STARLING - LIFE IN A FRENZY!

Over the last couple of weeks, as the weather starts to get colder and the daylight hours shorter (in other words Winter 's on its way!),  I've noticed that the Starlings that have been visiting my garden feeders in ones and twos have now started to band together into ever larger flocks or, in the case of my feeders, raiding parties!

Now, the general idea is that they flock together for safety and warmth while roosting for the night. But being the best of friends and snuggling up cosy and warm during the night may be one thing during the day while searching for food and even taking a bath it's a different matter altogether...it's everyone for his/her self!

A couple of days ago I was fortunate to have the video camera to hand when one of these raiding parties descended onto my garden and feeders.  It was around 3.30 in the afternoon on a dark and gloomy day so not the best of light but it does show how manic and frenzied the life of a Starling is!

Unfortunately, as I was shooting the video through closed patio doors, the sound of the squabbling  and bickering is not very clear but if you turn up the sound on your computer you can just about make it out over the sound of the camera.  Also I've not edited the video, it's real time as it happened, so is quite long!

Before the video here are a few images taken on the same day and again taken through the patio window.

BIRDING FROM MY CAR

A couple of days ago I decided to see if I could find the Corn Buntings that had been reported as showing well  about ten miles from my house. I arrived at the location, a small car park,  around mid morning. The weather was quite windy and overcast with just a few brief glimpses of the sun (so what's new!!).

I positioned the car so that I had a good view over the car park and almost immediately I saw that a few birds, Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, Meadow Pipit and Linnet  were coming down to bathe in the puddles left by the recent rain. Unfortunately they were frequently spooked by walkers crossing the car park and also by other cars arriving and leaving making photography rather difficult!

Linnet

Yellowhammer

 

It wasn't long before I heard the "little bit of bread and no cheeeese" song of a Yellowhammer coming from the overhead power lines, closely followed by a singing Corn Bunting (another tick for the list!) and after a few minutes a Dunnock started to serenade me from the bushes close by.

Corn Bunting

Dunnock

 

I also had a fascinating few minutes watching two Magpies (juveniles, I think!) as they explored, constantly chattering to each other,  all around the car park  with one spending some time interacting with a discarded yogurt pot.

 

So, without leaving the car, I'd had a couple of hours of good birding and had noted sixteen different species, apart from the above I'd also seen Jackdaw and Carrion Crows in the adjacent fields, Starling, Goldfinch and Great Tit in the bushes, a hovering Kestrel, two soaring Buzzards, as well  as overflying  Woodpigeons and Swifts.

The Videos...

 

This weekend and next week promises to be warm and sunny here (Summer at last!!) and I'm looking forwards to getting out and about in some descend weather for a change. Wherever you are I wish you all a great weekend and upcoming week.

BUTTERFLIES ON A SUMMERS DAY!

Yeeeh-haaa  we've had summer.. well one day... last Sunday, it was mostly sunny and warm (if a little windy) and the nearest  we've had to summer in what seems to be a long time...AND NO RAIN!!

I decided to make the most of it and go in search of some butterflies. I went to an area where I've found a good variety of butterflies in previous years, Incombe Hole in Buckinghamshire.

There were a few different species on the wing but nowhere near  the amount , in numbers, as I've seen before.

 

Small Heath, as usual, were  settling low down in the grass and making photography rather difficult.

Male

Meadow Brown

Male

Female

 Marbled White

Male

Male

 And I'm still trying to get a decent image of a Marbled White!!

Large Skipper...I only saw this one!

A male...note the dark sex-brands in the centre of the wings.

 And the one species I was hoping to see...Dark Green Fritillary. I found about ten of these nectaring on a large patch of thistles.

Male

Male

Female

The dark green colouring on the underside of the wings gives this butterfly it's name.

And I also saw quite a few Ringlet and one each of Red Admiral and Small White. And rather worrying I didn't see a single 'blue' butterfly all day!

And a video...

SABINE'S GULL.... A LOCAL STAR!

