No Joy from Blogger

No pictures today, Blogger won't let me upload. As I was desk bound most of the day, getting my Quiz for the KOS tomorrow night in to a Power Point Presentation, I don't really mind.

A blurred Rail

After a very cold night all the drinking and bathing pools in the garden were frozen.

This Pied Wagtail seem to be waiting for me to finish refilling the bird bath, and was soon down drinking when I came in.

Out of the village the roads were still frozen and around Coldred I noticed a white winged Crow among the Carrion Crows, Rooks and Jackdaws, feeding with the sheep.

Crows are often partially leucistic, but most of the ones I've seen with white in the wings only really show when they are flying, this one was more obvious.

At Bushy Ruff the family of Mute Swans were still together and of course though I was there to feed them. It wont be long before the parents chase of the youngsters, as they will want their territory to themselves in the breeding season.

There were at least four Little Grebes on the lake and they were already calling and starting to display. I had thought that with the hard weather and the fact that this lake hadn't frozen there might be some more unusual visitors, but no such luck.

There were at least two Grey Wagtails feeding round the stream and ornamental lake, they always seem to find small items of prey among the stones and bricks at the edge of the water.

I walked back to my car as it was getting dark and saw a shape scurrying along the edge of the path. It was so dark that my lens didn't want to focus, and I had to point it skywards first. A hand held 400mm shot at a quarter of a second isn't going to be great, but as it is the first Water Rail I've seen here I've put it on. When there was one it Danson Park, Welling a few year ago, it got used to people and would come out for peanuts, I might try baiting an area here.

Motorway Birding

The return trip from the frozen north to the frozen south largely involved travel on motorways and much of the time there was little to see. I did notice a couple of Common Buzzards by the M6 near Crewe and several Kestrel along that stretch.

We stopped for a comfort break some where south of what was the Potteries, but after today's news there is even less reason for that name. As soon a we stopped we noticed the usual Pied Wagtails, a service station cert, and also lots of Blackbirds. Pam decided to share some of her lunch and very quickly there were four Blackbirds, contrasting against the snow, by the car. As is normal much of their energies were dissipated chasing each other.

This is the second male to arrive, he lacks the eye make up that made to one above distinctive.

We found that the two Pied Wagtails were eager to share small pieces of ham, but much less interested in bread.

There were several Robins in the area, and they were a pugnacious as usual, but did settle down to a snack of rather nice wholemeal bread, with a well seeded crust.

I decided to try the M40 followed by the southern part of the M25, and this went well until we heard that the M40 was blocked at junction 2. On our was past Oxford we saw two more Buzzards and several Kestrels. To avoid the M40 block, we came off at junction 5 and cut through to Marlow, to pick up the M4 and then the M25. On this stretch through the Chilterns we had several close views of Red Kites set against a stunning sun set. I didn't stop for pictures as the urge to get back to St Margaret's before it froze too hard drove me on.

A new Wolves supporter!

Today was an outing for proud grandparents to see the Clitheroe Wolves under eight, yellow team. Once we had the all clear that the ground was playable we made our way to the busy ground where two games were already in progress.

Josh came along, as a supporting sibling, already kitted out in his rather snazzy boots.

Jack played in defence, and to be honest hadn't too much to do as the Wolves were on top most of the time. What he had to do, he did well, and managed a nice pass down the wing.

(photo taken by Josh Morris)

In spite of having most of the possession, a mixture of brave defending and goalkeeping, the goalposts and some generous misses, there was only one goal. The experience was great, with the kids playing wholeheartedly and well, with good sportsmanship on both sides. An enjoyable time was had by all, even if my fingers were numb with cold by the end of the game.

Gulls on ice.

Birders certainly develop some strange habits, and standing around looking at municipal rubbish tips is probably one of the worst.

Whinney Hill, near Blackburn is certainly not an attractive or scenic venue, birding does get you to some great places but this isn't one of them, especially if you have a well developed sense of smell.

