Great Northern Diver!

No I'm not describing myself , although I am big (great) I do come from Scotland (northern) and also like SCUBA (diver). Heres my SCUBA diving blog. It plays second fiddle to my birding blog these days, as we only dive a few times a year, but birding I can do everyday!
I'm referring to todays twitch at Clowbridge reservoir, nr Burnley.
A lifer for me! I've seen Red-throated and Black-throated divers in their breeding plumage but this GND was cool even in its winter outfit.

It dived frequently and could cover huge distances underwater and stay down for minutes. This made dodgyscoping difficult as you didnt know where to focus in advance.




























I also observed a pose where the bird lay flat on the surface with its neck extended. Not sure if this was aggression towards the 3 goosander, the goldeneye pair and bh gulls or was just a posture that sheltered the loon from the very strong , cold winds.

Nice twitch!

Hedgehog rescue

Just got in off the late shift to the news that Jill had found a hedgehog on the road in Billington.
She brought it back here where there are no roads and we released it under the dry Leylandii trees with some dogfood to keep it going.

I'll need to get some live rat traps out, so that the brown rat doesnt eat all the food that we put out for the hedgehog. I'm starting to get fed-up of the feral pigeons, brown rats and grey squirrels taking over from the more desirable wildlife.

Red kites at Doune















Photograph © Lynn Bowser

Just got back from a weekend in Scotland, the reason was for Jills 30th birthday celebration but I did fancy an early morning walk near the Drovers inn where we stayed for the Sat night. Unfortunately we all overdid it on the sauce and only just made breakfast never mind the walk.

The pub itself was very eccentric, but a bit hard for me to enjoy when surrounded by stuffed birds and animals, some now very rare! Corncrake & Golden eagle to name but 2.
People must have been very stupid back in the day.

Heres a link to my photo album of the Drovers inn lobby

However on the way back to Hamilton we stopped at Argaty farm, nr Doune, to see the red kites at the feeding station.
We also found some red sheep!!! on the way to the hide. Some farmer having a bit of a laugh eh?















This is not photoshopped!

Buzzards and Kestrels everywhere but the red kites were beautifully side lit in the winter sun. One kite had a bit of an ariel battle with the kestrel, showing its much larger size. Phil and I got great views but I didnt get any photos as I didnt have my scope, just the 12x50 bins.

Theres a great leaflet available in the hide of the Trossachs bird of prey trail. Postcards & prints by Lynn Bowser (see kite photo above) and RSPB charity pins are for sale in the hide via an honesty box.

















Just after midnight on our return to Lancashire we saw a fox cross the A59 just near where I last saw a fox earlier this year (in January! long time since eh?). Lots of dead roadkill foxs at this time of year as its mating time for them. Its this time of year that we can hear the vixen "screaming", sometimes sounds like a human getting murdered outside in the garden in the midnight, its a scary noise!

Bus to Formby and Marshside

After all the excitement of the GGS at Waddington, I was in a rush to get to a party at Formby golf club. I over-indulged on Guiness and red wine and had to leave the car with Auntie Ann in Formby.
Therefore, today I had to get the bus back there to get the van back.

At Whalley bus station, just as I was finding my stop, I heard alarm calls coming from the small park. Sure enough, I turned around just in time for a female sparrowhawk shoot past me at eye level. Wow! but I think that the Blacky that she was pursuing got away this time.

The journey was quite uneventful, wildlife-wise. Quite a few goldfinch , greenfinch and chaffinches and a male pied wagtail on Auntie Annes street. Whilst picking up the van, Annes new pet red-legged partridge arrived in the garden for a feed. I often find RL partridges in this area but never as tame as this one.















I stopped at marshside on the road back.
Light was failing fast but I was hoping for some raptor action. Shorties, barn owl, merlin?....nothing! Not even a kestrel!

Load of waterfowl in to roost though. Zillions of wigeon, lapwing, blackwits (could of been wintering barwits but in this light its impossible to tell) and PF geese.

