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~ a celebration of nature

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Category Archives: birds

149/365 Goldfinch foraging

29 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Goldfinch, Goldfinches foraging

It’s been cold, wet and windy all day but the family’s got to be fed. So, along with all the other birds with hungry chicks to feed, Mr and Mrs Goldfinch have been working hard despite the inclement weather.

190529 goldfinch (1)

I’ve heard them several times in the ornamental cherry at the front of my house and found them twice foraging in the gutters out back.

190529 goldfinch (2)

I’m not sure what they’re finding – wind-blown seeds of some kind perhaps. It doesn’t look enough to satisfy a nest full of rumbling tums but I guess, for today, it will have to do.

190529 goldfinch (3)

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146/365 House building

26 Sunday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birds' nests on houses, birdwatching, British birds, House martin, House martin nests

The House martins are back in town and have started refurbishing, renovating and rebuilding their nests so they can get on with breeding this year’s offspring. There’s one particular local street where the architecture of the houses suits them perfectly – the upper-storey windows have a decorative moulding which could almost have been purposely designed to have a nest propped upon it.

190526 house martins (1)

And what amazing nests they are! Imagine having to build your own home by flying to and from the muddy bank of a nearby stream, river or pond with small amounts of mud in your mouth, back and forth for hours until you’ve formed a structure that will safely house your eggs and later chicks.

190526 house martins (3)

Sorry these photos aren’t great – the day’s been wet and grey, and it’s a little dark under the eaves so I’ve had to ramp up the light on these shots so you can get the picture.

190526 house martins (2)

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144/365 Humbugs

24 Friday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Great Crested Grebe, Great crested grebe chicks, Humbugs

Some days it’s only Nature that keeps me sane – today was one of those days and these gorgeous creatures played a big part in restoring my sanity and making me grin from ear to ear. In case you don’t know, this is a Great crested grebe and its two chicks, which are often referred to as Humbugs because of their resemblance to the black-and-white-striped sweet of that name.

190524 Great crested grebe (1)

I think this is their Dad who’s carrying them – Mum, a smaller version of Dad, was nearby. The parents take turns protecting their chicks by carrying them on their backs. I’m not sure if that gaping beak is a yawn or a wish to be fed – I suspect the former.

190524 Great crested grebe (2)

Dad was getting quite upset at this point because a fight between a Coot and a Mallard was coming a little too close for comfort.

190524 Great crested grebe (3)

Calm restored. Snoozing bookends!

190524 Great crested grebe (4)

Curiosity! Soon after this, the closest chick ventured out on to the water for a very brief moment before deciding it was much safer and more comfortable on Dad’s back.

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142/365 Birding at Magor Marsh

22 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, insects, nature, trees

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#365DaysWild, Glamorgan Bird Club, Grey heron, Little egret, Magor Marsh, Mistletoe, Sedge warbler

It was a cracking blue-sky day for our Glamorgan Bird Club trip to the Gwent Wildlife Trust’s Magor Marsh Reserve today, and what a fabulous place it is! A natural area of fenland, divided by the lush waterways of ancient reens, home to large areas of reed bed and magnificent wildflower meadows, interspersed with small wooded areas.

190522 reen

The bird list today was not extensive but I think it was the first time any of us had seen Little egrets nesting in Britain, and one of those was easy to see from the bird hide, and it was sharing its tree with a nesting Grey heron.

190522 nesting herons

Plus the reserve was alive with Redgies – Reed and Sedge warblers – and you know how much I love those little birds. One Sedgie even hopped out for a few photos.

190522 sedge warbler

And, because Bird Club outings are about more than just birds, when the bird life was a bit sparse we simply turned our attention to all the other interesting flora and fauna that surrounded us.

190522 mistletoe
190522 galls on blackthorn

Like a tree adorned with huge bundles of Mistletoe, and another, probably a Blackthorn, with what looked like galls affecting its fruit.

190522 damselfly
190522 beetle

And all the damselflies and beetles, bees and butterflies (though not as many butterflies as I was hoping for – I’m blaming the coolish wind). All in all, it was a pleasure to explore this lovely reserve and another most excellent field trip.

190522 bee
190522 small copper (2)
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137/365 Redgies

17 Friday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

birding, birding in Kent, birdwatching, British birds, Sedge warblers

One of our frequent challenges during our Kent birding trip was to tell apart the song of the Reed and Sedge warblers, and so we nicknamed them ‘Redgies’.

