as multiple Chiffchaff.

22/09/12
Early morning agian for more vismig!
The highlight was by far my first GOLDEN PLOVER of the autumn which flew over south calling.
Hirudines were now moving in much smaller numbers, with only about 100 Swallows going through. However, this was eclipsed by 150+ Meadow Pipits that flew over, all heading in a SW direction. This compared to a measly 5 Skylark, however, they tend to 'move' a little later in the year.
Away from vismigging, the patch was quiet, exept for a flock of 5 Mandarin (3 drk) which flew north upriver. A male kestrel was showing well.

MB

Stackpole Head- PUFFIN'S!

6/06/12

Stackpole head has always been a favorite area in Pembrokeshire, a nice mix of birds, nice beaches and stunning sea cliffs. It always makes for a decent couple of hours, even if theres not many birds about!
Over the last few years, there has been a seeming decline in numbers of everything here, so my hopes wernt exactly too high. However, all the 'usual' suspects are still around, just in less numbers!

The weather everyday since the Sunday had been rather atrocious, and therefore all birding time was pritty much canceled! We did witness the Lifeboat docking at it's station on the Wednesday, and a quick walk along the beach in Tenby during howling wind and driving rain lead to a suspected sighting on a Skua sp. However, the views were ever so brief as it ducked in behind a wave, with no bins, and when using one of the telescopes on the seafront (which were terrible btw!) i couldnt relocate it. Which is a shame, because ive only ever seen one skua previously!

On the thursday morning however, there was a gap in the weather, and i had a PAINTED LADY buttefly on the plants outside the window.

Later in the day, moving to Stackpole head, it was similarly sunny, but with a very gusty wind. It didnt takes long before we started picking up the birds, Skylarks were (as usual) everywhere! And Meadow Pipit were 'seeping' all around us.

A couple of WHEATEAR also joined us on the cliff top, and after abit of time, a female approached us, and gave stunning views!

Soon after, we were also joined by the male bird. Presumably a 1st summer because of the brown tinged wing feathers.

What a stunner!

However, the main reason for visiting these cliffs was to try and see one of the Icons of coastal birding in Wales. The CHOUGH.

We soon picked up a flock of these birds calling from the other side of the head, and we soon located then on the cliff edge.

We were treated to views of an immature bird. A plumage which previously i have never seen, which was now fully indipendant from its parents.

And talk of the devil, Here are the two stunning corvids! Glossy black with blood red bills and legs.

And just flying out to mob one of the ever present Herring Gulls.

The birding here is not just confined to the cliff tops. Clinging on to the vertical rock face below is a bustling colony of seabirds, with both the 'common' Auks well represented. And, as we were a week later than most years, most of the colony were in attendance, and we were treated to large numbers on hte cliff faces, and forming rafts below us on the swell.

And it was while scanning these rafts that i picked out a few white faces. Even at the extreme range we were from the bird (1/2- 1 mile) i could easilly tell that i was watching a PUFFIN on the water! Great stuff!
I knew they were here from previous sightings, however, i had never seen one actually perched/swimming, so it was great to get views of them in the water.
We moved along the cliff, closer to where the birds were, and soon realised that there was infact more than one bird here. And i soon counted 6 birds swimming about, including these two birds, which swam on the sea not too far away.

A SHAG was near the top of the cliffs at its nest.

However, i was soon distracted by the numbers of ROCK PIPIT which had decided they wanted to show well, and i was soon in the presence of a showy male bird, which casually stroled around about 30ft away, often pausing to sing or preen.

A couple of times. the bird was knocked off ballence by the strong winds, which made for some odd poses!

We were also treated to amazing views of this bird, whch showed a very ragged tail.

All in all, a very good visit, and it was nice to see Stackpole 'back on form'.Decent birds, ok weather, what more could you ask for?

MB

Today i went fishing

28/10/11
Many of you will not know, that i am both a birder and a fisherman, despite having fishing taking a back seat for some time.
Me and my dad got out today to a place called wellfield Pools in shropshire, this has always been one of my favorite places to go fishing!

Well thats all good i hear you say? But what does it have to do with a birding blog?

Well, as well as being very good for fish, it is also very good for farmland birds!

