Rindle Road

Spring is the best time for birding in my opinion with lots going on.  The skies are full of new visitors and the residents are starting new families.  One thing I've learnt during my first full year of birding is how quickly things change.  A bird can be here one day and gone the next and the vegetation and landscape can make it easy or difficult to see them depending on the time of year.

With this in mind, I've decided I'll go out to my local patch at Rindle Road as often as I can this year, because I missed a few birds last year just by thinking "Oh I'll go tomorrow".   Having said that, there's not much about yet, but today I met Dave Thacker once again, who confirmed that in two or three weeks it will be full of activity here.

I started off by going down Moss Lane but only saw a distant Kestrel (it might have been a Sparrowhawk) sitting on the telephone wires at the far end of the road.  The ground was very dry around here today and the furrows in the newly ploughed fields looked quite desiccated. As I headed off to Rindle Road a large Carrion Crow flew over my car and landed in a field where another crow had something in its beak.  I stopped briefly but couldn't make out what it was, maybe a snail or something.

I went on to park up at the Rindle Road feeding station and I talked to Dave for a while before heading off into Rindle Wood.  After he left two Oystercatchers flew over me making their familiar call just as I ducked under the gate and on to the path.

At the feeding station there were a several Yellowhammers, Tree Sparrows and a Chaffinch as well as pair of Mallard feeding on the grain and seed remnants.  I always mean to bring some bird food when I come here and somehow always manage to forget.

I walked along Rindle Hedge where there was absolutely nothing about until I got to the end where I disturbed three or four Mistle Thrushes that were in the ploughed field.  When they saw me they quickly shot off into the nearby trees.  I walked back along the hedge and into Rindle Wood in the hope that I might see another Treecreeper like I did earlier this week.  No luck there !  All I saw were a two Blue Tits, a Chaffinch, a Yellowhammer and two Goldfinches (see postscript).

Walking back to the feeding station, I spent quite a while waiting for a good photo-opportunity but it never really came.  I took some photos of a Reed Bunting and some Tree Sparrows before returning to my car.  I did see a Bank Vole swimming in the drainage ditch and it made a big splash to disappear underwater when it saw me coming.  I also took some close-up pictures of a butterfly on a dandelion head.

On the way home I stopped off on a side access road to take some pictures of a soaring Buzzard - the conditions were quite good for photography: it was sunny if a little hazy and the sun was behind me.  The bird was fairly low down at first and moving slowly in a circle.  I should have been able to get at least one decent photo from the twenty or so I took, but I didn't - if you've read my previous post you'll see what I mean about being disappointed with the quality of the results I'm getting at the moment.

When I got back in the car it was a lot later than I thought as the clocks had gone forward an hour today.  So I headed off for home to see if anyone else in the family had got up yet.

Postscript:

Whilst looking though my pictures at home, I noticed a bird that I thought was just a Chaffinch when I was taking the photos.  On closer inspection it clearly isn't a Chaffinch, but what is it?  My best guess is either a Redpoll or a Linnet but the photos aren't clear enough for me to be positive.  If you have any suggestions, please write them in the comment section at the bottom of this post.  Cheers !

PPS.

It seems that the bird has been identified as a Lesser Redpoll by none other that the main man at the Manchester Birding Forum, Ian McKerchar.  It wasn't the same for everyone however as you can see in the comments under this post which I've transcribed from the Forum thread I started on it

Moaning About My Camera

I know I'm not the world's best photographer, but I really don't think I'm as bad as some of my recent pictures make out.  They just don't seem sharp at all even after processing them in Photoshop.  I really need to check out the focusing on my Nikon D90 camera because what seems pin sharp in the viewfinder rarely looks the same on the computer.

I've always suspected that my Sigma 50-500mm zoom lens wasn't as sharp as it could be.  I know you only get what you pay for but it was still quite expensive for a hobby and I really can't afford a Nikon prime lens with the same range.  I nearly always use this lens fully extended because that's what you buy a lens of this size for, isn't it?  I'd say 95% of what I shoot is rubbish and even the 5% of good shots are seldom crystal clear.  The lens is generally OK with closer or larger objects than birds.

So I'm going to do some testing with a few focus charts I've printed off the internet and I'm also going to try my lens on another Nikon camera body (my daughter Cathy has a D3100).  If I can prove anything from these tests I'll be looking at buying another lens (probably the new Sigma 50-500mm with OS) or perhaps having my camera serviced.  Watch this space for further developments.

