Autumn

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

Leaves 'n' stuff

Here's a brief digest of my wildlife experiences over the past couple of weeks...

• Enjoying beautiful Japanese maple leaves still on a tree at The Lodge
• Saw a Stoat climbing about 30 feet up a big pine tree right outside my office window. It seemed totally at home and scampered up as happily as any squirrel. I suppose this must happen more often during the bird breeding season, but it was new for me...
• Also in Stoat News, I saw my first garden Stoat, trying very hard to catch birds
  
• Acquired a dead Long-tailed Tit (which had flown into a car and broken its neck), now in residence in my freezer. I wonder how much it would cost to get it stuffed?
• Celebrated six years of ringing at Beeston last weekend by catching the first Redwing for the site! That was after about 30,000 Redwings were counted over Sandy in one day. Sadly I missed all that
  
• Watching squirrels carrying sweet chestnut cases - covered in big spines! - around. They must really like the contents to put up with the spikiness...
  
• Tawny Owls quite vocal at the moment - sounds like there's a female in our big ash tree. Wonder if she roosts in the hole used by Jackdaws in spring?
• One of the Great Tits we ringed in the garden in August has been found dead, just down the road, after crashing into a window, while one of 'our' Greenfinches has been caught three miles away, by Del who rings here!
  
• Awaiting the annual invasion of Harlequin ladybirds trying to get into our house...
  

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D

Cornwall 2009

The Brisons and Cape Cornwall, as seen from Nanquidno


Sennen Cove, home for the week

St Ives, and pumpkins in one of its greengrocers




Curlew at the Hayle Estuary - taken with the iPhone through my scope, Not too bad,,,

Hoverfly

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Mist clearing

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Green Woodpecker feeding

video taken with iPhone + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Copper, red, yellow

Small Copper


Common Darter



Starting to get cabin fever, so it was a relief to get out with the cameras this lunchtime. What a lovely day.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

What's that white thing flying over?

Sometimes you just have to be lucky. Like this evening. We were standing chatting to Mark while flocks of Black-headed Gulls passed overhead to their roost at Paxton or Grafham. All of a sudden, I caught sight of another white bird, flying the other way: a Little Egret!

If I hadn't got a lift home, if I hadn't popped in for a chat at Mark's and if we hadn't been standing outside the house... we'd never have seen it and it would never have made it onto the garden list.

Number 94!

Bay of Biscay

As I write this, I am floating. Not because I am ecstatically happy - though I did have a very good long weekend - but because my body thinks it is still on a boat.

I've finally been on the Pride of Bilbao from Portsmouth to... you guessed it, Bilbao. We didn't go for the bingo, the boozing or the cabaret, but to look for whales, dolphins and seabirds. Our gang spent most of its time on the helicopter deck near the top of the boat and we weren't disappointed.

Even though it was quite a quiet trip by recent standards (no Orcas!) we saw Minke, Pilot and Sperm Whales, Harbour Porpoises, Common, Striped and Bottle-nosed Dolphins. Seabird-wise, Sabine's Gulls, Kittiwakes, Great and Cory's Shearwaters, Storm-petrels, Great and Arctic Skuas battled the waves and wind to fly past.

I didn't get any good photos, but you can see some from a recent crossing on Weedon's World of Nature.

Migration never ceases to amaze me. As we headed out into the Bay of Biscay, we were joined by a procession of Robins, a Redstart, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, White and Yellow Wagtail, Meadow Pipits, Swallows and a Song Thrush. I hope they managed to find somewhere on the ship to roost overnight and left when we arrived in Spain on Saturday morning...

As we rounded the Brittany coast on the way home, what I am sure was a Jack Snipe shot past the obs lounge at high speed before disappearing from view. Apparently it'd be a first for the boat, but our views were just too brief to clinch identification.

Apart from still having my sea legs, and missing the Guggenheim museum on a quick visit to Bilbao itself, the only downer is that my feet really, really hurt by the end of the trip. Next time I'm taking something to sit on...

The wonders of technology

Now that Flickr have released an iPhone app, I've been able to the use the phone for the entire photographic process.

I took the above photo with my iPhone held to my Leica scope (through the double glazing). Still on the phone, I cropped the photo using Pixelpipe - dead easy - and then uploaded the photo to my Flickr account, adding a title and tags along the way. The last bit was a little slow, but that was because of the bad signal in the building where I was. Isn't technology wonderful...

photo taken with Apple iPhone 3GS + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Holy grail

What I found while walking at lunchtime: a Jay's feather

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Stand well back

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Small Tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell
photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Wordless Wednesday

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Summer's still here

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

International Vulture Awareness Day

As you must have heard, today, 5 September 2009, is International Vulture Awareness Day.

