Fieldfare Week

Male Blackcap

Strange Fruit - fieldfares

"Fieldfare Week" sounds like a promotion in an organic farm shop! But the truth is, back in MK we are surrounded by flocks of the birds as they take refuge from the snow and ice in the trees and bushes around the town.  One flock seems to have adopted the trees beside the house and we are constantly hearing the flock "chuckle" as these vocal birds chatter amongst themselves.  Photographing them is not quite so easy - at least not from the ground - they are very aware of any approach - and even if they miss something, the ever present blackbird's alarm call soon sets them flying. From the house my eye is constantly distracted as the flock dashes back and forth over their temporary home territory. I finally got a good view and a photograph from the upstairs window.
The snow has brought other visitors too.  A pair of backcaps passed through at the beginning of the week and there are some lurking coal tits today - if the magpies will leave them alone, they might actually rest long enough for a picture.

Fieldfare

Having been chained to the office all week I have only managed to get out with the camera today - but what a day.  Cold, clear and sunny, the temperatures began at -7.5 deg C this morning, and just about clawed above zero in the early afternoon.

North Caldecotte Lake, early morning

I set out just after 7am and after setting up about 100 fieldfare from the bushes around the house. As I had a 9am appointment I decided to forego the full circuit and I headed for the south Caldecotte Lake to see if there was a clear patch of water left for the birds. The section of the north lake I passed was very quiet with the first real activity in the only local patch of free water - just under the road bidge.  This was busy with mallard, with a few moorhen darting around.

South Lake

Round to the bridge, I'd intended to put some food on the posts, but the activity indicated I'd been beaten to it. Sure enough, Keith was round the corner - and I disturbed his viewing! (Sorry Keith!)  We had a quick chat and he reported Greater spotted woodpecker on his feeders earlier - but they were of course nowhere to be seen when I looked! On for a quick recce of the lake. A family of swans had kept a small patch clear in the first bay, but most of the activity was out in the middle, where a long strip of water had been maintained and was chock-full of water fowl. Amongst them I spotted a grebe standing out on the ice - looking very strange! They aren't build for standing, as their legs are set very far back on their body

Newly arriving Greylag

As I turned to leave for my appointment a flock of grelag wheeled in, landing on the ice and heading towards the swan's small waterhole, picking their feet up very gingerly - I'm not sure if that was the slippery ice or just the cold ensuring they maintained one foot off the ground for as long as possible.
As I dashed home I couldn't resist a quick look at the feeders in case the woodpecker had returned - and my luck was in - he was pecking at a supply of suet balls.  As he saw me he sidled to the back of the feeder, peeking round the side to check on me. I move across to get another angle and he allowed me a reasonable approach to grab a shot of him.  Thanks for that one Keith.

Ooohh this hard water is cold!

After my appointment the day was too nice to waste on all the housework so we set out for a quick walk round Walton Lake to see what turned up. A Bittern had been reported here, as well as water rail visible on the fozen water.  We were in luck - not for the bittern, but we were able to watch the water rail for a few minutes and grab a few shots.  There were a number of reed bunting in evidence and lots of blue and great tits in the trees. 
We detoured along the river Ousel, which appeared quiet apart from a few mallard and moorhen, until an egret flew down the river. It settled on the other side of the river beside the OU - unfortunately behind bushes - but then decided even that was too close to us for comfort and it headed off, following the river towards Simpson.

Great spotted Woodpecker

As we headed back to the car we had a good look at the geese in the fields - mostly greylag, but there was one very pale goose hanging with a group of Canada geese. I'm guessing it is a sport, but please let me know if you have any ideas about it!

Water rail

Little Egret

Different goose (any ideas?)

Loch Ryan drive by, 31/1



 More odd jobs round the house and a steady stream of visitors to the feeders - Yesterday's tally joined by the Great Tits and Coal Tits, but no sign at all of the goldcrest :-(. 
The day was grey and dull, and most of all COLD.  The pond had frozen and showed no sign of thawing.

We had to go into Stranraer in the afternoon, so we made a point of leaving along the shore road, so we could see what was about. 


Swirling gulls (mostly blackheaded)

The extremely dull weather meant that photography was a challenge - either a very under exposed black image or slightly blurry aperture shots as the birds never stopped hunting for food.

Redshank

The tide was pretty full- had just started to fall, leaving a narrow feeding strip for the birds.  The Bishop Burn area, where fresh water flows into the loch was crowded with gulls of several species.  I'm not very good at gull identification, but there were blackheaded gulls, common gulls, and herring gulls.


Never slow to spot an opportunity, they quickly noticed the toddlers feeding the mute swans, and swarmed around looking for their share.