Pennington Flash

When I got home from work tonight the sun was shining yet again and so Sarah, Cathy and I went for a stroll round Penny from the Slag End car park end for a change.  The first birds we saw were some Skylarks singing and displaying high up in the air before dropping down to the grass on Ramsdale's Ruck.  They were very difficult to spot even with binoculars, but their song was incredibly loud and tuneful - wonderful!  A solitary Great Crested Grebe was in the Lagoon water neat here, but as it was diving frequently it made viewing quite difficult.

As we approached the Flash I used my scope to view the Spit and here we saw the following birds:

• Oystercatcher
• Great Crested Grebe
• Teal
• Cormorant
• Black-headed Gull
• Coot
• Tufted Duck
• Canada Goose
• Mallard

We then walked round to Ramdale's Hide where there more of the same birds on the Spit as well a single Redshank and some Lapwing.  I looked for the Little Grebe that I'd seen here earlier in the week, but didn't find it tonight.

Then we walked on to Tom Edmonson's Hide where there were four Grey Heron, some Shovellers, Teal, Tufted Ducks and a large goose in amongst the Canada Geese which I am yet to identify.  It may be a Bar-headed Goose, a Greylag variant of some kind or a farmyard escapee.  I asked a lady birder who was also in the hide but she wan't sure either.

By now I could sense that Cathy was getting bored, which she indeed said out loud to Sarah hoping I wouldn't hear. And as the very cold wind blew in off the Flash through the viewing slats at Horrocks Hide, I knew they were coming to the end of their session with me.  In fact they only stayed about ten minutes before heading back to the car, arranging to meet me on the main car park about half an hour later.  This was a shame because I really wanted Sarah and Cathy to see the birds closeup at the Bunting Hide feeding station where Cathy could take some photographs, but it wasn't to be. They did manage to see three Redshank close up before they left here though.

As soon as they'd gone I spotted the Black-tailed Godwits at the end of the Spit through my scope, as well as a single female Goosander and all the birds I'd seen earlier from the other side of the Flash.  I was joined by the lady birder who I'd met at Tom Edmonson's Hide earlier and I showed her the Godwits thorugh my scope as they were a little far for her binoculars to pick out.  After a quick chat about the lack of Great Crested Grebes here for this time of year, I left for my last stop tonight at Teal Hide.

I did pop in to Pengy's Hide on the way to Teal, but there nothing much about.  At Teal Hide there were more female Goosanders and a single Male resting on the shell island in the middle of the water, as well as all the regulars. But the main event was quite unexpected: 30 to 40 Sand Martins were whizzing around over the water presumably picking off insects in flight.  They were quite a spectacular sight in the early eveining sunlight.

No sooner had I got there than a warden drove up to lock up the hide.  I told him I'd only just arrived and wanted to look for the Ringed Plover and Green Sandpiper that had been reported here this week.  He very kindly said he could drive round and lock all the other hides before coming back to this one at the end - nice bloke!

I spent another 10 minutes trying to take some pictures of the Sand Martins, but the light was fading and they moved very quickly. so no pictures worth displaying today I'm afraid.  And I never did find the Green Sandpiper or Ringed Plover either, but all in all I'd had a very pleasant session.

Rindle Road

As the sun was shining when we got home, Cathy and I went out to Rindle Road this evening to take some photographs.  Cathy wanted to try out her new digital SLR camera and I was looking for any birds that were about.  We had a quick look along the fields at the top of Rindle Road near the railway line before venturing into Rindle Wood and walking round the Astley Moss SSSI trail.

The highlights for me were a pair of Lapwing on territory displaying their tumbling flight one of the fields followed by my first ever sighting of a Treecreeper in the woods.

Here's the best of the pictures I took tonight:

Pair of Lapwing



Lapwing



Lapwing

Lapwing

Lapwing

Treecreeper

Treecreeper

Treecreeper

If you want to see Cathy's more 'arty' pictures I'm sure they'll be on her blog soon.

Irlam and Barton Mosses

This morning I went birding with Steve Nelson who left this report of our sightings on the Manchester Birding Forum:

A good morning's birding on Irlam and Barton Mosses 9.30am-12.45pm with Martyn Jones delivered a couple of surprises

Female Marsh Harrier hunting over Croxten and flushed 5 Teal (2m and; 3f) and a pair of Mallard. Could it be the same bird seen last year at Astley Peat Pools area?

2 Whooper Swans (adult and cygnet) still in f8. They have been here for over 3 weeks now A Mute Swan flew over from west, circled over f8 as though checking out the Whoopers then flew off over the railway.

