Three Counties Birding

Saturday 21st October

WORCESTERSHIRE

We spent the weekend with our younger daughter Jen and her partner Nick in Worcestershire. On Saturday we climbed up on the Malvern Hills to look for Ring Ouzels. No luck unfortunately, and it's a stiff climb up from Great Malvern, but we saw some fungi. The Grey Squirrel and Blue Tit were in Jen and Nick's garden.

Grey Squirrel

Blue Tit

Fly Agaric

Fungi

Happy Valley on the Malvern Hills

A good place for Ring Ouzels - but not when we were there

Friday 20th October

GARDEN

It was a lovely morning, and Red Admiral, Comma and Peacock butterflies were enjoying the sunshine. I got photos of two of them.

Peacock

Red Admiral

Sunday 15th October 2006

WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND

Today dawned misty, but by the time we arrived at Wemouth the sun had broken through, and it turned out to be a sunny and warm day, although it was breezy.

We spent the morning at Portland Bill, where we failed to see any of the Ring Ouzels which were present. There was a steady stream of Gannets passing the Bill, but apart from a few Guillemots, there was not a lot else. Other birds we saw at Portland included Wheatear, Rock Pipits, Stonechat, and a fly over Snipe. Three Grey Geese flying out at sea were too far away for identification.

We went on to RSPB Radipole where we added Tufted and Ruddy Ducks, Great-crested and Little Grebes, Cettis Warbler, Pochard, Reed Bunting, and Clouded Yellow butterflies.

We ended the day at RSPB Lodmoor, where we couldn't find the reported Cattle Egrets, but we did see Shoveler, Shelduck, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, and a Peregrine.

Great-crested Grebe

Mute Swan

Teal

Moorhen

Saturday 14th October

NEW FOREST AND LEPE

After a fruitless search for the Hoopoe in the Broomy/Milkham area of the Nerw Forest we went on down to Lepe. Don't get me started on the number of dogs and people on what is supposed to be a Nature Reserve, but we did see a flock of Long-tailed Tits there.

On the way home we collected some Sunflower Hearts and Fat Balls from Paul Matthews who runs Nutbags, selling bird food, feeders etc. You can find Nutbags at www.nutbags.co.uk.

For some reason the Long-tailed Tit photos won't upload, however many times I try!

Friday 13th October

KEYHAVEN

I had this afternoon off, so we went to Keyhaven, calling in at Ibsley Water on the way. Birds at Ibsley Water included Gadwall, Wigeon, Great-crested and Little Grebes, Lapwing, a Peregrine, and Tufted and Ruddy Ducks.

Going on to Keyhaven we walked the sea wall as far as The Butts Lagoon, returning back along the sea wall. There were good numbers of birds on the flooded field next to Avon Water, among them Black-tailed Godwits, Pintail, and Teal. There were Turnstones on a boat in the harbour, and from the sea wall we saw Redshank, Curlew, Common Terns, an Osprey on a yacht mast, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Brent Geese, Greenshank, Eider, a Pochard, Snipe, and we heard a Water Rail squeal. Back at Avon Water a Raven was being harassed by two Crows. On the drive home there was a Tawny Owl on a telegraph pole near Cranborne.

Thrift

Grey Heron

Mayweed

Turnstone

Dandelion Clock

Thursday 12th October

THIS MORNING'S SUNRISE

Our neighbours have removed a large conifer hedge between our gardens, and have opened up a large area of sky.

This was the view that greeted me when I went to hang up the bird feeders this morning.

Sunday 8th October

CALSHOT

After our walk at Anderwood, we went on down to Calshot where on a very high tide, there were good numbers of Common and Sandwich Terns flying around, and a Razorbill very close in, off Calshot Castle.

Common Tern

Sandwich Tern

Razorbill

7th and 8th October

NEW FOREST - BOLDERWOOD AND ANDERWOOD

We had two weekend walks in the New Forest, on the Bratley side from Bolderwood on Saturday afternoon, and from the Anderwood car park on Sunday morning. There were good numbers of Siskins on both days, and a good selection of woodland birds, including Goldcrest, Coal, Marsh, Long-tailed, Great and Blue Tits, Nuthatch and Treecreeper, on both days. I took the new Sigma lens on both the walks and here are some of the photos I took.