Bishop Burn and shell banks

This human windfall however is not the reason the birds gather here.  The shallow loch is covered in weed and large expanses of it can be seen at low tide, while the sand and silt supports a large number of shell fish, as the banks of shells along the shore and round the Burn testify.

Redshanks in plenty were trotting along the shore, and the distictive behaviour of the turnstone drew attention to it, accompanied by a common companion, the ringed plover.

Turnstone and Ringed plover

Out on the water there were huge rafts of ducks. Most were too far off for the lens, but among others I spotted pintail, eider and the more unusual (to this southerner) scaup.
Finaally, in flocks, groups and singly, the whole shore echoed to the calls of the Oystercatchers.


Oystercatcher



Male Scaup





Female Scaup

Garden watching in Scotland

I haven't been out with the camera for quite a while  -just too much to do, but now I have a week off and we are at the cottage in Scotland. Sunday's drive up was cold and wet, and when we arrived there was nothing in the garden to speak of- most unusual.  I topped up the feeders and by Monday morning the chaffinches were telegraphing the presence of the food and the usual suspects started to appear.
Monday was pretty cold - clear, bright with a snell breeze to keep you on your toes. We had to wait in for the telephone engineer so planned to spend the day gardening, pruning the bushes that were a bit neglected during last year's building works.

When I stopped for a cuppa the buzzards appeared along the valley behind the cottage - hunting along the Luce valley, accompanied by flocks of gulls that use the valley as a shortcut from Loch Ryan to Luce Bay.
The treat of the afternoon however was the arrival of a goldcrest in the bushes along the road - perpetual motion all around the house scouring the shrubs for food. It was so active and secretive it was a nightmare to photograph - especially through dirty sunlit windows ;-)  I grabbed a mediocre shot - just enough to record the bird before it moved on. hopefully it is resident - thanks to my iPhone app iChirp, I think I have identified the puzzling calls I'd heard this morning as goldcrests, so maybe I'll see them tomorrow.
Just before I put the camera away, I was treated to a clear view of the timid dunnock - it finally shot out from the bushes to grab a meal and I got a view of its plumage - a seemingly drab little brown bird turns out to have beautiful colouring when you look closely.

Any way, window washing was the order of the afternoon along with a visit from the long awaited BT engineer - hopefully tomorrow's birds will be easier to capture and definitely easier to post online!  However if the weather holds we'll be out for a walk - maybe to see if the dippers are in residence in the river ... the garden birds may have to wait.

Sunrise, Sunset

Sunrise

This entry was meant to go up on Saturday, but when I got home I discovered my PC data disk was completely full again, so I had to spend my editing hours sorting out the computer.  I hope it is now all sorted for another few months.  I fear a seriously major sort out is required though!
So: Saturday was a peerless January morning. I'd been in two minds about the walk, as I'd agreed to meet a friend at her house at 9am, but once I saw what he morning was like it was too good to pass up. I reckoned an hour round the north lake to get the sun rise, then a cuppa with Yvonne ... sorry Yvonne I was really late!
It was very cold, causing a mist to settle in the valley and drift across the lake.  The sun rise was crystal clear and the geese were already coming and going - greylag arriving and just a bit later, canada geese fidgeting around before finally, leaving.
I bumped into Keith (not surprising really - he always seems to be around in the mornings) and we walked round towards the hotel, where a variety of waterfowl were feeding - a pair of grebes were facing up as if thinking of a dance, then decided feeding was more important.  Then Keith spotted the first goosander.  There were 2 males and a female, wary as ever, paddling across the lake as soon as we stopped to look at them.  Mostly they were hanging with the Canada geese for camoflage - at least while the geese remained.
Keith then headed south and I went off for my appointement, walking round the hotel to watch the variety of birds still gathered there on my way.






Sunset

To make up for the shorter walk in the morning and to make the most of a lovely day I set out to Willen in the late afternoon to see what was roosting on the lake.  Temperatures has reached the heady heights of 4 degrees C but the first thing that was obvious was the extent of the ice across the lake, covered by a large varied roost of gulls, including one morose looking gang of what looked like lesser black backs.
The cormorants were returning to their roost, teal were squabbling along the reed edges - both beside the hide and also I realised along the edge of the island as the setting sun caught the bright yellow patches. 
Along the wader scrape there was a big flock of lapwing. My first count made it over 50, but birds kept arriving. They settled until the island goats breenged (great Scots word "To move in a rapid, devil-may-care fashion") along the shore and put them to flight.  This time I counted well over 80 flying near me  and there were more to the north - a nice thing to see.



As the sun was setting the temperature dropped sharply and I headed home, finding time to watch a flock of long tailed tits acrobatically hunting  in the bushes below me, and grab a quick shot of the disappearing sun.