Migrants at Brascote GP

Following my hip replacement on the 23rd April, getting out birding has obviously had to be put on the back burner, as getting around my patch means climbing over a style which is a no-no for up to 6 weeks. It has been great though watching the Blue and Great Tits, busily going backwards and forwards to the nest boxes in the garden, and the Blackbird churning out all the soil in the garden pots! The second weekend I was home, 7 of May, I saw my first 4 Swifts of the year over the garden, and my wife took me to Cropston Resevoir when the Arctic Terns were on the move - but sadly none came through there that day. Today found me sitting here, feeling a bit bored and cooped up, when I remembered that on the Friday the 22nd of April, Pete and I went for my last sortie over Brascote Pits for a while, and I took a few images; it was a bit overcast, but fine for a late afternoon/evening walk. There were lots of hirundine over the front pit, and the first House Martins there for the year. Walking around the pits, migrants were evident all around, with singing Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs in the sallows and also the Lesser Whitethroat was still there from the weekend before, and still singing well - fingers crossed for them to breed on the patch! The Oystercatchers flew over our heads and landed on the sallows' pool. We were surprised to see when we got up there that they had landed on the old gantry! All in all, a nice little walk giving 35 species - and it was nice to see a few spring migrants too

                                                                    Chiffchaff

                                                                   Oystercatcher

                                                                      Swallow

                                                                 Willow Warbler

Lesser Whitethroat (heavily cropped)

Well that's killed a couple of hours! - just got to wait now till I can get over that style and get back to a bit of patch birding! I will be getting out and about in the next week or two, but only where I can walk safely with my crutches. I did miss a patch tick last Sunday, when Pete found a Grey Plover on the old settling pool (Garganey pool) - not only a good patch tick, but a good Leicestershire bird. In fact, there were 4 good mates of mine doing a Leicestershire bird race, and I passed the news on to them -the the Plover broke the record, giving them a day count of 113 (though they did go on to grab 2 more species and end up with 115)  Well done lads - great total!

As always thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments.

Common Tern rafts Launched

Well, after many man hours of work on the Tern rafts, Wednesday morning was the day we were going to launch two of the four rafts which Andy Smith and I had made, onto Thornton Reservoir. With the the help of Jim Graham, Ben Croxtall, Russel Parry, Roger West and Graham Middleton - the latter of whom allows us to use his farm to make the rafts on, and who also provided the materials for the rafts' anchors, the gravel for the rafts' floors and the transport from the farm to the reservoir, a sincere thank-you from LROS - and hopefully the Terns too! The weather was perfect - the sun was shining, and no wind - ideal for the rafts to be launched; from start to finish, both rafts were in position after only a couple of hours  -as they say' many hands make light work' so a big thank-you also to all the volunteers who helped along the way.

 The above image is the first raft loaded on Grahams trailer ready for the journey to the reservoir

 All the lads after lifting it from the trailer slowly and lowering it down in to the reservoir. I'm now hoping it floats

 Ben looking the part in his waders with the first raft now in the water, and waiting for the gravel to be loaded on to the rafts' floor

 Russel, Andy and Roger towing the first raft out out into position - Russel picking the short straw,having to do the rowing

 This is what the rafts are anchored down with - a car tyre filled with concrete, with a chain concreted in, then a rope between the raft and the chain. We use two - one at either end of the raft

 The first raft in position which was slightly listing as there was too much gravel at one end, but it was soon rectified by just equaling out the gravel. You can see on the above image and below, there are some ridge tiles - these are used for shelters for the chicks

 The second one in position, all anchored down. Now both rafts are just waiting for their tenants - so fingers crossed, soon there will be breeding Common Terns on Thornton Reservoir!  I will of course keep you all informed as to how the rafts are doing; as for the other two rafts we made, it is yet undecided where they will be sited
As always thanks for stopping by and any comments are most welcomed.

An unexpected find....

Late afternoon on Monday the 11th I was going out to check some owl boxes with my buddy Paul Riddle; Paul was checking a couple of boxes on one of our sites in South Leicestershire, when he was called on his phone by another land owner in the same area, saying he had a strange bird in a ploughed field, which he thought was a Crane, so Paul headed over and went with the land owner to investigate; on seeing the bird, Paul called me and said he was looking at a White Stork! For a minute, I thought he was joking, but he sounded quite serious so I headed over to where he was, and it wasn't long before we both stood there looking at the White Stork. There were no rings on it, and it looked fully winged - it looked to be the real deal - it ws just like the loads of White Stork I've seen in Spain!  The land owner said we could take our vehicle into the field, and as the bird was taking no notice of the tractor and harrowing machine, we did just that. The bird was  busily feeding, but getting closer to us all the while; we just sat there in the vehicle watching it, and eventually got some decent images. After probably an hour or so, the bird flew off high to the west

