December 2011: Grey Wagtail frequently visits our garden.

Wednesday 14th: It was near dark outside when the Grey Wagtail came to the pond in our back garden. In fact, the time was recorded as 3:54pm! Mel grabbed these shots of the Wagtail again on the pond reeds. It does seem to like the pond and as it's near dark, I suspect that the bird is roosting a short distance away.

January 2012 - Great Grey Shrike and Whooper Swans!

Sunday 8th: Out and about again to see the Great Grey Shrike. After parking the car and talking with birders who had seen the bird earlier in the morning, I faced a 40 minute walk to it's location. Apparently the bird had been caught in a mist-net earlier and was identified as a Shrike that was ringed at Spurn last year. For more details on this go to the Doncaster Birding Blog. Here you will find a detailed discussion on it's race and some lovely photos.

Looking at it through a scope offered great close views and the familiar black mask across its eyes stood-out immediately. The bird appeared to be fluffed-up when I saw it, probably still had a strop after being caught! A Great Grey Shrike is about the size of an adult Blackbird, so at distance, appears smallish. I took a few photos as it shifted position. Not great but a record. For the next 90 minutes I stayed in the hope of getting a closer photo as it is prone to get quite close. We were treated to three more sightings of it as it patrolled it's territory. But none of these were closer. Is it here for the winter months, who knows? Though it has already been in residence for over two weeks. What a smart-looking bird and a great way to start the new year!

Whooper Swans and Mute Swans  were still on the field at Alderfen and all showing well. As usual 3 Kestrels were seen hovering in the fields around me. As I was walking back along the southern bank of the river Torne, the Whooper Swans took to the air. What a wonderful sight and noisy too as they continually call to each other in flight.

January 2012 - No Shrike but Rooks and Whooper Swans.

Monday 2nd: A trip out to Wroot to see the Great Grey Shrike that has been hanging around for a week now at least. When we got to the location where it resides, a cold wind was blowing and there was already several birders in attendance. Sandra and myself took up position on the south bank of the Torne and waited and waited, scanning the countryside with binoculars....but we didn't see it! We must've been the only people who missed the bird as everyone else got a good show! One birder even pulled our legs about not seeing the bird! We did manage to see 2 Buzzards, 2 Reed Buntings, 3 Kestrels and 3 juvenile Mute Swans...if not the Shrike!

Behind me was the field where all the Whooper Swans seem to favour. I counted 47, of these there were 3 juveniles. Some Mute Swans were also in attendance. Above are some snaps of these magnificant long-distance flyers!

On our way back, just outside of Wroot was a large flock of Rooks all perched on telephone wires.There numbered 67, made up of 41 adults and 26 juveniles. The juveniles are noticable by their shorter beaks and of course smaller body. What a grand sight, all to rarely seen unless you are visting farming areas. In the second image of Rooks, you will notice two birds to the bottom left. I have magnified the image of these birds and have identified them as a male and female Chaffinches.

December 2011 - Yet again the Grey Wagtail!

Monday 19th: This is surely an amazing sighting, yet again for the 8th day since 28th November, the Grey Wagtail visits the pond in our back garden to feed on invertebrates and...soaked fish pellets! Yes it seems that the Wagtail is partial to the floating fish food and this was at 10:30am!

Update January 12th 2012: This is so far the last recorded visit of the Grey Wagtail. Well, the show she put on had been good! To get a Grey Wagtail visit a garden pond on a housing estate is pretty good I think! If it wasn't for Mel, I would never have seen it. All the visits except one were during the working days and even that one visit on the Sunday, got me out of bed at 9:30am! Many thanks Mel!

December 2011 - Grey Wagtail is back again!

Monday 12th: The Grey Wagtail was back in the garden again today. Mel got some more video footage and stills of the bird in and around the pond. This time it had a bath on the waterfall and, by the look of it, it was thoroughly enjoying itself. Mel also filmed the bird eating fish food again... yes fish food as well as pecking at insects. The bird also ventured further away from the pond and beneath the feeders where it pecked at maize flakes. It didn't take too kindly to being interrupted by two House Sparrows and a Dunnock and moved away from the water flow, but not too far. This bird has now visited our garden pond on 6 separate days (that we know of), since 28th November.

December 2011 - Grey Wagtail in the garden...again!

Sunday 4th: 9:25am and a shout wakes me from my slumber: "the Grey Wagtail is in the garden!" I bounced out of bed to the window looking out on the back garden. There it was...a Grey Wagtail bobbing along around the pond! This is the first time that I have seen the bird in the garden and it is absolutely astounding. Grey Wagtails are countryside birds that frequent fast flowing rivers and streams. What it is doing here, in the middle of a built-up area is anybodies guess. By the looks of it, the Wagtail is a female and spent about 25 minutes around the pond before it flew off. Let's hope it returns soon.

These two short videos were taken by Mel through the window. The photos were also taken by Mel.

December 2011 - Whooper Swans & Fieldfares!

