White Nuns, Great Grey Shrike and much more!

Had a day to myself on Sunday (25/01), so having done most of my recent birding close to home, I decided to do the rounds a bit further a field and head towards the north end of Northants.

I set off first thing in the dark, driving straight to Blatherwyke, NE of Corby. I had a good look around the old church here with a couple of Hawfinch recently reported here. Sadly no sign with just good numbers of Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Fieldfare, Redwing, 1-2 Mistle Thrush and as per usual, plenty of Red Kite.

A short distance away at Blatherwyke Lake, Mandarin numbers had swelled somewhat since I was last there in late December. There was a lot of displaying gone on, bringing them all out from the trees and bank. I counted 46, but I'm certain there were more than that still hidden amongst the trees and their large roots reaching out into the water.

There were a fair few geese scattered around, but soon many more headed in from the nearby fields, predominantly Greylags. Amongst them was a nice group of 4 Pink Footed Geese keeping tightly together at all times, all with big lumps of mud on their bills from feeding in the nearby fields (Very poor photo below).

Next I visited Wakerley Wood and went for a for a bit of a walk round looking for Crossbill. The place was so quiet, apart from the hoards of mountain bikers! In a good half hour walk, all I saw was just the odd Goldcrest, Coal Tit and Marsh Tit. Bit of a let down, but nevermind, can be a bit hit & miss there! I then headed back along the A43 to Deene Lake, which is always worth a look. Not too much on offer there, although a count of 18 Shelduck was pretty impressive!

A relatively short drive away, just the other side of the A43 and the village of Deenethorpe, a Great Grey Shrike had been present for a few weeks now, ranging widely around field hedges and bridleways. On arrival I got a bit jammy with several other birders on it some 100m further down the road. He was just sat up in the sun in a nearby hedge. The shrike showed fairly well, zipping down to the ground to feed occasionally, before gradually moving further and further away from the road, along the hedgerow. When I left it was a very distant little silhouette perching on the top of another distant hedge, flying around briefly after being mobbed by a local Kestrel! All things considered I reckon I did pretty well getting the views that I did having heard how mobile it has been.

I decided to then finish the day over at Ravensthorpe and Hollowell Reservoirs, NW of Northampton. I headed to the causeway at Ravensthorpe and in fact ended up staying there for quite a long while! Here, two pairs of Smew had been showing very well recently on the small side and for me, they didn't disappoint! Those stonking 'white nuns' were really feisty at times having a right tilt at each other, fantastic to watch! Occasionally they came fairly close to the causeway to feed, however for much of the time, were a little too far away to get really decent photos. I found them a really tricky bird to photograph and get the exposure right. I did in the end however, get a handful of ok shots.

On the other side of the causeway, after a little scanning, I eventually found the 1st-winter drake Scaup that had also been present for some while now. It was relatively distant and asleep but still a great bird to see. I don't know why but I always get a great buzz out of seeing a Scaup! To my surprise, looking at my 2014 year-list, I didn't actually see one at all last year which rather surprised me!!

After having another fix of the Smew, looking back the Scaup was now a hell of a lot closer and over the next 20 minutes or so, gave great views feeding away along side several Tufted Duck and good numbers of Wigeon. Certainly my best views yet of Scaup...brilliant!

The golden late afternoon light was great for photos and it was cool getting some images that really show the green colouration of the Scaup's head. The Wigeon too looked mint!

A quick walk up the point at nearby Hollowell Reservoir revealed the water levels to be exceptionally low. I saw very little, although a distant adult Yellow-Legged Gull was good, getting a nice comparison next to an adult Lesser Black Back. By then the sun was going down, so it was time to get back to Brackers!

Keeping it local

This weekend I decided to keep it pretty close to home, ie. deepest, darkest south Northants & a little bit of Oxfordshire for good measure.

On Saturday (17/01) I popped out for a short while over to Boddington Reservoir to see what was about and to see my first Willow Tit of 2015. Was a real nice sunny day and perfect for photos. The large, wet, reedy area at the NE end held several vocal Teal and the usual Snipe, though certainly not the c.50 I've often seen here, due, I guess, to the current higher water levels. In fact I probably only had around 5-10.

Here I managed to get ridiculously close to a Fieldfare, usually a really jumpy species. I managed to stalk it down to about 10 feet, as it just sat there chilling on a fence post. With the sun behind me, I finally managed to get some decent photos of one.

Moving onto Byfield Pool and I soon picked up the hoped for Willow Tit on call. I then watched it for some time foraging around the trees along with a couple of Treecreeper and a few Great & Blue Tits. A Water Rail then began squealing from the reed bed here, a site first for me.

I then moved onto the dam where most birds had congregated due to the sailing going on. Here a group of 9 Goosander (5 drakes) were present, along with a couple of Kingfisher.

I took a bit of a longer route home and had a look at a few places but had nothing more than a pair of Raven between Eydon & Canons Ashby and lots of Buzzards.

Yesterday, Sunday (18/01), I visited Grimsbury Reservoir, Banbury to have a better look at the Sibe Chiffchaff that had been present there for a while. I had it twice last week during my lunch breaks, however wasn't able to spend too long there.

There was very little on the reservoir, however arriving at the wood, the sun came out and it was alive with birds. I soon got on to several Goldcrest and a Coal Tit. I then found at least 2 possibly 3 Collybita Chiffchaff and soon the tristis too. Managed to get nice prolonged views as it busily fed in the alders and pines.

