Mostly Local

Well, it's been a while again - don't know why I leave its so long!.... probably time and laziness (the latter being more probable). Anyway, a couple of mates David Gray and John Hague and I decided to try the 10k challenge (this is how many birds you can see within 10 kilometers of our homes within a twelve month period); this will be the very first time I have compiled a year list. There is a £20 bet on this challenge on who will see the most species, and the winner will donate the £60 to the charity of their choice. I must admit it does take you to places that you don't go to very often. So apart from a couple of twitches for the Belted Kingfisher [no images] up in Lancashire, and the Eleonora's Falcon down in Kent, I have mostly been fairly local, checking out local reserves, reservoirs and any 'birdy' places to try and see as many species as possible within a 10k radius. Wish me luck!

The Brambling above was one of several hundred found at Barton in the Beans (not by me) last winter. The flock also included Greenfinch, Linnet and Chaffinch and was quite an impressive sight!

Grey Wagtail at Thornton Reservoir with his lunch.

The images above and below are of a very confiding Cetti's Warbler at Wanlip Meadows

Again, above and below, images of Bittern at Cossington Meadows

Little Ringed Plover feeding at the outflow at Thornton Reservoir

Chiffchaff , again at the Thornton Reservoir outflow

Lesser Black-backed Gull at Thornton Reservoir

Grey Wagtail - one of a pair that were also feeding at the outflow of Thornton Reservoir

Gadwall at Groby Pool

Tufted Duck snoozing at Thornton Reservoir

Reed Bunting at Groby Pool

If you want really good views of Nuthatch, the feeding rock at Groby Pool is the place to visit

 

Can't beat a Grey Wagtail, can you? ..... wherever they pop up!

Coal Tit in my back garden

Ruddy Shellduck which was found with a pair of Egyptian Geese in late February at Cossington Lakes

This Mute Swan at Thornton wasn't a happy bunny if any other bird came into the 

vicinity - especially the Canada Geese!

The Resident Mandarin Duck at Thornton Reservoir which always takes

 a fancy to the female Mallards

Mallard drake at Swithland Reservoir

Common Gulls having a bit of a chat at Thornton Reservoir

Male Blackcap in the garden, seen mid February and visited our garden for at least

 42 days, feeding on sunflower hearts

Moorhen checking out it's reflection at Bagworth Heath

This was the twitch for the Eleonora's Falcon at the end of May at Worth Marsh 

in Kent - and what a great reserve this is!

This is just a general catch-up of my exploits in the UK - but I will be doing a post next of our recent trip to Iceland and Greenland..... as soon as I've downloaded the rest of the images  (getting a bit lazy in my old age)

As always, thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all keeping well 

Shetland 2021

 Sitting here on my backside thinking of Shetland, and realised that I hadn't posted a bit on the blog about our trip to the Northern Isles in October last year! Our group comprised of  Dave Gray, Andy Smith (a none birder but loves the outdoors) and me . We arrived on Shetland on the 29th September and would be there for 10 days, staying on the west side of the mainland at Aith, in a rented 3 bedroom house - which was excellent! We had decided to explore the west side of the mainland as it's not that well birded, and if either of us needed a new bird we would go for it. Our first morning started off really well with a juvenile Woodchat Shrike in our garden, and it was actually in residence during the whole of our stay.

Juvenile Woodchat Shrike

Juvenile Woodchat Shrike

A visit to The Dale of Walls produced a female Hen Harrier hunting low over the hillside but nothing else of note - although we did have our first otter at The Bridge of Walls which was good to see!  

During our stay, Dave and I noticed how many Chaffinch flocks there were - a lot more than we'd encountered on previous visits to Shetland! Every flock we saw had Brambling mixed in among them.

Male Brambling

As I have already said, we had decided to focus on the west side of the mainland which took us to places we had never been to before e.g. Lock of North House, where Dave picked up a Jack Snipe in his bins; other birds of note around this area :- Red Breasted Merganser; Black Guillemot; Wheatear; Twite and again, Brambling.  Dave asked me if I needed Semipalmated Sandpiper as one had been reported at the Pool of Virkie. Forty minutes later, with light fading, we arrived only to be told by James Shergold that said bird had flown - but had been lost in flight; however, a return visit the following morning produced my first 'tick' of the trip!

Twite

Wheatear

Hooded Crow

We continued birding in the same area for a while, when news broke of a Bonelli's Warbler at Easter Quarf, so off we went again, despite the bird not having been confirmed as Eastern or Western; Dave and I both needed the Eastern species.  It was confirmed as Western the following morning, having been identified on call.

Golden Plover

Out and about locally on our fourth day we saw Merlin; Blackcap; Richard'sPipit (which is a good bird for Shetland) and quite a few flocks of Golden Plover. Strangely noticeable by their absence were Yellow-browed Warbler; although we heard a few, Dave only saw one, whereas in previous years, they were viewed most days in good numbers. I didn't have a sighting at all. 

Around lunchtime a Red-eyed Vireo was reported at Brae. On arriving at Brae, we joined the many birders already there but the bird was being very elusive; it was a coulpe of hours before I was able to get my second tick of the trip.

