Swanning about

On Saturday, (23/01) Simon Hales joined me for a day out to SW Norfolk. This was a trip I'd been meaning to do for sometime, to enjoy the large numbers of wild swans that can be seen here in winter. With the additional presence of a 1st-winter Serin in Downham Market, a potential lifer for us both, now was the time to go!

Having overcome the satnav attempting to send us to Downham, Billericay not Downham Market (!), we arrived at the small, churned up bit of non-descript wasteland on the eastern edge of the town, where the Serin had been residing for the past few days. The bird was last seen half an hour previously, however it wasn't too long to we saw what we were looking for as the Serin appeared, loosely associating with a few Goldfinches. Nice one! It disappeared shortly afterwards before showing again in bushes by the railway.

This was a bit of a running theme to be honest, as it showed for a short while a couple more times before disappearing again. Having not shown for sometime and happy with the views we'd had, we decided to depart for nearby Welney to get out fix of swans!

The weather having been fairly bright at Downham, was now bright sunshine and clear blue sky...perfect! The drive over to Welney across the vast, flat landscape produced our first group of Whooper Swans, as well as a nice cream-crown Marsh Harrier hunting a reedy, roadside dyke.

We arrived at Welney to the sound of Whoopers immediately. Such an awesome, calming sound! The view across Lady Fen to the east was lovely, with scattered swans in the foreground and the endless fields beyond.

We headed across the bridge to the main observatory to be greeted with a sea of Pochard & Mallard, together with several Whooper Swans at close quarters. This was birding at it's easiest, but after the Serin giving us the run around earlier...why not! We had a arrived just before feeding time and so hung around to watch the birds going mental for the big scoops of food flung out by one of the wardens.

The sun shining brightly behind us, offered some great photo opportunities. It really makes you realise how stunning male Pochards really are in direct sunlight with that rich orangey head and beady red eye.

The Whoopers too were a pleasure to see up close and in fact (after checking my notes) were my first ones for 3 years!!

A lone Bewick's Swan (below) was also out on the main lagoon, while the area was just generally full of wildfowl with lots of Wigeon, good numbers of Pintail, Teal & Shoveler. Waders were represented by a distant gathering of Black Tailed Godwits, a few vocal Redshank flying about, plus Dunlin & Golden Plover overhead with plenty of Lapwings.

A wander to a couple of hides produced similar fare plus a singing Cetti's Warbler, my first of the year. After polishing off a coffee and some nice food at the cafe, we enjoyed brief views of a couple of Tree Sparrow by the feeders.

Soon after, we departed to have a bit of a drive about to look for more swans between here and Manea. Several small groups of Whoopers were seen, before we found a larger group a couple of miles away from Manea. It was cool to see them away from the reserve, doing a bit of birding from the warmth of the car!

That concluded a great day, full of quality rather than quantity but very enjoyable non the less! 

Otters!

On Saturday (16/01) I had a couple of things to do over Northampton way so decided to spend the day visiting a few sites and catching up with a few long-staying bits and bobs.

The day started at first light with a visit to Ravensthorpe Reservoir in the hope of seeing the Otters that have recently become reliable in their appearances. Otters have long eluded me in Northants and in fact England as a whole, only seeing them (several too) on Mull and the west coast of Scotland. So these were simply a must see!

It was a bitterly cold, yet stunning, clear morning. I began scanning quietly with a couple of others already there. The Great White Egret, present here for some time now, stood out like a sore thumb on the small side, chilling on the ice with a few gulls.

It wasn't too long before I could hear the squeaking calls of an Otter out of sight further along the bank and then YES, 2 Otters appeared to our right, showing a few times before disappearing.

Some more brief views occurred before we were treated to some amazing views of another swimming right across the water from the left and along the edge of the ice in front of us. Amazing! This individual, presumably a male, judging by its size, gave us some good prolonged views as he swam in and out of an isolated nearby island. The other two showed again, with one of them in particular, creating some great entertainment as it smashed it's head through the ice, had a look around and then disappeared back under water!

Several more people arrived to see them but they just didn't seem to understand the idea of being quiet in order to see them, talking at the top of the voice and just generally making way too much noise. End result being, the Otters ceased to show...shock! By this time though I'd more than had my fill of Otter and smugly left to get a nice hot coffee and then head over to nearby Hollowell Reservoir.

