Birding at Maiden Castle

29 Monday Oct 2018

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Corn bunting, Glamorgan Bird Club, Golden plover, Kestrel, Maiden Castle

This past Friday to Sunday was the annual Glamorgan Bird Club long weekend trip to Portland Bird Observatory, and my second visit to the fascinating island of Portland. But first the trip down …

181029 birding at maiden castle (1)

Eleven of us left south Wales in various car-share combinations and via various routes to meet up around 10am at Maiden Castle, just outside of Dorchester. The ‘castle’ is, of course, not a castle but rather an ancient Iron Age hillfort, one of the largest in Europe.

181029 birding at maiden castle (3)

I still haven’t managed to explore the site itself, as our primary reason for meeting there is because we’re almost certain to see a Corn bunting, a bird we don’t get in Wales so it’s a year tick for most of us and a lifer for some. (You’ll need to believe me when I say that the small brown blob sitting on the fence is a Corn bunting.)

181029 birding at maiden castle (2)

Sitting in the field adjacent to the Maiden Castle carpark were over a hundred Golden plovers, a bird that seems common in this area as we also saw a large flock of them on the 2017 trip.

We were also treated to our first of many Kestrel sightings of the weekend. After a bit of fence-post sitting and some hovering, this beautiful little bird plunged down to the earth in a nearby field, having apparently caught something. It fluttered about several times, as if its prey was still alive and trying to escape and the Kestrel was having trouble subduing it.

181029 birding at maiden castle (8)

My long lens wasn’t quite long enough to identify the victim but, whatever it was, it seems it may have been too large and/or heavy for the Kestrel to carry as the bird eventually flew off empty-clawed.

181029 birding at maiden castle (9)

Soon afterwards – though probably unrelated – something spooked the Golden plovers and they treated us to a wonderful display of formation flying before settling again further off. And that was our cue also to head off, to our next stop en route to Portland.

Birding at Ogmore and Pant Norton

11 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects, nature, walks, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Buttonweed, Cormorant, Curlew, Glamorgan Bird Club, Kestrel, Musk thistle, Ogmore, Pant Norton, Portobello House, Stonechat, The Pant, Wall butterfly, Wigeon

Though a cool wind was blowing in off the sea, yesterday was a gloriously sunny day for our Glamorgan Bird Club outing to Ogmore. The fine weather also meant we had a great turn out of 26 people, more than usual for our field trips.

181011 Ogmore birding (1)

We started off near Portobello House, scanning the dunes of Merthyr Mawr and checking the River Ogmore, where the ubiquitous Cormorants were adorning this big dead tree in the water.

181011 Ogmore birding (2)

A Kestrel hovered over the dunes, and we witnessed a spectacular chase by a Sparrowhawk after a Meadow pipit – only very blurry photos of that, unfortunately. (The mipit escaped.)

Two Wigeon flew in to join the Canada geese, Mallards and gulls up river.

181011 Ogmore birding (5)

After grazing along the muddy banks down river for a time, this Curlew flew upstream to find another place to feed.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, our birding trips are not just about birds. Many birders are also interested in flora and other fauna so, yesterday, Dave was able to point out to us the invasive Buttonweed (Cotula coronopifolia) (he was the first to spot this plant in Wales!) and a Musk thistle (Carduus nutans). And another of our keen-eyed birders spotted this Wall butterfly, only the second time I’ve seen one of these beauties.

181011 Ogmore birding (8) 181011 Ogmore birding (9)

After a wander up and down the riverbank we headed across the road and up a track into a series of small valleys, an area known locally as The Pant. As well as many other small birds, there were several Stonechats popping up and down in the shrubs and bracken.

181011 Ogmore birding (10)

And then, what for me was the highlight of the day, really close views of a Kestrel hunting for its lunch. This handsome young male caught three creatures – probably voles or other small mammals – in the space of 10 minutes or so. It was incredible to watch how this bird’s amazing eyesight enabled it to hone in so accurately on its prey and, though I can’t help but have some sympathy for its victims, to see what an efficient hunter the Kestrel truly is.

