Ringed Plover

Last week when I saw the dunlins I also spotted these plovers. I knew instantly that they were plovers, but I was not sure which species it was.

Later though I identified it as a ringed plover. Its distinctive features are the orange beak tipped with black and the orange legs.

In contrast, the Little ringed plover, which looks similar has a black bill and pale legs. Also the ringed plover displays a white wing bar in flight which is absent in the little ringed plover.

The birds are usually seen on tidal flats and fields where they feed insects, crustaceans and worms, relying on their sight.

They nest on the ground  with little or no plant cover. An interesting fact about the ringed plover is that when nesting, and if threatened by predators, the parent bird will draw attention away from the nest by walking away and feigning a broken wing.

Although this species is usually migratory, most of the birds in UK are resident throughout the year.

All these pictures were obtained with my Sony A200 camera + Minolta 500mm f8 reflex lens. Images were cropped later.

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Dunlins

This weekend turned out to be sunny and hot again, and we decided to head out to Severn beach . Severn beach is known for its Dunlins and sure enough there was a flock hanging around.   

The last time I went there I still had my point and shoot bridge camera and as a result my pictures were blurred and noisy.

This time, armed with my Sony A200 dSLR and Minolta 500mm f8 lens, I was counting on getting much better images.

The Dunlins although looking very attractive in these images, are quite well camouflaged and hard to pick out amidst the rocks and mud.

The Dunlins are among the more common small waders found in England. In spring and summer, they have a dark patch on their bellies which is distinctive. Their slightly downturned beaks and fat shape are also worth noting.

In winter they lose all the streaks on their bellies and flanks and become harder to identify.

The bill length varies between sexes, with the females having longer bills than the males.

They have a characteristic "sewing machine" feeding action, by which they pick out small food items. Their feed includes small crustaceans, insects , molluscs and worms.

They are gregarious birds and can be seen in feeding flocks formed with other birds such as plovers as seen in the picture above.

Swifts and House Martins

Great sunshine last Sunday gave me an opportunity to aim my fixed aperture f8 Minolta 500mm lens at the sky and try photograph some birds in flight.

A few mallards flew past giving me some ok shots….

Some even came too close for my camera`s comfort!

However, my real target was the swifts which have been increasing in numbers over Blackberry hill.

as you can see from the image above, most of my shots were out of focus…..

The swifts were just too swift for my camera`s auto focus….

I tried shifting to manual focus and got a half decent shot…but with the success I was having, I decided that such fast birds were not for the current setup I had.

I was about to head off when I noticed a flash of white among the all black swifts. I also noticed that these birds were much slower in flight.

These slower birds turned out to be house martins.

I couldn't get closer, but hopefully I`ll get some better shots soon. Last July I had also photographed swallows on Blackberry hill. I wonder if all three will stay together in a season.

A Wren is Bagged

The Wren has been another bird that I`ve never been able to capture a decent image of. I see them all the time when I`m in the woods or on a quiet evening. However, all that changed yesterday.

Although it is among the more widespread species in the country, normally the wrens are very shy. They prefer living among the undergrowth, and frittering about amidst the bushes.

They do come out into the open, but normally it is a glimpse , not long enough for the auto focus seed of my camera and lens.

I have thus had many a close encounter with wrens, ending up being frustratingly close to a great shot but coming up a cropper!

Yesterday though, was a perfect day. The sun was shining like it never does in the UK, and as I was stalking a Whitethroat, I was drawn to a bird sitting on a broken tree trunk and singing away. It was a young wren. I went berserk and clicked away.

It flew away after a minute but ended up sitting in a bush even closer to me, where it resumed its singing. I clicked away yet again (ending up with more than 400 snaps).

I guess this bird is a juvenile, given away by the above display, in which it appears to be readying itself for receiving from its parent.

Wrens are normally solitary birds. However, during winter they are known to form roosting packs.

Another interesting thing about wrens is that the male builds several nests. The female then chooses one amongst them and then prepares it for her eggs.

The wrens have an amazingly loud song and you are more likely to hear a wren before you see it. If not the musical song, its the constant "chit chit" call from among the bushes.

Anyway, I’m glad to finally have a wren among my photo collection. I wonder which difficult bird is going to model itself next.

Two Chiffchaffs

Its amazing how the body form varies in warblers. Its often quite confusing. I was out yesterday, concentrating on macro photos for my Macro Photography website when out of the trees burst two chiffchaffs fighting with each other in mid flight. One of them came and sat right above my head. Luckily, my birding setup was still intact on the SLR (I`m testing the macro setup on my bridge camera). Anyway, that gave me my first close up of a chiff chaff. You can see its been involved in a fight, as some feathers are out of place and a few strands of the other bird are still stuck in its beak.

