February 2010 - Hyde Park, London

Saturday 6th: Went down to London to the Astrofest convention in Kennsington. Met up with Neil from Dawlish, Eddie, Dave and Brian. After looking around the stalls and spending a little money, I ventured that we go and to Hyde Park as it was a 5 minute walk up the road. This was my first visit for....about 30 years! In all that time, it's not really changed at all. As you can see from the image of the BT Tower, which looks closer than it really is, Euston is not that far away, 3 miles I think.



Anyway, I wanted to sample the bird life here and see what was about, unfortunately I had not fetched my binoculars, only the camera. There were plenty of Gulls, most Black-headed, though I did count 6 Common Gulls and I suspect that there were plenty more around the lake. It was perishingly cold and the breeze coming off the water didn't help!

What intrigued me was that while people were feeding the waterfowl, they were being surrounded not just by lots of Gulls and Mallards but Starlings and Feral Pigeons! Didn't see any House Sparrows though. The Starlings for instance, and there were very many of them and Pigeons were right at the waters' edge in an effort to get to the food before the Mallards etc! Walking back to the tube, I did catch a glimpse of what I was certain was a Peregrine, that familiar call and sleek flight are a give-a-way! A good day out combining Birding with Astronomy.

February 2010 - The Wren joins the mealworm Crew

SNOW FELL AGAIN LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THE WEATHER HAS TURNED COLD AGAIN SO PLEASE REMEMBER TO KEEP FEEDING THE BIRDS

Wednesday 3rd: For sometime now, we have had a solitary Wren patrolling the garden. Now, since last Thursday, the Wren has been coming to the back door and taking mealworms. It takes one then flys to a nearby perch and devours the morsel, returning soon after for another. In fact the Wren is proving to be a serious rival to the Robin! Both are usually waiting at the door first thing in the morning and both seem to call for our attention...demanding mealworms!

As you can see from the above photos, both the Robin and Wren use the same perch close to the door when they call for mealworms. They have almost come to blows over their rivalry. Meanwhile, the Blackbirds have not totally departed the scene. There is still a female from who reared a couple of broods in the garden who visits when she can much to the annoyance of a male Blackbird who is trying to mark-out his own territory. A younger female will also take mealworms. We believe that she is the offspring from one of the five broods raised in the garden last year. A small group of House Sparrows also hang around for mealworms, not to mention a lone and very persistent Starling!

January 2010 - Artistic Blackbirds in the rain.

Friday 15th: This morning it rained constantly for 3 hours, gradually washing away the remaining snow. As usual the Blackbirds were about in the garden. During this cold-snap, our garden has played host to as many as 7 Blackbirds - 4 males and 3 females - on a fairly regular basis. The photos here taken by Melanie show a pair at the backdoor where they tend to eat mealworms which we give them to supplement their diet. Due to the low light levels this morning Mel used the flash to take photos, resulting in some remarkably artistic images. We believe that the white speckles on the male could be a mixture of rain drops and dandruff...yes dandruff! The images of the male Blackbird in particular seem to portray him as though carved from black marble or some such solid substance!

January 2010 - Fieldfare returns!

Thursday 14th: Is this the same Fieldfare seen last weekend and earlier this week? Well it seems to me that for one bird to be in the same place as previous days and be a totally different individual is just too much of an improbability for me to accept. This is the SAME bird as with previous days. But what intrigues me is the lack of any other Fieldfares in the vicinity. These are usually flocking birds and with the Pyracantha berries on view, its strange that only one individual is feeding on them!Still the Fieldfare is a fine looking bird!

Meanwhile, out in the back garden, the Wren, who is almost a daily visitor, was out and about amongst the rapidly thawing snow in the pursuit of tasty morsels. This photo was taken as the Wren raced through the plants, it's eye on the prize.

