Bits and Bobs - November, 2017

For a number of reasons, it has been over three weeks since my last blog post, so I thought I'd better take a grip on myself and come up with something before questions are asked!

A few weeks ago, I stated that I intended for my birding activities to change, with a return to a focus on owls, and an endeavour to stay closer to home. In some respects, I have managed to adhere to this intention. My excursions have been rather more frequent, but shorter in duration, and resulted in virtually no photography! They have not, however, been totally fruitless.

Owls

Many of my shorter excursions have been in the late afternoon specifically to try and locate owls as dusk falls. I've had a few sightings of Barn Owl over two different sites, and a couple of sightings of Tawny Owl at one site. I have not had too much success so far with Little Owls as no new sites have been found, although I have had around a dozen sightings over three of my original sites. I've also recently found what was one of my more reliable owl nest trees to be totally destroyed - it's in a location that is out of bounds in the summer. The only photos arising from these sightings were from my old LO Site No.02. All but two of these sighting were in 'night time' situations. I have, therefore, little to show for my efforts. Here's a few shots to 'put you in the picture'.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.02

With luck, I may get some half decent owl shots in the not-too-distant future.

Other Excursions

All my birding has been relatively close to home. Hawfinch are in the county (and country) in unprecedented numbers, for reasons that I'm not aware of. There's one location that they have been reported from that I have now visited four times - so far without any luck. I have, however,  taken advantage of my time there to photograph some of the winter thrushes (my Fieldfare shots were awful, so don't appear here) that are in the area - not forgetting the Robin!

Redwing (Turdus iliacus) - Battram

Robin (Erithacus rubecula) - Battram

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) - Battram

I have been to Hicks Lodge a few times. So far, the most interesting sightings have been of thirteen Goosander, and a number of Snipe (not counted but around 10) that were doing their best to look inconspicuous in the evening light. Apart from a lone female, all the Goosander kept their distance.

Goosander (Mergus merganser) - Hicks Lodge

Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) - Hicks Lodge

Coot (Fulica atra) - Hicks Lodge

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) - Hicks Lodge

I also had an evening at Longmoor Lake in the hope of seeing owls. I was surprised by how few passerines I saw - I think that the tree plantation is now too dense. There were plenty of birds on the water, however, but nothing of great interest.

Greylag Goose (Anser anser) - Longmoor Lake

Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) - Longmoor Lake

Our Garden

Sadly, the building work going on behind our back garden is keeping the more timid birds from visiting us during the week, but things tend to pick up a bit at the weekend when all is quiet on the building site. We have started to see a few winter visitors in the garden. I missed the first Brambling of the winter as I was in Derbyshire photographing Kingfisher, but Lindsay (my wife) tells me it was around for about an hour. Great-spotted Woodpecker (a male) - absent for most of the summer - has started showing reasonably frequently. We're now getting occasional visits from Goldcrest (no sensible photos yet), and we've had a few visits from Mistle Thrush (but our berries have now virtually all gone!). Here are a few garden bird images from November.

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) (male) - our garden

Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) - our garden

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) -our garden

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (male) - our garden

I hope that it is not another three-plus weeks before I manage to get enough time and material to share with you. 

Thank you for dropping by.
 

The Garden - September, 2017

It was a very strange September in our garden. Bird numbers plummeted mid-month, saving a small fortune in bird food but, overall, a disappointing situation.

Things started OK, with Chiffchaff and Long-tailed Tit showing from time to time. However, a Sparrowhawk was starting to make its presence felt. This, ultimately, resulted in the birds deserting the garden - which, at least, slowed down the predation rate.

Further disruption started on 18th September when heavy machinery moved onto the land behind our garden to start the groundworks for four bungalows being built. This work has now stopped because some clever person designed them so that one of them had a wall and kitchen window just 6 inches  (15 cm) from our next-door neighbour's 2 metre high back fence, and omitted to tell him that they'd need to take his fence down and put up scaffolding a metre inside his fence line. He was also told that when they dug the trench for the foundations, his fence would probably collapse into the trench. Naturally, he wasn't impressed, and the negotiations are ongoing!

The downside of this building work from our point of view is that, up until they started, we had up to five Hedgehogs each night coming into our garden through a hole in the back fence. Since the work started we're now only seeing one or two each night. I fear that some of them may have perished.

Three Siskin (females) and a Willow Warbler showed for a while on 16th September, but I didn't get any photos. Nuthatch put in an appearance the following day. Nuthatch and Willow Warbler visited the following week also. 

I did get some shots of the Sparrowhawk on 4th September.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (male) - our garden

Fortunately it didn't catch anything on this occasion as we had young Bullfinches around.

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) (juvenile) - our garden

We occasionally see dragonflies flying in our garden but, as we no longer have a pond, they seldom land. However, on 20th September, a female Southern Hawker did land. Unfortunately it was high up in a mature Viburnum. Photography was not great as I had to stand on a stepladder 'no hands' on uneven ground! I shot off a few frames before the wobbles set in.

Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) (female) - our garden

 I went back a little later and it had slewed onto its side.

Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) (female) - our garden

The next time I looked, it had gone.

We're hoping the building work recommences soon as when it's finished we can settle down and hope to get the wildlife back. In the meantime, fingers are crossed!

Thank you for dropping by. My current thoughts are that my next post will feature a more recent visit to the Kingfishers - I've waited years for them, and may never get another chance like these!

The Scourge of The Sprawk - November, 2016

Earlier this year we were getting frequent visits to our garden by Sparrowhawks. Fortunately these fizzled out, and we then went for a few months without seeing one. This month (November) those visits have started again, and become much more frequent. 

The visits have been, primarily, by a male bird - in fact, I suspect by two male birds. Earlier in the month, the visiting bird was very timid, and flew off as soon as it detected movement behind the window. More recently the bird looks different (it has some white patches on its head and on the top of its wings) and is extremely bold. It ignores me when I wave my arms around, bang on the window, and when I open and slam the window closed noisily! One day this bird visited at least six times. Fortunately the success rate has been low, and I'm only aware of three successful strikes - two Goldfinch and one Greenfinch.

One factor is constant, however, and that is that the bird only seems to come at times of very dull, and often wet, weather. This does not make for good photography. Here are some of my efforts - all taken through the glass of (mainly) my study window, or the windows of our conservatory.

1st November

This is the timid bird - taken from my study, of the bird at the end of my garden. This was with the old D300s whilst the D7200 was away for repair.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (male) - our garden

9th November

I was still working with the D300s this day. The first image is of the bird on the feeder pole, just outside my study window and probably only six metres away.

The next image was when the bird was near the top of my garden, just over three hours later..

It then flew towards me and landed only about 8 metres away. The light was absolutely dire here, and I was lucky to get these images.

22nd September

This was the day that the bird visited at least six times. I took some photos from three of those visits. I'd got the D7200 back by now.

These are from a visit when the bird landed on the same perch as depicted above, about 8 metres from me. After I'd taken my photos, I opened the window and slammed it shut again to frighten it off - and it barely batted an eyelid!

These were from the same visit, but from a slightly different angle. I've had to tightly left and right crop the last sequence and this next sequence because of intervening 'rubbish'.

Fifty two minutes after its departure, it was back again on the same perch, but in a slightly different position.

The last visit of the day that I photographed was when it stayed at the top of the garden for a while. Not the best of images, but at least I didn't have to give it a tight crop!

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (male) - our garden

The result of all these visits is that many of the smaller birds have now deserted our garden, and so the Sparrowhawk has too!

Thank you for dropping by. I think that I might be offering some owls for my next post - it's not been a bad month.