The countryside has really turned green this week. Much more foliage on the trees, and this has brought back my tawny owls!!! I havent seen them since Nov 5th. Probably got scared off by all the fireworks. They are roosting near my nestbox again, or have they really sneakily bred in it?

















I watched the pair from April last year and they didnt seem to produce any young. The owlets are quite conspicuous when they are "branching", so I think I'd notice.
Perhaps I've got a infertile pair.
Glad to have them back on my patch. Todays sighting makes them species number 135 on my UK '08 list

Hen harrier training

I will be one of the presenter/interpreters working at beacon fell, over the next 10 weeks or so.
We have a webcam on a Hen harrier nest and will be showing footage at the beacon fell centre.

RSPB, Natural England, united utilities and LCC countryside ranger service are all in cahoots for this project.

So today, we went out for a look in the Bowland area. It is no secret that many raptors breed in the forest of Bowland but I wont be specific about the nest locations.

The following photo is of a male HH taken from about 2 miles away. Although dodgyscoping doesnt do it justice, we did have fantastic views as the male did an ariel food-pass to the sitting female.
















Taken at a much shorter range, this willow warbler had no other trees to fly to.

















2 male Cuckoos were calling, and I managed to get a glass to one bird. Terrible shot but obviously a cuckoo.
















The ubiquitous red grouse surrounded me at all times in the midday heat.































Other moorland birds seen today (and new for my yearlist) were

Whinchat......


















and Peregrine falcon
















Ring ouzel and grasshopper warbler were heard, but not seen.

Alton towers birdwatching?

Well, not the reason for the trip obviously, but I was amazed how so many normally shy birds, are just getting on with it, in the theme park!
We got 2 free entry tickets from "the sun" newspaper. I dont read the sun, but Wayne at work collected the tokens for me. He doesnt like roller-coasters. Should have been £35 each to get in!

We went on the new "RITA" ride that goes 0-100mph in 2.5 seconds! Heres a pic of that ride, and then a pic of us on it!






































Anyway this is my birding blog, so check out this moorhen (and babies) nesting amongst the spitting frogs.

Not bovvered!

















Mallards, GC grebes and greylag geese had all breed successfully too!




















































A grey wagtail had even nested inside one of the tunnels on the "Nemesis" ride! As we queued, we could see it darting in and out between thundering coasters!

This female tuftie was very bold,
















as was this wood duck (which I wont be counting on my yearlist)

















Lots of blackcaps, willow warbs and chiffchaff heard on the grounds too.

A great day out was had!

6 Dotterel on Pendle hill

2 posts in one day! Well I enjoyed the bluebells at spring wood so much that I thought I go for another walk, this time without Treakle.

The rain kept the dog-walkers from spring wood but it didn't keep them from Pendle hill. After my visit to Pendle hill this week, we debated birding etiquette - how close should we approach the dotterel?

Well, that discussion is moot after the way 2 golden retreivers were bounding around the heather and grass. As usual the owners couldn't give a monkeys, and probably wonder why the guy with the scope and bins (me) was shaking his head in disgust. So with the dogs and the joggers, the dotts were very mobile today. Some more have arrived in, there are 6 now (3m 3f).

There are signposts by the nick o' Pendle and Sabden paths, telling dog owners to control their dogs, as there are ground breeding birds. However, I havent seen any of these signs on the pendleside path.

I was the only observer between 10am-12 and the wall provided shelter from the elements as well as hiding me from the birds as they approached to 15-20m.

So I got some better shots this time and a bonus shot of a golden plover too.

Spring wood, Whalley

The bluebells are carpeting spring wood now, and Treakle and I had the wood to ourselves at 7am. Light rain seems to have kept most away. If you are dogwalking, dont forget to take dog bags, as blue tits have nested in the ranger services free bag dispenser.

Singing blackcaps, willow warblers and chiffchaff. Drumming GS woodys and calling nuthatches too. Not much else seen apart from a million bluebells and half a million flowering wild garlic.













































































Got a quick digi-binned (camera thru binoculars instead of scope) shot of a singing willow warbler at lower barrow lodge. Coot nesting, grey wagtails nesting and a single kestrel were the only birds of interest at the lodge today.

