A Sunny Sunday Outing

Although the title of this post sounds good it doesn’t quite tell the entire story, let me explain…..Last Saturday I received an email from Keith inviting me to join him on Sunday for our first big outing of the year to the RSPB  Frampton Marsh reserve in Lincolnshire and, of course, I didn’t need asking twice!   A check on the weather forecast on Saturday evening didn’t make for good reading.. it was predicting frost and freezing fog for most of the day on Sunday!!
As is usual with our outings we always like to make an early start….so it was up at 4.30am (all bright eyed and bushy tailed!!) a quick check out of the window confirmed that the weather guessers had got it right again….thick fog and, for the short distance that I could see, everything covered in a liberal coating of white icing….lovely?
So, with warm clothes, hat, cloves  and camera gear checked and sorted…and the car de-iced!!  I set off for the frosty/foggy 30min. drive to Keith’s.  After a quick chat and the transfer of all my stuff over to Keith’s car it was just after 6am when we began our journey…into the unknown..fog!   As is usual Keith did a splendid job of getting us safely to our destination and amazingly, after a two hour drive in varying levels of fog and ice, just as we arrived the fog disappeared and the sun started to rise into what would turn out to be, for most of the day, a clear blue sky!  Although the sun was shining it stayed frosty all day, with a high of only 4°.


Keith watching the birds while topping up his tan!!

Unfortunately most of the birds were concentrated in the distant unfrozen areas of water and so remaining too far away for any decent photographs. However, I did manage a few flight shots…


Mute Swans making an early morning flight.


Dark-bellied Brent Goose..there were hundreds of these on the reserve with large skeins constantly flying overhead.


Curlew…lots of these about too, feeding on the wet grassland.


In total we spent 5+ hours exploring the reserve in the sunshine (and cold!) and saw around 50 different species of birds including large flocks of Wigeon, Golden Plover and Lapwing.

And the strange thing?…about three miles down the road on the return trip home, the sun disappeared and it became dark and dingy as we were once again enveloped (all the way home!) by….FOG!!

All in all an enjoyable (sunny) Sunday outing.

A WALK IN THE SUN

Thursday the 1st of March started off with a rosy pink sunrise which by 7am had turned to thick fog, which was slightly annoying as I had planned to go for a walk around Caldecotte Lake. The weather forecast did however predict  a pleasant sunny day.

After a leisurely breakfast and attending to a few little jobs that needed doing around the house, I decided that the fog was thinning a little and perhaps I should go anyway, by it was now 10.30am and half the day had already gone.

Arriving at the lake just after 11am I could see that the fog/mist was indeed rising to reveal a bright blue sky and with no wind to speak of the lake was almost flat calm (a change for Caldecotte as it's nearly always windy!!)

                            

First stop was the foot bridge by the car park (were Keith has got the birds well trained!!) and a few handfuls of seed on the handrail soon brought down Reed Buntings, Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Chaffinch, a Robin along with Blackbirds, House Sparrows and a couple of shy Greenfinch.

Female Reed Bunting

Male Reed Bunting

 

On to check out Keith's feeders, which were surprisingly quiet with only a couple of Greenfinch, a Robin and two Long Tailed Tits in attendance.

On around the South lake and the first thing that I noticed was that most of the waterfowl were taking it easy and were just 'loafing' around the edges of the lake. Around by the houses two elderly women were feeding a melee of Mallard, Canada Geese, Mute Swans and Black Headed Gulls.

 Coot

A Black Headed Gull with it's first sandwich of the day!

 

The next thing I came across was rather upsetting, a dead Great Crested Grebe upside down in the water. A length of fishing line could clearly be seen tangled around it's bill!

 Cause of death:- CARELESS BLOODY FISHERMEN!!

 

Next up a dead fish, a Pike, about 12 to18 inches long, in the shallows just past the boathouse.

 

Onwards and around past the first bird hide were I fed Keith's tame Robin and saw something I'd not seen before, a Dunnock seemed to bury itself down in the leaf litter a proceeded to 'bathe' in just the same way as it would were it having a dust bath, I guess!  I would have had some video only the 'wally effect' took over and I forgot to press the record button!!  ( It looked good in the viewfinder though, best video ever!)

By now the temperature had risen to a balmy 15*C (59*F) and time was getting on and as I still wanted to go around the South lake I made a quick walk to the road bridge stopping to take this picture across the lake showing the houses (oh to have lots of money!) With Keith's favourite place, the boathouse, in the foreground.

 And these of a Mute swan taking to the air...

And this of a cruising Herring Gull (2nd winter....I think?) 

The North lake seemed to be very sparse in regard to waterfowl and the reason soon became apparent as I could hear the noise of  chain saws and shredding machines in the distance, sure enough just around the corner the 'butchers' (landscapers) will busily hacking down all the bushes. (I won't say any more as it will just turn into a rant!!).