Only a Chaffinch, but it's the first bird photo taken with the new lens

Common Darter

Crab Apples

Fly Agaric

A late Foxglove

Fungi

Spider's Web

Beetle

Tuesday 3rd October

NEW LENS

Having convinced my personal Chancellor of the Exchequer that I "really needed" a longer lens for the Digital slr camera, I bought a Sigma 70-300 APO DG MACRO lens from Castle Cameras, once again receiving excellent service.
They have a website at http://www.castlecameras.co.uk/ and are thoroughly recommended.

These were among the first photographs I took with the new lens, in the garden at lunch time today.

Painted Lady

Red Admiral

Sunday 1st October

KEYHAVEN

The weather forecast wasn't very promising, but we went to Keyhaven anyway. It was a good decision, because in spite of very blustery wind, we only had one shower. We walked the sea wall as far as the outfall at Pennington, returning along the inland path. Among the birds we saw were Little Grebe, Little Egret, Black-tailed Godwit and Teal on the Avon flood, a distant Osprey on a post on the salt marsh, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Grey and Ringed Plovers, two Little Stints, Wheatear, Wigeon and Dunlin. We had a look from the car park at Milford on Sea where an adult Mediterranean Gull was flying around the car park.

Saturday 30th September

PORTLAND

It was chucking it down with rain when we left Colyton, but as we headed east the weather improved, so we detoured to Portland. It was a tad breezy, but it turned out to be a pleasant day. It was extremely quiet on the bird front, apart from Gannets, there was little on the sea. There were hundreds of Swallows, and even more Meadow Pipits, but we failed to see the Rose-coloured Starling which had been present for the previous two or three days. There were a few Wheatears and Stonechats, with a Little Owl in the Observatory Quarry.

Saturday 23rd to Saturday 30th September

HOLIDAY IN DEVON

We went to Devon for a week, we stayed at the same place as we did for a short break in March, at Millstream Cottage, at Colyton. During the week we did lots of walking, and some birding. We went to Dawlish Warren, but on the day we went they were carrying out work to the pools on the reserve. This was surprising because a Spotted Crake had been present on the same pools up to the previous day. Not surprising there was no sign of the bird when we were there. In fact the reserve was very quiet on the day of our visit. On our way back from Dawlish Warren we parked in Exminster village and walked up the lane to the M5 bridge and back. We were rewarded by close views of a family of Cirl Buntings.

We also went to Bowling Green Marsh at Topsham, where it was equally quiet, apart from large flocks of Teal and Wigeon, but very little else. There was a single Avocet out on the River Exe from the Goat Walk. There was another large Wigeon flock from Exmouth with good numbers of Brent Geese. We saw a distant raptor, which could well have been an Osprey.

We walked up river from Budleigh Salterton as far as Otterton and back, the feature of the walk was the number of Kingfishers, we saw five or six on the three miles of river bank. The rivers in East Devon are suffering from a plague of Hymalayan Balsam, this was particular problem on the Rivers Axe, Coly and Otter. The other problem on the River Coly is with dogs, the Coly is an asset to the town of Colyton, but unfortunately there are footpaths following the river bank both north and south of the town. The sheer numbers of dogs being walked, and encouraged to swim in the river means that the river, Hymalayan Balsam apart, is sterile. It's a shame, the river seems ideally suited to Dippers.

Speckled Wood

Hymalayan Balsam

Fly Species

Small Copper

Herring Gull

Friday 22nd September

RSPB ARNE

The morning wasn't at all promising, being dull and drizzly, but the afternoon cheered up, and having unexpected time off work we went to the RSPB Reserve at Arne.

There were dozens, hundreds maybe, of Sika Deer roaming all over the reserve. Irrational I may be, but I just don't trust those large stags, they make me very nervous! There were some birds, Little Egrets of course, Whinchat, Greenshank, Grey Heron, Black-tailed Godwit, Sandwich Terns, and best of all, an Osprey fishing in Middlebere Channel.