January 2010 - Garden Fieldfare

Tuesday 12th: This recent cold-snap has been bringing some unusual visitors to our garden in the hunt for food. Today, another FIRST...a Fieldfare! Now in all the years we have been feeding the birds, we have never seen a Fieldfare in or anywhere near our garden in the Winter. But today, today technically this bird was the 2nd Fieldfare in 4 days that has visited the garden. Melanie grabbed a series of 4 photos through the windows of today's bird, two of which are shown here.

Last Sunday, a good showing of a Fieldfare on top of the conifers by the house and later in the day, a second visit by a Redwing. This after a Redwing came into the garden late Saturday afternoon! So the appearance of these two unusual birds was preceded by the Pied Wagtail last week. This cold-snap has shown us that if you put the food out, you will help the birds in their time of need and may even see some uncommon visitors!

PLEASE FEED THE BIRDS DURING THIS COLD WEATHER!

January 2010 - Pied Wagtail visits garden in the snow!

Tuesday 5th: Heavy snow hit South Yorkshire today. The snow fell relentlesly from 6am until about 4pm, over ankle deep, the heaviest snowfall since 1981! So searching for food became a priority for the birds. On three occasions throughout the day, the last being 4pm, we had a visit from a Pied Wagtail - A FIRST in our garden! This female must be an opportunist and made a pit-stop here because to both mine and my wife's knowledge, we have never seen a pied Wagtail in the garden at any time of the year! My thanks to Melanie for capturing this video footage and taking the superb stills.




As you can imagine, the garden was teaming with bird life today. We even had a visit from a male Chaffinch on the bird table - another rarity in the garden! A recorded 6 Blackbirds, 3 males and 3 females, 2 Robins, 7 Collard Doves and 1 Wood Pigeon along with the usual gang of Starlings and a battalion of House Sparrows also dined!

Meanwhile at work, I had a close encounter with a Kestrel at 12:20pm. It was barely 20 feet away, perched in a small sapling tree trying to shelter from the falling snow.

January 2010 - Old Moor RSPB

Friday 1st: A new year, and what better way to clear the head, than go out for a bracing walk in the freezing cold. At the reserve, all the lakes were frozen solid except for a few small ice-free patches on the largest - the Mere. Getting there at 10:20am, I had a good start and it turned-out to be a cracking day!



Seeking Yellowhammers, I was advised to go to the "play-area" by the Warden, where some had been seen...and sure enough, I saw my FIRST Yellowhammer, a male perched in the hawthorn shrubs a short distance away. A male Greenfinch was perched close by - one of few as the majority of Greenfinches I saw that morning were females! By the "Tree Sparrow farm", a small patch of ground with thistles appeared to be crawling with Goldfinches...I've never seen so many in one place and there were many more! Over at the hide I was presented with the spectacle of passerines of Greenfinch (many more females than males), Goldfinch, Chaffinch, all of which, I lost count as they were in abundance! Along with the former were a couple of Tree Sparrows, 4 Reed Buntings, a Robin, one Dunnock, a Moorhen, several Blackbirds - both male and female, a Stonechat and perched in the hawthorns another 2 YELLOWHAMMERS! There were so many birds that who knows what I didn't see! I'd spent an hour and a half just at this one spot...a great start to the day.

At the Mere, a lake where most waterfowl tend to congregate, I was surprised to see that most of it was still frozen and that only 4 small patches were ice-free where ducks and gulls of various species were unusually crammed together "beak-by-bill"! What I did notice too was that there were no Geese or Swans of any description present. The sight of hundreds of Wigeon and Pochard roaming across the grassland on the far side of the lake, nibbling at the grass made for a fascinating sight. But the highlight was the 7 GOOSANDERS (4 male & 3 female) amongst the various waterfowl packed together in an ice-free area. This is a FIRST for me! The male is easily distinguished from the female by its black head and white body, click RSPB info on Goosanders, whereas the female has a brown head and grey body. Both have bright red legs. Although the Goosanders were amongst all the other waterfowl, I had my scope and saw some good views. The two images below are stills taken from a video.



