30 December, 2008

Snipe, Bitterns and Unexpected Rail

I have a membership for the London Wetland Centre but I haven't gone there as much as I would have liked these past few months, so despite the cold weather, we managed to fit in a trip at this very productive time.
Bittern and Jack Snipe had been reported from the centre for a couple of days now so I was hoping to catch up on these very elusive birds.

Sure enough; in the first hide, I got great distant views of the Jack Snipe as it slept under the reeds but my photos are very bad (but you can still see some of the beautiful markings on its plumage).



Here is the Jack Snipes big brother; the Common Snipe...

Then it was on to the reedbeds by Wildside to look for a Bittern (or get someone else to do it). When I got there, there was already a crowd of birders watching a reed in the distance. After ten minutes, I located the bird and tryed to take a shot of it.
Here are the results...

What do you mean you can't see it?! Ok, heres a closer shot

I was walking past a frozen pond when out the corner of my eye I noticed a Moorhen type bird run for cover (as it had seen me). I realised immediatly that it was a Water Rail. I found some cover and after a short while, the bird appeared from the reeds and showed amazingly for about 3 minutes. As I was the only person there, I think I can take the glory for myself :). Thats a lifer for me and probably the last lifer of the year :(.




Like its cousins- the Moorhen, it has very long toes to help it cling to what solid surfaces there are. These long toes also allow the rail to spread its body weight over a wide area to prevent it from sinking into mud etc.

And here is the Moorhen, a very abundant bird at the Centre

The Wetlands Centre is not called the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust for nothing, there were huge numbers of wildfowl including Gadwall, Pochard, Shoveler, Teal and Grebes.
How many species can you spot in this photo?


A male Gadwall stretching his wings....



A female Gadwall...


A male Teal...

A female Pochard
Probably one of the smallest water birds in Britain, the Little Grebe...



This young female Stonechat was present on the grazing marsh...


As I walked back, a couple of photographers were taking shots of this very tame Blackbird as it foraged through the leaf litter.


What a great way to end 2008!

29 December, 2008

The Waxwing That Was Not....

Most Christmas', we always go and visit out relatives in Suffolk. This provides me with a great chance to go birding in the local woodland and farmland. My aim for the trip this Christmas was to connect with some of the 100s of Waxwings that have been sighted across East Anglia and it would be a great way to round up the year.

After spending time with the family, I walked down to the local park to see what I could find, Fieldfare were very abundant in the park so I took a photo of a flock in a tree. When I got home and cropped the shot, I found that the centre right bird (below) looked very like a Waxwing.



The bird has most of the features of Waxwing; crest, black around the eye, rounded body and a shortish tail. The problem is, it is not small enough for Waxwing and you can just see a greyish cap on the head which is a prime feature of the nearby Fieldfare (centre left). After looking at the photo for a long time, you can also see the crest is obviously not connected to the bird but just a twig. This makes me come to the conclusion that it is not a Waxwing but just a Fieldfare :(.

Anyway, enough of me rambing on. Later on in the day, I came back to the park to take a look at the passerines that frequent the hedgerows. There was nothing worth noting but I did find a very showy Wren that sang and foraged through the undergrowth....





A Dunnock was singing from the same bush and showed its head briefly...



There was a steady flow of Canada Geese passing over me from a near by river...


And just as I left, I spotted a definate Fieldfare in the adjacent field....

25 December, 2008

A walk at Crimbo

Its Christmas Day! (Merry Chistmas by the way) and after being at home for a couple of hours opening presents, the family and me decided to take a stroll in Bushy Park on this sunny but very fresh morning.
The first thing to note was a group of about 20 Meadow Pipits that I accidently flushed (a Bushy Park lifer). In the park gardens, I noticed Parakeets feeding on the floor (activity I have never seen before), so I decided to take a few (bad) shots of it.


Coming in to land.....


Perched on a branch...



The Red Deer also put on a show and I managed to capture two males locking horns with each other.


The losing male (on the right) then came down to the river to drink, less than 3 metres from me

22 December, 2008

Stepping Through Sewage

I did a spot of birding with David Campbell at his local sewage farm today to try and hunt down a Woodcock that had been seen by the RSPB there lately.

When we got to the farm, we met Kevin 'McManiac' McManus and almost immediatly got onto a Yellow Legged Gull (lifer) and a Peregrine.
Its in there somewhere......



Then it was off to look for the woodcock but whilst we walked through the sewage, David pointed out a Green Sandpiper (lifer) and Kevin pointed out a Little Egret perched on a tree in the distance. 2 singing Chiffchaff were present with a tit flock and I spotted a Snipe flying over us.
A little while later and we got to an open space of ground that looked perfect for a Woodcock to land in so we split up to try and flush the bird. After about 5 minutes David shouted that he had flushed it and we rushed to see the bird. We searched for another 20 minutes without luck and stopped to have some lunch (whilst being entertained by a Kestrel)
On the way back we saw another Little Egret (total site count was 3)

21 December, 2008

Fishin' herons

I rarely manage to get close to Grey Herons but there is a small river in Bushy Park that lets me have great views of the birds fishing with the added bonus of Kingfisher or Water Vole.
The bird present there today was right in the middle of hunting and after being disturbed by dogs, it finally landed in a quiet spot where it gave me great views....
How is it keeping its balance?!
He's about strike....
And then gives up and starts to clean himself....


Having a bad hair day.....

Other birds at the park included this Jay that landed a couple of metres from me
and there were 3 pairs of Egyptian Geese in the gardens, this one was looking for its partner...
The Cape Teal was still present in the gardens and hadn't really moved from where I last saw it...

09 December, 2008

Captive Birds

I have just found these shots of some of the captive birds at the LWC from a couple of weeks ago. I have only just started to get into the captive birds at the Centre as I used to not even give the birds a second glance whalst walking to the other hides (I feel really guilty). Now I fully appreciate how beautiful and cute these more exotic species are.
This Speckled Teal was quacking its squeaky call....



and another one was itching itself behind the ear (wherever its ears are).....



Just as cute as the Speckled Teal was the Ringed Teal, arrrrrr


Some wilder birds included Moorhens, a very opportunistic bird at the reserve.



On the way home I wanted to be a bit creative so I took this shot and captioned it Mag-by-Moon.

07 December, 2008

Autumn Birds

I feel very privileged to have Mandarin Ducks showing beautifully right on my doorstep in Bushy Park as they can be very elusive in other parts of Surrey and London.

They really remind me of autumn leaves with their red and orange head plumage..


and the drab but very errr....speckly female


There were many other exotic birds present, including these Egyptian Geese....



*****STOP PRESS******
Cape Teal in Bushy Park attracted to Warburtons Whole Grain Brown Bread!!!!!
This Grey Heron was present along the same river as a Kingfisher
and heres a shot of it in the fading orange light...
A beautiful white Fallow Deer was an added bonus in the fading light..