• 4-5 Buzzards
• 2 pairs of Grey Partridge
• 1 Red-legged Partridge
• A few Pheasant
• c. 21 Tree Sparrows (16+ on track between f9 and 10, 7+ Woodbarn Farm)
• 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker calling from Dixons Wood
• 1 Snipe - Croxten
• Siskin over - heard only
• Collared Dove
• 5 Skylark
• Blackbird
• c.6 Reed Buntings
• 5 Yellowhammer
• c. 40+ Linnet including a flock of c.30
• A few Goldfinches and Chaffinch
• 3 Pied Wagtails
• 4 Grey Herons
• Numerous pairs of Lapwing on territory
• 5 Herring Gulls over
• 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls over
• 2 Canada Geese over

Plus the usual Blue, and Long-tailed Tits, Woodpigeons, Magpies, Carrion Crows.

I couldn't really improve on this excellent report by Steve so I've left it more or less as written.

Marshside RSPB, Southport

Today Sarah and I took my new spotting scope to Marshside RSPB in Southport for a try out.  A full report will follow later but for now here are the birds we saw:

• Oystercatcher (on the way, near Ormskirk)
• Skylark
• Shelduck
• Mute Swan
• Black-headed Gull
• Mallard
• Canada Goose
• Avocet (lifer)
• Pintail (lifer)
• Ruff (lifer)
• Golden Plover (lifer)
• Little Grebe
• Redshank
• Shoveller
• Lapwing
• Curlew

Here are some of the better pictures I took today:

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

A Pair of Avocets

A Pair of Avocets

A Pair of Avocets

Four Avocets

Five Avocets

Black-tailed Godwit

A Pair of Black-tailed Godwits

A Pair of Pintails

A Male Teal

Little Grebe

Little Grebe

Photo Problems

It seems I've run out of free storage space for photos on all my Blogger blogs and so I've had to resort to hosting them elsewhere.  This now makes the process of putting pictures in my posts a lot slower so please bear with me on this.  I'll continue to post reports of my trips as and when I do them (or else I'll forget) but the photos will usually appear later.

Pennington Flash - 22/02/11

Here's a quick list of what I saw at Penny today:

• Skylark
• Kestrel
• Great Crested Grebe
• Goosander
• Shoveler
• Shelduck
• Coromorant
• Teal
• Lapwing
• Grey Heron
• Coot
• Moorhen
• Mallard
• Mute Swan
• Gadwall
• Black-headed Gull
• Long-tailed Tit
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Blackbird
• Carrion Crow
• Magpie
• Reed Bunting
• Chaffinch
• Bullfinch
• Dunnock
• Robin

Some pictures to follow ...

Birding in the Ladybridge and Deane Areas

Today, after a crazy week at work, I was determined to go out birding even though the sky was very overcast. I'd noticed on the Manchester Birding Forum that there'd been regular Waxwing sightings in the Ladybridge area over the last week. As I was very disappointed with my first photos of this fantastic bird in Horwich last November, I decided to go and have a look for them here. Unfortunately the light was very poor and so I knew none of the photos would be that great today and in the event that I didn't find any birds at all I had a backup plan for doing some geocaching in roughly the same area.

I set off at just after a 9am and arrived at about 9:25am having used Google Maps on my phone to locate the roads mentioned in the Forum. I parked up at the back of a pub and as soon as I got out of the car I could see a flock of birds in a tall poplar tree at the back of some flats and houses. Were they Starlings or Waxwings though? A quick look through my binoculars confirmed the latter.

So I quickly got my camera out and headed for the tree. I started taking photos immediately just in case they flew off, but it was very dull and overcast and so they are not of great quality. Then all the birds flew and for a few seconds I thought they'd gone, until I noticed them raiding the berries in a tree next to Ladybridge Community Centre. And then they all came back to the tall poplar tree again. It was Charlie Owens who had told me about this jizz (behaviour) when I first saw Waxwing in Horwich late last year, and here they were doing it again. I took some more photos and they flew off and returned again.

By now a couple of passers-by had asked me what the birds were and why they were of interest and so I did my best to explain - I must have sounded quite knowledgable to these non-birders and I quite impressed myself! However, I know I was only repeating what I've read in the Collins Guide and what others have told me - still, I suppose that's what everyone does to some extent.

As I was talking to one of the passers-by the birds flew off but this time did not return. I hung around for another ten minutes or so but they did not come back, and so I set off for my second location at the Middlebrook Trail in Deane, for which the last person had kindly given me directions.