I then paid a visit to the Wath Ings hide were the lake was totally ice-bound. Nothing at all about except for the Kestrel perched on the bird house alongside the hide. There were also some unusal Sheep grazing closeby. See the image below.






Time was now getting late, the tempreture had dropped noticably and I was hungry and ready for a hot cup of tea. So, walking back to the Visitor Center, I made a short detour towards the Reedbed Hide where I saw and videoed a rather obliging Stonechat (the second of the day) on the fence. To round off the day, while have a cuppa in the cafe and peering through the window down onto the feeders, I got a very good showing of a female Bulfinch together with Blue and Great Tits. So, although it was a very cold day, it was also a very full and fruitful day for bird watching.

December 2009 - Lakeside: Stonechat

Monday 21st: Snow fell again yesterday on top of the snow that has already frozen. Finished work at lunchtime until New Year's Eve so what better way to spend the afternoon than visit the Lakeside in search of the elusive Siberian Chiffchaff.

It always seems a degree colder down by the water and today was no exception...it was FREEZING! Plenty of waterfowl about on the lake:Pochards, Coots, Canada Geese (of which there were many), Mallards, Tufted Ducks and 30+ Mute Swans. Below is a video taken with my camera of a family of Mute Swans; the cob and pen together with four cygnets. This appears to be the only Mute Swan family that is still together.







Well I tramped all over the snowy island and around the lake looking for the Chiffchaff but I guess it has departed the area. Well that's the name of the game, you win some...you loose some! But slogging through the snow, I came upon a rather flighty Stonechat as can be seen from the videos below. I followed it all over the island until it finally flew northwards, away from the lake. It's a pity I just had my camera to take video and not the camcorder.







On my way back to the car, I saw this female Reed Bunting feeding on tiny crumbs of bread dropped in the snow by people feeding the ducks. How it can see white bread crumbs on the snow is one of life's great mysteries.

December 2009 - Sparrowhawk terrorises House Sparrows

Thursday 3rd: From about lunchtime today until 4:10pm, the Sparrowhawk (I would think that this is the same individual that has visited the garden these past few occasions) resided in the garden, killing and eating two House Sparrows and preventing any bird from feeding at the feeders. It was only at around 2:30pm that she caught the first male House Sparrow. She did not kill the Sparrow before she began to pluck it. So some viewers may find the video footage upsetting. This is nature in the raw! The Sparrowhawk then caught a second Sparrow at about 3.45pm, just as it's geting dark. Again she didn't kill the Sparrow before plucking it! We've since trawled the internet and found that Sparrowhawks in common with some other small birds of prey, do not always kill their prey before plucking or eating it. Finally she departed the garden at about 4:10pm in the gloom of dusk.

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December 2009 - Sparrowhawk returns!

Saturday 5th: The Sparrowhawk came back for a return visit to the garden this morning. The raptor returned on three other occasions during the afternoon. While it was here, the bird would repeatedly fly down to the ground from its perch and try to catch a mouse. On its second visit a hapless mouse was caught and killed by the raptor. The first time we saw the Sparrowhawk was about 10:50am. In all probability it had made earlier visits but as we had a sleep-in, we don't know for sure. While it was here, as one would expect, the surrounding area was devoid of any other bird life but for a squirrel. At first the Squirrel was apprehensive but very quickly just ignored the Sparrowhawk. Though he was chancing his life by repeatedly getting close to the bird, he would get a monkey-nut and stroll past the Sparrowhawk and up a tree. I suspect that the Sparrowhawk would not unnecessarily attack the Squirrel unless he ventured too close and risk injury.

Blast from the past - Wren savages Caterpillar!

January 2008, Melanie saw a Wren bobbing about in the garden. Grabbing her video camera she hurriedly filmed the action in all its gory glory. This must be quite a rare event to witness, after all, Wrens can be very secretive birds. But if one makes your garden its territory then you could be witness to some incredible events such as this. Hard to believe that the humble Wren can be such a ruthless predator!