Other waterfowl present in smaller numbers were
Mallard
Teal
Pochard
Shoveller
Moorhen
Coot
Shelduck
3 Ruddy ducks
1 little grebe
Canada geese
Greylag geese
and the odd grey heron

Not the best visit but its always worth a look.

Great grey shrike at Waddington fell

I'm so delighted to have got these shots of the elusive GGS. I can only assume it's the same bird that I got fleeting glimpses of at Stocks reservoir 2 weeks (and 10 miles) ago.
I intended to visit Marshside today, as I was heading to Southport for a birthday party. However, I got the tip-off from BIRDGUIDES and the ELOC that the GGS was showing at Waddington fell.

(as usual , click image to enlarge)




























Apart from Margaret Breaks (who, I think made the initial report) I was the first on the scene. I parked at the top of the fell at the car park north of the quarry and walked down the hill towards the moorcock pub. There were some clay shooters opposite the pub but they didnt seem to be bothering the GGS which I first sighted almost exactly opposite "the moorcock".
A guy called Dave Hartley? joined me shortly after I got my first dodgyscopes of this great bird.
Whilst Dave got his scope ready, a pied wagtail mobbed the GGS until it flew off north, back towards the quarry. Dave kindly gave me a lift back up the hill to see if we could relocate it.
I wish I had brought my camcorder as we were treated to the display of the GGS turning on a mobbing mipit and what turned into a minute long ariel dogfight! I've never seen this behavior before , but then , I've never seen that many GGS's before!















I wish I had brought the SLR . I'd liked to have juxtaposed the Clitheroe cement factory with the bird, but dodgyscoping doesnt allow that depth of field.

We got a few more good views (but I wasnt quick enough for better shots as my hands were very cold, trying to focus on this very mobile bird) before several more birders turned up for the twitch.

I decided to bail down to Southport to the party. No time to stop at Marshside , but I did see large flocks of Mistle thrushes and Pink-footed geese on Downholland moss.

I'll have to collect the van from Southport tomorrow, so I'll have a look at Marshside then ;-)

Not so welcome visitor

The best laid plans of mice and men........

Finished the early shift today, got home to a phonecall from Tyrone.
Apparently, we had planned to put up my kestrel box today. I was obviously a tad more tiddly than Tyrone, when we hatched this plan.





















Anyway, the box is now up, thanks to Tyrones climbing and abseiling skills.
The nestbox is 30-35 feet up, faces due south , and can easily be 'scoped from the attic velux window. I'll try to get up again before the breeding season to check that it is secure and fill it with sticks and wood debris for nesting material.
Perhaps I'll tidy up the orange ratchet belts too. Very good for my purpose and cheap at 50p each, but not the nicest of colours.

















Also this week, I spotted the pipistrelle bats flitting around the window eaves at Ashleigh. Jill told me about this behavior before and of course we found the bat in the house!
Heres the link for our batty pictures in April this year

I think I've now decided that they are actually roosting in the house rather than using the boxes that I've provided for them. I'll keep an eye out and get some shots if I'm right.

Lytham coast and fairhaven lake

At home, on wakening, the usual suspects -

dunnock
wren
chaffinch
blackbird
robin
blue tit
great tit
jay
carrion crow
magpie
wood pigeon
bh gull

on grass just b 4 arriving at car park at Lytham

starling
jackdaw
rook
mistle thrush

on the fairhaven costal area

gbb gull
lbb gull
curlew
oystercatcher
redshank (loads)
turnstone (just 1 - fleeting glimpse)
snipe (several flushed from greenery on high tide line)
meadow/rock pipit (2 - not enough detail to be 100%)
linnet (circa 20 flocking an constantly mobile)
grey heron
shelduck (approx 5 )
dunlin (30+ hard to distinguish from purple sands or even knot in the bad conditions)































































On Fairhaven lake

canada goose
little grebe
goldeneye
tufted duck
mallard

Marton mere starlings re-edit - SPECTACULAR!

