RSPB Loch Leven

 We paid one of regular visits to the RSPB reserve at Loch Leven this week. It was a nice calm bright day for a change, our last two visits it has been blowing a gale so the birds were keeping a very low profile.

This time was pleasingly different with lots going on, the Lapwings were very busy in front of the middle hide,

nice view of its bum!

and plenty of aerial activity too.

We saw our first Reed Bunting of the year

and the duck species count was high with Wigeon still around,

Teal, Goldeneye, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Shoveler and Shelduck

Great Crested Grebes were busy pairing up on the loch and also on the reserve pools, as were two Little Grebes. I have to say the improvements made in front of the middle hide to make it more suitable for the Lapwing are paying dividends, it looks great and seems to be attracting birds in numbers. The curlew seem to like it too:

We counted 75, but i'm sure there were more.

Then to cap it off a couple of Hare were spotted on the bee/butterfly meadow,

a great day.

Over 30 species in all!

Loch Leven (Findatie)

 We have a few places that we go to on Loch Leven, this time it was the turn of Findatie. It's a lovely walk down from the lodges, along the river for a wee while and then into the woods and to a hide overlooking a pool adjacent to the loch. Apologies if I've said this before!

After the usual 'Garden Birds' on the walk down the slope and admiring some Snowdrops,

we headed along the river and straight away found two Dippers:

Then by the footbridge this male Goosander kept turning its back to us:

We crossed the bridge and walked through the woods to the hide, we heard plenty of birds, but they were staying hidden, apart from a group of Redwing passing through the trees.

We sat in the hide a while having coffee, but it was quiet, nice view though.

So we made our way back this time seeing a flock of Fieldfare passing through where we saw the redwing earlier. Through the trees we could see what we thought was a large flock of Whooper Swans in an adjacent field, more of that in a bit.

The Goosander was still by the bridge on the way back,

and the Dippers were still around as well,

We walked the slightly longer way back to the car (less of a slope!) alongside the loch, adding Goldeneye, Oystercatcher, Mallard and Tufted Duck to the days list.

We grabbed a coffee from the Cafe and sat outside for a while, but it was a bit breezy and cold up the top, so we didn't hang around too long. We drove home the long way round, hoping if we could get a view of the Whoopers somewhere, we did! Tina counted 56, but on studying the photos one turned out to be a Mute Swan, so 55, but loads of youngsters, which is good news.

The Mute Swan is in the centre of this group:

Finally in the same field were three Brown Hare, all a bit distant for a decent photo:

Belvide NR - A Quiet Day

 We made our second visit to Belvide on Thursday, the weather stayed mostly kind to us. We had a good walk visiting all the hides on the outward leg, then just using benches on the return leg. It was as the title of the post suggests a very quiet afternoon, with nothing out of the ordinary. I looked long and hard for the reported Dunlin and Common Sandpipers but couldn't find them. Also there was no sign of the alleged Whinchats on the west track. That's birding for you! Hope we have better luck in the highlands next week!

First though were a couple of Hares chilling out in a field behind the trees.

A young Lesser Black-backed Gull wanting food, but the adults having none of it!

Loads of Geese about Canadas and Greylags.

Greylags on approach and cleared to land!

Along with a Bar-headed Goose, an escapee I presume.

A Juvenile Garden Warbler and

one of its parents.

Some awesome looking fungi!

The finally a troop of circa 30 Long-tailed Tits put in an appearance, one finally sat still just long enough to get a photo.

So a credible 32 bird species were seen, next stop the highlands, via Edinburgh.

A Week in Somerset - Pastures New 2

So it's taken a while to continue what we got up to in Somerset, we have been up in Edinburgh visiting our wonderful daughter, much catching up (and drinking!) was done, but on with Somerset.

Our next new site (for us) was WWT Steart Marshes, about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying. In fact we visited twice as the first time the weather turned on us and we beat a hasty retreat. As for the reserve, hats off to the WWT. They had things well organised for social distancing, the hides were open, with hand gel at the entrances, seats 'roped' off so you couldn't get too close to one another and while we were in the hide we were politely evicted while one of the wardens came in and sprayed and wiped down. Brilliant! Even the toilets (one at a time) were open.

