Early spring in Bucknell Wood

Went for a good stomp around my local patch Bucknell Wood near Silverstone today for a few hours. Real spring feel there now with over 10 Chiffchaff in song and decent numbers of butterflies on the wing with plenty of Brimstones, Peacocks and Commas, as well as my first Large White of the year. Also found my first Crab Spider lurking on a flower.

As spring like as it was, there was still a smattering of winter visitors on show with several vocal Siskins, at least 5 Redpoll sp, 2 Redwing and around 5 Fieldfare.

Local birds, Osprey & Adders

The plan for the weekend (21/03 - 23/03) was to catch up with some local birds along with a small jaunt out of the county on Sunday.

Finally the light in the evenings is improving meaning after work birding is back on the agenda, wahoo! So immediately after work on Friday (21/03) I headed straight over to Boddington Reservoir for the gull roost to finally catch up with a Med Gull, something I've been trying on & off for weeks without success.

As per usual, numbers of gulls, particularly Common & Black Headed were very good. Gary Pullen had reported a Med the night before so I was quite optimistic. Low and behold after no more than 10 minutes of scanning through the masses, out popped a smart adult Mediterranean Gull, superb! The black on the head wasn't quite complete but was still a smart bird. The only other thing slightly of note was a pair of Goosander. I was soon joined by Gary and we both watched it for a while before I had to shoot off. Very decent start to the weekend.

Early Saturday (22/03) morning I started first thing at Harrington Airfield. The sun was out but there was a really bitter chill in the air. The main target here were the Bramblings, with Harrington being pretty much the only reliable spot in the county. There were at least 10 birds weezing away and coming down to the seed on the concrete track, mostly males looking absolutely stunning coming into their summer plumage.

  

I'd hoped to maybe turn up a migrant or two on a circuit there, however it was very very quiet only coming across a very showy pair of Red Legged Partridge.

Lastly, I met up with Jon Philpott at  Pitsford Reservoir by the dam to have a look at the Red Necked Grebe that had been there most of the week. It was my 4th for the county but actually the first one in Northants since 2008. It showed pretty well but not quite close enough for really close quarter shots like Jon and others had captured earlier in the week.

Sunday (23/03) saw the gang (Me, Dave, Jon, Kirsty & Sam) head out to Rutland to look for Adders at Ketton quarry. Dave, Jon and Kirsty saw several the previous week so I was very much looking forward to seeing my first ones! The weather was a mixture of sun and cloud making it a bit uncertain of how well they'd show. After plenty of searching I finally found a male, but it slithered away under some brambles before I could get any photos. After seeing it again deep in the undergrowth nearby, I thankfully found another near to the car park, largely in the open. Was really chuffed with views and managed to get some pretty decent shots.

After a well received McDonald's we finished at Rutland Water Lyndon Reserve to see the recently arrived Ospreys. There were plenty of birds on the feeders by the visitor centre, with several Tree Sparrows, Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings and a Marsh Tit present. They made for some great photographic opportunities.

We then took the long walk down to the Shallow Water hide. There was one female Osprey on show, giving really good views perched up by the Manton Bay nest site. A couple of times she swooped down for nest material and was seen to nest scrape too. She is an unringed bird presumed to be of Scottish origin and arrived back on 17/03. She's now awaiting the return of her male partner 5R(04).

Lastly back at the visitor centre were a showy pair of Kestrels in a nest box affording some great views. After enjoying these we headed home to the pub.

North Wales

On Saturday (08/03) I was joined by Jon & Kirsty Philpott. We started off ludicrously early and made our way to 'World's End', a large expanse of moorland habitat between Wrexham and Llangollen. Jon & Kirsty had been there relatively recently with Dave and had sussed out a couple of excellent spots for lekking Black Grouse. We weren't to be disappointed seeing in total around 31 birds altogether, from 3 leks. One lek in particular was incredibly close and we enjoyed fabulous views from the car together with their eerie and fascinating bubbling and hissing calls, it really was awesome to watch. (Jon kindly let me use his camera to get the shots below). We had the added bonus of a male Red Grouse close by too. 

We moved onto Llangollen thereafter to look for Dippers. We weren't to be disappointed, finding two birds along with a confiding Grey Wagtail.

We enjoyed these for a while before driving a further hour to Pensarn on the North Wales coast for the Surf Scoters. There had been up to 7 birds amongst the masses of Common Scoter in recent weeks. Our luck sadly was not in though despite there being several thousand Common Scoter on offer. Other birds noted here included several Red Throated Diver, Red Breasted Mergansers and good numbers of Great Crested Grebe.

We decided to then go along the coast to look for a Snow Bunting along the beach at Llandudno. Despite the stunning scenery, a nice pair of Stonechat and a Ringed Plover, there was very little else about and no sign of the Bunting.

So on to Rhos-on-Sea, an excellent spot for close views of resting waders on the sea defence boulders. We were in luck, getting great views of a single Purple Sandpiper. Below are iphone-scoped (bottom) and taken with Jon's camera (top).

Also present were several Turnstone and Dunlin, as well as a couple each of Shag and Cormorant offshore.

We went back to Pensarn, where I had another good scan, however it had become increasingly blustery and so we decided to start the long journey home. Was a real nice day out but a dam shame the Surfs failed to show, particularly when 5 were reported the next day!!! However that's birding, you've got to take the rough with the smooth!