Over the coarse of the day i watched Vismig of many species, and the day total of Skylark must be 100+, with them constantly 'rippling over' and i do mean constantly, 50+ redpoll sp were also flying about, but consisted more of a feeding flock than migrating birds.
A single BRAMBLING (my first of the autumn) flew over, but at 3:47 the highlight of the day flew over, i Heard the distinctive 'chipping' of CROSSBILLS and i imidiatly looked up and around in circles, where were they, i cant count a heard only bird!!
But i was releaved when 2 large 'green' female finches with crossed bills flew over my head, only my 3rd crossbill's of the year!
5+ Raven were flying around,a nd Nuthatch, Goldcrest, Coal tit, Redwing, fieldfare and Chaffinch were in the surrounding conifers, In the plowed field that is overlooked from where the car was parked, there was a Convoy of 20 Red legged Partridge

And i also caught quite a few fish :)
MB

Patch first!

When is it that you know birding cant get any better?

When you get a patch first of cause, and not just a poxy little, 'i should have seen one here, but ive never really caught up with them tick', no i mean a fully blown WTF is that doing here tick!

As regualr readers of the blog will know, my last moment of that was when i found the 2nd winter drk Smew on the river, and the other a week before that with a Whooper swan, However, patch birding can be Dry and stail most of the time, but just once in a while, you find something special.

1/10/11

Got out quite early on the patch, walking upriver at 7:30 to try and get some videos of the Mandarins and Goosanders, slowly working my way up with a trickling stream of both MEADOW PIPIT 'seeping' and SKYLARK 'rippling' over.

On a plowed field there was 10c Lapwing (most were hidden behind bushes) and Many Pied wagtails were flying over, suddenly a flcok of 40c Swallow appeared, but immidiatly headed south in the fine conditions.

I has worked my way up to the riverside field at 7:56

It was at this point i heard a strage call, one that i couldnt recognise, i spun around to see a wader flying in low over the fields, head on, i couldnt put a name to it, but it allighted

and pitched down in a shallow ditch in the field i was standing adjacent to.

A juvenile RUFF!

I didnt know what to do, pick up my phone and tell someone, get my scope up and take a video, or continue looking through my bins, well i didnt have to choose, because the bird chose for me, and after no longer than 10 seconds it took flight and flew off climbing rapidly as it went.

Looking back on the time, i proberbly didnt hear the ruff call,(which is what i said when i passed on the news) because im under the impression they dont call much (if at all)??

But i believe that what i may have been hearing was another wader, a Snipe (which i had also never knowingly heard calling, but i did see one on the riverside fields just after the Ruff), so at least im better at IDing a bird than by calls,

The thing is, if i didnt hear that call, would i have seen the RUFF?, because at the time i was scanning hedges, maybe just abit of good luck that got me onto the bird.

But who knows,

The rest of the walk was tainted by the fact that i didnt even get a photo of this patch first, and i spent a fair bit moaping,

When i finally arrived at Blackstone, i quickly found 2 Female type MANDARIN, of which i got a video, but not the Drk i was after.

And the 2 GOOSANDER were still at Blackstone, an adult female (our summering bird) and a juv bird.







3 KINGFISHER were fishing in the river, as well as 100's of fishermen
MB

Stackpole Head

31/05/10

across barafundel beach and up the track through the woodland, to an head completly covered in walkers etc, and many of the 'common' birds were keeping down, but a plethra of year ticks followed,

a female wheatear flew along the cliff edge while another female stuck around just long enough to get one photo:

, which although not a year tick was still very nice, but on looking down onto the water, a SHAG was perched on the rocks:

the usual rock pipits, meadow pipits and skylarks were singing but all were extremly wary, but then i stumbled uppon this bird at very close range and just stood there, well untill a pair of dickwad walkers casually strolled past forcing the bird into the air, even though they saw me photographing the lark:

on looking down the cliff edge the GUILEMOTS were breeding again on their usual ledge giving superb views, anong them was a number of RAZORBILL which also showed very well, and i got perhaps my bet views of a pair ever!!!!!

the usual gull's (Actually 'sea' gulls) were constantly on the move, with all the common birds noted, and i got this shot which for some reason i am particullarly drawn to:

Loads of FULMAR were flying along the edge with the occasional one perched on the rock face:

But of cause the real reason for being up on this beautiful cliff face in stunning weather was to see the CHOUGH that are here, and they didnt dissapoint which despite not reaching the flock leval as last year reached a nice 4 birds including a pair which shown very nicely with a male wheatear:

throughout the time up on the cliff we could hear oystercatchers, but were unable to locate them, untill my dad was scanning the cliff when he saw a pair of OYSTERCATCHERS at its NEST 100+ ft up a cliff face!!!!!!!!

i mean is this normal behaviour, cause i have never heard of it???????

MB