190517 sedge warblers (1)

In fact, I had my ear reasonably well tuned, as I’d spent some time listening to recordings in the previous weeks, as I tried to find these birds in my local area. And, as well as their preferred habitats being slightly different – Reed warblers really do prefer reed beds, while Sedge warblers like scrubby areas near water – they also exhibit different behaviour: the Reed warblers skulk more and I didn’t manage to get a single photo of them, whereas the Sedgies seem to be little exhibitionists, frequently sitting in a prominent position to belt out their song.

190517 sedge warblers (2)

Here, then, are some photos of Sedge warblers from our various locations in Kent.

 

190517 sedge warblers (3)
190517 sedge warblers (4)
190517 sedge warblers (5)
190517 sedge warblers (6)
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136/365 Egrets

16 Thursday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cattle egret, egrets, Great white egret, Little egret

Little, Great white and Cattle egrets all made it on to our birding lists during our Kent adventure. We had just one Great white, at RSPB Dungeness, and four Cattle egrets, also at Dungeness.

190516 great white egret
190516 cattle egrets

The Little egrets were much more common and widespread, with birds being seen at Oare Marshes, Restharrow Scrape near Sandwich, Rye Harbour in East Sussex, Pegwell Bay and Cliffe Pools.

190516 little egret (1)190516 little egret (2)190516 little egret (3)

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134/365 Bittern

14 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, Bittern, Bittern in flight, British birds, RSPB Dungeness

It’s not every day that you get to photograph a Bittern. We’d heard one booming at Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve but then, the next day, while we were focused on looking for (but failed to see) Tree sparrows at RSPB Dungeness, a Bittern just happened to fly over from a pool on one side of the main road to a pool on the other. Luckily, I had my camera handy, though it’s not the sharpest of photos.

190514 bittern (1)

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133/365 Birding on Salisbury Plain

13 Monday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, insects, nature

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#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, British butterflies, Brown argus, butterflies, Corn bunting, Great bustard, Marsh fritillary, Salisbury Plain, Small blue butterfly, White Horse

Yesterday’s Glamorgan Bird Club trip to Salisbury Plain, RSPB Winterbourne Downs and Martin Down National Nature Reserve was amazing. The weather was stunning, the bird sightings were brilliant, as were the butterflies, and, as always, the company was wonderful.

190513 Salisbury (1)

190513 Salisbury (3)
190513 Salisbury (2)

The views from high on Salisbury Plain were lovely – we even had a distant view of the White Horse, though it was a little disconcerting being so close to the military impact area and to have the serenading of the plentiful skylarks occasionally shattered by the booms of exploding shells. The joy-riding trailbikers and off-roaders weren’t exactly peaceful either.

190513 great bustard

Still, we saw some amazing birds – I managed to spot the only Great bustard of the day (you’ll just have to believe me when I say that the head in the centre of the dip in the vegetation in the photo above is definitely a Great bustard!) and we had splendid ’scope sightings of Stone curlews and chicks at Winterbourne – both bird sightings were lifers for me. My best bird photo of the day was the Corn bunting shown below – captured out of the car window as we drove by.

190513 corn bunting

We also enjoyed some superb butterfly sightings – my first Small blues and Brown Argus for the year, and, finishing on a high, my first ever (two) Marsh fritillaries at Martin Down.

190513 small blue
190513 brown argus

190513 marsh fritillary

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132/365 Common terns

12 Sunday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Common tern

190513 common terns (1)

I hadn’t seen any tern species in 2019 until my birding trip to Kent, yet during those five days we saw four species, Common, Little, Sandwich and, incredibly, about 40 Black terns during a detour to the Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire on our way home to Wales.

190513 common terns (2)

All but the Commons were rather distant so here are some photos of Common terns I managed to grab (the photos, not the terns!).

190513 common terns (3)190513 common terns (4)190513 common terns (5)

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131/365 Kent: Nightingales

11 Saturday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Nightingale

Hearing Nightingales sing was a first for me on our birding trip to Kent and we heard quite a few birds in a couple of different locations. But, despite ten people standing and staring at the source of their beautiful songs, we struggled to see the actual birds. Sometimes I could see an indistinct object moving behind the foliage; once I caught a good sighting through my binoculars of a head and moving beak through a break in a bush. The only relatively clear sighting I managed to get was at Cliffe Pools, where a bird poked its front end out of a bush for a very short time, before hopping back in to the shadows. Here, then, are a photo of the blurry front of a Nightingale, the bush containing the bird – can you see it?, and a shot of its tail.

190511 nightingale (1)190511 nightingale (2)190511 nightingale (3)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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