The Tristis disappeared for a short time then flew back over my and a couple of other local birders' heads from the other side of the river, before landing in front of us and letting out an unmistakable Collybita type call. Hmmmmmm! With very pro-Tristis plumage (ie. pale, whitish underparts, grey/brown mantle & buff/brown supercilium etc.) this certainly doesn't rule it out and reading up on them a bit more, this isn't the first time this has occurred and it may well have the classic 'peep' call in its repertoire too. More interesting stuff on Siberian Chiffchaff ID can be read here: http://birdingfrontiers.com/2013/01/01/siberian-chiffchaff-and-common-chiffchaff-part-1/ & here: http://birdingfrontiers.com/2013/01/02/siberian-chiffchaff-and-common-chiffchaff-part-2/. One thing that was noticeable was how different the bird looked in different light, almost Bonelli's Warbler-like in the sun, but far more grey and white when the cloud came over.

I then heard a Willow Tit and managed to locate it on the other side of the river, feeding in  willows together with several Long Tailed Tits. I then spent the next little while attempting to get better photos of the Tristis, however the light was poor and results distinctly average! The Willow Tit moved closer but the shots of this too weren't great at all ether! The photos below as good as it got.

I spent the rest of the day back in Northants, wandering along the footpaths around farmland between Weston & Canons Ashby in the stunning sunshine. Failed to locate any hoped for Little Owls in what looked like ideal habitat. I did however get brief views of a Merlin flying purposefully east and late in the day, a flock of exactly 70 Golden Plovers were flying around calling, always nice to see locally. Other than that I saw just the usual common farmland and woodland birds including a nice confiding pair of feeding Marsh Tits (below).

New year county drive about

On Friday (02/01) it was time for a new year outing around the county on my last proper day off before going back to work on the Monday.

I started off at Clifford Hill GP first thing on a bright, sunny day, in the hope of seeing the recent Black Necked Grebe. The first birds of note was a group of 8 Goosander on the River Nene. Walking around to the SE corner, I soon located the Black Necked Grebe fairly close in. I carefully crept along and managed to enjoy great views with the sun behind me, soon joined by Bob Bullock.

I also eventually got onto the recent juv Dark Bellied Brent Goose with Bob's help right in the NW corner so no photos. I had a stomp around the boggy, reedy areas between the main lake and the A45 but nothing too exciting other than a calling Cetti's Warbler & a Kingfisher.

I then drove the short way along to Billing GP to have a look for the Ring-Necked Duck. It was pleasing to find it pretty close by, near to the car sales hut by the garden centre. It was in the company of a couple of Gadwall and a handful of Tufties. Sadly the light was pants and even getting permission from the caravan shop next door to view from there still meant fairly poor light. The scope views though were very good and were a hundred times better than what I'd had back on Christmas eve.

I finished the day at Pitsford Reservoir on both sides of the causeway. From the feeding station there was a distant Redshank in the Scaldwell Bay and several Snipe, however no sign of the hoped for Smew. Tree Sparrows appeared to be in pretty good numbers.

I moved onto the south side of the causeway and set off on the long walk to the Pintail Bay area. After a bit of a scan, I managed to locate the Slavonian Grebe that had been present for the previous few days, feeding with several Tufties and a Little Grebe.

A short way along I had a look for the 3 White Fronted Geese that had been in the area for quite a while. I soon found them amongst around 50 Greylags in Pintail bay. The trio consisted of 2 adults and a juvenile and showed well in the late afternoon golden light.

The walk back produced an unusually showy Redwing and back on the North side a Little Egret appeared, as well as a feeding Great White Egret distantly in the Walgrave Bay.

I drove back home and then onto Bicester to pick up my girlfriend from work and was chuffed to see a Woodcock flying across the A43 in the last of the light about a mile or so into Oxfordshire.

Otmoor Starlings

Tuesday (30/12) was the perfect opportunity to finally get over to Otmoor near Oxford enjoy the impressive Starling roost. Reports over the weekend suggested that an estimated 70,000 birds came in. That was the only persuasion I needed.

Decided to slowly amble round the reserve and finish off with roost. I stuffed a few left over Mince Pies into my pocket and set off from the car park. It was a slightly gloomy day and was to be quite honest pretty bloody cold, as it always seems to be there!

Spent a bit of time at the feeding station with the camera. The birds appeared to be oblivious to me being there and I enjoyed good views of a couple of Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Coal Tit, apparently quite scarce here.

After standing there a fair old while and not being able to feel my feet with cold, I moved on. Slowly wandered around finding a cream-crown Marsh Harrier, a male Stonechat, c.15 Pintail, a few squealing Water Rail, several hundred Wigeon and a paticularly showy Goldcrest that decided after feeding for a while, to sit in the bush next to me and fall asleep!

I then finished up at the reedbed by the first and second screens. The late afternoon light was fabulous and made for awesome photo opportunities, especially with good numbers of ducks at close quarters. Birds here included a large flock of Shoveler, 3 Pintail, as well as plenty of Teal, Mallard and Gadwall and smaller numbers of Tufted Duck and Pochard. The Marsh Harrier was constantly quartering the reeds and a Cetti's Warbler sang several times.

The Starlings gradually came in and while there was not much in the way of murmirating, the sight and sound of them all coming in was pretty bloody awesome. The noise was deafening! It was though frustrating to see some people climbing up the bank and peering into the reeds, risking interupting the show. There really are some flipping morons about!
Was difficult to say how many birds there were but subsequently I've seen online there was probably an estimated 50,000...nice!

I was insanely cold...like, f**kin freezing! So cue the long walk back to the car. I assumed that was the end of my day, however during the walk back, within the space of 5 seconds a Woodcock careered past and a Barn Owl then floated from over the hedge across the path and into the abyss! Great finish to a really enjoyable day's winter birding.