Having said that from the birding point of view it was quiet, but what can you expect in July. We did get a very distant Curlew Sandpiper, I did take some photos, but they were just a blurry dot, so not putting that up here!

We did get a noisy display from some Oysercatchers:

There were still quite a few Avocets about

and a Juvenile Peregrine stayed rooted to a fence post on the other side of the scrapes. There were also plenty of Hereon around:

Plus a male Reed Bunting giving it some welly!

There were quite a few Shelduck feeding the majority of them youngsters, but no longer ducklings.

Our plan was to the find the Black-winged Stilts over the other side of the reserve, as they would have been a first for us in the UK, but as we started out the wind got up and the rain started and as it was a fair walk to their nesting site, we decided to hold fire and come back in better weather. It wasn't the most productive day only 23 species seen, but Curlew Sandpiper and Skylark were our first for 2020.

As we drove away we looked at the map and thought we'd find somewhere on the coast for a late afternoon coffee, not knowing what we would find we picked Stolford, it took us about 15 minutes to get there by which time the weather had brightened again. Hey ho!

But what a cracking little spot, from up on the sea wall, with the tide out, we saw Curlew and Whimbrel, plenty of Oystercatchers and along the hedgerows behind us, Linnet, Twite, Goldfinch, Whitethroat, Wren, Starling and some House Sparrows. Then out in the bay there must have been circa 500 Shelduck bobbing about, way to many to count! The Whimbrel:

So a few days later in glorious sunshine we went back to Steart, there was not much to add from our first visit apart from the Black-winged Stilts, which were a long long way from the viewing platform, but at least we saw them.They were down among the Egrets so from this picture you can see how far away they were!

I'd much rather see them up close like we do in Lesvos, but sadly not this year. Perhaps next?

So just to finish this post and our visit to Steart, here are a few more photos:

Buzzard,

a Wall Butterfly,

Close up and personal with a Bull,

Mute Swans

and one of two Brown Hares to finish the day.

 

The Annual Birding Visit to Norfolk - Part 1

The weekend of Storm Ciara we were booked to go to Norfolk, we drove down on the Saturday in glorious weather calling in at Salthouse before going to our digs to find the Waxwing that had been showing well there. We got there about 3pm and had a good a good wander along with a few other birders, but there was no sign, although looking at twitter etc. there were some nice photos of it from earlier in the day! It must have settled down somewhere to get out of the impending storm, which in retrospect we should have done the following day!

On the Sunday all the reserves were shut. So we ended up mooching along the coast and as a result, and a long story I got covered in mud and we nearly had the door of the car blown off, so we will consign that day to the rubbish heap as far as birding is concerned.

Monday was different story, we checked with the RSPB at Titchwell and headed there, it was still windy but nothing like Sunday. The birds didn't seem to agree though and the lagoons were very sparsely populated, with most birds staying in or near the reeds. So not many photos for what was mostly a dull day:
Blue Tit,

 Little Grebe,

 Avocet,

 Teal

 and Knot

We only clocked up 32 species for the day there. We did pop to Holkam in the off chance that some remaining Pink-footed Geese would turn up to roost, but again with the high winds and snow! The only geese seen were Brents and Greylag. Although a Barn Owl and the Marsh Harriers did brighten the evening up for us.

Tuesday saw us go to Snettisham for the day, again it was very windy, but a lot brighter. Cutting across country from Wells where we were staying, we saw plenty of Hare, which was very nice;

and Red-Legged partridge in good numbers;

At Snettisham it was very windy to say the least, so the hide windows facing the sea remain firmly shut! The pools on the other side of the hides were quite busy though. With plenty of Goldeneye;

Wigeon,

 Lapwing,

Greylag,

 Great Crested Grebe,

 Turnstone,

 Little Grebe,

 Cormorant,  Mute Swan, Tufted Duck and Shoveler. Two Peregrines put in an appearance that got the smaller Wildfowl excited;

There were brief visits by a pair of Egyptian Geese and a Little Egret that helped the day along nicely.

On the Seaward side on the mud were plenty of Shelduck, Knot, Dunlin, Golden Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover.
Grey Plover

and Redshank.

Most were much too distant to photograph. The sunset though was worth photographing:

This post is I think long enough for starters I will do the rest tomorrow!