Here are my experiences of vultures. My first encounter was with some friendly (or hungry?) Griffon Vultures in a French zoo. We walked through their enclosure and they flew over to perch on the handrail by the path. I wasn't scared but more impressed by their huge wingspans.

My next vultures were real, wild ones: Palm-nut Vultures in The Gambia. They get their name from their preference for Oil Palm nuts over meat. Odd birds.

I saw more wild, free vultures on a trip to Spain in 2005: Griffons again. We drove towards Tarifa, wending our way through hills, lakes and wind turbines. All the time, a stream of Griffons passed overhead on their barn-door wings. And at Punta de Paloma, we looked up and there were dozens of vultures circling around with even more swifts.

On another visit to Spain this year, we had the vulture experience again. While we sipped coffee and ate ice-creams at the mirador, Griffons appeared over the hills and Sparrowhawks, Booted Eagles, harriers and other birds of prey arrived from Africa, across the Strait of Gibraltar, in front of us.

In the mountains above the coast, we watched Griffons cruising at low level and landing at their cliffside nest. One bird brooded a chick, looking out across the Atlantic and over the hills while Bee-eaters made landfall and Spanish Festoon butterflies skittered past.

Unfortunately, things aren't very rosy for vultures in other places. Some vulture species in Asia are teetering on the brink of extinction, thanks to being poisoned by the veterinary drug Diclofenac which is used to treat cattle. BirdLife International and others are doing sterling work to breed them in captivity until Diclofenac is eliminated from the vultures' environment, and a Slender-billed Vulture chick has been reared in one of the giant Indian aviaries this year, but their future is far from secure...

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Red September

Common Darter


Small Copper on Helenium

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Byron's Pool

"Byron's Pool, named after Lord Byron, who is said (by Brooke, at least) to have swum there. The pool is now below a modern weir where the Bourn Brook flows into the River Cam."

photo taken with iPhone

Greenfinchfest

Did some more ringing today in the garden. One species dominated proceedings... can you guess which?

The totals:

• Greenfinch, 51!
• Blue Tit, 6 (+ one retrap originally ringed here in 2007)
• Dunnock, 6 (all juveniles)
• Great Tit, 3
• Goldfinch, 2
  

We kept going until we used up the whole series of 50 'B' rings (the size that Greenfinches take). It was a bit windy - we could have had even more. I'd seen up to 30 in the garden in recent days so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at the number we caught. This afternoon there are yet more unringed finches in the garden!

Most of the Greenfinches had purple, sticky beaks. They've been eating berries - blackberries and elderberries, I guess. Most birds like berries for the sugary pulp, but Greenfinches and Bullfinches take them for the seeds hidden inside. That means lots of bright purple poos.

Near-misses included Chaffinch, Robin, Swallow and Sparrowhawk...

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Pond progress

So, we've had the pond since the end of June 2008. Here's a little review of the first 14 months.

A lot of things have turned up because of the pond.

Damselflies and dragonflies

• Banded Demoiselle (well, it flew through the garden)
• Large Red Damselfly*
• Red-eyed Damselfly
• Azure Damselfly*
• Common Blue Damselfly*
• Blue-tailed Damselfly*
• Southern Hawker*
• Migrant Hawker
• Emperor
• Four-spotted Chaser*
• Broad-bodied Chaser*
• Black-tailed Skimmer (on the spoil heap before the pond had any water in it!)
  
• Common Darter*
• Ruddy Darter

* have laid eggs

other creatures

• Water Boatman
• Backswimmer
  
• Pondskater
• Caddis thing that lives in a rolled-up bit of vegetation
• Lesser Diving Beetle
• assorted other, smaller beetles
• some funky midge larvae

and

• oh yeah, Great Crested Newt
• Smooth Newt
• Common Frog

I managed to blag pond plants from other friendly pond people. Water Mint, Water Forget-me-Not, Flowering Rush, Water Lily, Marsh Marigold, Yellow Flag and Water Soldier have all been especially successful. In fact, the Soldiers have been a bit too successful. Two were donated last year; they had produced about a dozen plants by this summer! I had to cull a few.

The newts laid eggs on submerged bits of Water Mint and neatly folded up the leaves to protect them (the Great Crested Newts have been officially recorded which will mean that their needs will be taken into account in future). Something else lives inside two oval pieces of Water Lily leaf that it chomps out and makes a little sleeping bag out of.