The attraction of course is the large number of Gulls that use this free restaurant for feeding. This particular beauty spot has hosted a lot of goodies in the past, including Glaucous, Iceland, Yellow-legged, Caspian, Mediterranean and Ring-billed, but apart from Pete getting a brief view of a Yellow-legged Gull, today there were only the usual suspects on view.

The nearest pool, used by some Gulls for bathing is inside the tip area and today was largely frozen over. There were a few larger Gulls coming in but most of the Gulls on view were Black-headed, sliding around on the ice.

The few patches of open water did give some bathing opportunities, before the gull would leave later for a full brush and clean up at Fishmoor Reservoir. Most of the comings and goings at these sites can be sen on Bill Aspin's Blog.

Martin Mere, Swans on Ice.

Another trip out in Lancashire. this time a change of one letter got us to the WWT reserve at Martin Mere. Our first year tick were the flock of 40 or so Ruff feeding on the field by the entrance.

We started at one of the more distant hides, over looking the marsh, in the hope of seeing a Merlin. This didn't materialise but the large flocks of Wigeon feeding were good to see. Later in the day we saw a Peregrine resting on a fence post and then flying over the centre, and twice distant Buzzards put in an appearance.

The centre of attraction at this time of year is the large herd of Whooper Swans, with around 1000 birds being present in the area. Obviously the area where they are fed is highly concentrated

Several of the Whooper Swans were equipped with satellite tracking devices, and these have enabled their progress during migration to be followed by everyone on their computers.

Among the large throng of Whoopers there was a single Bewick's Swan. There had been seven on the 28th but this solitary bird required some careful searching, or as in our case, someone to already have it in view.

Family groups of Whoopers were in and out of the flood, and some provided entertainment when they landed on frozen areas and performed a sort of Swan Lake on Ice.

There were a few young birds about, I'm not sure of the proportion of juveniles but a good number were recognisable from their duller beaks and "dirty" looking plumage.

There were some fantastic looking Pintails around. Surely our most elegant duck.

This one was far from elegant as it was dragged about by a Great Black-backed Gull, before it finally succumbed and became the Gulls late lunch.

At the end of the trip Jack and Josh enjoyed some practice for the Great Britain two man bobsleigh team for 2022. No bobsleigh but some good co-ordination.

On the way home we looked at Fishmoor reservoir and the gulls roosting on the factory roofs. As well as an adult mediterranean Gull that two loacal birders had on the water, Pete found this interesting Gull on the the near part of the roof. Despite the fading light Pete got a few digiscoped pictures, including the one above. Although we didn't see the open wing it looks pretty good for an Adult Caspain. There's another picture on Surfbirds .

Marton Mere Revisited

It is quite a while since I visited Marton Mere near Blackpool, February 1991 to be precise, when an American Bittern was pulling the crowds.

Today was much less frenetic. It was cold, but calm and sunny and as we walked down towards the mere lots of gulls were feeding on the brass, including a good number of Common Gulls.

Some of the Mere was frozen, were a mixture of gulls were loafing about, and then unfrozen areas were inhabited by a range of Ducks, including a surviving Ruddy Duck and a few Goldeneye.

The star attraction, especially for Jack and Josh, were a group of roosting Long-eared Owls. The one shown here was giving the best views, but there were around six or seven others more hidden away.

Pete took the picture above, digiscoping. I always found this very difficult, but he seems to have mastered the art, and managed a better angle and and of course a better photo.

One of the hides offered a chance of a Water Rail, and Jack was pleased that he spotted it creeping through the reeds first. The evening was arriving and the edge of the reed bed was in shade but the views were still quite good. At the end of the day we visited a feeding station, that attracted quite a few species, with some nice close views of Reed Buntings as well as a couple of Brown Rats. Considering how close the Local Nature Reserve and Park are to the town they offer a really good birding area, of course if all the dog walkers picked up all the dog poo it would be even better, but that's true at St Margaret's as well.