144/365 Humbugs

24 Friday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

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#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.

137/365 Redgies

17 Friday May 2019

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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.

136/365 Egrets

16 Thursday May 2019

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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.

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)

134/365 Bittern

14 Tuesday May 2019

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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)

133/365 Birding on Salisbury Plain

13 Monday May 2019

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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)

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 marsh fritillary

132/365 Common terns

12 Sunday May 2019

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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)

131/365 Kent: Nightingales

11 Saturday May 2019

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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)

130/365 Nesting update

10 Friday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

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#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Lesser black-backed gull, nesting gull, urban gull nest

While I’ve been away in Kent, the Lesser black-backed gulls that are nesting on a rooftop behind my flat have been busy and one of them is now sitting continuously on the nest, which I assume means they have eggs.

190510 LBB nesting (2)

I’ve just been reading that their average clutch is 3-4 eggs, and both female and male take turns at sitting on the nest. The incubation period takes around 30 days so, if the eggs are viable and they continue with their parental duties, we should expect to sit some chicks poking their heads up in early June. Fingers crossed!

It’s a bit hard to see the sitting bird so I cropped in on this shot to make it clearer

129/365 Kent: Turtle doves

09 Thursday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Turtle dove

I’ve been away on an amazing, intensive, 5-day birding trip with some of my Glamorgan birding friends, mostly in the English county of Kent, though we did also stop off in other places on the way there and back. So, during the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing snippets (not all birds) of that adventure.

190509 turtle dove (1)

One of the most amazing birds we saw was the Turtle dove, a bird now suffering severe population decline, partly due to habitat loss, partly because so many are shot in Europe as they migrate (amongst other issues).

190509 turtle dove (2)

I’d never seen a Turtle dove before, only heard one uttering its characteristic purring sound, last year at Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Woods Mill reserve. This time, thanks to one of our group making contact with Operation Turtledove, we were able to visit a private site which, once all their birds arrive back from spending the winter in Africa, has the highest concentration of Turtle doves in Britain.

190509 turtle dove (3)

Our party split into two groups of five to spend time in the hide – my lot saw two Turtle doves, the other group saw one (not all the birds are back yet). And what stunning birds they are, smaller than I expected (see the comparison with House sparrow and Woodpigeon in the photo above), with wonderfully delicate colours and wing markings. This visit was a real highlight of our trip and it was a huge privilege to have such close sightings of these beautiful birds.

190509 turtle dove (4)

127/365 The red eye

07 Tuesday May 2019

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

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#365DaysWild, birding, birding out the window, birdwatching, British birds, Cherry tree, Collared dove

You all know how flash photography can sometimes make people look like they have red eyes – the effect can look quite devilish, almost evil. Well, in the case of this beautiful Collared dove, the red eyes are real and not at all devilish. I was working on my laptop when I heard the ‘coo-coo-coo’ and looked up to see the bird in the tree outside my living room window. I quickly grabbed the camera and moved slowly across the room to get a clearer shot, which is why the bird is looking at the camera, because it noticed my movement. It flew up on to the roof almost immediately but returned after a few minutes to shuffle its way around the tree looking for food.