What have you seen
Comments
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It left Snettisham at about 6.30 last night flying South. I haven’t seen any reports of it's whereabouts today.
Normally here any walk on the marshes I would expect to see dozens of little Egrets but the last 4 days only saw 2. Wonder if they were blown inland by the beast from the east.
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Great photos, thank you to all for sharing
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Same from me. Definitely not bird spotting weather today, hope it's better tomorrow as I intend going down onto Alkborough Flats.
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Good day for me at Alkborough. As well as a number of Marsh Harriers, a pair of Pintails, many Black Tailed Godwits, Dunlins, Lapwings, Teal and Shelducks I heard a Cetti's Warbler. Although I did hear a Water Rail I missed one walking past the bird hide when I'd gone for a wander up towards the Trent.
However when I was walking back to the car park saw a couple of pairs of Bearded Tits (a first for me).
Sorry no photos, unfortunately.2 -
Sounds like you had a good day Nellie.
I saw some Bearded Tits for the first time last year on the reserve near Alkborough, in the Humber Estuary, a nice looking bird.
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The Barn Owl turned up just as I had given up at Aust yesterday. Instructions from OH to be home for 6.30 meant the owl had to be ignored.
However saw two things I had not seen before during my wait. The area has a varied number of birds, but not always visible. The ones usually on display are Short Eared Owls, Buzzard, Merlin, Kestrel, Peregrines and Barn owl late on.
Saw my first Peregrine stoop, fairly distant, but what speed, incredible. It went behind some trees, so don't know if it caught anything.
The second was late in the afternoon while waiting for a glimpse of the Barn Owl. There were four SEO's hunting and treating the throng of daily visitors to an arial conflict with very loud hissing at each other. One of the owls then strayed to the Barn Owl hunting ground and caught a vole. Surprisingly to me, it carried the vole in its beak to a small clump of grass and hid it for later. Flew off and repeated the whole thing again. I have not witnessed this before. Then it flew up again and caught a third vole, all within about 10 minutes. The owl flew back to it's usual haunt but was challenged for its prey by another owl and a Kestrel. Quite spectacular
Looks like tea might be later tonight
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Although I work as a Technical Advisor for the Club, gardening and wildlife are a passion of mine. For many years I have tried and failed to grow Mistletoe until 2010 when I noticed one of the many berries I had artificially planted on one of my mature apple trees had sprouted. I was over the moon and couldn’t wait to get my own mistletoe plant growing. I only had two leaves appear and there was no sign of any other shoots. Knowing that mistletoe has to have male and female plants to produce berries I knew that this was not going to happen for me. The very next year I was rewarded with yet another mistletoe plant which appeared where I hadn’t actually planted the berry which I assume that the birds had found a berry and moved it to another part of the tree. The first plant just stayed as it was for two years then all of a sudden started to sprout. I constantly checked on the two plants but the growth rate was very slow. The next winter we had was quite severe and sadly both of my mistletoe plants suddenly disappeared. I was very saddened by this but it has not discouraged me to keep trying.
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Interesting post Nige. I had another look at our mistletoe and can now spot the difference between male and female, the male plant has a lot more leaves and little buds that must attract pollinators. But it's still a mystery how they get there. Our neighbours have got some now too, just on the apple trees so far.
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Another first for me today. We are now down near Lincoln and were walking towards the R.Witham when a black animal ran across the lane..a mink! Too fast for me to take a photo. You know the saying don't you "As quick as a Mink!"
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First time ever, a Yellow Browed Warbler (I think) in the garden, taken through the kitchen window.
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Had a nice day of birdwatching on the River Dee today. Started off at the RSPB reserve at Burton where the antics of the 100 or so Lapwings brought some balm to the soul. There were also about 100 Avocets there, our first Chiffchaff of the year, a lovely Goldcrest that had just had a bath and a Water Rail. Distant views of a Short Eared Owl on the marshes.
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Patience finally paid off early evening. After a long wait, both 4 Short Eared Owls and a Barn Owl came out at 5.30 today. Just enough light to get some shots of the Barn Owl.
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Thanks OP. The OH is worried I might even give up watching sport, the time I spend on these Owls.
The Barn Owl is so beautiful to watch in flight and always provide those IF ONLY moments
If only the were closer
If only they flew earlier
If only there were two
If only they would stay longer
If only I could stay longer
And the most annoying, If only the fool with the Drone would go home and stay home. He flies it just where the Owl likes to hunt. Might try to coax him to fly a bit further south. Australia perhaps.
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Turn the feeder around
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Wow! Now that is a seriously brilliant addition to your garden list.
Still misty and murky here. Had my usual stroll over the moors and heard golden plover. Sounded quite close, and sounded as though there were quite a few of them but couldn't see a thing. Love the moors though, even in this weather. 😊
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Great pictures, BM. Wish we were as lucky. We did see one yesterday about 2:00 in the afternoon, following the banks of the R. Witham & South Drain but too distant for any sort of photo. We were surprised to see it so early, but I guess that it had come out to feed after the heavy morning rain.
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Not particularly exotic but we had two Moorhens in the front garden today. The nearest water is at the Local Centre about a quarter of a mile away! I was a bit concerned because we have a rather large cat locally called squid who I am sure would have been up for a bit of hunting!!!
David
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This time of the year our bird feeding efforts get decimated by the local rooks and jackdaws who descend on the feeders. They are feeding their young, I can hear the youngsters gobbling up the offerings when I walk beneath the nests. We are lucky, the rookery is on someone else's patch! We like all types of birds so we put up with the marauders.
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Great pics of the Barn Owl BM.
How far away were you?
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Thanks Neveramsure.
They were further away than I would have liked, as the more crop used reduces the detail in the bird.
The edge of the hunting area is about 30 metres away from the viewpoint which is a structure that the owl seems to ignore if people are standing in and around, there is no other cover so. I don't like to prevent the bird feeding by encroaching. Then the field stretches for another 60 metres approx, so anything between 40 to 100 metres which the owl quarters until successful.
From memory, I would say that the pics were from about 40 to 50 metres roughly.
The bonus on this evening was the four Short Eared Owls and 2 Kestrels hunting in the Warth behind the viewpoint. To far away for pics though
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What lovely pictures on this thread, just a bit jealous.
We put out a couple of feeders on site here at Hunters Moon, and have been watching the birds, trying to identify as many as we could (only beginners
) We've had a Nuthatch and a Great Spotted Woodpecker this afternoon, did get a nice photo of the Woodpecker will have to wait until we get home to post . 3