181011 Ogmore birding (11) 181011 Ogmore birding (12)

My total number of species for the day was 41: Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Eurasian Wigeon, Mallard, Little Grebe, Little Egret, Cormorant, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Eurasian Curlew, Greenshank, Common Redshank, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Skylark, Long-tailed Tit, Common Chiffchaff, Wren, Nuthatch, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, European Stonechat, House Sparrow, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Siskin, Linnet, Bullfinch and Willow Warbler.
I must have wandered off when these birds were seen: Greenfinch, Stock Dove, Jay, Jackdaw, Rook, Raven, Goldcrest and Dunnock.

Birding at Rhossili and Mewslade

02 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects, nature, walks

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Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Glamorgan Bird Club, Grayling, Great black-backed gull, Kestrel, Linnet, Rhossili, Small tortoiseshell, The Worm

Yesterday was my second visit to Rhossili with my friends from the Glamorgan Bird Club, though I still haven’t walked along this magnificent beach.

180702 1 Rhossili beach

Our group of 15 met in the National Trust car park at Rhossili, then slowly meandered along the cliff tops towards the point, birding as we walked.

180702 2 Heading towards the worm

I saw my first Choughs, Fulmars were spotted gliding majestically below us, and a Great black-backed gull flew in and landed on a headland.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, here I also saw my first Grayling butterflies. The first, pictured here on a discarded Coke bottle, was spotted by eagle-eyed Tate, and the second by another birder, Rob.

At the point, we enjoyed superb views, and the last of the bright sunny weather, while eating our lunch. Then, despite the rain starting, 11 of our intrepid team headed across the causeway to The Worm, where their scrambling and climbing and drenching were rewarded with views of Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins and Manx shearwaters.

180702 7 Crossing to The Worm

Three of us chose, instead, to do the circular walk around the headland, seeing lots of Linnets and Meadow pipits in the fields, a Kestrel hovering in search of prey, and two lovely fresh-looking Small tortoiseshell butterflies.

180702 8 Linnet

After some of the team returned from The Worm, four of us went for a brief visit to nearby Mewslade, a beautiful little valley that runs down to a sheltered cove. Here we had incredibly close views of a Lesser whitethroat feeding young, spotted two very yellow-faced Great tit fledglings in an area of burnt gorse, and watched more Choughs and another Kestrel flying through. It was yet another superb field trip with my bird club friends.

180702 11 Kestrel

Birding at Portland

23 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, Cormorant, Dorset coastline, Gannet, Glamorgan Bird Club, Kestrel, Little owl, Portland, Portland Bird Observatory, Portland stone

One more birding blog from my wonderful weekend at the Portland Bird Observatory and then no more about Portland … till next year.

171023 Portland Bird Observatory (3) 171023 Portland lighthouse

In case you don’t know, Portland is sort of an island – it is actually connected to the mainland – but it looks for all the world like a small island jutting out into the English Channel. It’s where the famous Portland stone (used to build such landmarks as St Paul’s Cathedral in London) comes from, and so the coastline is dramatically rocky and the land is riddled with quarries, many of which are now disused.

171023 Portland coastline (1) 171023 Portland coastline (2)

On the Saturday of our long weekend we went for a wonderful walk, along the cliff-top coastal paths and inland through fields, and later in to one of the old quarries. Those with ’scopes spotted some nice seabirds passing by, and gannets, shags, cormorants and various gulls could easily be seen with the naked eye and bins.

171023 Seawatching birders

Kestrels were abundant – one sat obligingly on top of a post (though shooting in to a bright sky didn’t make for good photos) and I managed to get a reasonable fly-by shot.

As well as seeing Stonechats, Meadow pipits, a Whinchat, Wheatears and large flocks of Goldfinches and Linnets, we also disturbed a family of Pheasants (mum, dad and two kids) in one of the fields.

171023 Pheasants

And the resident Little owl popped out of its hidey hole in a local quarry for a short time early on Sunday morning, though, again, the light was not the best for photography.

171023 Little owl

All up the group total for the weekend was 117 species seen or heard. At 82, my personal total was a bit lower but it’s the quality, not the quantity that counts – of those 82, 15 were lifers, birds I’d never seen before – and that’s a pretty impressive total for just three days’ birding!