                                                      Feeding on worms

                                              Looking for its' next morsel

Paul and I have spent hundreds of hours making and erecting boxes and checking them year in year out, and we see loads of different birds and wild life - but to see a White Stork on one of our estates was just amazing! Just goes to show what birds are out there in the middle of nowhere! Many thanks to land owner who brought it to our attention, as he really could have said nothing about it. Sadly though, he did not want hoards of people on his land - even with Pauls' powers of persuasion - he was not going to budge on the matter -it wasn't for the want of us trying, but in the end,you have to respect the estate owner's wishes, which is why we were unable to put the news out for other birders.
As always thanks stopping by

Kingfishers and Wagtails

Just a short post today - a couple of weeks ago, my mate Paul Riddle and I were going out to check  a few of our Barn and Little Owl boxes, but before we started, we grabbed our customary sausage and tomato cobs,  and went to see if the Kingfishers were showing at Pauls' site; its the same site we were at a few posts ago. On the slow drive to the Kingfishers, we noticed the Green Sandpiper was still frequenting its usual haunt and also a pair of Grey Wagtails had taken up residence, but on this visit there was no sign of the Water Rail

                                                                   Green Sandpiper

                                                                 Grey Wagtail

Whilst Paul and I sat there by the river enjoying our breakfast, the male Kingfisher landed on one of his favourite perches; he just sat there preening and having a bit of a stretch now and then. Paul then heard another Kingfisher and our male bird's posture totally changed - something I've never seen before - making itself look a lot bigger, as you can see in the last image. It chased the intruder off, before coming back to the perch. I could have stayed watching it all day, but the owl boxes don't check themselves, so Paul and I left the Kingfishers to their business, and we went and did a bit of work on the boxes

                                                          Kingfisher having a stretch

                                                             looking for his breakfast

I'm bigger than you think!

As I said, just a short post for today. Thanks for stopping by

Antarctic Cruise the last part

Leaving the Falkland Islands behind us, we were heading for our last port of call which would be Montevideo in Uruguay This would mean another two days at sea, but those two days were quite productive -  Soft-plumaged Petrel and Antlantic Petrel were noted.  Humpback Whales were seen along with two other cetaceans  which Sue found -both being quite rare! Unfortunately they were both in the same area, and I only got an image of one of them -the Long-finned Pilot Whale (I think), the other was Southern Right Whale Dolphin (seeing one of these is a 'red letter' day apparently!) and it's another one that Sue can grip me off about. It was the last we saw of the Wandering Albatross as we traveled further north but still lots of Black-browed, though,  and we started to see some Sooty Shearwaters too It was a good two days spent at sea, and on the 27th we would wake up in Montevideo

                                                               Hump Back Whale

                                                               Hump Back Whale

                                                            Long-finned Pilot Whale

                                                             Wandering Albatross

In Montevideo we had arranged to meet up with a guide we had found on birdingpal;  his name was Lionel, an Australian now living in Uruguay with his wife Silvia, who was also a very good birder. We spent about four hours with them at a little wetland site, and even had a picnic by the river. Birds were a bit sparse but we managed to see Bare-faced Ibis, Rufous-sided Crake, Wren-like Rushbird Spectacled Tyrant and Hooded Siskin, plus a lot we had seen already in Buenos Aires - but all the same, it was  a great few hours. They then took us for a quick guided tour around the city, before dropping us back at the port where we had a little look around the market before we went back to the ship for our final night.

                                                             Rufous-sided Crake

                                                              Wren-like Rushbird

                                                                    Rufous Hornero

                                                                 The Hornero's Nest

Whilst waiting for the ship to depart back to Buenos Aries my last lifer was noted - a White-necked Heron put in an appearance on one of the board walks

White-necked Heron

I thought this was an interesting sign - not one you see every day whilst out birding!! It is, of course from the Falklands - and the mines are still there, being cleared by specialist teams 

The image below is of the Southern Right Whale Dolphins we were lucky enough to see.

This smashing image was taken by Mark Hefter (New York)

This cruise was a trip of a lifetime, and if you are lucky enough to get the chance to go to Antarctica,  I would definitely recommend you take it!!

Hope you've enjoyed reading about our adventures, and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Antarctic Cruise Part 3

After leaving Ushuaia on the evening of the 18th, we set off,  heading south to Cape Horn, and,weather permitting, we would see sun rise over the Cape, so getting up at stupid o'clock (4.15am to be precise),  we went up to deck 10 to watch the sun come up. It was certainly worth losing some of my beauty sleep for - it was stunning! After a couple of hours cruising around the Horn, the ship set sail out across the Drake Passage heading towards northern peninsula of Antarctica.