Dotterels on Pendle hill

Let me first apologise for the poor photos, as for the 2nd time out of 3 I've climbed-up Pendle hill with dud batteries in my camera.
I would have helped if I hadnt wasted valuable power, taking snaps of cannon fodder Red legged partridge and this male chaffinch at Pendleside farm that let me approach to within an armslength.

(as usual, click on picture to enlarge)




































Of course the main reason for the climb (quite a struggle with my newly fixed toes) was to look for ring ouzel and dotterel.

No luck with the ouzels, but I did find a small collection of fellow birders just past the trig point, sitting down low. I guessed that they werent having a picnic and probably had some Dotts in their sights.

Now.... before my battery light started flashing low, I was having trouble even seeing all of a single dotterel because of our low angle.
Its kinda like "scruples". I've seen dotterel before. Probably, so had all the others trying to get a view. We also know that its quite a confiding bird, not too fussed by human proximity. However, not wanting to seem rude, I wandered of behind the wall to get a higher angle to get some shots. (this was the cue for the battery light to start flashing...... "b@$^*£&!")
I would never purposefully cause a bird or animal stress with noise etc and assume that most others would follow a similar etiquette. The wall gave a better angle and more cover for myself anyway.

Shortly, I was joined by 3 birders who had travelled from the Manchester area to visit Pendle hill. They wanted to share my view point (behind a 5 foot, some 30 metres from the Dotts)
They told me, they'd been told (by a fellow birder) to sit down and wait for the Dotts to approach them. They'd joined me because they could barely even see them. Doesnt really work when a bird-watcher can't.....well....."watch birds".
Well....heres the shocker! As soon as theyd left the hopeless-sitting-down-not-seeing-any-dotterels area, and joined myself behind the wall........
the guy who "told"(their words not mine) them to sit down.....then proceeded to approached the birds within 10 meters and crawls towards them with a huge SLR lense!

Now, I am familiar with the perpetrator of this "crime" and I'm sure this wasnt meant to be a hypocritical as it seemed, but it did raise a smile for me.
Personally I dont mind most birding crimes, like eating your sandwiches loudly in a hide not the Prince Harry/Hen harrier shooting type crimes.

Anyway, I'm sure M (identities have been concealed so as not to offend) has now read this and is laughing cos he now has much better Dotterel photos than me. I'm also sure that the threesome who'd travelled quite a distance for the dotts have now forgotten the incident.
Isnt it amazing that such an innocuous, non-competitive hobby such as birding can become such a political hotplate eh?






















































Anyway, jolly nice folks the Mancs were.
We discussed the Dotts, the goldies that we also saw, and the red grouse that had evaded me today.
We also got onto dodgyscoping techniques and discussed a few cameras like cheap and handy Fuji finepix A920. Easier to cart up a hill than a fully lensed SLR!
If "the Mancs" do eventually find this webpage then feel free to contact me for any other frugal Scotsman-type camera advice.
Next time you feel like getting a good look at a bird....you just go ahead on do so.
Lets face it, on August "the glorious" 12th all the country toffs will be zooming about the hill taking pot-shots at anything alive.....I hope someone tells them to sit down!

Pied flycatcher at moorpiece

I can drive again! My left foot was a bit delicate on the clutch with the 3 broken toes but now that the pins are out , I can now get further afield and twitch some of the summer migrants.

I drove up to "Moor piece" as I do every April. Pied flycatchers and wood warbler are specialities here. As soon as I got out the car I heard nuthatch, chiffchaff, willow warblers, wren , robin, goldcrest, tawny owl and garden warbler.
I'm not counting "heard only" species on the '08 list, so tawny owl and garden warbler still dont make it. This time last year, I was knee-deep in tawnies, with a pair showing in the back fields every day. Guy Fawkes night was the last time I saw them....funny that, they must not like loud fireworks.

Anyway, no wood warblers yet, never did locate the garden warb for a sighting, but I did find a pair of Pied flys hanging around nestbox 23/2.
They dont stay still very long these ones, but I eventually dodgyscoped both male and female.