I parked outside Deane Church and walked down the Deane Clough toward Middlebrook to look for Dippers, which again had been reported on the Forum recently. On the way I met a group of three ladies who spotted my camera and started telling me about an usual bird they had seen on the brook. They gave me directions as to where it was and as I walked along the footpath I surprised a Grey Heron which took off in front of me - to quick to get any good photos though.

When I got to where the ladies had told me the bird turned out to be a male Teal and not so unusual after all. So I carried on walking alongside the brook towards Ladybridge. Very shortly afterwards I heard a bird calling from behind me and as I turned around a browny-black bullet shot along the river course just above the water. It was a Dipper and it carried on upstream for about 100 metres and then landed on some stones on the river bank, just in front of a couple of people who had also noticed it.

As I was preparing my camera for some fast shutter speed photos, it shot back past me making the same calling sound and disappeared downstream. I fired off a few shots in the vain hope that I might get something - no real luck there though. I walked up to the couple and we chatted about the Dipper and other birds that they had seen in this area, including Kingfishers.

I left them to carry on their walk towards Ladybridge whilst I returned to my car. I didn't see anything else on my way back bar a single chaffinch and some crows. Still, I'd managed to get two birds for my growing year list and one of these for my life list today, and so I was very satisfied.

Leucistic Blackbird

I wasn't going to post today but when I looked out of my window this afternoon I saw a Leucistic Blackbird on my garden fence.  Leucism is a symptom of reduced pigmentation in humans and animals, and it looked just as if someone had thrown an ice cream cornet over it, or even worse, that another bird had pooped on it from above!  The bird's head was almost pure white with the characteristic orange Blackbird beak, and its body had some patches of white on top with mainly dark under parts.

First I went for my binoculars to get a better look and then, as it was staying around for a bit, I went for my camera.  I took a few shots through our mucky patio windows just to get something, before sneaking outside for a better shot.  Unfortunately, by the time I'd got outside the bird had flown up into the hawthorn tree and was more diificult to see.  When I moved a little closer it flew into the next door neighbours' garden and that was the end of that!  I waited for another 15 minutes or so, but it didn't come back.

I've seen a bird like this before but a long way off on a neighbours' roof, and I can't be certain it was the same one -  but it probably was because there can't be too many around here. None of the pictures I took of it are any good having been quickly shot through windows:

The other birds in my garden today were:

• Blackbird (up to seven at once)
• Song Thrush
• Starling
• House Sparrow
• Long-tailed Tit
• Blue Tit
• Coal Tit
• Great Tit
• Woodpigeon
• Collared Dove

Where were this lot when I was doing the Big Garden Birdwatch yesterday?

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch Survey

When I looked out of my bedroom window at 9:35am this morning and saw my first Greenfinch of the year on one of the feeders, I decided it was time to start my first RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch survey.  I've known about the BGB for a while, but I've never actually taken part before.

Armed with my binoculars, a cup of tea, some toast and my recording sheet printed off the BGB website, I shut myself in the dining room with the curtains slightly ajar to avoid being seen by the birds.  I say 'shut myself in' because we have two cats who were under strict orders not to be let out of the house or in the dning room for a hour or else I would see nothing.

The weather was good having warmed up considerably since the below freezing temperatures of yesterday and the sun frequently broke through the light cloud cover. Here's what I recorded:

• Greenfinch - first time this year
• Bullfinch - first ever recording in my garden
• Coal Tit (2) - first time this year
• Goldfinch
• Blackbird (4)
• Starling (4)
• House Sparrow (4)
• Blue Tit
• Dunnock
• Wood Pigeon

That made a total of 10 species and 20 individual birds that were in my back garden between 9:35am and 10:35am this morning. I also saw the following birds from my window but as they not actually in my garden I didn't submit them:

• Skein of Pink-footed Geese (200+)
• Jay
• Collared Dove (2)
• Magpie
• Gull - probably Black-headed (14+)

I was quite disappointed not to see my fairly regular Robin, Long-tailed Tits, Coal Tits and Chaffinch during the sample time but hey-ho, that's what sampling is all about. All in all it wasn't a bad count for my suburban location.

After an hour the session was over and so I logged on the BGB website and submitted my recordings online.  I didn't take any photographs today as I was too busy counting and recording.  The cats can go out now!

Update: I went out for a walk later along the Tyldesley Loopline footpath near my house and also saw Coal Tits, Blue Tits, House Sparrows, Goldfinches, Robins, a Bullfinch, a Chaffinch, Magpies, Collared Doves, Woodpigeons and five Redwing.  Not a bad day's birding on my local patch.