I like Hollowell a lot, it always has some great looking habitat and always seems to have some nice muddy shore exposed. Today was no exception. There was nothing amazing here today though with best being 3 Stonechat (2 males, 1 female), a flyover Raven, several Goldeneye and lots of Wigeon & Teal.

After Visiting Northampton for a quick cheeky haircut, I drove on to Ditchford GP, west of Ditchford Lane. I do miss the gulls here thanks to the closure of the nearby Sidegate Landfill. Multiple white-wingers now a thing of the past! A few nice bits were on offer here though with the juvenile Great Northern Diver still present on the water-ski pit, seemingly spending more time under water than above it. A single Great White Egret was about and was soon joined by a second bird before both headed off towards Wellingborough. Seven Egyptian Geese were here too, hissing away and just generally causing a bit of a din, but a welcome year tick all the same I guess. That drew an end to Ditchford for me and so off I went to finish my day at Pitsford Reservoir.

Pitsford if I'm honest was pretty quiet. A scan north of the causeway from the feeding station revealed surprisingly low numbers of wildfowl and nothing more unusual than 4 Goosander (2 drakes, 2 redheads) at the back of the Scaldwell Bay. The feeding station though was encouragingly alive with Tree Sparrows and Yellowhammers.

Finally, I spent some time at the dam end, soon confirming the continued presence of the Red Necked Grebe at the mouth of the Moulton Grange Bay. I walked round to get a better look and enjoyed some nice scope views. I had a good look through the gathering gull roost too here, but failed to find anything of note and so headed for home.

What a swine!

Saturday (09/01) saw myself & David James head over to the Forest of Dean for something a bit different...a quest to see Wild Boar!

We set off before dawn and first travelled to Parkend, towards the southern end of the forest. Our quarrel here was Hawfinch. We gave it a good hour and a half from dawn onwards. A few hungry Grey Squirrels and nice close views of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch & Coal Tits etc. and eventually a single male Hawfinch, however just when it looked like we'd get some great views, with the 'ticking' getting ever closer, some guy parked up by us to take a closer look. End result, the disappearance of the Hawfinch. Cheers!
After this, the temptation of a coffee & a sausage/bacon roll at the nearby cafe was too great and so we departed.

After the cafe, we moved on to meet with Dave' s friend Ben, who lives toward the northern end of the forest. He has brilliant knowledge of all the local wildlife and where to find it. He kindly was to be taking us around for the day in our quest to see Boar.

Throughout the rest of the morning and early afternoon, we tried several favoured sites, without success, however the signs were everywhere with lots of prints, dung and general muddy carnage everywhere, an end result of their largely nocturnal feeding habits.

The rain had now arrived with a fair bit of vengeance. We managed good views of a couple of Dipper chasing each other about and then nearby we finally found what we were looking for!

Trudging through the incessant mud, we were alerted to some rather unnerving grunts and growls from a dense block of young spruces closeby. Ben assured us though this wasn't a sound of aggression by any means. Despite our best efforts we couldn't see it so we explored the area a little more before Dave and I returned some 15 minutes later. Both of us entered the trees at two points, almost having to crawl our way in (Dave more than me!). I drew a blank, however Dave struck gold, coming face to face with three 1st-year Wild Boar!! I got over there sharpish and managed to see them zooming through the trees at pace. Great to see what we came for but I was definitely keen for better views.

Our last promising site was just a short drive away. The rain, though on and off was pretty heavy but on we went! After a 10 minute walk from the car, we approached a woodland glade where the boar were likely to be. "Stop" Dave whispered and began snapping away with his camera. Despite thorough scanning with my bins, I couldn't see anything. I didn't want to move to scare anything off. I then heard the grunt and squeal of a couple of Boar as they departed away into the forest. My view had been obscured by a couple of nearby trees. I turned to Dave to see his photo (below). F**k it!!!! I'd missed out on great views. I felt bloody disappointed but nothing I could do, it was just one of those things!

We quietly waited to see if the Boars would return, hearing 2 or 3 more nearby. A pick-me-up then appeared in the shape of a lovely Goshawk flying from nearby spruces across in front of us and out of sight. Top views and a welcome surprise. With no more Boar appearing we decided to wander around a bit before coming back round to the clearing. This proved to be a top, top plan. One, then two, three, FOUR WILD BOAR ambling out in the open! Finally! I got some great views through the bins before they melted away again after a couple of minutes.