Since it was first spotted, at Startops End Reservoir, last Sunday this stunning adult first summer Sabine's Gull has been putting on an excellent show for the many local birders.

This rare visitor to our inland waterways is assumed to have been blown off course, from its more regular haunt far out to sea in the North Atlantic, by the weekend storms that also brought severe damage and flooding to some parts of the UK.

After seeing the reports and excellent photos that were being posted on the internet I decided that, as any future chances of seeing one of these gulls was pretty slim, I should go and have a look.

So, early yesterday morning , under dark and gloomy skies (with the weatherman predicting rain again...what else?) I set off on the 30min. journey to Startops and almost to the second off arriving in the car park and turning off the car ignition...the heavens opened!!  After a twenty minute wait the rain eased to a light drizzle and I decided to brave it and have a look to see if the 'star' was still about.....and I'm glad I did for almost the first thing that I saw on climbing the steps to the top of the embankment was a stunning white, grey and black bird putting on a fabulous show as it gracefully and effortlessly flew back and forth along the water's edge, regularly plunging into the water to collect a morsel  of food and at times coming so close that I felt as though I could have reached out and touched it.

I spend over three hours totally engrossed in watching  and photographing this beautiful bird that I didn't notice that the rain had stopped!

Although the rain and the gloom were not perfect for taking photographs (I took lots!!) I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was glad that I had made the effort to go and have a look!

The photographs....

 

And the video....

IT'S TOUGH BEING A PARENT! (2)

I shot this video on 29 May while walking around Caldecotte Lake in Milton Keynes. I initially started to film a female Mallard and her twelve ducklings (just for the aahhhh factor!) when out of the blue she was set upon by a male Mallard and then, to add insult to injury, by a Coot!  It wasn't until things had quietened  down and I had stopped filming that I heard a 'quack' from up high on the wall and realised what had happened, reviewing the video later just confirmed my theory.

It would appear that the mother had taken her family into the' territory' of another pair of Mallards where the female is sitting on a nest high up on the Ivy clad wall and the male was just protecting his interest!  It can also be seen in the video that the father of the ducklings is a bit bewildered and isn't sure who to protect first, them or the female, in the end he does nothing!!

As to why the Coot joined in I can only assume it was just a Coot being a Coot and not being able to resist joining in on a good fight!!

It all worked out well in the end though....It's tough being a parent!!

SINGING OUT FOR THE 100th

It's been a long time coming but finally it's time to celebrate......this is  my 100th post!

I would just like to say big thank you to all of you followers and readers that have taken the time not only to view this blog but to also leave  so many kind comments. Thank You.

As I've said it's taken a long time to get to the 100th post, the first was on the 4th November 2010, this is mainly because, first and foremost, my main interest is in taking wildlife and nature photographs, and I find writing an 'interesting' blog a very  drawn out and time consuming task, whatever I write always seems so uninteresting when I read it back!  I don't know how you folks manage to  make your posts so interesting and readable, and some of you do it every day!!... my hat goes off to you all. 

Just for the record I 'check out' all of your posts daily and enjoy reading all the new updates. please keep them coming.

Anyway that's enough  about my authoring skills, it's time to celebrate the '100th' and I could think of no better way than to have a little singsong!

I hope you find the following photos and video....er...interesting? 

Song Thrush

Sedge Warbler

Reed Warbler

Reed Bunting

Chiffchaff

Robin

Magpie

I don't know how or why but somewhere between putting this video together and uploading it to YouTube the captions have somehow floated around to a different position in the frame.
I hope it doesn't spoil it to much!

AND THE NIGHTINGALE SANG........

Last Friday myself and Keith went to Paxton Pits in Cambridgeshire in search of Nightingales.

Following the trend of the last few weeks it was raining steadily as we arrived at around 6am, after a quick cup of coffee (thanks Keith) we got togged up and set off in search of our target bird the  Nightingale (luscinia megarhynchos),  after walking for about 200yards we heard the unmistakable sound of a singing Nightingale coming from a stand of thick bushes and trees.

