February 2012 - Grey Wagtail still here!

Saturday 16th: This morning, the Grey Wagtail arrived at 9:30am. Now that it getting lighter earlier, she is probably around earlier but as I don't tend to rise from bed until later at the weekends, of course I don't see her! Though not in the garden all the time every day, the Grey Wagtail is still around and visits the garden/back door for live mealworms two or three times a day, every day,spreading her wings and long tail in an effort to make herself bigger to deter her rivals when collecting mealworms. She has been a constant visitor since February 2nd. Now that the snow has gone and the pond is ice-free, she spends her time, while she is here, in and around the pond on the waterfall, in the water chute looking for marine life such as shrimps or on the house roof. We suspect that in the periods when she is away from the garden, she is scouting new territories in preparation for Spring.

The Wren is still a regular visitor each day also for live mealworms. This morning, it was giving that familiar high-pitched call that is usually heard in woodland. As usual a Robin is around and also visits the back door for live mealworms as do the House Sparrows and male Blackbird.

A Grey Squirrel got into the loft this week and couldn't find it's way out. For three days it was wandering around the loft chewing rafters and insulation. Mel got a rat trap and eventually managed to entice it in and trap it. Yesterday, she left the loft hatch open and the ladder down with the trap at the hatch and food at the base of the ladders. Believe it or not the squirrel actually climbed down the ladders into the study to eat food. Mel got to within a foot of it but the squirrel was too quick and jumped over her out-stretched hand racing up the ladder and back into the loft. Mel stood guard and 30 minutes later, the squirrel was heard again. With food in the trap, the squirrel entered and seemed relieved to be eating. Gently, Mel carried the trap from the loft. The squirrel calmly ate and drank lots of water. It was very thin with parts of its skeleton starting to show. For 15 minutes it stayed calmly in the trap eating and drinking. Mel carried the trap downstairs to the garden where she released it to familiar surroundings. This squirrel is a regular visitor to our garden and will always take monkey nuts from the back door when "SQUIRREL" is called!

Smaller creatures seen recently are the Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthenus verbasci), a very small rounded beetle approx 2 - 10mm in size as seen in these enlarged images below.

And the Silverfish (Lepisma saccharina) 0.5 - 2cm, is a creature that lived during the era of the Dinosaurs! Judging from this image, it  does look prehistoric!

February 2012 - Yes... the Wagtail and snow.

Sunday 5th: Well, it was at the back door this morning at 9:30am to get meal worms that I had just recently put out and the Grey Wagtail muscled its way through the House Sparrows to get one! Snow had fallen late yesterday afternoon and is lying about 6cms deep, though it is fairly mild today and a thaw seems to be underway. At the time of writing this (lunchtime), the Wagtail has been here all morning pecking at the ice on the pond and returning frequently to the back door to get a meal worm.

February 2012 - Grey Wagtail has returned!

Saturday 4th: The Grey Wagtail is a female, and after a months' absence, came back to our garden last Thursday. This must be the same bird that was here last year. Thursday 2nd was the day that Melanie first saw the Wagtail since last December 19th. Where has it been all this time and why has it come back to our garden? Not that we are complaining, we are "chuffed-to-bits" that she is back. Mel was positively over the moon when she rang me at work to tell me the good news.

We have taken note of the fact that when she last spent time in our garden; on 28/11/11, 30/11/11, 2/12/11, 4/12/11, 12/12/11, 14/12/11 and 19/12/11, the weather was very cold and frosty. The Wagtail was not seen until 2/2/12 which coincided with a period of mild weather conditions. Then last Thursday, she was spotted in the garden by Mel. Now she has been here for three consecutive days and the weather has turned bitterly cold again, and this afternoon, a couple of inches of snow has fallen and settled.

Last Thursday, the Wagtail spent a little time in the garden but yesterday and today she had spent much of the day in and around the back garden. In fact, today, she didn't leave the garden until 4:30pm! The Wagtail has even taken to eating live meal worms and will come to the back door to get a snack. The Wren has taken to shadowing the Grey Wagtail around the pond to pick at anything edible that the Wagtail disregards! The Grey Wagtail has had to endure the occasional mobbing by the male Blackbird or a Starling when it gs a meal worm, but this harassment hasn't bothered the bird to any degree. So we suspect that as long as we have cold weather the Grey Wagtail will remain in our garden, eating meal worms and other bird food.

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.