A brisk walk around to the dam and I spotted two Mute Swans having what looked like a fight, although I guess it was just a show of strength as they didn't appear to be inflicting to much damage to each other. The 'fight' went on for the best part of thirty minutes until another male Swan, who had swam the whole width of the lake, just quietly nudged into them whereupon they stopped 'fighting' and swam off in different directions just like two naughty schoolboys that had been told off for fighting in the playground!

 I did manage to get most of the action on video apart from the ending when again the 'wally effect' once more prevented me from pressing the record button!!

The only other sightings of note on my walk back to the car were a group of Wigeon in the bay by the houses and the 'resident' Crow with the  white wing feathers.

 

The 'Fight' video.....

WHO'S STOLEN THE BEACON?

Last Monday evening the weatherman said that Tuesday was going to have temperatures above the seasonal average and after the early cloud had thinned there would be sunny spells....NAH!!....

.....It was cold, damp and foggy where I was!!

As I hadn't been for some time I decided, on the strength of the weather forecast, to visit Ivinghoe Beacon. I left home in mild slightly overcast conditions and drove the 8.5 miles to the Beacon car park. It was a quite foggy when I arrived, and after about 20 minutes of sitting and waiting in the car the fog didn't seem to be clearing, but the weatherman did say it would clear later so I was not really concerned!

So, off I set with binoculars, DSLR (fitted with the 400mm 'birding' lens) and my video camera in the hope of some good bird pictures....as you've probably guessed by now the weather man is an a..e and the fog and mist stayed all day, so no bird pictures.

However, I did manage to take quite a bit of video footage of my walk to the top of the Beacon....in the fog!

After all the  editing was done I had a video of about 15 minutes long, so to spare you the agony of watching the whole thing I've split it into two shorter videos.... giving you the opportunity to skip out after the first one!!  

Not only are there two videos for you to plough through but you've got to suffer listening to my voice as well...yes! it's my first attempt at 'talkies'!!  I should now apologise for the stilted commentary and the long pauses but I'm still having trouble, thinking about what to say, and then saying it, whilst still pointing the camera in the right direction!!

So, I hope you find the videos interesting and I look forward to your comments, but please don't hold back, say it as it is, in the hope that I can take heed and improve for next time....Aaargggh!! he's not going to do some more, is he? I can hear you say......Well, maybe!!

Now the P.SS.D OFF bit...This post was supposed to happen yesterday but after spending four and a half hours trying to upload the videos to YouTube only to have them 'fail' with just minutes to go I said.. 'oh dear, never mind'!!!!.. and went to bed.  At 5.30 this morning they both loaded in about twenty minutes each......I hate YouTube...[:-{{ 

The videos....

RSPB. The Lodge, Sandy.

Last Friday, in the company of Keith (caldecottelake.blogspot.com and holdingmoments.blogspot.com) I paid a visit to the RSPB Headquarters reserve at The Lodge, Sandy. Bedfordshire. We arrived just as the sun was rising through the early fog and mist.

 Our main objective was to find the 100 strong flock of Redpoll reported from earlier in the week. Our first stop was the Meadow Hide which supplied nothing more than a lone Pheasant some Chaffinch and Blue Tits. Next it was a short stroll to the Formal Gardens which are located behind the main RSPB office buildings, we noted a few Jackdaw on the roof of the main house, keeping up a constant chatter of "jack" "jack"! We also saw Blackbirds, Redwing,Blue Tits (lots) and fleeting glimpses of Goldcrest as they flitted amongst the branches.
We then moved onto the "old" Heath where the bird life was noticable by it`s absence. There were however lots of dew laden spiders webs strung between the dying bracken shining in the sunlight.

  We then moved across to the "new" Heath, encountering a small flock of Long-Tailed Tits as they busily flitted from branch to branch, the new heath again showed a remarkable shortage of bird life, our only sighting being a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and a Sparrowhawk flying over. We then moved back to the main office car park area where we found Blackbird and Redwing feeding on the berries from the Yew trees.

 Again there were lots of Blue Tits in evidence, (they must have had a good year). Also showing briefly was a Goldcrest (but still all to briefly for this photographer !),
We never did find the flock of Redpoll (I later found out that they were in the one area that we didn`t visit ! sods law I guess). Still I had a very enjoyable time on what turned out to be a fine and sunny blue sky day, despite the forecast being for a day of mist and fog.

Sightings List

Chaffinch
Pheasant
Goldfinch
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long-Tailed Tit
Dunnock
Wren
Blackbird
Redwing
Rook
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw 
Jay
Nuthatch 
Treecreeper
Mistle Thrush
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Goldcrest
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard (on way home)
        (Total 22)