November 2009 - Correction: Pochard female at Lakeside.

Saturday 7th: What a difference a day makes! After a week of rain, today we awoke to a bright sunny morning. A trip down to the Lakeside was called for! But it was chilly and even colder down by the water, definitely coat and gloves weather! The usual suspects were there; Mute Swans circa 30+, Canada Geese patrolling in small family parties, maybe 50+, Mallards circa 40+, Tufted Ducks 20+, Black-headed Gulls circa 40+ along with a Little Grebe, a juvenile Great Crested Grebe (on it's own) and a solitary duck that I couldn't readily identify. Luckily I had taken photos and short videos. After checking with my Birdguides DVD and other sources I have now positively identified this as a female Ring-necked Duck.





As the two photos above show, there is a ring around it's eye. click on each image to see a larger version and one can just see the white band across the bill. The duck was in a group of Tufted Ducks, but the difference in shape and size is readily apparent when compared to a female Tufty. And of course, it has no tuft at the back of it's head! I saw no sign of a male Ring-necked Duck and would welcome any comments about this sighting. Below is a short video of the Pochard.
Correction: After a comment on www.youtube.com , Mel and I have identified this duck as a female Pochard.







The image below shows a pair of Canada Geese. One of these is seen "scolding" the other. This went on for some time without the other replying. They swam as a pair away with the "Scolding" still in progress but to a lesser extent. Is this a male asserting itself over a rival? Comment are welcomed.





I also noticed a Great Crested Grebe juvenile that was most definitely alone. It seemed in good health and large enough to survive. Do the adults cut them loose after a few months?



And of course, the Black-headed Gull. Always seen and most numerous on many lakes and fields.

November 2009 - Old Moor RSPB

Thursday 5th: It's been raining for most of the week but this morning the weather looked promising. John from Doncaster Astromonical Society, agreed to join me and we made the short drive to Old Moor. But of course the rain was never very far away and we were plagued by constant showers. This doesn't stop the birds though, they're made of hardier stuff! The Reserve has recently obtained some Highland Cattle to help keep the grass short. One of the beasts wandered over to the Hide that we were in and got close enough that I could see the eyelashes on it!

November 2009 - Treecreeper

Wednesday 4th: Went for a stroll around the local wood in the afternoon to check-out what was around. As luck would have it, the first bird I encountered was a Treecreeper. Now there's nothing uncommon about a Treecreeper in our local wood, in fact when it's a fine day, if you look and listen long enough, one will appear on a tree. The knack is finding the correct tree! I did have video of it climbing the back of the tree, but unfortunately it is no more. So these three images, which are stills taken from the video are all that is remain.

November 2009 - Starlings are back!

Tuesday 3rd: With the start of Autumn, the Starlings are visiting the garden again in increasing numbers. It must be some sort of inbuilt homing mechanism as they regularly alight onto the feeders and bath in the pond. The flock is getting larger, but it will never become as large as it was until a year ago. Then, huge numbers would roost in the large Conifers in my neighbours garden and use our garden as a canteen! Now that the Conifers are gone they must roost elsewhere...where, who knows. Often the flock is on the ground or on the feeders while one or two stand guard, scanning the sky for possible danger. And this danger is very real, in the form of a solitary Sparrowhawk that sees this garden as a good hunting ground, making a number of kills here, with three in the past month that we know about!

There's still a very healthy population of House Sparrows too. They out number the Starlings by 5 to 1 . A couple of weeks ago, we counted 108 House Sparrows in the garden. Many more are in the area. A Robin has taken up residence in the garden but we believe that it is either a youngster or possibly a foreign bird as it's very shy and only just starting to come down for mealworms. Not at all like the Robins that have made their homes here in recent years!