                                                            Sun rise over Cape Horn

After breakfast we went back out onto deck 10, where we stayed, waiting to see what delights we would come across whilst sailing the Drake Passage. There were still lot of Albatross about, but it was a Giant Petrel that caught my eye first - there seemed a lot of white around the face, and on closer inspection of the bill, I saw it had a red tip, meaning this was a Northern Giant Petrel; with so many Black-browed Albatross about, you have to try and look at them all, just in case another species of  Mollyhawk is among them. Later that afternoon, quite a few Cape Petrels were noted, and then a new Mollyhawk in the shape of a Grey-headed Albatross. Tomorrow would see us in the Gerlache Straight and Paradise bay Antarctica

 

                                                                 Cape Petrels

                                                              Northern Giant Petrel

                                                              Grey-headed Albatross

The weather now was really quite changeable, going from bright sunshine into fog banks, rain, and we even had a snow shower! It was quite windy, making bird watching somewhat frustrating at times, as you were wondering what's out there that you could not see in the waves. Our first birds of note were the Southern Fulmar and Antarctic Tern; lots of Wilson's Storm Petrel were about too, along with a few South Polar Skuas

                                                                     Southern Fulmar

                                                                  Southern Fulmar

                                                                  South Polar Skua

 It wasn't long before we had our first sighting of an iceberg - these giant lumps of ice, some as big as high rise apartments that have been sculptured by the wind and sea are spectacular! Below are some images of just few of the vast amount we saw                                                  

                                              Yours truly trying to keep the draughts out

We did see lots of Humpback whales in the straight and Paradise Bay, but sadly too far away for any images. The only other bird of note was a bird I did not expect to see, and to be fair we saw quite a few - the Black-bellied Storm Petrel; all the other species were still about Albatross, Prions and Giant Petrels. We were supposed to go from The Falklands to Puerto Madryn in Argentina, but because of two low depressions in the Atlantic between us and where we were heading, the Captain decided to stay down in Antarctica for an extra day and cruise around Deception Island - somewhere the cruises don't normally get to go to -but it was such a shame that when we got there, this wildlife-rich area was covered in fog, and so little was seen. We waited for a few hours to see if it would lift but to avail, so we set sail for the Falkland Islands

                                                            Black-bellied Storm Petrel

When we awoke on the 24th we were anchored out in the bay close to Port Stanley. We had arranged a trip to the penguin colony at Volunteer Point through a private tour operator prior to us leaving the UK, so when we got off our tender, we just had to find our driver (which didn't take long). We quickly set off  for the two and half hour journey to see the penguins with our driver Richard, who was very knowledgeable, telling us stories about the Argentine invasion in 1982, which he witnessed,  and showing us some of the areas where battles took place. Afterwards, he pointed out to us a team still clearing mine fields. He was also great at identifying the local birds, and along the way we noted Falklands Pipit, Falkland Thrush and Variable Hawk; Richard pointed out some Flightless Steamerduck, and said we would stop there on the way back for a better look ase we needed to keep with the convoy. The road to the colony soon became a track which in turn petered out till were just driving over marsh land, hence all the vehicles that go to the point have to be 4x4's. Once you get to the Point, you don't where to look first - there are Two-banded Plovers, Magellanic Oystercatchers, Gulls and Skuas, Geese and thousands of Penguins I think the images below hopefully will give you an idea just our magical this place is

                                                              Gentoo Penguin colony

                                                                  Gentoo Creche

                                                                    Gentoo Penguin

                                                            Magellanic Penguin Creche

                                                                Magellanic Penguin

                                                                 King Penguin Colony

                                                                    That's my egg

                                                                Are you ok down there?

                                                                 Pretty Face

                                                              Have you two got flea's

                                                               Just having a stretch

Walking around the colony there were quite a few geese about mainly Upland Goose and ruddy-headed goose

                                                                 Ruddy-headed goose

                                                                   Upland Goose

True to his word,Richard our driver stopped on the way back at the small bay where the Steamerducks were, and by luck, both species - Flying and Flightless Steamerduck - were there!

                                                           Flightless Steamerduck

                                                               Flying Steamerduck

Once we were back in Stanley, Sue and I had a little walk down the roadside along the coast and noted Blackish Oystercatcher, Black-crowned Night Heron, Crested Ducks and Rock Shag

                                                                   Crested Duck

                                                          Black-crowned Night Heron

                                                                       Rock Shag

We had a great time on the Falklands, but like any other cruise destination, it was not long enough and soon it was time to leave.Our next port of call was Montevideo in Uruguay, which I will leave for the last part of my blog of our Antarctic cruise. The image below is a Southern Royal Albatross which we saw as we sailed away from the Falklands
As always thanks for stopping by and hoped you enjoyed part 3