Red-eyed Vireo

Meadow Pipit

October 5th and again, just general birding, seeing what we could find when news came up on the 'Shetland App'  to say James Shergold and crew had found a Radde's Warbler at Sullom. This was a bird I definitely needed for my list after dipping on it several times in the past, so we hot-footed it to the site. It was residing in a patch of nettles, and after a controlled flush, it landed in full view on a wire fence. I was really pleased to finally see one! After a short while, the bird returned to it's patch of nettles

Radde's Warbler

The next day we decided to go to Housabister in hope of seeing the White-billed Diver which had been seen in the bay. We were lucky enough to see our target bird along with Red-throated Diver.

While we were still at Housabister, an unusual  message came up on the App of a Monarch Butterfly in the sunken garden at The Sumburgh Hotel. Since Dave and I are also into butterflies, we headed off  in the hopes of seeing it - especially as I've never seen this species in the UK. Qiute a few birders turned up to see this small insect which had travelled thousands of miles from North America

Monarch Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

The image below is a Common Pheasant - again, not a common sighting for Shetland; we bumped into this individual at Flawton looking very bedraggled in the heavy rain. we were also lucky enough to have another sighting of an Otter at Gott

Common Pheasant

Our final full day of our trip.......

We decided to stay local again and managed to pick up a Tundra Bean Goose which had been found the previous day in among a flock of Pink Footed Goose. We found three Slavonian Grebe at Whiteness Voe along with Redshank; Ringed Plover and Kittiwake. Also had Merlin again, sightings of Harbour Porpoise off Lunna Ness and two Otters at Levaneap. 

Pink Footed Geese

Redshank

Ringed Plover

Snipe

Whooper Swan

 We covered 850 miles in our 9 days on Shetland. I didn't expect to pick up three more British ticks - four if you include the Monarch Butterfly. 

It was also great to explore parts of the mainland which we've never visited before - even if we did run in to a few dead-ends from time to time!! 

All in all, a really good trip - and much needed after the couple of years we've all endured!

Many thanks to Dave and Andy for being great company (we did have some laughs - as always!!)

As always, thanks for dropping by - hope you enjoyed this snapshot of my trip to Shetland in October 2021. Here's to the next one!

RSPB Blacktoft Sands

 Just before I set off for Shetland, my mate John Hague asked if I fancied a look at the White-tailed Plover that was residing at the RSPB Blacktoft Sands reserve and had been there for quite some time; It's always nice to go and see a British rarity. On arriving, we were directed to First Hide where the bird was being seen, sure enough  it was there - but tucked up in some reeds, asleep. It remained there for an hour or so apart from a little walk, but decided to go back to sleep again. I managed a couple of distant images but nothing brilliant.A few Ruff were seen from this hide, along with Little Egret and a Male Marsh Harrier. We walked down to Singleton Hide where there were lots of Duck including Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Gadwall. Waders including  Greenshank, Snipe, Lapwing, Ruff and Black-tailed Godwit.

                                                             White-tailed Plover

White-tailed Plover

Ruff just taking off

We had a look from Marshland Hide and Xerox Hide where Green Sandpiper, Redshank and more Duck were seen, and a  large flock of Pink-footed Geese went over. We watched a Grey Heron which John and I thought was having a vole for lunch, but another birder who was videoing it informed us the Heron's lunch was in fact a Tree Sparrow! how bizzare!!

Grey Heron lunching on a Tree Sparrow

Male Marsh Harrier

Snipe

Tree Sparrow

It's a great reserve, and we really enjoyed our 3 or 4 hours mooching around it, and on the way back to 

the car park it was nice to watch the Tree Sparrows at the feeding station.

Like I said, the following week I was off to the Shetland Isles, so once I've sorted through my images I'll hopefully have some to put on the blog. 

As always thanks for stopping by.

 

Local Rarity

 I ventured to Groby Pool on Monday the 6th of September in search of a county rarity, a Wryneck which local birder Andy Forryan had found the previous Saturday feeding along a footpath just north of the Pool. Only 1 or 2 of these are found in Leicestershire each year if we are lucky! It's only a 10 minute drive for me, and as I arrived mid morning, Alan Pocock was just leaving; Alan has birded Groby Pool for longer than he wants to remember.  He told the handful of birders/photographers that were gathered that if they were patient, the bird would eventually show well. He wasn't wrong, and after a few glimpses of the bird in some bushes, it finally settled down and came down to feed on some ant hills and also on the footpath. I've been lucky,  this was my 3rd sighting of this species in Leicestershire. I've got to say, whilst I was there everyone behaved and kept their distance, but I heard on the birding grapevine that people were not so good on Tuesday! I did have a word with one photographer who was getting a bit over zealous and was getting closer and closer to he bird, so I  politely asked him to come back to where everyone was standing, which he did. I do think that the majority of birders/ photographers are well behaved and show some excellent field craft, it's the odd bad apple I'm afraid that gives them a bad name, and so they all get tarred with same brush, which is not always the case. I know some excellent birders/photographers and they know their field craft. We all know or should know that the bird's welfare comes first, these birds have got to feed more or less constantly, as they have a long trek in front of them.  Just enjoy the birds from a sensible distance (rant over) Below are few images of the Groby Pool Wryneck. 

I'm off to Shetland in a few weeks so hopefully post some thing about that adventure on my return. As always thanks for stopping by