The male Blackbird that suffered a mauling back in early September has now fully grown his feathers back, but is unable to fly. He can flap his way up to the conifers to hide or roost and even flutter the length of the garden but his days of soaring across several gardens in search of food and providing for offspring are long gone. It is fairly safe here that's probably why he stays, the only hassle he gets is from another male Blackbird and its mate. In fact, the other week he flew upstairs and into the study...I say flew, more like fluttered according to Melanie who saw him do this. He didn't seem at all panicked as the other one did last month. In fact he spent a few minutes perched on the window ledge before fluttering over to the shelter of the Conifers!

This last weekend we have had visits from a Wren, which spent a lot of time poking about in the ivy and the undergrowth. A solitary Goldfinch, took a look at the feeders from a couple of vantage points and hopefully will pass the word onto his mates! A Great Tit spent some time flitting in and out of the garden along with a Blue Tit, who is more of a regular now.. Let's hope they come back soon!

Also we encountered a Harlequin Ladybird. A photo was duly taken and recorded with the
Harlequin Ladybird Survey.

October 2009 - Sandra's Bird Cafe!

Saturday 31st: An early morning start for me as I'd arranged to go over to view the exotic birds that visit her garden. Although Sandra's house is only 200 yards away, it is situated on a road lined with trees. Where you find mature trees you will also find a variety of song birds. The contrast between our garden which contains conifers but no trees lining the road - in fact the nearest trees being the wood some 500 yards distant - and the road where Sandra lives couldn't be more different! We tend to get House Sparrows, Starlings, Collard Doves and Wood Pigeons with the occasional Goldfinch or very rarely, Greenfinch while 200 yards away can be found more exotic birds such as Goldfinch, Greenfich, Chaffinch and Nuthatch. Crumpets (Pikelets!) and tea for breakfast... thanks Sandra. Will have to make another visit later this week to get some close-up shots. Below are the edited highlights from the video that I took through Sandra's kitchen window! Thanks Sandra!

Blast from the past - Hummingbird Hawk-Moth

14/10/2006, and we had a very unusual visitor to the garden! On this cold autumn day, a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth suddenly appeared from the wide blue sky! I was not there to see this fabled creature but Melanie was on hand with the video camera and captured this remarkable footage! What a strange and wonderful creature it is. Does this say something about so-called climate change, to see a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth this far north...in South Yorkshire! WOW!!!!

Ocober 2009 - Sprotbrough Flash YWT...again!

Saturday 3rd: Well...I got up early and was at the Flash for 9:15am, no sign of the Osprey. Speaking to some birders there, they told me that the last time it was seen was late last Thursday afternoon...typical! I was there last Thursday for a couple of hours in the afternoon, so it must've put in an appearance about an hour or so after I'd left for Denaby Ings! The talk was that it might have left the area for sunnier climes! So the world and his wife have seen the Osprey at Sprotbrough Flash...except ME!

Getting back home at lunchtime, Melanie tells me that "its all been happening here in the garden!" Just my luck, not only do I miss-out on the Osprey but I also miss-out with my own back yard! As can be seen from the photo and the short film that Melanie got, a female Sparrowhawk was playing peek-a-boo in the conifers with the resident House Sparrow population. This time she didn't make a kill. But last Thursday (again I miss-out), a feral Pigeon had a close encounter with her but got away!









So, while I was out, a male Blackbird flew into the house and as can be seen by the photo, flew upstairs! Eventually Mel managed to get it to exit via a window!



Also, the male Blackbird that had been mauled by something back in early September made another appearance in the garden. Two days in a row! He disappeared for several days and we feared the worst. But he is surviving, his feathers are gradually growing back as can be seen by comparing the two photos below. The top image is from today and the bottom image is from the 12th September when he first returned to the garden after the incident!

October 2009 - Sprotbrough Flash & Denaby Ings YWT, in search of Osprey!

