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.

IT SNOWED AGAIN TODAY......

........not heavily, but nonstop since 9am this morning! So what better things to do than indulge in another spell of bird watching from the warm side of the window!

The main item of interest was watching how my 'resident' male Blackbird has decided that he is boss of the patch and aggressively sees off all comers, from Robin and Dunnock to Starling and Woodpigeon, size is no object all get short shrift if they linger for too long!!

However some were allowed to stay for long enough to have their photo taken!

Pied Wagtail, a new garden visitor!

Even Mrs. Blackbird got the same treatment as all the rest!

Goldfinch, as many as 14 on or around the Sunflower Heart feeders.

Dunnock

Robin, the previous 'boss' of the garden!

Starling

Woodpigeon

 It looks as if it's going to stay cold and frosty for most of next week so I suspect there'll be lots more bird watching through the window to come!

Whatever your doing during this coming week make sure to stay safe and warm. 

Frosty Friday on the Downs

Yesterday dawned cold and frosty (-3 overnight) with a sunny hazy blue sky. I decided to visit Dunstable Downs, Bedfordshire.
The Downs, as they are locally known, are a chalk escarpment overlooking the Vale of Aylesbury and forming part of the Chiltern Hills standing at 243m (797ft) above sea level they are the highest point in Bedfordshire. Ivinghoe Beacon to the South West stands at 233m (757ft) and is one of the highest points in Buckinghamshire.

Ivinghoe Beacon is the high point to the right of the tree and the village on the far right is Edlesborough

Heading downhill on the footpath from the visitor centre, (I`ll do a post on that at a later date), I coudn`t help but notice how beautiful the grass and wild plants looked covered in ice crystals and sparkling in the sun.

 I then came across a cluster of  Seven-spot Ladybirds on a frozen bramble leaf that had been turned over by the breeze.

Scanning the trees and bushes through the binoculars I located a flock of about 20 Redwing feeding on Hawthorn berries, so as not to disturb them I took a long and arcing route to stay under cover and slowly get closer to them with a view to taking some photographs, After about 15 minutes of slowly creeping closer I was 'found' by a Golden Retriever closely followed by it`s lady owner calling "hear Toby, good boy Toby" hence birds gone and no photograph !!
I could, in the distance see a Kestrel hovering on the updraft from the slopes and decided to position myself in a spot where I hoped it might eventually come to. After about 20 minutes of me standing in the cold and frosty shadow of a large Hawthorn bush the Kestrel, a female, came within camera distance.

Kestrel (female)

It`s amazing to stand and watch these birds hunting for prey, if you can get a reference mark, you will see that when they hover they are stock still in the air just with a slight flutter of the feathers. Also using the updrafts were Common Gulls, Herring Gulls and Carrion Crows.

Common Gull

 As I was slowly getting colder and colder with all the standing about I decided to head for home and a nice warm cup of tea.

And finally a different type of aviator making use of the updrafts.

 
Have a good (rest of) the weekend.

Sightings List
Redwing
Blackbird
Great Tit
Pheasant
Wren
Common Gull
Herring Gull
Carrion Crow
Rook
Kestrel
Magpie
Robin
Wood Pigeon
  (Total 13)