 On moving closer we managed to get a better "fix" on where  exactly the singing was coming from, but it still took the best part of 20 minutes of standing patiently waiting, eyes straining to see into the darkness of the bushes, before he finally popped up onto a higher branch and gave us a clear view whilst continuing to sing his beautiful song. Magic!... our target bird seen and heard in less than 45 minutes and 200yards from the car.

On the one hand I was quite pleased that we had seen and heard a Nightingale (even more pleasing as it was my Birthday!) but on the other hand I was rather disappointed that due to the rain and low light getting a decent photograph was not easy, high ISO resulting in lots of "noise" on the images.

However we had a good, if rather wet, day out and saw a great variety of birds, 44 species recorded, and along with my first Nightingale of the year I also saw my first Swift of the year.

My best image of the day....

 

After weeks of rain and the disappointment of not  getting a decent photograph I was pleased to see that for Monday the weather man was predicting a day of sunshine and blue skies so, my mind was made up, it was back to Paxton Pits first thing on Monday morning!

After a weekend of torrential rain, gusting wind and cold temperatures Monday, true to the weather man's words, dawned bright and sunny.

On arriving at the reserve I was struck by the eerie silence, just a few singing birds and apart from the odd Black-Headed Gull  very few in the air, I put it down to the fact that they had been overwhelmed by the atrocious weekend weather and had not yet recovered. 

In the same location as before a Nightingale was half heartedly singing from deep in the bushes (not a patch on Fridays performance!). Perhaps this wasn't going to be such a good day after all?

After about an hour's walking through the mud and areas of standing water, the River Great Ouse which runs along the side of the reserve was running very fast and high and had broken it's banks in several places, I heard  the sound that I'd been waiting for and, after a ten minute wait, up into the sunshine popped a singing Nightingale!

 

 At last I managed to get a half decent photograph.

 And a short video....

 

And the Nightingale sang.....just for me!.....I'm glad I went back!

HERE A DABBLE, THERE A DABBLE...

A few days ago I did a post on the pair of Mandarin Ducks that I'd found on a small pond in Ashridge Estate in Buckinghamshire, also on the pond were a pair of Mallard Ducks doing what Mallard Ducks do well... dabbling! 

I won't bore you with lots of info on the Mallard as I'm sure you already know everything there is to know about one of our most numerous and friendly ducks!

However I couldn't resist taking a few photos and some video...so I'll bore you with those instead!!

GRASSHOPPER WARBLER - "GROPPER"

After reading  the local bird reports on the internet over the weekend I noticed that a Grasshopper Warbler had been 'found' not too far from me ,and as the weather forecast  looked not to bad for this morning, I decided to go on a 'gropper' search!

It was quite pleasant as I left home at 9.30am, 9 degrees C, sunshine, some blue sky....buuut... some dark clouds were lurking here and there in the sky! When I arrived at the reservoir car park the sun had all but gone being replaced by a brisk cold wind. After a short walk I arrived at the reed beds were the  bird had been sighted and almost immediately I could hear the sounds of both Reed and Sedge Warbler  

I got a few glimpses of the Reed Warbler as it swiftly relocated to different  areas of the reeds. And then, coming from the base of an Willow bush, the unmistakable reeling song of a Grasshopper Warbler. It was quite difficult to spot him at first and even more difficult to get good pictures, I had to manually focus through the reeds that were constantly being blown about in the wind.

 

As you can see the pictures are massively cropped and poorly focused but I'm quite pleased that I managed to find, and photograph without too much hassle, the bird that I'd set as my target for the morning. (the images on the video are a little better!!)

And yes ...the black clouds won, it got cold, it rained. I got cold, I got wet...... happy cold and wet though!

 

 It's amazing to think that a few short weeks ago this little bird, singing his heart out in a bush in the Buckinghamshire countryside, was enjoying the warm sunshine of West Africa!

 

And finally, Keith, this one is for you.....???