Anyway, as you can see from the above shots, the bird has a very elongated form. Half an hour later, we saw another chiffchaff, sitting in the trees and singing away. This one however has a more rounded body structure. If I hadn`t known better, Id have said its two different species!

Perhaps, its just they way they ruffle their feathers, but this variation always has me confused. Well, with the amount of confusion going around…with people reporting that one can even imitate the calls of others, I wouldn't even be surprised it was two different species. meanwhile here`s a guide to differentiate between chiffchaff's and willow warblers from the birdwatch.co.uk website (Click for link):

Canada Goose at Duchess Pond

Little Egret

Considering that I  have never seen a little Egret in the UK before, the past two weeks have been amazing. I`ve seen more than my fair share, although at Zoos. The first few shots were taken, not of a captive bird, which showed up in time for the penguin feeding session. While the weekend crowd jostled with each other to view the penguins, I concentrated on the Egret.

A week later and I was at the Bristol zoo, this time the birds were captive ones.

The little egret is a recent coloniser in UK. The plumes on its head are a feature of the adult bird in breeding season.

Chiffchaff singing

With Chiffchaffs becoming more common, now that spring is here, I`m getting to see some on Star Hill as well. This one was high up in the tree and I wouldnt have known it was there if it hadn't been for the loud and chirpy chiff-chaff chiff-chaff…. echoing off the treetop.

Blackbird

Moorhen Flying

Nuthatch

While heading over on a walk to Star hill, we decided to cut through the woods and chanced to catch a glimpse of this Nuthatch. I`ve seen a Nuthatch before, but I`ve never got a good picture of it. They barely sit still and take off before I can even get them in frame. Not this Time though! I had enough time to barely click One Photo before it took off. Here`s what I got:

, and here`s a crop:

Mating Mallards

I went by Duchess pond last week and as I stood there I saw a group of mallards on the skyline.

It appeared to be a female leading the pack and I braced to get some flight shots.

However, they soon changed direction and headed straight in my direction.

I was caught by surprise and missed some good shots as they hurtled past me.

I soon realised this wasn't an ordinary flock of birds. The female was being chased by a group of males, all eager to court her. However as you may be able to make out in the above blurred picture, one of them is already onto her in mid flight!

As my camera refocused the birds hit the water.

They were in for a bumpy landing. Literally!

but the lead male never let his advantage go and even as they were hitting the water he re staked his claim by mounting the female…..

….almost sending it plunging underwater!

They soon moved away behind the bushes onto dry land.

…all the while the other males looked on with a helpless look, knowing that their chance had come and gone!

Gulls Panning for Food Underwater

Last weekend, while in the city of Bath , we were looking down into the river below where the water emerged from a tunnel and flowed over several steps. There were many gulls there including this one below which I`m guessing is a lesser black backed gull. The gulls were standing in the water on the uppermost step and "panning" for food that flowed in with the water.

After carefully watching the water, they would suddenly plunge their head underwater…..

…and keep it down while they fished around for something worthwhile to eat.

…more often than not, they would come up with algae. I`m not entirely convinced they are eating the algae, but the below series of photos indicate that they do.

…or it could just be that I missed out the frame where it let the algae go!

Anyway, here's another gull, a herring gull this time (?). This fellow made the mistake of sitting too close to the edge of the step.

…and as the water keeps pushing it closer over the edge, it has to concentrate on maintaining its balance.

Unfortunately it decided to take a peek upwards at its photographer!

….and oops…going…

…going…

…gulp ..gasp….splash.

….gone"

First Chiffchaffs of the Year

We were out cycling and enjoying the spring sunshine when we came across this tiny mystery bird high up in the trees.

It was flittering about from branch to branch and singing away restlessly.

I knew it was a warbler and warblers are really a tough group to differentiate. However, the dark legs were a give away and the call confirmed it (play below)

Did that sound like chiff chaff chiff chaff…..? I was looking at my first warbler for the year – a Chiffchaff.

Willow warblers look notoriously similar to Chiffchaffs, but the experts point out that the legs are paler in colour.

It is also more yellow, has longer wings and has no eye ring. However the most distinctive character is the different call.

For a moment the bird flew down to within a few feet from us and I thought I could get a good shot for my gallery, but unfortunately this branch was in the way! oh well, I`m sure I`ll be seeing more of them over the coming months.

Hovering Kestrel

The Kestrel is busy again hover hunting over star hill. Here`s two pics I managed to photograph last week.

Long-tailed Tit

Last week I had posted about two long tailed tits, busily going about nest building. This week when I went down to star hill, they were still at it, giving me some more opportunities for good some good shots.

Apart from these two birds I came across several other long-tailed tit pairs which seemed to be involved in nest building. I guess the flocks have broken off into pairs and are preparing for the breeding season.

The Common Buzzard

The Buzzard is UK's most common bird of prey. Its range extends throughout Europe and also in parts of Asia too.