Thursday 1st: Last Monday, I was told of an Osprey that had taken-up temporary residence at Sprotbrough Flash. This juvenile raptor apparently had been there since the 25th September. Checking the internet I found several stunning photos along with the dates and times it had been seen, unfortunately I am working during the day, so an afternoon off work was needed to eyeball the bird especially as the view would be reasonably close and not the usual several hundred yards distant that I had in 2007! This afternoon I made the short drive over to Sprotbrough! When I arrived at the Hide, I found only 4 birders. I was informed that the Osprey had been there in the morning buy flew away at 11:30am.........blast! Missed it by 90 minutes! Like all good birders, I decided to hang around in the hope that the bird would come back at some time in the afternoon and spent my time looking at the Gulls and ducks and chatting to the fellow birders. One showed me the photos that he had shot that morning of the Osprey...very impressive and the bird would be perched not too far away - if it came back! Well I stayed until 3:30pm and began to wonder if it hadn't gone down to Denaby Ings. My suspicions were aroused even more when someone told me that they had heard that it roosts at Denaby Ings. That was it, I had to go! It was still early and the bird wouldn't be roosting for another 4 hours.

Got to Denaby Ings and scanned the barren tree-tops and everywhere else I could think of but no Osprey! Plenty of Coots, Cormorants, Lapwings and various ducks though. To cap it all, I heard on the Saturday 3rd, when I revisited Sprotbrough Flash, the Osprey put in a short appearance at about 5:30pm!!!!!

Arriving at the Flash, I immediately made my way to the Hide that had the best vantage point for seeing the Osprey perched on a wood-pile in the water. A lovely sunny and warm day, my hopes were high but as with most things in this game; "some you win, some you loose". The Osprey had put in a good appearance in the morning but according to one of the guys at the Hide; "...it was gone by 11:30am and not been back since." Though this guy, Rob was his name, showed us some cracking photos of the Osprey taken with his Cannon DSLR and 600mm lens! We talked and I hung around just in case it returned. But all I saw were a couple of Cormorants, 4 Shovelers, Mallard, Black-headed Gulls, Mute Swans with six Signets and loads of Coots! So after nearly two hours I decided to cut-my-losses and head back home, calling in at Denaby Ings on the way. A couple I met said that they had heard that it roosted at Denaby. Well it was only 3pm, much too early but I'd call in anyway.

I'd not been to Denaby Ings since 2000 so this was a new area for me. I was expecting it to have changed. No it hadn't, a sizable lake with mostly Mallard, loads of Coot, some Lapwings, 11 Cormorants and several Wood Pigeons with plenty of Crows in the trees. I scanned almost everywhere and walked around the lake but no sign of Osprey!

On a different note; one of the male Blackbirds (Set-B), was seriously mauled two weeks ago by either a Cat or bird of prey. Some how he survived with his life though sustained a broken wing and severe feather loss. He did make his way back into our garden and stayed for a few days. Mel hand-fed him mealworms. He then disappeared, though I did see him a week last Tuesday on the street! Until today, nothing and then all of a sudden he pops back into our garden. Mel saw him this morning. Though he cannot fly...he runs like the wind! Let's hope he stays clear of trouble!

September 2009 - Potteric Carr NR, in search of Kingfisher!

Monday 28th: A pleasant sunny day so after work I drove across the road to PCNR in search of Kingfisher. Now I only had 2 hours of sunlight left but the Kingfisher had made one particular Hide area his own territory so the chances of getting a positive sighting were high. I had decided that I would stay in the Hide for the duration. Loads of Canada Geese, a family of Moorhens, Mallards, Chaffinches, a Robin, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper (highlight of the visit), various members of the Tit family, 5 Magpies, 2 Dunnocks, 6 Pheasants, a probable Sparrowhawk flying overhead and 4 Grey Squirrels not to mention a Water Rat....but no Kingfisher! Though a fellow birder did tell me that there was an Osprey at Sprotbrough Flash and that it had been there a few days. I would have to arrange time off work to go and see this elusive raptor.