Saturday 9 March 2024
L.O.S. Winter Trip To Lincolnshire and Norfolk - February 2024
Tuesday 5 March 2024
L.O.S. Winter Trip to Lincolnshire and Norfolk 2024
Friday 16 February 2024
Waxwing Lyrical
Thursday 8 February 2024
Drake Ring-necked Duck in St. Helens
It was great to get close to this lovely little North American visitor at Taylor Park in St. Helens today. But why is it called a Ring-necked Duck and not a Ring-billed Duck?
Well, the reason is only obvious in good light when it raises its head slightly, thus revealing a faint cinnamon ring around its neck.
My only previous sighting of a drake Ring-necked Duck was at Llyn Brant in North Wales a few years ago, and it was very distant.
This is a first winter male distinguished by a few remaining buff coloured rather than light grey feathers on its flanks. Full adult males show a much clearer vertical white 'spur' on the flank below the neck.
Friday 19 January 2024
Short-eared Owls Hunting at Dusk
Monday 1 January 2024
Shorelarks at Newbiggin-by-the Sea
My wife Sarah is now working as a paramedic for the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and so has bought a house in Ashington, Northumberland. I made a short trip up there from Greater Manchester and stayed a few days over the New Year. It's a great county for birders with many well-known sites for a good variety of birds. But I never though of Newbiggin as being one of them until very recently. The best that I've seen up to now are this wonderful pair of Shorelarks at Beacon Point, Newbiggin. A great start to the New Year!
Friday 26 May 2023
Garden Warbler - A Bogey Bird Finally Captured!
I don't know why but Garden Warblers have been one of my main bogey birds ever since I started birding. I've been told I've seen them as they flit past as well hearing their wonderful song, but I've never nailed one down until today. It was all down to my friend Dave Wilson who had been told of one singing and perching quite well in a favourite tree at Pennington Flash. So off we went early this morning to find it and, as if by magic, there it was! Well, for a short while anyway, until a dog walker inadvertently flushed it.
Anyway, Dave was going to a meeting of the Young Birders Club (which I coudn't make due to a prior appointment) so off he went leaving me to try for some better shots, as my initial attempts were only record shots. I stayed around two hours during which time the bird came and went a few times, but I managed something fairly decent on it's last visit to the favourite tree. I can now tick one of the remaining two birds in my child's bird book which I've been keeping since I started. Just need a Storm Petrel now.
Saturday 1 April 2023
Alpine Swift - First Lifer of the Year
I have still not really recovered my birding mojo since just before Covid struck the world and I have only been out for a couple of 'lifers' and a few organised birding trips in the last three years. But it wasn't Covid that did this to me as I was beginning to feel a bit disinterested in being on the 'birding bandwagon' and photographing the same birds and other animals each year as they came in season. I'm talking about Owls, Kingfishers, Puffins, Gannets, White-tailed Eagles, Bearded Tits, Deer etc. I just can't understand how people can photograph the same set of birds each and every year - I mean how many shots of the same subject do you need?
I am also increasingly concerned about the distances people travel to see rare birds, often (although not always) with only a single person in a car. It must cost them a fortune not to mention the effect this is having on the planet for what are largely unnecessary journeys. Once (or twice) in while is OK, but some people jump in their car every time their phone pings.
So now I am purely focused on getting shots of birds I've never seen or those of which I only have record shots. This discounts all the birds mentioned in the paragraph above. And I will always try to tie in a longish journey with some other activity in the area.
That said, today's bird was a rarity and a lifer for me and increased my UK Life and Greater Manchester Life lists by one. It was an Alpine Swift at Elton Reservoir in Bury one of an unusually large influx across the UK in the last few weeks. Its diagnostic features are a white belly and throat, with a grey-brown chin strap separating the two. It's also larger and slower flying than our common Swifts having longer wings and a shorter tail. They winter in South Africa.
Most of the Alpine Swift sightings this year have been on the east coast with some also in North Wales and a few others dotted around the country and so I was very surprised to hear of this one being so far inland. Elton Reservoir however is a commonly used stop over place for migrating birds with some excellent records over the years. But the birds often don't stay long as I've often learnt to my cost, so the key is to go as soon as you get a reported sighting, and fortunately its only 30 minutes from my home.
I was day late with this one, but thankfully it was present for a second day and when I got the report this morning I was up and out. On arriving at Elton, the car park was full but I managed to get a space as one car was leaving. After a short walk to the Withins end of the reservoir I came a across the posse of birders who were all hoping to see it. Along the way several birders has left without seeing it as it had not been seen since the first report at 9am. But I had the luck with me today, because while chatting about where and when it had been seen this morning, the bird suddenly reappeared.
For most of the time it remained high and distant, giving decent binocular views but too far away for a good photograph. The sun had been shining when I left home, but the clouds slowly rolled in becoming thicker and thicker as the morning progressed. So the weather, combined with the distance, meant that I was only ever going to get record shots, and I was consigned to that fact. If the bird is still present and the weather is good, I may go back.
Monday 27 March 2023
'Boy Meets Girl' at Carr Mill Dam
Spring has sprung and the birds are doing what the birds and the bees do at this time of year. Carr Mill Dam near St. Helens is quite famous for its large numbers of breeding Great Crested Grebes, and now is the time of year to go and have a look for them doing their characteristic mating ritual, sometimes known as the 'Penguin Dance'. Unfortunately I only saw the full dance once and didn't manage to capture it in a photograph. But instead I did see a Noctule Bat catching flies in flight during the daytime which I wasn't expecting. Photos at the end of this post.
Wren |
Nuthatch |
Noctule Bat |
Thursday 23 March 2023
L.O.S. Winter Trip to Dumfries and Galloway
This was more of a birding trip than a serious photography trip and so these shots are mainly just a record of some of the birds which we saw whilst we were there.
Caerlaverock WWT
Incoming Whooper Swans.
Barnacle Geese
Loch Ryan near Stranraer
Carlingwark Lake in Castle Douglas
The Crew