Buzzards are mostly resident in all but the coldest periods. There were a couple of them on Star hill till the beginning of last winter but they disappeared when it got cold. They are now back.

They build their nest in woodland. Last year I discovered a nest in the woods above Star hill. I guess they are back this time to start building a nest again.

Buzzards mate for life, and before the selection of a mate, the male bird will display a ritual to impress the female. It will  rise high in the sky and then plummet downwards in a spiral, twisting as it comes down before rising up and repeating it again.

Buzzards have a wingspan of 48 inches to 60 inches with a body length of some 20 inches. That is a huge wingspan indeed.

Although it can commonly be seen circling the skies, its favourite mode of hunting is to sit still, camouflaged among the tree tops, before swooping down upon its prey.

Its prey is usually a young rabbit or mouse, but it will also attack smaller birds. However, it also feeds on carrion.

Breeding and Flocking in the Long Tailed Tit

The Long tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) is not really a tit. They belong to a separate family – Aegithalidae.

These tiny birds are easily recognisable by their long tail ( longer than its body) and ball like body on which its head is barely distinct.

The beak is really tiny and on occasion, I`ve had to look close to check if it actually had one!

In these pictures you can see that it has something in between its beak. I initially thought it could be food. Since there were two of them, I thought it could be a pair gathering food for its young.

However, its way too early for it to be breeding and the birds seemed to be hopping about within the bushes and collecting more of the sawdust looking powder. I think it could possibly be material that they are collecting to build a nest.

The long tailed tit's nest is a complex affair built out of an assortment of material varying from spider web to lichens and human hair.

The nest is generally built in bushes, or trees and takes up to 3 weeks to complete. When finished, it contains an average of 1500 –200 feathers apart from all the other material and is dome shaped.

When complete the female lays eggs which are white with purplish-red spots, and are about 14 mm by 10 mm. The eggs are incubated by the female.

An interesting fact about these birds is that when the young hatch, additional birds help to feed and rear them. These are mostly failed breeders and it is thought that they may be related to the breeding pair.

This relationship between the family is also maintained later on and all the birds in a flock are thought to belong to a single family.

The flock stays together in tight noisy groups with their constant  repeated "Tsurp" calls.

If one member gets separated, the others will go back to "rescue" it a fact that is employed by birders to attract a flock.

Such a cute bird.

Pensive Greenfinch

Spring is very much on its way. The flowers have yet to bloom but the birds are back in the trees. I was out yesterday and caught this rather pensive looking Greenfinch.

Redwing Feasting on a Fat Earth Worm

Yesterday turned out to be a sunny and warm day. A welcome respite from the frozen weekends earlier. My wife and I went for a walk to enjoy the sun. The birds kept to themselves, except for this redwing which seemed rather daring.

It seemed intent on foraging about in the grass that was very close to a public footpath and the huge numbers of people walking about didnt seem to distract it.

I was intent on getting some good shots of this normally shy bird and I almost didn't see the big earthworm it had lying next to it on the grass.

No wonder it seemed reluctant to leave its prey and head off to the shelter of more foliage.

However, for some reason, it wasn't very interested in gobbling up the worm. The worm looked dead and half dried up. Perhaps that was the reason.

Instead, the bird continued to dig frantically at a speed that my camera was finding hard to keep up with.

In between, it would pause and look up at me as if warning me not to come any closer and then it would resume digging the ground again. Suddenly it pulled out another long worm and laid it on the grass in front of it.

You can see the worm in the picture above as the bird seems to size it up wondering how to eat such a long worm.

It then started a tussle with the earthworm, probably to try and cut it up. However, it wasn't getting very far doing that.

For a moment, it laid the worm aside and froze, almost as if thinking hard, what it was going to do next.

Then, upon having decided on its course of action, it took the worm at one end and proceeded to swallow it. In the shot above, it has already swallowed around a fourth of the worm.

As it swallowed more we looked on in astonishment, wondering how it could possibly swallow the entire thing.

Mid way through, it seemed to encounter some difficulty and paused for a while.

…and then in a determined effort, put its head upwards and rocked its throat and body to send the worm propelling further down.

Finally, when there was just a bit remaining, it paused again, perhaps tired by the former move.

…and then went for the final gulp to down the entire worm.

Having finally accomplished the task, it sat there and looked at us for a while as if to ask: "Did you really think I would fail?"

It then turned the other way. We though that was it, perhaps it would now head off into the trees.

But no, it hadnt quite finished. To our surprise it continued to hunt for more worms, and event went back to the first dead worm but left it alone afterwards.

We decided it was time to leave the bird in peace and reluctantly moved on.

Now that the sun is out and the birds are catching worms and snowdrops flower all over, I suppose the signs of spring are emerging. I look forward to it eagerly.