We had one last wander about, unsuccessful in finding the nearby Great Grey Shrike and any more Boar, we began our walk back to the car. Not before we had our best Boar views yet. By now it was dusk and the rain now constant and torrential, I was muddy and wet through but didn't really care! Walking along a track, we were treated to as many as 8 Wild Boar strutting across the track to more open areas to feed, some presumably from earlier. These were great, unobstructed, prolonged views, even getting to see one male giving his arse a dam good rub on a nearby telegraph pole! A great, amusing way to end things!

Ben kindly invited us back to his to dry off and for a coffee which was welcome to say the least. Pretty chuffed I'd decided to bring a change of clothes too! After a good natter we headed back to Northants, to draw a close on an exciting and tiring day, having ploughed our way through 17km of thick Dean mud!

Many thanks to Dave for inviting me along and to Ben for dedicating his whole day to us and taking us everywhere. What a top man!

My 2015 Highlights

Well here we are, the end of 2015!

It's been a thoroughly enjoyable year, with several must-sees finally caught up with, as well as a few cracking surprises, my 300th UK bird species and many laughs along the way!

Some of my main target species for 2015 have in fact not been birds for a change, however have probably been some of the most enjoyable moments.

Three in particular stand out for me, purely as great memories that will stay with me for years to come. The first was the incredible sight of being surrounded by several hundred of my first Marsh Fritillaries on a sunny May day in the Cotswolds. Seeing so many of these beauties and having them literally emerge out of the grass in front of you, as fresh as you could possibly imagine was just magic!

The second was in fact a plant, the Fly Orchid. These have facinated me for some time and I was super keen to see some. Hearing of them and the far rarer Military Orchid being present at Homefield Wood in the Chilterns, I couldn't resist a visit during the last week of May. It was such a well worth trip and to be honest the Flys exceeded my expectations, they really were fantastic!



























The last of the three were my first ever UK Swallowtails, a seriously overdue trip!! My mate Simon Hales, an absolute Swallowtail fiend kindly took me along and we managed to see quite a few and made for a brilliant day out! I can certainly see why Simon goes several times to see them every year and I'm sure I'll be now joining him again in 2016!

As always, there's been some fabulous birding highlights with quite a few lifers. These have included a lovely looking Greater Yellowlegs, Radde's Warbler, my 300th UK bird species, displaying Melodious Warbler, great views of a juvenile Pallid Harrier, a barking Little Bittern, TWO Isabelline (Daurian) Shrike, the utter madness of my first Leach's Petrel landing in a bush, point blank views of Little Bunting & both Balearic & Sooty Shearwater .

On top of the lifers, there's been some really memorable birds. The displaying male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker during the spring was incredible and by far my best ever prolonged views of what is a very difficult species to connect with.

The summer plumaged Black Throated Diver at Farmoor Reservoir back in May was also a real highlight for me. Such a stunning sight and amazing to see at such close quarters. However, ultimately, the poorly nature & ultimate sorry end to the bird does take the tint of it all slightly.

Further 2015 birding highlights have included my first Northants Ring-Billed Gull, a showy Lesser Scaup, my first female Ferruginous Duck, a 'flock' of 3 Pectoral Sandpiper, Grey Phalarope, several Rough Legged Buzzards, Shore Larks, Glossy Ibis, a Black Guillemot in Gloucestershire, a couple of Great Grey Shrikes and a great array of eastern fodder during Norfolk 'Magic week' during October including 2 Daurian Shrikes, Red-Flanked Bluetail, Radde's, Dusky, several Yellow Browed Warblers & a White Rumped Sandpiper.

I've also whittled away many, many hours locally, largely between Grimsbury Reservoir, Banbury (see other post) and one of my favourite South Northants sites, Bucknell Wood near Silverstone.

Bucknell Wood has been a real enjoyment for me this year with several real standout highlights including the re-discovery of White-Letter Hairstreak in the wood, up to FIVE Valezina Silver-Washed Fritillaries, the continued presence of Purple Emperors, including what is possibly the latest ever Northants record (a female seen well on 08/08), as well as a lovely male Firecrest. All this, as well as an excellent array of other butterfly species & woodland birds

Other memorable highlights close-ish to home have included my first Northants Adder, finding a smashing male Ring Ouzel on Borough Hill (Daventry), the stunning display of local Bluebells & mega views of Duke of Burgundy and both Black & Brown Hairstreak butterflies.

So many highlights, I could go on and on!! Anyways, fingers crossed 2016 follows in a similar vein.