Friday 2nd: Woke to the first frost of Winter and the temperature at 8:30am was 0° centigrade! Driving round the corner to collect Sandra, I bagged my first sighting of the day. Darting-out in front of the car and alighting on the pavement to my right was a Yellow Wagtail! Wow, fantastic sighting, regaled in all its finery. Sadly no chance or time to grab the camera, but I did stop the car to revel in this splendid looking bird. With Melanie seeing the Grey Wagtail again, for the third sighting this week, in the garden at 10:20am, this has been a good week for Wagtails.

After the initial excitement (on my part), we headed for the Wroot and the countryside. The Sun was up but still it was freezing. We stopped by the river Torne and were greeted by a huge flock Fieldfares. So many that to try and count them was an impossible task, so we agreed that there was 500+. They were everywhere! Many perched on the telephone lines, in bushes and atop trees. Of course these were Hawthorn bushes and trees covered in berries. Two Kestrels were perched on the telephone wires, not taking much notice of the Fieldfares even though they were being crowded-out! The male Kestrel did change locations and even came near us to hunt. But the abiding image must be of the clouds of Fieldfares taking to the blue sky every now-and-then.

A couple of miles up the road, just outside Wroot and in one of the farm fields were what we were looking for. There, off to one side, 70-odd Swans. Wow! Whooper Swans, I counted 34, and 37 Mute Swans.

After chatting to a fellow Birder, he advised us to walk up to the banks of the Torne to get a better view with the scope. He wasn't wrong either, outstanding views! A flock of Lapwing, probably 250 swirled around the sky and descended onto the field. Behind us on the other side of the Torne, Sandra spotted another Kestrel and we watched as it hovered and dove and hovered.

Below is a photo of an adult Whooper and 1st year in the field at Alderfen. This image was captured by Sandra by placing her camera at the eye piece of the scope (digiscoped). Even though the weather was freezing cold and a bitter wind was howling around us, she managed to capture this remarkable image!

Another image from Sandra below is of a flock of Lapwings, 210 in this photo! They may be just specks but I can assure you that they are Lapwings and that there were even more!

Both feeling very cold now, it was time to make for home and a hot cuppa tea. A fantastic few hours of birding.

November 2011 - Grey Wagtail in the Pond Waterfall

Monday 28th: This afternoon there was visitor to the garden that, to our recollection, we have never seen before. Unusual in that this bird, a Grey Wagtail, is generally associated with rivers, fast flowing streams and the countryside. To see one padding about in your back garden... a small back garden in the middle of an estate must be very rare indeed. The Grey Wagtail was seen by Mel to be walking and bobbing on the fallen reeds and then standing in the waterfall against the flow looking for water-borne insects. This first video shows the Grey Wagtail amongst the reeds of the pond.

This next video shows the Grey Wagtail standing in the waterfall, against the flow, poking around for tasty insects.

Earlier in the day, 10:50am, Mel spied a Sparrowhawk hiding amongst the conifers, waiting to ambush anything that came her way. This is a different Sparrowhawk to the last one that visited a few weeks ago. That afternoon it was a male, today... a female. This raises the questions; are two rival Sparrowhawks overlapping territories? Are these a pair looking to establish a territory for the winter? Or are they siblings, learning to hunt in a secure environment?

October 2011 - The Wren returns and a Treesparrow in the garden!

Sunday 16th: The Wren that has been visiting our garden each Autumn\Winter since 2008 has returned today. It surely must be the same bird as it comes to the bush at the back door and calls for mealworms. If it is not the same bird, then has it indicated to others about where to get an easy meal? This is an intriguing question. But if it is then it has clearly survived the harsh snows of December 2010\ January 2011! The bird seems to follow the same pattern in that it departs the garden in March and returns around October. This being the case for 2009, 2010 and now 2011.

It was at 2:20pm that I first saw the Wren picking through the undergrowth in the garden. Throwing some mealworms out,immediately caught its attention and it came to the backdoor to feast, closely followed by a dozen House Sparrows.

Scanning the House Sparrows, one caught my attention. It looked oddly out of place. Looking closer I could see that it was a Tree Sparrow. Now as can be seen (image below) Tree Sparrows have a white cheek with black spot and an all brown head. Whereas House Sparrows (image above) don't have white cheeks or an all brown head. Above, the male House Sparrow is on the left and the female is on the right. It's very unusual for Tree Sparrows to visit a garden, that is unless your garden is the countryside! This one may just have been passing through, on its way somewhere. Both Tree Sparrows and House Sparrows will freely associate as flocks and can live side-by-side. Only the one Tree Sparrow was seen in our garden but I now scan the large flock of resident House Sparrows...just in case!

October 2011 - A couple of Goldfinches visit the garden!

Friday 14th: After all the rain and cloud of recent days, today is sunny with clear blue skies. It's very rare indeed that we get Goldfinches in our garden. But today, Mel snapped some photos of these two Goldfinches on one of the sunflower-heart feeders. There is clearly a difference in the markings on these birds and we believe that one is a juvenile while the other is an adult.

The Goldfinches spent a fair amount of time on the feeders and seemed content, even with the hustle and bustle of the House Sparrows. We don't get visits from these birds on a regular basis like some, (Sandra), who live only a couple of hundred yards away! Could it be that the Goldfinches don't like conifers, as that is all we have in our garden?