Strike-out, shrike out

A beautiful morning! Too good to waste. Jumped in the van with a black coffee, stuck in the new Eric Clapton remastered cd, waited for the windscreen frost to melt and headed off to stocks reservoir to twitch the Great grey shrike.
Good blues, clear roads and a sunny day all had me confident of a successful day.
Shame I'm such a jinx though.
I saw a deer on the road just before the church. A doe but could have been a red deer or a sika cos it was to quick for me to tell. Then a stoat darted across.
I met Dave Bickerton at the church but even with 2 pairs of keen eyes, we couldnt find the Shrike, only a mistle thrush ,kestrel and a stonechat.

Drove on up to the hides for a look on the reservoir itself.

Grey heron, GBB gulls, cormorant, coot, mallard, teal, wigeon, pochard and this scaup in amongst the tufted ducks. 3 female goosander and some snipe were also visible in the distance.




























Heres 2 snipe sitting with some teal














2 annoying, really noisy birders joined me in the hide, flasks of tea and cakes at the ready. I took my leave to escape their endless faffing and rustling. Back out in the peace and quiet, Dave summoned me over to say that he'd found the Shrike.
We looked around in the clearing and I managed some dodgyscoped shots of reed bunting and redpoll.



























There are 4 redpoll in the above shot.

At least 2 green woodpeckers distracted me for a bit, this GS woody and a calling tawny owl made it difficult to concentrate on the shrike search.















A flock of 7 bullfinch, some siskin with the redpoll and a few chaffinch were all quite flighty. We thought they may have been mobbing the shrike.
Coal,blue, great and long-tailed tits in abundance with goldcrest,wren and robin. All could be a future meal for a hungry shrike.

Eventually we saw something drop to the floor from a low branch. Neither of us were quick enough with the bins, but from the naked eye, I'd say that it was the shrike. However after another hour, various angles on the spot, and another 10 birders joining us.....there were no more sightings!
Not a great twitch but I cant think what else we could have seen.

Saw a few mipit on champion moor on the way back but no short eared owls or hen harriers.

When I got back to Clitheroe, Ann had found this White plumed moth in the garden.
















Not a bad day at all with more than 50 species seen.
I'll get back to re-editing my starling video and post it later tonight.

A quick stop at newton marsh during my deliveries today. No godwits..... strange!
Coot, moorhen,teal,mallard,wigeon and the single little grebe all present. 1 little egret, 1 grey heron and 1 curlew all at the distant end of the ditch. A pair of buzzard circling overhead as I hopefully checked the powerlines for corn bunting, but no luck again.

1 male feathered thorn moth at our new house (attracted to garage light) tonight. Only had Jills phone cam to hand, and it didnt focus.















Hopefully my next post will have the new starling video and dodgyscope pics of the Great grey shrike at stocks reservoir! C-ya

Starling show re-visited

I took treakle for walk over the road today. Loads of winter thrushes, rooks from the golf club rookery and b h gulls feeding in the fields. The little owl was in the deserted hut again but no sign of my 2 tawny owls out back, as the foliage is getting a bit thin.

I drove down to Blackpool this afternoon again to see the spectacular display of the roosting starlings.
Shoveller, mallard,teal,wigeon, 1 male ruddy duck and loads of coot on the mere. Some canada geese , a few mute swans but no whoopers.
Went to visit the nearby Long eared owl roost but they werent back for winter yet. By this time it was getting dark and I had to get in position for the starlings rather than looking for the bittern thats been reported here for the last few weeks.
I met a couple of birders from Lancaster scoping for a local barn owl (no luck) and waiting for the starlings to take to the air.

Eventually the starlings did their thing. Absolutely spectacular! countless numbers took to the air as one (or as 100,000). Its was like a plague of locusts overhead, the only sound was several thousand wingbeats. No raptors (apart from 1 non-starling-eating kestrel) taking advantage of the numbers, I expected a sparrowhawk or two, at least.
I got plenty video footage. I'll re-edit my previously posted video with the stuff that I got today to make a single film and re-post over the weekend.