I left long grass around the pond so that creatures have somewhere to hide - without fear of being mown - and dragonflies and damselflies have somewhere to perch after they've emerged (this spring has seen our first homegrown Common Darters and damselflies). Also, mowing around the edge would be tricky. However, I've trimmed the grass on one edge so I can get a better view from the house. I did it very carefully, with scissors, because using shears would've meant the trimmings fell in... That's how dedicated I am.

A small selection of birds have used the pond for bathing and drinking: mainly Greenfinches and Goldfinches, but also Yellow Wagtails this spring. The Swallows seem to like flying over it to catch insects. A Grey Heron came to have a look but I scared it away, fearing for the newts' lives...

In essence, it's been great fun and I'd recommend digging a wildlife pond to anyone.

photo taken with Canon Powershot A640

See you next year

This young Swallow had bumped into one of our windows. Fortunately I heard the impact and found it dazed on the ground. It crash-landed on the first release attempt so I put in in a dark box for 10 minutes' recuperation.

The second release was successful and it flew off to rejoin its family. Good luck, Swallow!

I wouldn't have heard the bang on the window if I hadn't been in the house trying to evict a(nother?) Swallow which had invited itself into the bathroom. It found its own way out through the spare bedroom window. Pesky birds.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Green and red and orange and yellow

Southern Hawker trying to find somewhere to lay her eggs




Small Copper






photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Colours

Orange


Green and red and black


Orange again


photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Swallow!

We're waiting to be fed. When's the next meal coming?*


Here it comes!





photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Apple iPhone*

Watched by owls

I spent an hour in the garden this evening, standing on a heap of rotting grass clippings. Maybe it's not what everyone would choose to do on a Tuesday night, but it suited me just fine.

On Saturday night I was mooching around in the garden around dusk, when I heard Barn Owl calls. Eventually I spotted two white heads bobbing up and down a short distance away - some of the owlets I helped to ring last week. On Sunday night, we stood in the middle of the garden and watched as a young owl landed on the fence and tried to work out what we were.

Those encounters were pretty good. The kind of thing that would make your day if you'd been in the field, but in our garden. We're spoiled. Anyone who tells you they don't like watching Barn Owls is a liar. Even the most cynical, hardened twitcher likes them, and that's a fact. Being able to observe them from my own garden is just the icing on the cake.

But tonight was something else.

From my slight vantage point under the ash tree, I watched and waited for Barn Owl activity. I was confident that when the owls came out I'd get a good view.

They took a long time to appear tonight, perhaps because of the clear sky that made the evening bright. Tawny Owls hooted from the oaks. A vole or a shrew squeaked from the nettles. Mosquitoes whined uncomfortably near my ear.

Above the hum of the combine harvesters down the road, I could hear faint hissing sounds. Eventually an adult owl appeared and went off hunting. Then two young owls appeared and took up their favourite perches.

So, I stood on my grotty heap of grass bits as the owls flew about. In the dull light it was hard to see from their plumage which owls were adults and which were youngsters, but the behaviour was different.

The young Barnies can fly quite well, but their landings are a bit... amateurish. They don't quite have the fluidity and grace of their parents yet. They circle and bob their heads up and down almost violently. I haven't really noticed adult owls doing that so much before.

After spending weeks in a dark nestbox, the big wide world must be sensory overload for the young. Every evening I watch them, they seem to be exploring their surroundings and learning... how to be an owl. I wasn't surprised when one of the owlets flew past me in a wide arc.

Then it landed on the garden fence to my right. Of course, Barn Owls are silent in flight but I heard its feet land on the wood. I didn't dare move properly so I twisted around, keeping my feet still. Not very comfortable, but it was worth a bit of discomfort. The owl bobbed its head around in circles, looking around me but not at me, it seemed.

After a couple of minutes it flew a bit further down the fence, to about 12 feet away. I stayed still! It seemed totally unconcerned by my presence, if it had even noticed. Just when I thought that was as good as it could ever get, the owl flew to the next fencepost along - about nine feet from where I stood!

I've been quite close to owls before, but always from inside a car. Being so close to a wild Barn Owl that seemed not to notice I was there was simply amazing. It was probably too close for my binoculars, and I didn't dare move while it was so close. After a few more minutes it flew off and joined its sibling not far away. They sat close together and took in their surroundings.

How am I going to top this? More tomorrow night, hopefully...

Meanwhile, at The Lodge

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

photo taken with iPhone